AK’s Adventures

As I was updating my Marathon Maniacs page, I realized I finished my 100th marathon/ultra at the HURT 100 this year.
Summary (as of 4/7/09):

1st marathon: Los Angeles 3/98 (3:56:53)
1st ultra: Comrades (downhill) 6/01 (8:52:37)
1st 50K: Bulldog 9/01 (5:58:52)
1st 50 Miler: Mt Hood PCT 7/04 (10:24:11)
1st 100 Miler: San Diego 10/04 (29:06:46)

Fastest marathon: Los Angeles 3/08 [...]

Those who know me personally, or follow Catra’s blog, are probably aware that I’ve had some personal challenges lately. I think that most people who were in my shoes would’ve opted to not do the SF 1 Day considering the circumstances, which is what I initially chose to do, but decided that I had to [...]

This weekend, I will be participating in my first 24 hour event — the San Francisco 1 Day. Those unfamiliar with this race/format — it’s a 1.067 mile loop around the lagoon at Crissy Field, which is located near the Golden Gate Bridge, where we would have to run as many clockwise loops as we [...]

Around 3:30 Saturday morning, I woke up to find my hydration pack soaked, and a big puddle on the floor — there was a hole just big enough that it lost half its content overnight. A slight panic set in, but remained as calm as one can be while dealing with a crisis before [...]

The 2009 entrants list for the HURT 100 was published this morning — both Catra and I made it in! The race filled in a day, and there’s currently a wait list for those who managed to pull the app off the website before they pulled it.
There are only a handful of runners who has [...]

After yesterday’s Mt Disappointment 50 miler, I feel worse than I’ve felt after a race in a long time. If anything, I’m usually fine after a shower, food, and a good night’s sleep. Not only do I feel really beat up, I suffered from the biggest blister I’ve gotten ever in my life. I usually [...]

This past weekend, Catra worked at the SF Marathon expo at the Atalanta booth with the owner/founder Heather. While she was pushing skirts, I managed to catch some seminars conducted by Julie Fingar, Bart Yasso, and Dean Karnazes.

On Sunday, we volunteered to help new race directors Mike Palmer and Jennifer Ray at the Skyline 50K [...]

I’m very saddened to write that Jim Hutchinson, the Race Director for the Vermont 100 and President of the Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports has died of a heart attack.

2007 Vermont 100 Pre-race meeting.

Jim with the top female runners from 2007.

Jim w/ Dot Helling during 2005 Vermont 100.

I believe there was about 55 finishers out of 111 starters — that’s almost a 50% drop rate. The weather was warm, and the course was dry/dusty — especially compared to 2006 when I last ran it. No snow or any significant mud, and just a hint of smoke down around the Red House section. [...]

On Saturday July 26, 6 local ultrarunners will be joining up as Team John M Potter, MD, and attempting to cover at least 160 miles in 24 hours to raise money as part of the Relay for Life — the signature event for the American Cancer Society. John’s brother-in-law, Bill Ramsey is an accomplished runner, [...]