R4E Athletes•
on August 16th, 2010•
Leadville, Colorado
August 14th 2010
It was a perfect start to the day. 35 degrees, clear. It’s pure mayhem at the start. I think there were about 1300 racers give or take. I self-seeded myself about 80% of the way to the back. It took a couple of minutes after the shotgun start for us to start moving. The race starts out fast for the first 15 minutes or so. Mostly pavement and downhill. Elbow to elbow (We’ve got a video of the start which I’ll post later either here or on YouTube). I rode as hard as I realistically could for the first hour – it was congested and the pace was pretty fast until the first climb. Many people started walking. I rode up though walkers as far as I could until I was forced to walk. It was a cool and very fast decent on a paved road. Then it’s up again to Sugarloaf peak – another 1000 ft. climb or so. Logging road, switch backs. The whole time I’m climbing my heart rate is 160ish. I’m in granny gear and pedaling at a smooth, high cadence. After Sugarload you descend the fast Powerline section. It’s fun and fast. One rider was down waiting for medical help. I later heard he ended up being helivac’d to Denver. Over the course of the day, I passed a total of 3 down riders. Riders that weren’t moving and were surrounded by gawkers waiting for help. There was no section that was “technical” – riders were just pushing themselves and going fast and, well, I know too well that’s quite possible to wreck on “non-technical” trail. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on August 1st, 2010•
Missoula, Marathon
July 11th 2010
Number 11 is now done! I think I have said this in every post, but I can’t believe how quickly this year is going by. For this race, both Dustin and I were pretty tired. We’ve both had quite a bit going on and our lack of sleep was either going to plays it’s card on race day, or we would possibly luck out and would be just fine. Even though we started the day off not feeling the greatest – some stomach issues for Dustin and just not feeling “right on” for myself. I was really starting to worry when we hit mile 4 and 5, how miles 14 and 15 were going to feel as the weather continued to get warmer and my legs would continue to tire. After a needed bathroom stop around mile 6 for both Dustin and I, we both felt great when we started running again, like we had just started our run and well this time. We were even cruising along at a rather good pace, we crossed the half way point at 1:46, which I truly couldn’t believe. I didn’t think we were moving that fast. We wound up keeping the same pace and crossed the finish line in 3:32. It was a good day and Dustin and I enjoyed running this one together. As corny as it might sound to some of you, we finished the last part of the race holding hands. It’s always a great experience when Dustin and I get to finish a race together. It also got the fans going and was great push to finish the race strong. read more
R4E Athletes•
on July 19th, 2010•
Bozeman, Montana
July 17th 2010
Race4Equality athletes, Justin Bigart and Doug Fletcher, completed the Devil’s Backbone this past Saturday as part of their training for their upcoming Race4Equality races this next month. They ran this gnarly race together as a relay, running 25 miles each for a combined 50 mile race. The Devil’s Backbone is an almost unsupported and unmarked race, with mainly cairns along the way reassuring you are going in the right direction. During this race, runners are almost always above 9,500 feet with one significant climb to 10,300 feet and with multiple short steep climbs totaling 11,400 feet. Way to go guys! read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on July 15th, 2010•
Dayton, Wyoming
June 19th 2010
“Awesome” is about all we can say on this race.
To give you some background, Dustin and I have done an aid station at this race for a couple years and have wanted an excuse ever since to be able to experience this race (just once) as a runner. After deciding to do a marathon-a-month for a year, we figured we could finagle a 50k in the mix – we were still running a marathon, just deciding to run a few extra miles past that point. We didn’t think it would matter that much, especially who we are running our races for. Michelle, the race director, does an amazing job with this race! The aid stations are wonderful and the Bighorn mountains are breathtaking to say the least. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on June 13th, 2010•
Fargo Marathon Booth
May 20th-21st 2010
The Swanson Health Products Health & Fitness Expo in Fargo North Dakota was home for a day and a half to our first ever Race4Equality booth. We had that day and a half to speak and visually show 20,000+ runners and non-runners alike about Race4Equality. We were able to share what we are doing with Race4Equality as an initiative, our venture within in it – doing a marathon-a-month, and Bright Hope School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia our first project/cause who we are raising funds and awareness for under the R4E umbrella. read more
R4E Athletes•
on June 4th, 2010•
Fargo, North Dakota
May 22nd 2010
The Fargo Marathon was a blast!! My BIG goal was to finish (which I did with a time of 5:12:40), but I had trained and hoped to finish around 4:45. What I didn’t plan on was my left knee to cause me problems, so I ended up gimping (walking) in order to finish. Otherwise, it was lots of fun: the crowds were awesome, people running with you in the race were interesting and fun to talk too, and it was a well organized race. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on June 4th, 2010•
Fargo, North Dakota
May 22nd 2010
Well, we did it, marathon #9 of 12 is in the bag. We are 3/4ths of the way through. I’m sure I sound like a broken record, but it’s so hard to believe that we are this far along. Although September (when we started) feels like just yesterday, it’s incredibly hard to believe that we have run 9 marathons since then.
Race #9 was the Fargo Marathon, which we ran on Saturday, May 22nd. Both Dustin and I were a bit nervous for this race. We would be running on a lack of sleep, which seems to have become our norm lately, manning our first expo race booth (more on that in the blog above), and dealing with above norm temperatures in Fargo. The weather forecast was calling for 80 degree weather and potentially high humidity – not good conditions for running. The race officials were preparing to shut the race down if the combination of heat and humidity were to reach a certain point. This is what happened in the Chicago Marathon back in 2007, where the temperature hit 87 degrees in early October. These conditions were a lot different compared to last year when we ran the half marathon – it was 30 degrees at the start. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on May 24th, 2010•
Salt Lake City, Utah
April 17th 2010
Finally… our update for the Salt Lake City Marathon. Race #8 of 12 – 2/3 rds of the way done! Can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by. We will be done with our venture before we know it.
Our trip to SLC was a short one. We went down on Friday, raced Saturday morning and were back in Bozeman late Saturday night. Both Dustin and I knew going into this race we weren’t going to have one of our best days. We were pretty tired. My younger sister gave birth to the next generation of Thompson’s the previous weekend – 40 hours of labor exhausted about everyone there, especially the new mom! We were running on a lack of sleep and hadn’t had an appropriate number of trainings run to really feel ready for this race. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on March 14th, 2010•
Avalon, California | Catalina Island
March 13th 2010
Weather | Perfect, 70 degrees and sunny most days
People We Met | Runners from a California running group, Sole Runners. Amongst them was Daniel and later met his wife and children who coordinate Standing on Stone Community Outreach. Check out their amazing organization that is feeding 70-100 people in need every Thursday night.
And we can’t forget our very friendly staff at our hotel, Hermosa Hotel. read more
Marathon-A-Month•
on March 14th, 2010•
Austin, Texas
February 14th 2010
