What a nice running weekend, and what a good way to start a New Year!
Saturday, eight of us Trail Nerds ran from the dam at SM Park, in Lenexa, Kansas. Four of us only ran 4.5 miles, the other four stayed out longer. Good Ben and I were 2 of the 4 runners that ran short, because we had a nice, hilly 50-Kilometer race to run the next day.
New Year's morning at 6:15 AM, Kyle, Marko Jacquez, and "Good" Ben Reeves met at Bad Ben's house to carpool and convoy up to Wallace State Park, Missouri. It's about a 1-hour drive north of Kansas City, and we arrived at 7:30 sharp. (The race director) Bob Risser's low-key start happened right around 8:00 AM.
In true "Fat Ass" tradition, the 50-Kilometer race had no fee, no shirt, and limited aid. Fat Ass runs are a post-holiday way to get back in shape and run. The course of this Fat Ass had a one-time short out and back loop, then had five 6-mile loops from that point on. As in most trail races with loop courses, the hills weren't noticed much on the first loop. On subsequent loops, they tended to get longer and steeper. The weather was just about perfect; it was unseasonably warm and got up into the 50s. For some reason, my metabolism wasn't its normal warm and perky self, and I felt like crap for most of the run. I even re-donned my vest that I had gotten rid of in the first part of the run. I ended up starting to feel good at about mile 27 or so. It might have had something to do with having 3-1/2 hours of sleep and eating holiday junk the night before, but who knows?
For the whole Fat Ass Run, the four of us decided (ad-hoc) to stay together. We all had our reasons for running it. Good Ben had never participated in a race of over a half-marathon in distance, and wanted to enter the "Ultra World" before running a marathon. Marko was "just going to do two-loops", supposedly, but peer pressure prevailed and he ended up running the entire 50-K. Kyle is "trying to get back in shape" and wanted to prove to himself that he was well along in that process. The three of them are also going to participate in my race, the Psycho WyCo Run Toto Run on February 11th, and needed a decent training run on an "easy" course. My reason for running was two-fold. I've never run in Bob & Sara Risser's Fat Ass Run, and I also needed a long-run weekend (under sleep deprivation) for my training plan to run in my 4th consecutive Rocky Raccoon 100-mile trail run, in one month. We all decided to run at an easy pace...all we needed was time on our feet.
After a fun time talking and BS-ing through 5-loops, we all finished feeling a little tired and scruffy, but still felt pretty good. We changed and went down to the park shelter and had some wonderful homemade soup and other goodies. We hung-out for about 45-minutes and got some calories back into us before heading back to KC. What a great Happy New Year run! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run a low-key, beautiful event on New Year's day.
The tale of the tape:
1: Paul Schoelaub, 46, 4:26:39, 2: Rick Hoopes, 51, 4:35:29, 3: Kevin Guest, 37, 5:09:00, 4: David Lesh, 54, 5:15:10, 5: Stuart Johnson, 46, 5:38:43, 6: Joe Winch, 49, 6:03:39, 7:Rachele Kugel, 40, 6:24:30, 8: Dave Swenson, 50, 6:27:56, 9: Bad Ben, 48, 6:40.00, 10: Kyle Amos, 30, 6:40:00, 11: "Good Ben" Reeves, 31, 6:40:00, 12: Mark Jacquez, 27, 6:40:00, 13: Lee Hess, 56, 7:14:00, 14: Glen Zirbel, 75, 8:12:00, 15: Lou Joline, 73, 8:20:21, 16: Joe Galloway, 48, 8:33:00.
10 comments:
Nice Job Ben! It is nice to run together as a group and forget about trying to race against the clock.
Nice way to start out the new year. My plan for Rocky will be to run with a group for as long as possible and finish on pure balls and guts. At least that's what the plan is today.
My fellow-blogger ran 50k and I didn't even get a lousy t-shirt?!? LOL... I thought the only reason we did these events was for the t-shirt! :)
No, too many t-shirts and not enough closet space. I guess I'm officially sick of race t-shirts. I only wear them around running friends, now.
The New Years Fat Ass in Vancouver Canada started 13 years ago with a small group like your run. There were over 100 participants this year. A lot of people did shorter distances. (Like I only did 34km). But there were about 60 people who did the whole thing. Its a great way to start the year.
You guys took your time and still finished in decent time for a trail 50K! Thanks for the comments about shoes and such. Did you do this run in the Inov-8s?
I started the run in the Inov8's, and I twisted my left ankle severely at mile 8 because of those damn shoes. Inov8s have a very narrow heel, with low stability. On a really rocky and rooty run such as that, I need a wider heel. I switched to my Montrail Leona Divide's at mile 13, and was fine for the rest of the race. The experiment showed me which shoes I need and when. I will use the Inov8's on smooth dirt and mud runs, only.
Hey Tammy, I know what you mean about the t-shirts. I proudly wear them around other runners or competitors epending on the type of race. I was slightly bummed about not getting one to commemorate my first 50k. Then again, do I really want to wear something on it that denotes me as a Fat Ass participant? :-)
what a small world -- i know mark as well!
Yeah, Mark's first Ultrarun was at my Psycho WyCo Run Toto Run race, last year.
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