Guns, A Millionaire and Ladybugs

Any race with the words “Dead” or “Death” in the title should make for an awesome running adventure, don’t you think? That’s why I signed up to run the Deadman Peaks 50 Miler, a 53 mile journey along the Continental Divide Trail in Northern New Mexico next month. To get ready, I have been putting in a lot of miles at the base of the Franklin Mountains with occasional trips to the top of N. Franklin Peak (7192’). 

Training for a Fall race is challenging in West Texas though because heat is off the scale especially in August when humidity adds to the swelter factor. In fact, a French couple tragically perished this summer just up the road in White Sands National Monument while hiking in the hottest part of a 100 degree day.  About once a year I have a really bad day while running at the end of the summer. This time it happened while running with a friend on the Sierra Vista National Recreation Trail in New Mexico. 

White Sands National Monument

Polly Wants a Cracker?

A saying amongst ultrarunners goes, “If you run long enough something is bound to happen.” Sometimes weeks go by without anything out of the ordinary happening on my runs, but occasionally I see something quite unusual. Last year I was running under a bridge several hours before sun-up and discovered a colony of bats returning to their roost. In fact,  just the other morning a friend and I were stopped dead in our tracks by a rattlesnake crossing the trail, although that really isn’t that unusual for those of us who run trails in the desert.