Wednesday, February 06, 2008

100-Miles and 50K in Two Weekends

I've been busy.

Here's a Cliff Notes version of the past two weekends...I'll post some detailed posts, soon:

On February 2, I once again went to run the Rocky Raccoon 100-Mile trail run. I've now finished 6 for 6 attempts. I injured myself this year... I still finished, but my last loop was UTTERLY UGLY! But it was still good enough to get me to the 600 mile mark on this course.

I drove down with my crew and entertainment (my son, Matt), and Gary Henry and Tony Clark. We had a lot of fun.
A gaggle of Kansas City Trail Nerds also went down to the race, this year. They did better than okay:

#8 18:14:42.60 Kyle Amos 32 KS
#9 18:14:43.30 Tony Clark 29 KS
#17 19:33:41.70 Gabe Bevan 35 MO
#27 20:48:21.75 John King 35 MO
#101 26:08:13.10 Ben Holmes 50 KS
Gary Henry - DNF

Of special note was John King, who did his first-ever 100-miler in 20 hours, which is a Trail Nerd record for a "first 100." Kyle and Tony ran the whole darn thing together and now have a new 100-mile PR. Gabe hit the course with a vengeance and got in under 20 hours for a PR. Gary DNF'd after 78 miles, but probably would have finished with a pacer. He'll be back next year with his favorite pacer.

We had a lot of good crew help and pacer help this year, which helped significantly. They had a lot of fun, too.

The KUS members did pretty well, too:
#16 19:27:49.45 Randy Albrecht 52 KS
#31 21:10:27.30 Dann Fisher 34 KS
#148 28:32:16.35 Matt Bickhard 45 KS

On Saturday, Feb 9th, the Trail Nerds Hosted the 4th Annual Psycho WyCo Run Toto Run. I was race director. This race has a 50K, a 20-miler, a 10-miler, and now a 5K.

We had an attendance record, with over 400 showing up on race day to run. And we had our 50K course record shattered by 26-year old Matthew Laye from Columbia, Missouri, in a time of 4:19:42 !



Not bad, even for this "flatter than a pancake" Kansas course, with the "perpetually perfect" course and weather conditions that are always encoutered in this little corner of our fair state. (What's a little mud between friends)?

Final results will be posted on the race website , soon. Preliminary results are on the Race Day Timing Solutions site .

Our race photographer, Dick Ross, was up until 2 a.m. loading the photos onto http://www.seekcrun.com/. He and his helper took over 1100 photos.
Action Photos are here .
Finish Line / Award photos are here .
Fun Photos are here .

Thanks to all of our incredible volunteers that make this race happen (and improve) from year to year. And thanks to the Unified Government of Wyandotte County Parks & Recreation Department for letting us use this beautiful venue for our event.
I'm still tying-up loose ends regarding the race. Kyle, Stacy, Gabe, Rick, Gary, and John now know what it feels like to run or crew a 100-miler, and then put on a race the next weekend. The definition of exhaustion!

Happy trails,
Bad Ben

Race Director and Tired Fool

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ben. Like I said I don't think I'm fully deserving of the honor. Especially with the up and down season I had last year. Tuesday Willie and I are getting together. To tie up all the loose ends. Hopefully its not too late but there are a couple of your boys we're looking at of they would be interested. We still have to find out for sure just how many they are willing to sponsor. Are proposal was for like six to eight runners from the area. We'll find out tommomrow and then start trying to contact people. Give yourself some congratulations brother. You played a big part in raising some tough s.o.b's in them thar hills of K.C. Feeding them all that gunpowder and raw meat and whatnot.
Thanks for a great Saturday. That was the first time I didn't curse the course insanely. Maybe next year you ought to hold a bandit division. So I can see what kind of 50km I can run there with no pressure.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Thanks, Dave.
Congratulations on the sponsorship, that's quite an honor.

Rick M said...

"Toughest 50k in the mid-west", sounds about right.My soul left my body on that 3rd loop, I think it's still hovering somewhere in Festers Wander.Thank you Ben

Rick M said...

yes I updated my blog

MJ said...

Thanks a lot Ben. I have to say that the 50K was everything I was hoping for. For a guy that has only run a couple of flat marathons this was a completely different beast. As a newbie to the distance I was a little unprepared as to what to expect, but the superb aid stations and course markings made the experience wonderful. Hopefully I will continue to dabble in the distance and eventually try my hand at a 50-miler or 100K. Thanks again,
Matt

Olga said...

So, I've been waiting for the report, bc I figured something must have gone wrong, and all I get was "I got injured this year"? Where, how, does it still hurt, is it long-term, what the heck happened! And congrats on still nailing the course. 600 is a committement:)

Ben, aka BadBen said...

I'll get the report up by tomorrow. I've been a little busy, don't you know...

Unknown said...

Congrats on #6, Ben!