Scott loves trails

Overall Impressions Old Pueblo is a beautiful, well-organized 51-mile trail run through the high country of the Santa Rita mountains, about an hour southeast of Tucson. It features more dirt roads than is to my trail purist's liking. But fortunately these are mostly pretty remote forest service roads, with little or no vehicle travel. Some well graded and smooth, but occasionally pretty rugged. So you still get that "away from it all, out there" feeling, as you go back and forth from public land to private ranch land, crossing more cattle guards than I carry to count! Plus there are three distinct sections of the beautiful Arizona Trail single track. These tend to be the sections with the most forest cover in what is mostly a pretty exposed course. You have that "I can see for miles and miles" feeling at many different points in the race, contrasting sharply with that "closed in, don't know what's around the next curve in the trail" from our ea...

As posted to our NYC Trails and Ultras Yahoo group on Jan. 11th (with further details and reflections below for the ultra freaks!...) I thought when I signed up back in December I would be in for the usual fare oftemps in the 60s to 70s in this area about an hour west of San Antonio. Butthey too have been having a record cold snap, so it was about 16 degrees at racestart on Saturday, warmed to the low 40s by mid-afternoon, and went back down to the 20s at night, as my race ended about 11:30PM. It was a beautiful, sunny,cloudless day, and a nice starry night. I never shed my gloves or head covering and had two layers in the daytime, three at night. But not much wind,thankfully. (You guys looked colder in the Wathchung photos, I must say!). I didn't quite know what to expect, this being only my second official 100K and on a course that looked to be even tougher than the first (the old GEER coursei n VA, which had a lot more paved roads than it does now). So I thought to myself, maybe...

Sitting here drinking my morning coffee on the last day of the year--and of the decade, if you don't get too technical--and staring out at some light, beautiful snow that just started falling makes me reflect back on the year that has passed. If I compare 2009 to the goals I laid out a year ago, I'd have to be disappointed. But I guess I'd rather dwell on some of the positives I take out of the year. You do enough "destination races" in beautiful places, you start to take them for granted. But I shouldn't, and can't let myself! I got to run some awesome trails this past year in the low desert of California and high desert of Arizona, the verdant mountains of Virginia and Washington State, the vast open spaces of Montana and Wyoming, and a bunch of great new places I hadn't yet run in my own backyard (the Shawangunks, Delaware Water Gap, Sterling Forest). Oh yeah, and that big glorious hole in the ground in Arizona they call the Grand Canyon! And there ...

Sometimes the second time is even sweeter! Especially where's there's personal redemption for "sins of recent races" involved! That's certainly the way it was for me this past Saturday at the Mountain Masochist 50 Mile+ in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of western VA. My race, the company, the weather, the warm camaraderie of this quintessentially "ultra ultra"--everything seemed just right on this Indian summer November weekend! Quick Overview Temps were right at the freezing mark as we started at 5:30, but got up to yjr mid to upper 50s, maybe 60, on the nice mix of single track, jeep roads,dirt roads, and finishing and ending pavement that comprises the gorgeous course of this point to pointer. It was a bright sunny day with plenty of fall color, although a little past peak compared to last year. 267 folks started this 53mile race (with its infamous, long "Horton miles"), and 226 finished under the 12 hour cutoff. Our pal Glen Redpath had ...

What's your idea of a fat ass run? Would a run where you don't even realize who the "organizer" (director?) is till the after-party qualify? Or maybe one where a bunch of shivering cold runners look around at each other until someone says "let's go" in order to get the show on the road (er, trail)?! The 4th annual (?) highly informal event known as the "Wagathon" or simply "the Wag" took place this past Sunday in the spectacular fall foliage and near Indian summer weather of the Minnewaska and Mohonk Preserves near New Paltz, NY. By following a list of turns and trails the organizer, a great guy named Felix, posted on the web and circulated by e-mail, we all navigated a series of challenging, hilly, and very scenic single-track and carriage trails in self-supported fashion, with a considerable amount of scrambling thrown in for good measure! The "course" was roughly a marathon, but most of us (I hear we were roughly 30) ...

Here's a first stab at a a recap I posted on the Yahoo user group I moderate (more gory details to follow later!): We had a beautiful weather weekend in the Finger Lakes region. Saturday was sunny with highs in low 60s. The course features a real nice blend of forestedand moderately technical single track, steep ski trails at the Greek Peak skiresort, dirt roads, and a tiny bit of pavement. 18K each of climbing anddescent, and folks who have done it by comparison rate the course harder thanstalwarts like Vermont 100 and even Western States. But it makes up for thatwith a generous 36 hour 100 cutoff and 13 hour 50 cutoff. I only saw her before as we huddled in my car with training partner Garth to stay warm (it wasprobably upper 30s then!) and on the course. But local NYC friend Cherie seemed in good spiritswhen we passed on and out and back, and had a great result. They aren't postedfor the 50, but I believe her time was well under 12 hours, as she had hoped. Yeah Cherie! Look ...

After a good last week and half of training, and some reflection, I decided the 100 mile fire is still burning...so I pulled the trigger and signed up for the Iroquois Trails 100 on 9/19-20 upstate, near Cortland and Ithaca. I really want to get that second 100 under my belt, and this seems like the opportunity. Familiar course and faces, prospect of cool temps this last weekend of summer/first of fall, a generous 36 hour cutoff, a chance to measure myself against last year's 32:45....everything seems to point to seizing this chance! Motivated by the Cascade disappointment, I decided I should try to squeeze in some quality training before committing to IT, given how much I'd cut back before the race. So I put in a solid 60+ last week, including a good 10 mile tempo run, 1 1/2 hr trail run just before I left Washington State, and a 20 miler on the Palisades trails with Garth last Friday, followed by a reasonably hard 1 1/2 hours in Central park on Sat. Those runs, plus a nic...