Jemez Mountain 50 Miler

A young lady is bent over retching along the side of the trail as I approach. A photographer walks up to her. “Are you OK?”, he asks. “Oh yeah, I’m good,” she replies. I know she isn’t. We’re at 9000’ elevation on a hot morning at mile 15 of a 50 miler and have another 1500’ of climbing ahead of us to reach the top of Pajarito Mountain (10,440’). I have a lot of pressure in my head and am definitely feeling the altitude. Hopefully she can pull it together when she reaches the ski lodge aid station in another half mile.

The Jemez Mountain 50 Mile Trail Run started at zero dark hundred this morning with about 150 runners toeing the line. They offer three distances —50 mile, 50K or 15 mile. Pick your poison. There was a bit of drama leading up to the race because the Jemez Mountains, where the race is held in Los Alamos, NM are in an exceptional drought (D4, the worst possible) with very high wildfire risk. The course was changed because the forest is in stage 2 fire restrictions and rangers wanted to keep runners closer to town. The Atomic City knows wildfires. In 2011, the Las Conchas Fire, the largest in New Mexico at the time, burned over 150,000 acres threatening the town and the Los Alamos National Lab here. In years past the 50 mile course took us through the gorgeous Valle Caldera National Preserve, but no such luck today. The good news is that we only ascend Pajarito Mountain once, although we have another significant climb up to about 9600’ later in the day.

Everyday is Earth Day

Earth Day was last weekend where many people went out to hike or run a trail, clean up a park or plant a tree. Well, without fear of sounding like a Birkenstock wearing hippie tree hugger who greets everyone on the trail with namaste, I have to admit that, to me, everyday is Earth Day. I spend almost every morning running a trail and taking in nature. The visual beauty of West Texas where I live is stunning, but there are also the smells, sounds and even the feel of the Earth that I enjoy when I’m out on the trail. 

Moonrise Quitman Mountains in W. Texas

Team RWB Leadership Trail Running Camp

Last weekend I taught several trail running classes for our Team Red, White and Blue leaders who were attending the Leadership Academy in El Paso, TX. I’m not sure I was qualified for this task, but was flattered and honored for the invitation all the same. Our Team RWB leaders are very motivated and work hard to enrich the lives of our veterans by connecting them to their communities through physical and social activities. Several other of our El Paso chapter members also taught classes. Jessica covered trail running gear while her husband Tim, an orthopedic specialist, talked about running form and injury prevention. They are both very fast and accomplished ultra runners who are top finishers in some very tough races.

Highly motivated and passionate Eagle leaders!

Bataan Memorial Death March 2018

Last weekend I ran the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The weather forecast was calling for a hot day with high winds in the afternoon so that was incentive for me to run as fast as possible in hopes of beating the elements. If you don’t know Bataan, it’s one of the largest joint military-civilian athletic events in the country if not the world. Almost 8500 participants marched with heavy packs or ran/walked the 26.2 mile or half marathon route this year. In addition, 2000 volunteers helped make the event possible.

A handful of survivors from the original 60-80 mile death march during WWII were also in attendance and a 100 year old survivor, Ben Skardon, marched a portion of the course. The morning opened, as always, with a somber ceremony remembering the fallen and honoring the remaining survivors of the brutal march in the Philippines in 1942. The ceremony included the Philippine and US national anthems, a ceremonial roll call, prayer and F-16 flyover by the Air Force. 

Running With Gilbert’s Syndrome

I slacked off on my blogging last year because I hadn’t been running much and didn’t feel there was anything worth writing about. I haven’t done a race since last June, but am getting back on track now that I’m healthier. I’ve been training for a few spring races and am looking forward to the Bataan Memorial Death March (26.2 miler) later this month and the Jemez Mountain 50 Miler in Northern New Mexico in May.

Bataan Death March 2017

Last year was a rough year for me health wise. I began feeling bad last spring and decided to back off on my running in the summer to determine what was going on. I was having a lot of fatigue, dizziness, irritability, insomnia, chills, asthma and brain fog. At the time I thought I was having food sensitivities, but my doctor thought it was acid reflux. Doesn’t every male over 50 have acid reflux? Anyway, he put me on some acid reflux meds and things went downhill from there. By October I became very sick with a low grade fever, chills and high counts of liver enzymes, bilirubin and ammonia. 

Volunteering at Lone Star 100

This past weekend I volunteered at the Lone Star 100 Trail Run, a 100 mile or 100K race run in the Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso, TX. This is a brutal race, put on by Trail Racing Over Texas, that I attempted last year, but only making it to mile 60. You can read my race report here. 

Franklin Mountains State Park, TX

The course is a 33 mile loop including an out-and-back trip to the top of N. Franklin Peak at 7192’ elevation. The entire 100 mile course includes around 20,000 feet of elevation gain. (Denali in Alaska is 20,310’). That should give you an idea of the difficulty of this race, but if that isn’t enough to convince you, the course is littered with rocks. Jagged rocks, smooth slippery rocks, razor edged slivers of rock, small annoying rocks that get into your shoes. The vegetation here is pointy, sharp, prickly, barbed, saw-toothed or otherwise covered in thorns. The weather can be anything in February. Last year we had a high of 85 degrees and then the winds came. Strong gusting port-o-potty tipping over gales.

My Year in Review 2017

Happy New Year! 2017 was both a good and bad year for me. The first half of this year was epic in many ways. I started the year by running the Bandera 100K in frigid temperatures, ran R2R2R in the Grand Canyon with a great bunch of guys and ran the Lone Star 100 miler only making it to mile 60 before dropping. I finished my third Jemez Mountain 50 miler, but made the last few cutoffs by mere minutes. I finished my 6th consecutive Bataan Memorial Death March and ran the Bighorn 100, but dropped at mile 50 due to a miserable night of rain, cold and soul sucking mud.

Watch slideshow of my favorite photos from 2017:



All my race times were slower this year and I felt something was off. All during the summer I was experiencing fatigue, chills and my vitamin D was very low. After Bighorn, I took it easy for a few months and tried to determine why I was feeling so bad. By October I became very sick with some serious complications and underwent medical testing. I saw quite a few doctors who were not able to determine the cause of my problem, but I recovered all the same. Doctors continue to monitor my health and have ordered further evaluations from specialists.

Per doctor's orders and on my wife's recommendation, I have changed my diet to a lower carb (no grains/legumes), low sugar regimen because I may have leaky gut syndrome. (I guess that's a thing now.) I feel much better and have been running the last month or so. All said, I'm grateful for the accomplishments I made in 2017 and am confident that 2018 will be a good year of running for me. I've already registered for the Bataan Death March and have run 13 miles for my longest run.

See you on the trail.