24 The Hard Way

[Entire report erased with one errant keystroke and I'm not writing it again. You can ask me anything, though. The race was super fun!]

Training Update

Training? It's going great!

I'm almost finished with delightful and pompous philosopher Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life in preparation for another go at Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Wilson Kipsang of Kenya set a new Marathon World Record of 2:03:23 in Berlin. The Donald Situation is trying to bribe me by bringing home a 100% on his next timed math test in return for an inflatable Dachshund Halloween decoration. Two guys thru-hiked all 58 Colorado 14ers in ten weeks, covering 1,300 miles with 300,000 feet of vertical. My bad-ass wife ran eight miles with me at Hobbs last Monday. Jon Olsen ran 100 miles in 11 hours, 59 minutes on a track in Ottawa. I was sad to miss the FlatRock 50k this weekend. Rob Krar is a class act, tweeting to Dakota Jones, "@thatdakotajones Thanks for the most challenging and exciting race of my life. You are a BEAST. I hope our paths cross again soon!" after beating him by three minutes at UROC. The paved loop at Bluff Creek Park in Oklahoma City is still 0.96173 miles long and I will still be running and walking around it for 24 hours starting October 26th at 9:00 AM.

I do know how training could be going any better!

24 The Hard Way Training Plan

So I guess it's time once again to post an extremely aggressive training plan for my next race. No it's not. It's time to post that I have no intention to train at all for my next race, or for any race after that. I've decided that training is for schmucks. A better plan, it seems to me, is to simply keep myself moderately fit all the time. Then, a few times a year, I will show up at a race I'm not quite prepared for and finish it anyway, because I'm a badass. That's my training plan.

That said, I'm signed up for my first 100-miler next March and I suspect I might have to do a few weeks of something similar to training before that to give myself a good chance of finishing. That race is the Prairie Spirit Trail 100 in Ottawa, Kansas. It goes from Ottawa to Iola and back on a smooth trail of crushed limestone which used to be a railroad. EPIC Ultras and über-race-director Eric Steele are putting it on so I know it's going to be a kick-ass event. It's going to be tough, but barring a blizzard like happened this year, I ought to be able to finish.

I chose Prairie Spirit for my first attempt at 100 miles because of the course and the race director, but also because of the timing. I'm running 24 The Hard Way on October 26th, then I have a few months of down time before Rocky Raccoon 50 on February 8th. (RDG and Soub, if you're free, you ought to come out to Huntsville State Park and see me finish. Mrs. DMG, The Donald Situation, and my mom will all be there and my sister is going to be pacing me the last lap. They would all love to meet you, as would I!) I can spend a few weeks recovering from Rocky, hammer out a few hard runs over the next month, and then have a long taper into Prairie Spirit which is on March 29th. The rhythm is just too perfect!

My goal for 24 The Hard Way, then, is simply to gage how much training I will need to do before Prairie Spirit. I will show up at Bluff Creek Park, Oklahoma City, having done no training at all, and see how many laps of the 0.96173-mile paved loop I can complete in 24 hours. Anything more than 84 laps will put me on pace to complete the Prairie Spirit Trail 100 within the 30-hour cutoff, meaning I would not have to train for that race either. Anything less than 84 laps means I may indeed have to do a few training runs to give myself a decent chance of finishing my first hundred. But I doubt I would ever do that. Training is for schmucks!

My Closet

I don't actually have a closet. Fortunately, The Donald Situation graciously allows me to store my outdoor stuff in the back corner of his walk-in closet. The two black and yellow storage totes are new. One holds my tents and my backpack, the other just some miscellaneous camping gear. The yellow duffel bag holds every bit of running gear I own. My grey Paco Pad hangs on the wall behind the door. And of course, my Craftsman tool box is plenty large to hold every tool I will ever need for the rest of my life.

There is no kayak in this closet, stood on its end and bungeed to the closet rod. There are no throw ropes, PFDs, sprayskirts, or helmets spilling off the edge of my toolbox, no paddles reaching to the ceiling. I did not hedge my bets by hanging on to some small piece of kayaking gear. It is all completely gone.

Kayaking was the last activity I got into because I thought the gear was cool, and I had a lot of fun with it. Ultimately, though, I've reached a point where merely owning the gear associated with an activity no longer satisfies me. I need to actually do the activity to really enjoy it. I wasn't kayaking, so I got rid of all the kayaking crap.

In '08 when everything hit the fan, I had a 12' x 30' storage room so packed with stuff you had to climb to get through it. I had a trailer full of mowers and trimmers, a fishing boat mounted to a customized PWC trailer, multiple kayaks, multiple drum kits I couldn't play, tubes for launching fireworks, and a dismantled dog kennel. I had a fucking South Bend lathe cabinet. I can't remember what else was in there. Bit by bit, some by ebay, some by Craigslist, some by garbage truck, the shit disappeared. The stuff in Donald's closet is all that's left.

I'm never going back.

West Fly Gap Road

This last Memorial Day, I was lucky to get away for a while and scout Fly Gap Road in preparation for my little Fly Gap Fun Run of Yet-To-Be-Determined Distance coming up this July. I wanted to find some good places to hide water and figure out how to get it there. I started driving west onto Fly Gap Road from Hwy 23 but didn't get very far. The mild grades were smooth gravel but the steeper sections were washed out. They might have been passable is someone else's Chevy Cavalier but not in mine! No problem, though. I just backtracked to a natural gas station of some sort about a mile from the highway where I could park and head out by foot.

For a life-long gearhead who nearly ruined himself switching from one gear-intensive hobby to the next, I'd gone a remarkably long time without buying any new running gear (one of the many things I've come to love about running!). But with a very long self-supported run coming up during the hottest part of the summer, I knew I would need to be able to carry more water. My not-buying-gear streak was about to end!

I love my Ultimate Direction Katoa waist belt with the suspenders I made from a climbing sling left over from my rappelling obsession from several years ago. I actually took that with me when I went to Rush Running to try on Ultimate Direction's new running vests to make sure the two could be worn together without interfering. I liked the construction and materials of the SJ model best but the AK fit a little better and looked like it would be cooler to wear, so I went with that one. I also bought two more of the Camelbak bottles which I prefer to the Ultimate Direction ones. Gear lust satisfied!

I drank two big glasses of water and a glass of soy milk before leaving the house, and a full bottle of water in the car. With my waste belt and my new vest, I could now carry 2.4 liters without having to struggle without handhelds, which I don't get along with. I drank another two full bottles of water, until I was bloated like a tick, and headed west with no real plan for where or how far. I did want to run some of it, but this was very much going to be an exercise in water management.

It was overcast and quite cool for late May, with a slight breeze coming over the ridge which made for very pleasant running.

Fly Gap Road follows an east-west ridge with beautiful views of both sides. The elevation stays between 2000 and 2300 feet for most of its distance.

Running on gravel roads like these is utterly pleasant during the summer when ticks and chiggers make the OHT and other trails less enjoyable.

Some might argue with this, but I think the Forrest Service does a pretty amazing job. There are designated ATV routes so people who enjoy fossil-fuel-powered sports can enjoy our public lands, but also plenty of areas for us Gatorade fuelers. The forests are healthy and alive!

Fly Gap Road dead-ended into FR#1510 a little over eight miles from my car. I had drunk less than a bottle at that point, but I was thirsty and starting to get hot. I decided I would go south on FR#1510 a few miles to the intersection with the Ozark Highlands Trail and catch the OHT back east to FR#1509, filling two bottles at Spirits Creek. I wasn't carrying my filter but figured the water would probably be OK.

FR#1510 looked to be well travelled and in fairly good shape. That might be how I get the water in for my fun run next month.

I'm usually watching the ground a yard in front of me when I'm descending at speed on loose gravel, so I'm not quite sure how I managed to see this hidden trailhead. I think I just "sensed" it.

The 2.2 miles from FR# 1510 to Spirits Creek was new to me and was very nice. My white calf sleeves made it easy to see the ticks so I could flick them off after each grassy section.

Spirits Creek.

I took a little break here and ate some Jason's Almond Butter and an Oskri almond coconut bar as part of an experiment with fat-based fueling that I'm doing. Both were delicious, as was the unfiltered water I washed it all down with.

I had hiked from Cherry Bend to Spirits Creek and back earlier this spring, so the 1.3 from Spirits Creek to FR#1509 was not new to me. It was just as steep as I remembered it, though!

Having filled up in Spirits Creek, I could have walked FR# 1509 southward to White Rock Mountain Road and back, but I decided to catch that section next time. Instead I just headed north back to fly Gap Road, shown as 1506 on this sign.

One of the smaller hills on Fly Gap Road.

Look, my car!

Scouting Fly Gap Road was a pretty amazing way to spend my Memorial Day. I was a bit disappointed that I never needed to drink my two bottles of creek water, but the hike was long enough. I even clicked off a few 13-minute miles at the end of it!

My next mission is to scout White Rock Mountain Road. I've driven it several years ago in my Accord with no problems, but the road may have changed since then. If it and the lower section of FR#1509 are good to go, then placing water for the fun run next month won't be any problem. I'll post a full report whenever I get a chance to do that run.

Here's my Garmin track, if anyone is interested.

Fly Gap 74 Training Plan

I've had the idea to do a big on run the gravel roads through the Ozark National Forest north of the Mulberry River for a while, but have never had a good opportunity. Well, Mrs. DMG and The Donald Situation will both be in Virginia the end of July and into August, so finally I will have my chance. This is going to be some bad-ass fun!


The route will consist of two counter-clockwise loops, 36 miles each, plus a mile each way to Turner Bend where I will be camping. About ten miles of it is paved and the rest is gravel of varying quality, with a total elevation gain of just over 10,000 feet. It will be dry and hot.


I think the key to a successful Fly Gap 74 will be understanding exactly what it is I'm trying to do. I am trying to cover 74 miles by foot, in one brisk and continuous push, under hot-as-fuck conditions, without ruining myself. It will be a test of intelligence rather than one of athleticism, and success will depend on covering the distance well rather than covering it fast. I am trying to challenge myself, learn something, and have fun. I am not trying to injure myself. My training will reflect these goals.

I could do this run now, so I guess my primary training objective will be to simply maintain my current level of fitness. One run a week of twenty miles or so should do the trick. I will seek out gravel roads with lots of vertical to run on. It's a bit of a long drive to make every weekend, but running sections of this loop would be fun and would allow me to scout out hiding places for water. I'll need to stash water in at least four places on race day.

Funny, it you keep yourself reasonably fit, and you aren't obsessed with speed, you hardly have to train at all!

Fly Gap 74 Fun Run

July 27th at Turner Bend. Start whenever you want and keep your own time. We'll figure out what to do for water but you're on your own for everything else. It will be hot. Map to follow, but it's basically Turner Bend on Hwy 23 to Hwy 215 to Morgan Mountain Road to Fly Gap Road to FR# 1510 to White Rock Mountain Road and back to Hwy 23. Then go one more lap around before returning to Turner Bend for a beer and a shower. No T-shirts or finisher awards. No whining.

Hope to see you there!

Inaugural FlatRock 101k

Last Saturday, I was one of 37 people who thought it would be pretty fun to run the famously technical FlatRock 50k course, after an entire day and night of rain, and then run it again. The Elk River Hiking Trail runs along the north side of Elk City Reservoir, near Independence, Kansas. It is 15 miles long plus a short paved section to get to the start/finish line. We would be running out and back twice, for a total of 62.7 miles, give or take. At the starting line, I marveled at all the spectacularly fit people gathered around me. Over the next 22 hours and 43 minutes, I would discover that I was one of them.


Pre-race briefing and spaghetti feed the night before. The people in this picture felt like long-time friends the moment I met them.


Thousands of runners knew this race would be happening. These are the ones who showed up.


Elk City Reservoir on a rainy morning.


Approaching a cool waterfall feature at about mile 13.


I ran with this group for about the first 20 miles when the mud was the worst. It was tough keeping up, but thanks to them, I hit my first two splits exactly on plan. They really made my race!


This is pretty much what the whole course was like: Descend muddy, rocky slope. Wash shoes in creek. Climb muddy, rocky slope. Repeat. The creeks fell out a little bit as the rain stopped, but I was in ankle-deep water as late as three o'clock in the morning. It was wonderful!


Don't eat the manure! It's poison!


Feeling strong coming into the half-way point aid station. I arrived in nine hours exactly as planned. I knew at this point I could power walk the rest and finish in around 22 hours, so I went into total energy conservation mode and quit running completely, even though I had lots of running left in me. That would prove to be a very good decision some hours later.


I changed socks three times, which was time well spent. I finished with zero blisters.


Here I am celebrating prematurely at the second turnaround, about mile 47, with my first burger in two months. Actually, not counting the few bites I'd stolen from my wife's plate every now and then, it was my first meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, or fish in two months, but that's a subject for a different blog post. The burger hit the spot!

Counting the long pit stop at the half-way point, I had still power walked a 6:01 split to the turnaround. I left out just as fast and was feeling great, but that would not last.

I had done everything right. I went in with a realistic plan, given my level of preparedness, and I had executed it flawlessly. But at about mile 55, after doing so much more than I had ever asked them to do before, my legs simply gave up. I could still climb, but I had to descend backwards with my hands on the ground, gently lowering myself down each large step. The rest I could do at a slow walk.

I had purposely not taken the jacket from my drop bag during my last trip through the Oak Ridge aid station, a few miles earlier, because I wanted to experience the night the way it really was, and the night was cold. I was cold. I was also having the time of my life. I was glad I blew up because blowing up added to the experience. It told me just how far I had pushed myself. I was also glad I had done the hard work early. I still had a ton of time left to finish within the 24-hour cutoff. The last few miles, when I knew I had it, I even sat down a few times, turned off my headlamp, and just enjoyed the night. I had earned it.

Finally, after zig-zagging through the last limestone fracture, after sliding down the last muddy slope, there was no more trail to walk on, only a paved road leading to the base of the dam. I could see a glow ahead in the mist and expected to find a finish line there. I did not expect to see--and hear--this!


I can't help feeling a little bit sad for the fast finishers who had to cross this finish line in the daylight. Hitting it at 4:43 in the morning was visually and sonically the most bad-ass finish line experience you could ever imagine!


Get some hand, baby! Get some hand!


I think the smile says it all!

It's taken me a week to write this race report. What I did last Saturday was so much harder than anything else I have ever done that I simply haven't yet developed the lexicon to describe it. Running this race has not in any way diminished all the other amazing running experiences I have had since December 6th, 2010, when I ran two miles at Fayetteville Lake and then puked in the grass. What it has done is change the scale by which I measure all my future running adventures. That's okay, though, because it has also changed my concept of what is possible. It was an indescribable experience.

I won't name any particular volunteers who made this race happen because all of them made it happen. They marked trail, they cooked, they dug trenches to divert runoff from aid stations, they filled water bottles, they dug in pockets for headlamps, they asked if you needed this or needed that as you stared glassy-eyed into your drop bag not understanding what you were seeing. They stood in cold mud for 24 hours so we could go out and play, and it means the world to me. Great job Epic Ultras! I'll be helping out at the War Eagle Trail Races next month at Hobbs so come on down and I'll attempt to return the favor. It's the least I can do!

I was the only rookie in the race. God and everyone could go to UltraSignup.com and see that I had run exactly one ultra previous to this one. Never once, though, did I feel like I was out of my league. Meeting and chatting with the other participants at the spaghetti dinner and at the starting line, and at every step on the trail, I was made to feel like I belonged. I was in the same league. I was in the league of runners who thought it would be pretty fun to run the FlatRock 50k course, after an entire day and night of rain, and then run it again. That was the only qualification. I am so grateful for the friendships I made on this sloppy day in April. Everyone get some hand!



Thanks to Epic Ultras photographers Greg Highberger and Harrison Steele for the excellent photos and thanks especially to Eric Steele for giving me the opportunity to "kick my own ass and BE EPIC!" You and your amazing crew "co-created the experience of a lifetime!" just as you promised. I'll be back!

OHT Photo Dump

Last Tuesday's little OHT jaunt was not worth writing up, other than to say my chance of dying on the hike was fantastically slim. The wind chill was below freezing the whole way but I was carrying enough clothing to survive the night if something happened. I had photos of maps on my camera. I had food. I had a water filter. I left a hike plan with Mrs. DMG and adhered to it. I managed the whole experience with such a nod to caution that there simply was no way it would become an adventure. I wanted a really fun 25-mile hike, and that's all I had. I did snap a few pictures, though, so I guess I'll post them:

I started at the Hwy 23 trailhead and hiked west to Spirits Creek and back.





Obligatory rock house photo.

I took my shoes off to cross Fane Creek the first time but did the proper thing and got my shoes wet on the way back.

Amazingly, I did not see a single deer. I did see three turkeys and a rabbit, though.

Spirits Creek.

This is where I turned around. A more adventurous soul would have pressed on to White Rock Mountain.

Funny, it was an early morning kayak trade that precipitated this whole safe, measured outdoor experience. I won't get into it.

(Trip report to follow.)

The battery on my Garmin ran out before I finished my little OHT hike, but Tim Ernst's guidebook puts the distance at not quite 25 miles. I'm going with that because he's wheeled the entire trail twice. The Garmin samples position periodically rather than continuously causing smoothing of switchbacks and such, short-changing my mileage by several percent. No problem. It took me about eight and a half hours. Nice hike!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/280945125

A Veganism Fact:

If you work at an ammunition factory, wearing leather safety shoes is not your biggest crime.

Vego-pragmatism F.A.Q.

What the hell is a vego-pragmatist?
A vego-pragmatist is someone who agrees philosophically with many tenets of veganism and makes many vegan choices, but due to personal circumstances, is not able to adopt a purely vegan lifestyle.

How many vego-pragmatists are there in the world?
Probably millions, though I might be the only one identifying himself as such, given that I invented the term myself only a few hours ago.

Is it pronounced vejo- or veego-?
Whichever you like. I'm going with veego because, while I'm not vegan, I do want my lifestyle's name to evoke veganism. I admire vegans very much.

Why name it at all?
Good question. I want to have a conversation starter: Hot dogs are ready. No thanks. Why not? I don't eat hot dogs. Why not? I'm a vego-pragmatist. What the hell is a vego-pragmatist? . . .

So you want to browbeat others into adopting your alien lifestyle?
Not at all. I just like talking about whatever topic I'm thinking about at a given time, whether my interlocutor is interested in it or not. I've always been that way and people keep listening. Right now I'm thinking about improving my diet. Other people can eat whatever they want to eat.

How's it going so far?
Ask me in a week. Today I cooked up the last pound of hamburger in the fridge and finished off a bag of shredded cheddar cheese. The last of our milk will go in my breakfast cereal tomorrow. We have a few slices of American cheese but I'll use that to make grilled cheese sandwiches for Mrs. DMG to take to work. We have mayonaise to last until I can find a suitable substitute, which shouldn't be too hard. after that, it's off to the races! The first big challenge, this coming Wednesday, will not be a challenge at all. I will be in the break room celebrating 90 days without a recordable incident by eating a banana and a crunchy gala apple while every one of my co-workers sickens herself on Papa John's pizza. I can't wait!

Scouting Mission

I'd actually been in Ozark Natural Foods a few times before today. The smell hit me pretty hard the first time and I only lasted a few minutes. The next time it was the deathlike pallor of some of the customers that had me heading to the door. The third time I had the desire to buy a product called nutritional yeast, which I became aware of through Scott Jurek's excellent book Eat and Run, but I couldn't find it and I didn't have the nerve to ask for help. I know how absurd that is, but such am I.

Today, though, I went with the intention of staying at least an hour. I was going to view every product,  read labels, learn as much as I could. I was even going to interact with the employees, which I did, several of them. I found all of them to be friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and non-judgemental. I was very impressed. I even got used to the smell.

My more informed impression of the store having spent an hour in it didn't change that much from my first impression when I only lasted a minute in the place. While most of my fellow shoppers did look more or less help healthy, there were still the ghosts in the room. And, for me at least, a big reason for eating healthier is to be healthy without having to take a bunch of pills and supplements. Ozark Natural Foods has a full three aisles of pills and supplements. It also has aisles and aisles of highly processed foods, perhaps organic, but still highly processed. Prices ranged from reasonable to offensively high. On whole, though, it's not a bad place. I made it the full hour!

My favorite section is the bulk grains. I didn't have the foresight to bring my own containers and would have felt funny using either the paper or the plastic bags, so I gave it a miss today, just grabbing info sheets from a few interesting beans and such.

Towards the end of the hour, I had still not found the nutritional yeast so I nutted up and asked someone. Turns out it happened to be on a low shelf only feet from my shins, which gave both of us a laugh. I grabbed a jar and headed to the register to make my first ever purchase at Ozark Natural Foods. Mission complete!

Getting Faster!

Nice little run today. I took about 50 seconds off my average moving pace from two weeks ago and felt better doing it!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/274680904

Couldn't resist!

Had to do some speed work today:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/272008374

How could I possibly have burned 400 more calories this week on the Don than I did last week at Hobbs running the same distance? I think my watch is broken.

First Day of Pre-training!

Coming home:

Since my little 42.3-mile run at the end of November, I had run a total of nine easy miles, once with my sister at Woodlands in Texas and once around Fayetteville Lake. I wasn't injured or anything; I just wanted to give myself a break and address some other things for a while. Today, though, I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to go back to the Mother Trail at Hobbs for the first time since my 50k last June. My training plan states explicitly that training does not start before February 17th, but it does not forbid pre-training, so that's what I did.

New toy, I mean tool:

I'm glad I began running two years before GPS existed so I could learn to manage my runs the old-fashioned way: with a watch. Fortunately, though, this year they introduced a new technology called a Global Positioning System which is going to be a boon for trail runners everywhere. I bought one. As I went to bed last night, my plan was to run ten or so laps of the Don Tyson, wearing my new GPS watch, and then publish the run information to this humble blog. I didn't particularly want to run the Don on what I knew was going to be a beautiful day, but I love absurdity and nothing could be more absurd than running laps on a half-mile stretch of sidewalk wearing a GPS watch. In the morning, though, my Hobbs homing instinct was just too strong.

The Bunny Ears:

Non-Hobbsers might benefit from a quick explanation of some stylistic considerations regarding the Bashore Ridge Loop and the Dutton Hollow Loop which make up what everyone calls the Bunny Ears. The first thing is that in the trail running universe, there exists no such thing as running only one or the other of the bunny ears. If you break your ankle on the first one, you tape it up, find a good stick to use as a cane, and you finish the other loop. There are no clear rules beyond that, but the consensus opinion is that the most aesthetic route is to run the Bashore Ridge Loop first and to run both loops clockwise. That's all I've ever done. I like to park at the Piney Road access so I can finish my long runs on the Bunny Ears. The climb out of Dutton Hollow on tired legs is just glorious!

My pain place:

I've gone to my pain place on the Dutton Hollow Loop several times, the most special being the first time I got past 20 miles--I actually ran 22--which was my last run before my marathon last year. It was then that I had the first real-deal muscle cramp of my life, where I could see a knot the size of a baseball forming and releasing on top of my leg. I wasn't in that bad a shape today but I was definitely in pain, so I commemorated the event by sitting on the same log I sat on last year when I lost the use of my left leg for about ten minutes because of that awful cramp. This time I just watched my calves and quads dance around like they always do four hours into a run. It was nice

Garmin worthy:

I'd like to think I would have pushed just as hard today without the fancy GPS watch, but I just don't know. I was extremely surprised and pleased at how well I ran and how well I felt after running the Clifty and War Eagle loops, especially after my two-month hiatus. It would have been pretty easy to call the run a great success at that point and go on home. But I knew whatever run I did today was going to be published on this blog for God and everyone else to see. I made sure my run was worthy, and in my mind, it is. You can see everything--splits, pace, an aerial photo, even replay the run--right here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/269489674

Please do take a look and let me know if you can see it. I may need to change privacy setting or something.

On second thought . . .

This was a really hard run, so much so that calling it pre-training is probably what Winston Churchill would call a "terminological inexactitude." No. I think I can say that my training for the Inaugural FlatRock 101k Ultra Trail Race has officially begun!

Ultra-Trail Mount Fuji

Watch this instead of the next 49 minutes of TV you were planning to watch. It's better!

FlatRock 101k Training Plan

1. Training starts February 17th. It does not start before February 17th.

2. Maintain fuel reserves. Eat bananas and potatos to keep weight above 165 lbs.

3. Do short runs at Hobbs every weekend, 16-18 miles only but run the whole distance.

4. Schedule vacation for Wednesday, Feb. 27th. Go straight to Hobbs after work Tuesday and hike four laps of the Little Clifty loop (36 miles). Shoot for 12 hours.

5. Schedule vacation for Wednesday, Mar. 27th. Go straight to Hobbs after work Tuesday and hike ten laps of the Huckleberry Loop on Pigeon Roost (43 miles). Shoot for 16 hours.

6. Run single laps of Fayetteville Lake on the other Wednesdays if not too sore, otherwise rest.

7. Take a week off at the first hint of injury.

8. This apartment complex has a gym. Use it.

9. Every run has a purpose. No junk runs.

10. Pain is just information. Don't be a pussy.

Some Books Worth Keeping

This is all that's left after the latest purge, but it had to be done. I was stoic at the used book store, but I admit to welling up a bit when I got back to my car and looked into the empty box that once contained all seven volumes of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. I hope someone else will enjoy it as much as I did.

80 Miles in 24 Hours

It will happen this year.