Red Rock/ Little Rock

#4 and 5 of my planned 13 in 12. My 2nd of 3 planned doubles (not counting the Seattle Triple)

I'm going for the next level, 7 stars in the Marathon Maniacs hierarchy, 13 marathons or ultras in 79 consecutive days.
Here is the schedule:
2/15: Call of the Wild marathon (Burke Gilman trail)
2/20: Sedro Woolley Trail marathon (27 mi), where I won my first prize, a coloring book from 1994 (3rd in age group, probably out of 3), since I won 4th place in backstroke in a jr high swim race where 2 of the 6 swimmers didn't show up:
2/21: Birch Bay marathon (Blaine, WA)
2/26-8: Davis Challenge, 3rd annual (Manzanita OR)
3/6: Red Rock Canyon marathon (Las Vegas NV)
3/7: Little Rock Marathon (Little Rock, AR) (50th career marathon)
3/14: Redwoods Park Trail Marathon (Oakland CA, 3000+ ft elevation)
3/21: Bataan Death March (marathon in the sand, Missile Sands NM)
3/27: Yakima River Canyon marathon (RD= Bob & Lenore Dolphin, Bob on his 470+th marathon)
3/28: Redmond Watershed Trail marathon
4/3: Dizzy Daze (Green Lake outer loop as many times as possible)
4/11: Zurich marathon
4/18: Vienna City marathon
4/24: EUGENE OPEN, now the MUKILTEO OPEN
5/2: Tacoma Marathon/ marathon maniacs reunion
5/8: on call for Swedish neurology
5/15: Redmond Watershed 12 hour run (goal 50+ miles)

Crash says he understands why I run. The boy can do 30 miles so I give him benefit of the doubt, but .... ?

In running, there is no bullshit. You get credit for what you do. I don't mean medal, I mean the knowledge that you covered the distance, that you can. It doesn't matter if you suck. You earned it. There is always someone faster than you, always someone slower than you. If you cheat, you're only cheating yourself. It is a privilege to be still on your feet, to feel the burn, seeing what only a marathoner can see on their own two feet. Your mind is blissfully OFF. Fat slow people are invited, you just have to show up. I'm there.

You can get lost in the silence at Cougar Mountain
or

Death Valley








This is why I run: I took >50 photos during the Red Rock marathon but only half were not blurry. In real life, the rocks are actually red.

Flew into Las Vegas after another heinous day at work (I'm not "work-serious", I "work to play"), haters may not get it...
After a 3.5 hr layover in LA, landed in LV. Fancy pants hotel (redrum)
Got up at 4:30, caught bus to Red Rock Canyon at 5:15 AM


Race started at Buttcrack, 6 AM.
The first 6 miles there was 1000 ft of climbing but the scenery was so gorgeous, you forget....


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You get to do the 1000 ft climb twice at 4800 ft altitude, but it's the screaming, quad-busting descents that kill you...
The winner finished in 3:45, so I don't feel so bad about my time of 4:45. They served hot ziti and apple crumble after!

Got on a plane to Dallas, then to Little Rock. Arrived at Little Rock at 11 PM. No food establishments open, so I bought 4 bags of potato chips from various vending machines, ordered a Glenfiddich neat and a Fat Tire from the bar.

Got up at 6 AM, ate scrambled eggs (at least 4, with hot sauce), a yogurt, bagel with cream cheese, OJ, coffee, and cereal, then walked to the start. The so-called "hills" were like mole hills after Red Rock. Ran into a fellow maniac Martha from Las Vegas who was on her 149th marathon. I was flattered that she was amazed that I was running the day after Red Rocks, she knew the course. Like Van Phan, I'm developing a perverse satisfaction with hearing people say, "you did WHAT?" Ran with another maniac who's a newbie (only 9 races so far), my age but with 10 year old kids, from Wisconsin. Ran with another from Kentucky who was in his 60's, another newbie. It got pretty hot, almost 70 degrees, finished in 4:34, nice blood blister on toe but no major chafage casualty.

Another sighting of the always cheerful Larry Macon: The man is 65 and runs 2 marathons every weekend, over 650 so far. . Yes, it's the world's largest marathon medal.
When else are you going to see a city whose claim to fame is Bill Clinton and Central High 9.


Sadly not has "high" as I was after the Triple. Guess I'm not running hard enough...

help, I don't know how to get rid of the typos