This blog is called "miles to go before I sleep" but in this case, I needed hours to sleep before writing about the miles. Over the past weekend, I ran with a very good friend of mine who turned 50 years old. Dang....that is old. All of my life, I thought 50 was simply old, and now I am right on the cusp of 50 myself!
Ken Saveth, an accomplished marathoner and ultra runner wanted to get a 50 mile all-nighter in to celebrate his 50th birthday....just like something I might do, huh?
So Friday night at 7:00 pm, Ken aka K2, myself aka K1 for this expedition, and Lenice (pictured in the back right) departed from my house to run an even half hundred. The plan was to head across the Arkansas River, and then south through Jenks, across the Creek Turnpike trail to Broken Arrow, and then on to NSU east of BA, and then back and north to Downtown Tulsa all on the paved bike path. This would total around 45 miles +/-. Then, we would run the Poker Run with our friends at RunnersWorld to finish out our 50. Temps when we left were right at the century mark with the heat index at 108. Perfect night for a run!
We met Kathy, Bobby, Roman, and Russell (all pictured above) at the QT after about 4 miles. Brian, Craig, and Marvin also had joined us and left us in the dust, preferring to run a more scorching pace. We actually had a steady breeze for much of the night and despite heat warnings, we had a pretty good run early on.
Cooking along the Creek Turnpike trail.
We walked most of the steeper hills like good ultra runners should.
K2 poses in front of a much longer race sign. Not sure what the Tiger 100 was.
Dana crewed us for about half of the night, and then after catching a catnap back home came back out to help when the sun came up. Truly, crewing is just as hard and taxing as actually running these long distances. Staying awake, jumping up to fill water bottles and put up with grumpy runners all through the night especially when it is so hot and miserable deserves some sort of sainthood!
After she retired for a few winks, we still enjoyed her services by these water caches along the way. Cold water, Gatorade, cookies, chips, and ice awaited us about every 3-4 miles.
I got quite a few phone calls during the night which slowed our already slow pace. But the calls were good calls. Some were wishing us well, checking our progress, some were from Dana asking where the best place would be for the next aid stop, and some were from friends who wanted to join us! Candice, Curtis, Ed, and Ken's friend Damien joined us during the night for a few miles.
We met a couple of the fast guys on their way back. Craig (between the Kens) ran 26.5 miles, and this was his first time to run this much at night. Craig is an amazing triathlete, and has his sights on a full Ironman. Marvin (to the far right) is no stranger to night running, having paced me at Heartland last year.
Brian ended up with around 17 miles and stopped at NSU. Kathy and Roman made it to NSU and added 5 more miles. Curtis, Bobby, Russell, and Candice stopped at NSU having ran 8, 15, 15, and 5.53 miles respectively. K2's friend Lenice stopped at 4.5 miles, and K2's friend Damien ran 2 miles. Sorry for the lack of pictures, although I would imagine Curtis might damage may camera.
After about 20 miles, K2 and I were on our own. 30 more miles to go, and soon after hitting the turn-around, the wind just stopped and it felt like someone turned the crock pot up.
But we kept plugging along. Ken is a fast walker, and his walk breaks actually were more taxing on me than the running. My zombie shuffle was faster than his walk pace, so it seemed that we played cat and mouse for much of the return trip.
We just ran from aid stop to aid stop. Clicking of the miles.
I never thought about not finishing this. There was no prize, no medal, no special recognition. (Actually, all of our friends at the Poker Run made a huge deal out of it, and we received many attaboys which was so cool.)
We did see a few signs which seemed to cast some gloom and doom.
Now you know I never read the signs, or at least heed their warning. That being said, you cannot prove I took the following few pics.
Suffice to say, the newly improved trail between 58th and 71st will be awesome when they finish it.
Finally, the day began to break. But we still had about 9 miles to go!
We made it to the Poker Run, socialized a little, and then headed out to run out final 5.5 miles. Ken had brought a huge cake and it really hit the spot. Of course, the Starbucks that Dana had delivered a couple of miles back was kicking in nicely as well. we ran a 4.4 mile loop around Zink Lake, and then added some bridge repeats which were awesome at this late stage of the run. 1/4 miles on an elevated wooden bridge with the south wind blowing up the river made i seem like running in air conditioning. Finally, the run was over. Bobby, Sandra, and Dana joined us for the last 2 miles. Finishing with friends is the BEST!
From left to right, Dana, ME, K2, Roman, Sandra hiding behind the penguin, Brian, Bobby, and Rock Star Ed.
I think Ken had a great birthday celebration. He had a nice birthday blister, and I have a pretty good one as well. Ken made these nice tech shirts, which will get a lot of night running duty. Thanks, Brother! And thanks to everyone who ran with us, called to check on us and wish us well, and who raved about doing something like this. A for me, I should try to hang around much younger people who won't put the hurt on me when they ask me to run their age in miles. :-)
Ken Saveth, an accomplished marathoner and ultra runner wanted to get a 50 mile all-nighter in to celebrate his 50th birthday....just like something I might do, huh?
So Friday night at 7:00 pm, Ken aka K2, myself aka K1 for this expedition, and Lenice (pictured in the back right) departed from my house to run an even half hundred. The plan was to head across the Arkansas River, and then south through Jenks, across the Creek Turnpike trail to Broken Arrow, and then on to NSU east of BA, and then back and north to Downtown Tulsa all on the paved bike path. This would total around 45 miles +/-. Then, we would run the Poker Run with our friends at RunnersWorld to finish out our 50. Temps when we left were right at the century mark with the heat index at 108. Perfect night for a run!We met Kathy, Bobby, Roman, and Russell (all pictured above) at the QT after about 4 miles. Brian, Craig, and Marvin also had joined us and left us in the dust, preferring to run a more scorching pace. We actually had a steady breeze for much of the night and despite heat warnings, we had a pretty good run early on.
Cooking along the Creek Turnpike trail.
We walked most of the steeper hills like good ultra runners should.
K2 poses in front of a much longer race sign. Not sure what the Tiger 100 was.Dana crewed us for about half of the night, and then after catching a catnap back home came back out to help when the sun came up. Truly, crewing is just as hard and taxing as actually running these long distances. Staying awake, jumping up to fill water bottles and put up with grumpy runners all through the night especially when it is so hot and miserable deserves some sort of sainthood!
After she retired for a few winks, we still enjoyed her services by these water caches along the way. Cold water, Gatorade, cookies, chips, and ice awaited us about every 3-4 miles.
I got quite a few phone calls during the night which slowed our already slow pace. But the calls were good calls. Some were wishing us well, checking our progress, some were from Dana asking where the best place would be for the next aid stop, and some were from friends who wanted to join us! Candice, Curtis, Ed, and Ken's friend Damien joined us during the night for a few miles.
We met a couple of the fast guys on their way back. Craig (between the Kens) ran 26.5 miles, and this was his first time to run this much at night. Craig is an amazing triathlete, and has his sights on a full Ironman. Marvin (to the far right) is no stranger to night running, having paced me at Heartland last year.Brian ended up with around 17 miles and stopped at NSU. Kathy and Roman made it to NSU and added 5 more miles. Curtis, Bobby, Russell, and Candice stopped at NSU having ran 8, 15, 15, and 5.53 miles respectively. K2's friend Lenice stopped at 4.5 miles, and K2's friend Damien ran 2 miles. Sorry for the lack of pictures, although I would imagine Curtis might damage may camera.
After about 20 miles, K2 and I were on our own. 30 more miles to go, and soon after hitting the turn-around, the wind just stopped and it felt like someone turned the crock pot up.
But we kept plugging along. Ken is a fast walker, and his walk breaks actually were more taxing on me than the running. My zombie shuffle was faster than his walk pace, so it seemed that we played cat and mouse for much of the return trip.
We just ran from aid stop to aid stop. Clicking of the miles.I never thought about not finishing this. There was no prize, no medal, no special recognition. (Actually, all of our friends at the Poker Run made a huge deal out of it, and we received many attaboys which was so cool.)
We did see a few signs which seemed to cast some gloom and doom.
Now you know I never read the signs, or at least heed their warning. That being said, you cannot prove I took the following few pics.
Suffice to say, the newly improved trail between 58th and 71st will be awesome when they finish it.Finally, the day began to break. But we still had about 9 miles to go!
We made it to the Poker Run, socialized a little, and then headed out to run out final 5.5 miles. Ken had brought a huge cake and it really hit the spot. Of course, the Starbucks that Dana had delivered a couple of miles back was kicking in nicely as well. we ran a 4.4 mile loop around Zink Lake, and then added some bridge repeats which were awesome at this late stage of the run. 1/4 miles on an elevated wooden bridge with the south wind blowing up the river made i seem like running in air conditioning. Finally, the run was over. Bobby, Sandra, and Dana joined us for the last 2 miles. Finishing with friends is the BEST!
From left to right, Dana, ME, K2, Roman, Sandra hiding behind the penguin, Brian, Bobby, and Rock Star Ed.
I think Ken had a great birthday celebration. He had a nice birthday blister, and I have a pretty good one as well. Ken made these nice tech shirts, which will get a lot of night running duty. Thanks, Brother! And thanks to everyone who ran with us, called to check on us and wish us well, and who raved about doing something like this. A for me, I should try to hang around much younger people who won't put the hurt on me when they ask me to run their age in miles. :-)
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