Saturday, January 06, 2007

New Year's Day - Fat Ass 50 Km, Cameron, MO

Early New Year's Morning, a gaggle of Kansas City Trail Nerds headed north to Wallace State Park, in Cameron, Missouri to run in the 10th annual Fat Ass 50-kilometer run. It was a 1-hour drive from suburban KC. What a better way to start the year than to run a 31-mile trail run?
2007 Fat Ass 50K
Bob and Sara Risser always have a very low-key and fun event, followed by some good homemade "eats" in the Park's shelter house. The Risser's have been putting-on this event for 10 years, now. Keeping in the tradition of a true “Fat Ass” New Year’s event, the run is always free of charge to enter. Prior to the start of the race, Paul Schoenlaub presented Bob & Sara with two 10-year anniversary jackets.

2007 Fat Ass 50K Frontrunners
The Front-runners

The Trail Nerds all did well in the fun run. Young Caleb, otherwise known as "Gumby", who's now on the regional Montrail Team, "took it easy" and did a 4:13:00 50K on the hilly, rocky, and slightly icy course. He proudly wore his new Trail Nerds long sleeve shirt in the 27-degree weather. He was having some gastro-intestinal distress, and had to stop 3 times to "eliminate" the offending issues, costing him about 10 minutes. What a better time to "do" that, than at a fun Fat Ass run?
2007 Fat Ass 50K Caleb Chatfield
Caleb Chatfield

I took it easy and did a slow 6:08:00, having run for 7 days straight (to have a high-mileage pre-100-miler training week). I was fine for the first 19 miles, then I had about an hour of "tough time," but I pushed through it and felt better the last 6 miles of the event. The next day I ran a short, fast 4-mile trail loop in SM Park with the Trail Nerds to loosen up. (Many of them ran one or two more 4-mile loops that same night).

Fellow blogger Gregg from St Joe, MO, had a sub-7-hour finish. He's come a long way in a year.

"Good Ben" was running well until he ripped a leg muscle, about 25 miles into the race. What a wuss! He could have finished if he had taken my advice and just favored the other leg 100% of the time; or walked on his hands for the last 6 miles.

I'm feeling better about my upcoming 100-miler on Feb 3rd. I had a 72 mile week, and it looks like this week is shaping up well. This year's RR100 will be my 5th in a row. I've had some decent times at that race and I'm in the 400-mile veteran's club. If I finish this year, I'll get my 500-mile jacket.


All Fat Ass photos by Dick Ross at seekcrun.com.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

More Fat Ass Race information

9 comments:

Olga said...

Yay for a new coming jacket!

Barb said...

I see a new jacket in your future!

Unknown said...

I wish I could have an easy run like Caleb. Can't wait to see a pic of the 500 mile jacket from Rocky. Sounds like a great Fat Ass event.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

When Caleb was running at his "easy pace," it was a 7 to 8 min/mile pace on the hilly trail run.

shliknik said...

Looks like fun! Wish I could be there.

It was 72 degrees in SC this past weekend so I put in a 10-miler. I've been putting some miles under my feet in preparation for WYCO!

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Excellent! It'll be good to see you out here, again.
72 degrees? I'm jealous.

Hey Zeus said...

I was planning to run the training run in May or Mohican in June. Both are now out! Our second child is due on June 6th and that's just cutting in to close. I'll say Hi to Patrick the weekend.

Lora said...

Wow...you are really putting in the miles!! Take lots of pics at RR, I'm thinking of it being my first 59 miler since its so flat.

Running2BFree said...

Wow your mileage is amazing. Very inspiring for someone like me looking to become a better endurance athlete.