Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Catalina Island, TransRockies and Mount Elden

What do these have in common?  Well, not too much except for the fact that we'll touch on them all in this blog.

Catalina Island 100K, February 1999

I recently rediscovered this old ESPN video footage of Baz Hawley's Catalina Island 100K.  It was a pretty sweet time in my running career.  I was in the right spot at the right time for this one!  Here's the grainy video and the dusty race results.



Gore-Tex TransRockies Run

I had the pleasure of running TransRockies in 2011.  It was an incredible experience, one that I'd recommend and repeat.  If you already haven't, you can read about my experience here.  I also had the opportunity to design TransRockies specific training schedules for several participants.  This year that trend continues as I'm currently working with The Running Martins to ensure that they are adequately prepared for their big Colorado adventure.  I'd like to share Carey and David's amblings here.  They are chronicling each day's training on You Tube for all to see.  It's really an interesting, fun way to see them out there making it happen.

Here's one of my favorite entries.  I challenged them, they meet the challenge well, but not without issue.



Here's their latest entry from Arches National Park in southeast Utah.



Mount Elden

Once the winter snow falls in Flagstaff your running options become limited.  You can always escape to snow-free Sedona which is about 45 minutes to our south for hundreds of miles of single track in the 50+ degree desert weather.  However, if you can't afford the time for the drive one of my favorite gnarly winter runs here in town is the Mount Elden Lookout Road.  This 11-mile round trip mountain climb puts hair on the chests of even the fairest of us all!



Your Moment of Zen

Zoroaster makes the Angry Birds even angrier on Christmas morning.