Scott loves trails

The year 2008 treated me well on the running front--so sorry to see it go! After the injury travails of 2007, I felt fortunate to stay healthy. That was my single biggest accomplishment of the year, in fact. Not a single visit to the physical therapists--after spending more time in than out of PT in '07 (nothing personal, my dear friend PTs, but I prefer to see you on social occasions only!). Why? I guess I was "due" a good year. Thanks, running gods! But also I think I played it pretty smart in terms of cross-training, off or low periods after major races, and just building up a certain base of time on my feet that carried me through the year. Packed in the quality mega-long runs getting ready for those 100s, for sure. But didn't just pack in miles for miles sake, and even backed off the back to backers I used to swear by. Got back into the yoga later in the year, too, and definitely want to keep that up. Maybe more *is* actually more, when it comes to ultra

Altitudes above 15,000, you say? Ok, that’s higher than Rainer or the famous 14-ers of Colorado, but we’ll just rest a little more and go a little slower, right? But agonizingly steep scree slopes of volcanic sand and rocks requiring hand over fist scrambles and perilous “butt slide” descents? The mountaineers going around us to and from the peak, with their helmets and ice axes and poles, must have found us “sky runners” quite an amusing sight! Yes, the Sky Marathon Iztaccíhuatl proved to be much more of a challenge than I and newfound Mexico City friends Wendy and Alex (courtesy of the Ultra list) had bargained for? Six hours (plus about 25 minutes in my case) to cover 21.6K (about 13.8 miles by my Garmin)? You MUST be kidding! I can’t remember Wendy’s exact words after the race, but it was something to the effect of, “What did you get us into?” Yes, it was *I* who had convinced them, the locals, to come along to the race when we met up on-line on the Ultra List as I posted a q

As posted to the Yahoo user group I moderate on Sunday 11/30: Hey everyone, what's shaking on the trails?Not sure if anybody else was up in the driving light rain in VanCortlandt this morning. It wasn't exactly a good setting forsocializing, or identifying team singlets or whatever, as it wasdefinitely a day for hats and layers! I saw one Flyer I recognized, butno one from the forum. But it WAS a great day for a race with theadded challenge of competing against the elements!Anyway, I wavered till this morning as no one had taken up my call tocome join me, but saw it hadn't started raining yet at like 8 anddidn't look to be a deluge when the rains came according to WeatherChannel (race didn't start till 11:30). I'm really glad I did! A smallcrowd (by Road Runner standards) of maybe 150 or so braved the rain andwind (not nearly as bad as the Nor'easter we encountered up there forthe UEC in '06, which you'll remember Chris, but not too terribly faroff e