Osage Hills write-up

Last Saturday the Osage Hills Relatively Flat Trail Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k, 5k went off almost flawlessly despite 96 degree heat and 107 heat indexes. We had a huge increase in runners fur in part to adding the 10k.

The half and full took off at 7:30. Most half era got the job done before the heat was out of hand. But the full had a tough battle. The full was pretty accurate but the half was s little over a mile long. The 10k also was more mileage than what was bargained for. The reason for the inaccuracies is last minute changes that had to be made to the course due to bad overgrowth, multiple fallen trees, and ticks.

Like last year, runners sampled Sand Creek Falls. Ample opportunity was given for foot soaking, and a few did just that on their second and third loop.

After leaving the falls, a short climb led to the sign. Jodee and Candy were up to some shenanigans.

The course ran right at the top edge of these steep bluffs.

Good ground could be gained back on the Creek Trail. And this section was painfully flat.

A short rocky climb from the campground led to the LookOut Tower. Then a scamper through the woods dropped the runners off at the spider aid station manned by Shorty, RJ, and Johnna, and runners hit this stop three times per loop.

Most people liked the out and back over LookOut Lake Dam. It was just a half mile out and back, but is like to see a trail going around the lake. Not sure how to make this happen.

150 medals. 146 finishers. That worked out great. Congrats to all who ran. Special thanks to Matt Markel, Elisha Bell, and David West should helped me all day Saturday marking trails. And thanks to Jana, Lisa, And Krystal who worked the campground aid station. And to Shorty, Travis, and Johnna who worked the crazy intersection did station. And to Lynna and Dana who worked the start/finish. Thanks to Clint who did some course marshaling, and Chris's from Tatur Racing for doing a flawless job with the timing.


Click HERE for full results

Crewing/pacing Lynna at Honey Badger

After Port to Fort, Mitch and I drove to Cheney Kansas and then followed a lonely flat paved farm road westward until we found our friend Lynna Gilstrap. Lynna had ran all day and into the night--54 miles no less--and was over half way to her goal of finishing the Honey Badger 100. Honey Badger is the brainchild of one Eric Steele--an old friend from FlatRock. Eric wanted to create a 100 miler that was tough--in the way Badwater is tough. Put it in the middle of July, on an all paved road, with no shade and no trees. The running gods were kind to Lynna, and instead of 98 degrees, it was only in the low 90s. A good breeze made even the hot hours of Saturday afternoon bearable.

We joined the team at mile 54-55, and I assumed pacing duties while Mitch crewed us--driving ahead two miles while I shuffled and Lynna power-walked. My shuffle felt good even after my adventure race earlier Saturday morning, and I ran around 20 miles. Mitch and I switched somewhere around 4:30-5:00. When the sun came up, I took a few pictures

Lynna kept steady during the night while a few other runners seemed to slow down--a natural occurrence in a 100 miler. Lynna was in good spirits, and seemed like she was none worse for wear after 24-25 hours of relentless forward motion. I Facebooked her progress, and the well wishes flooded in. I saved these comments and encouragements because I knew they would be great motivation just when she needed it the most.

We chatted with friends in other runner's crews along the way. Most of the crews were experienced ultra runners, which is important in a race where heat exhaustion and electrolyte deficiencies can kill a runners race. Runners have lows and rebounds, more low spots, and grand recoveries. As a crew/pacer team, it was our job to try to keep the lows brief, and ride the highs for all they were worth.

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Lynna's van was basically a food truck. There were a variety of cookies,  Gatorade, of course water, pop, Pedialyte, Pop Tarts, Pringles, Popsicles, PBJs, pizza, and beer. 

At every turn (there were few turns) there were warning signs for the country folk who might be hurrying so as to not be late to church.

 This little guy couldn't get out of the way of a speeding F150.

After Mitch got in 20 miles, we switched places again. It had warmed into the mid 90s, and any wind was hardly felt at our backs. Mitch and I had been pushing salty foods. Lynna had fueled herself with pizza during the night but once it was gone, nothing sounded good to her. I talked her into a stack of Pringles, a Popsicle, a small dose of Naproxen.  

Then, I began reading her the Facebook comments. She had over 400 LIKES, and 113 COMMENTS wishing her well, voicing confidence, and it worked. Lynna kicked it in gear, and the rising temps were not a factor from that point on.



I ran in to the finish ahead of Lynna to incite the crowd to wild applause for our runner. But it was a small race and a tired small crowd. So, Mitch, Eric, Trevor and I clapped. Lynna finished in 31:17--8th overall and 3rd female.

I would have crashed and slept for hours, but Lynna stayed alert and just took it all in. 

She was buzzing. 66 years old, and finished her 1st 100 in her 1st try. Mitch and I think she may be the oldest female to have completed her 1st 100 miler. 

 Showing off the swag. I'm super proud of her and honored that I got to help.

Ok--this picture was taken a week after her race, Lynna is nearly fully recuperated, and helped run an aid station at Osage Hills. I really like this pic. We could be brother and sister. But we're just great friends. 

Port to Fort--the adventure continues.

The 5th annual Port to Fort was held a couple of weeks ago, and the team of Mitch Drummond, Channing Wendt, and I came into the event raring to defend out next-to-last place title. My buddy MC Hammer sent us some shirts to wear, and a box of cassette tapes to use as give-aways. I liked the shirts, and in fact I wore mine during the swim. It soaked up so much water, that my life jacket barely kept me afloat. 

This was my best swim ever in this event. I am always quite nervous about it, since I am a bottom dweller in the water. My strategy was to jump right in and worry about it later. I bobbed right out of the water, and after a few unfruitful breast strokes, I flipped over and did the back stroke, and made it across the harbor in about 7 minutes. It took the lead swimmers maybe 30 seconds. We were not the last ones out of the water though. (I believe the teams behind us started a few minutes late.) I was re;axed in the water, and was ready and loose to begin my run.

The three Forks Trail runs along the Navigation Channel for around 5 miles. It's pretty flat with just a few ups and downs. We passed a few teams along the way before then next wave of teams who were NOT doing the long event (which included some mountain biking.)

I thought we ran very well. I stopped every now and then to take a few pictures. Channing insisted on taking a few pics of me.

There was not much wind moving, and although the temps were in the low 80s, the humidity made the air thick. I was almost wishing for another swim.

Notice the lack of red cotton Hammer shirts. Our tech shirts served us much better. My buddy MC needs to step it up a little for next year.

Our second aid station was manned by none other than Lisa McManus. Lisa was signed up to be part of a team formed to take us down! But she has had some knee issued and has a new Tritanium Di-Lithium powered bionic knee on order, and will be back racing soon.

One of my favorite parts of the course is climbing ropes out of this steep ravine. There is usually a long log-jam here, but we were ahead of the masses and did not have to wait.

What goes up must go down. This rappelling is the most fun on the course. Some people are more scared doing this than I am of the swim.

But the Can't Touch This team breezed right  through.

This was nearly a second swim. The water was so high that the narrow pathway along the shore was actually under three feet of water.

Another scramble that was unexpected. Road construction was a mere obstacle, and the runners enjoyed the challenge.

Our bike ride was a 15 mile modified out-and-back. I measured it more like 16 miles. The Jean Pierre Choteau Trail was the same course we took two years ago when we had 8 flat tires and only 5 tubes.

But this year, we had no flats. The section near the turnaround which was mud from hell two years ago only had a few semi-muddy spots, and it was easy to navigate around the mud pits.

My lack of bike riding in preparation did not hinder my performance. I felt good--the bike was rolling well, and I was comfortable riding even over some of the rockier sections.

But there's  certainly no shame in hiking a bike when fatigue takes over. Mitch and I had one ride in preparation, and Channing had spent some time on his road bike.

For almost the whole race, we were treated to overcast skies, and the wind was picking up out of the south. Wind in the face would certainly cool us down, but canoeing into the wind would suck. Mixed blessings.

Not all was single track. We road on dirt roads on the edge of fields. We made up a little time here.

Channing appeared to have been run over by a truck. He did take his annual roll in the dirt.

I did not get any pictures if the canoe trip. I was too busy rowing. We seemed to do well in this leg. The current was moving a little better than in past years. We had a smaller ice chest, and maybe less weight. The south breeze was not as bad as I had feared. We kept the canoe in a straight line most of the time.  

If there was anything to be disappointed about--it was that we didn't pass anyone on the row. We were about 9 minutes behind the team ahead of us. We did manage to beat three teams. We are getting better.

RD Joel Everett does a spectacular job in putting this race on, maintaining trailz, creating super shirts and medals. This race is my favorite. I cannot imagine ever not doing it.

Mowdy Ranch Mustang Run

Run wild with the mustangs--who wouldn't want to do that? I jumped in on the bandwagon heading to the Mowdy Ranch, and signed up for the max--50K of wooded trails and dirt roads. Quite a few of my friends went along for the trip too. Johnna, Lynna, Michelle, Misty, Chrissy, Jana, Christine, Lisa, Camden, Anthony, Jorge, Nancy, Tyler, Nikki, Tessa, Jess, Vickie, Pam, Shelley, Jillian, Ellen, Brian "Head-TATUR" Hoover, and probably a dozen more I am not remembering. This was a great place to get Oklahoma Dirt Trail Series points. It woulds be pretty easy to slip into the top 10 in some of the smaller attended races. 

I had planned on camping out the night before, and did--except I opted to try sleeping on the back floor of my Ford. I have always said I could through a blow-up mattress back there and be set. Academy, however, had a large assortment that were all a foot too long, or better stated, my truck was a bit too narrow. Still, I bought a camping mattress, that resembled a pool floaty, but was cloth covered. It was still a foot too long, but was close on thew width. Being the window-screen genius that I am, I devised screens on either side of my truck for some flow-through ventilation. This, with the help of a clip-on battery powered fan kept me semi-comfortable during the night and I managed maybe 5 hours of sleep.

The race people lit a huge bonfire after dark at the camping area, and a few from my group came equipped with stuff to make s'mores. Getting close enough to the flame to toast a marshmallow was impossible. At best, you could set the marshmallow on fire, and enjoy a charred gooey piece of heaven. I laid down on my belly and reached my roasting stick right up to the edge of the coals, and managed to get an almost perfect lightly brown toasted prize, and only seared a little hair off of my hand and wrist.

After a round of s'mores we retired to sleep. I never go to bed that early, and I tossed and turned until around midnight--but finally dozed off.

I had set my alarm for 56:00 am and figured I could get dressed and all the foot goo and chafing stuff put on in time to walk 200 yards to the starting line, but getting dressed and slathered up while laying down takes more than 30 minutes. I ran to the start with maybe a minute to spare, and realized I had forgot to put on my bug spray. So I sprinted back to spray down and then met Johnna near the star t line just after the runners were sent off. Then, I remembered I had forgot my race bib. Johnna needed the porta-potty, so we both took care of business, and ended up starting 3-4 minutes late.

I had hoped to meet up with Chrissy, and maybe run a few miles with her if our paces matched, but I ended up never seeing her. It was still fairly dark, but we could see just well enough to follow what was a dirt road. About a quarter mile into the course, there was a water crossing with a real small wooden bridge--if we had been in the crowd, there might have been a bit of a log-jam there. 

Within 2 miles, we hit our first aid station, and they sprayed me down with sun screen--something else I forgot. Most of our first few miles were shaded, but believe me--it got hot later in the day.

After the first aid station, we entered a trail named Copper Head Road. It was a nice dirt road that turned into a mowed path, and then switched back and sent us up the steeped hill on the course. This single track wound around through limestone rock formations that reminded me a lot of the Chandler Wilds. 

I really liked this section. We plodded our way almost a mile of technical trail that just begged to be photographed. I really took very few pictures coming through the first time, mostly because of lack of good lighting, but got many more on the second loop.

Anything resembling a good pace was wiped away through here, but I crave trailz like these. 

We were in good spirits, and decided to think of this race as an adventure and training run. Picture taking would be a priority.

Another Chandler-Park-looking picture.

The second aid station--the Sizzling Sasquatch--was manned by RJ Chiles. RJ is having a three-day event over Labor Day Weekend in Coalgate, where there is every distance imaginable up to 50K. And you can run all three days!! I will be at Do Wacka Do that Saturday but plan on running the Squatch on Sunday and maybe Monday.

More single track. As it got hotter during the day, I gave thought to taking a dip in one of these creeks. But on the south loop on one of the crossings, I was what I am pretty sure was a water moccasin just laying in the water at the edge of one of those wooden bridges. I decided pouring my water bottle on my head was better than dipping my head in the creek. 

The south loop had a bit more roads across meadows. But there was still quite a bit of narrow single track.

One of several watering holes for the horses. We were actually running on the same land where they were--no fences keeping us separate. AT times, you'd hear thew rumbling of hoofs, and a herd would run right past you from one field to a grove of trees. They never got really close, but to me, it seemed they were quite curious about what we were doing.

We made the start/finish and headed back out on the north loop. Here is the wood bridge--much like some of the ones at Rocky Raccoon. 

The first bit of single track on the first bit of single track on the north loop.

Sorry for all the pix of dirt and rocks. It's like candy for me.

I shed my shirt during the race and went shirtless until I started worrying about burning to a crisp. For the record, I didn't burn. For the record, my pasty white skin is now slightly darker than my whitey tighties.

Lynna had motored ahead--intent on getting her 50K in. Johnna and I had almost accepted that a marathon would be a fine fitting ending to a good day. It was a little too warm in the fields in the direct sun, but you could at least get a little breeze. In the woods, it was maybe 10 degrees cooler, but there was no breeze. The humidity was a little on the high side.

But Johnna was not getting along in the heat as well as I was. He started getting a bit of a headache, and her hands were swelling. I advised her to take in some more salt, and she said she had. I was worried about her headache, and she talked about dropping at the end of the loop. She had run out of water--maybe didn't refill at the last aid station? I shared my water bottle with her--I was carrying two--one with water one with Gatorade.

She ended up dropping at the Squatch aid station, and they got her a ride back. Once she got cooled down and rehydrated, she was fine.

This was the best shot I got of the roaming horses. There are hundreds of awesome photos of these majestic ponies floating around, but I wanted to post one of my own.

I caught up with Lynna at the start of the last loop. (Actually, she was waiting on me.) We ran the last loop together, and it seemed like we picked up the pace a little. I thought there might be a shot that we could go out on the short final loop for our 50K, but it would be close. The way it turned out--it really wasn't close. I got really hot on the last mile. It was a gradual uphill--not much of a climb at all, but certainly not downhill. It was also 100% in the sun, and the temps were in the low to mid 90s. And any win there might have been was at our backs so we could not feel it. So we ran a little, walked a little, and I did the shuffle thing for the most part.

We kicked it up a step the last few hundred yards and managed to finish with a smile on our faces.

So for the weekend, I came home with a nice tech shirt, a bandana with a map of the course (which I love), a cool medal, and we were fed a great spaghetti dinner, bbq after the race, and had the best wild horse encounters ever.  This race is on my schedule for next year for sure!!