With the crisis that has been happening with the COVID-19 pandemic, racing hasn't been something that has been happening for the past few months. Rightfully so, people are just "hungry" to do something. Under a significant amount of pressure, I made the decision a few weeks ago to postpone the 2020 running of the Booneville Backroads Ultra series of races. I didn't want to put my runners or the community in harm even if some feel we could have put it on. Because of this, Memorial Day weekend freed up...which the race would have started on my birthday...and wanted to do something crazy that I'd been dreaming about for a few years. Run the entire Raccoon River Valley Trail in Central Iowa for an FKT. The FastestKnownTime.com site didn't have one set so why not give it a whirl. I told my beautiful and supportive wife that I was thinking about doing something wild for my birthday and her response was "please don't say it's 100 miles. I don't...
This picture...this picture will forever be the reminder for me of determination and grit. I'm not going to sit here and say that this was my finest moment in my running career, but this moment was the one where the chips were stacked against me and I decided to take on the dealer...this moment... I have to admit off the bat that I am super invested in this race. Having lived in Iowa my whole life, I am proud of this state and what it has to offer and this race just makes living here, for me, that much more special. Steve Cannon, the race director, has given me an unbelievable opportunity to be involved and help him with the pre-race "stuff" and I am so thankful to be a part of it. Leading into the 2017 Booneville Backroads 100 mile I had a level of confidence in me that bordered on the cocky spectrum. After my terrible race at Rocky Raccoon, I came into this race hungry for something more. I was putting more and more time into climbing hills, speed work and long ...
The Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race is one that's been on my radar for many years. Living in Iowa, I've always heard about how "flat" and "runnable" the race is and for a guy who doesn't have the opportunity to train in the mountains, the terrain was something that really intrigued me. When I got the word that my good friend Byron, who is also a really great runner, was moving to Texas in early 2015 and was thinking about throwing his name into the hat for the 100 miler, I knew the decision had been made. 2016 was going to be the year that I took on the race. My training coming out of the 2015 Equalizer was...we'll call it...less than great. I took a couple of weeks off from serious training just to rest some injuries that had manifested from running on concrete for 24 hours. My hips were really wrecked for about a month after. In fact, I didn't do a single run over 7 miles for nearly 6 weeks. With the pressure of not disappointing myself and tho...
Comments