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 ...
Yep, this is the song that was in my head for almost 99% of the race The Booneville Backroads 100 is something that I've wanted to do ever since hearing about it being Iowa's very first 100 mile race. It intrigued me as according to the website it's "85% gravel, 10% level B roads, 5% pavement". It intrigued me as the start line was 8 miles from my house. And it intrigued me because the start of the race was on my 35th birthday. With all of the stars aligned, I would kick myself later for not signing up. Having just run a 100 miler in January, I felt really good about my training in February. I was still keeping my mileage up, but didn't want to burn myself out so didn't push the mileage up too much but worked more on intensity. Since I knew the area that this race would take place I really wanted to focus a lot of my attention on actually running on gravel and cranking out as many hill sessions as I could. If you follow me on twitter or Facebook, y...
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