New Trail Race in Boulder!

# # For Immediate Release # #

NEW TRAIL RACE ANNOUNCED

April 1, 2011

Boulder, Colorado – Boulder Trail Runners is pleased to announce the creation of a new trail race to be held in Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks. Long thought to be totally impossible due to extremely restrictive regulations, the news was welcomed with surprise and delight by members of the running fraternity.

“This is so cool,” exclaimed Jim Shortz, local computer programmer and homeless person. “Now I just hope I can get in.”

Entry into the inaugural Goshawk 50, named after a bird that doesn’t live here, but theoretically could, is typical of many ultra’s in the country nowadays. You can’t get in unless you sleep with the Race Director.

Kilian on the TRT

UPDATE – 8:05 PDT (from Salomon) –

DONE!  38 hrs 32 mins.  Respect Kilian 6 hrs 20 mins less than the previous record hold by T2 (Tim Twietmeyer), which already was an outstanding performance!

UPDATE – 9/29 – (from Salomon) –

Dicks pass 11.30am PDT – Kilian  is 30 hrs and 30 mins after he left Tahoe. He still has 60 km to go, with 208km (129 mi) behind him. He definitely has step up the pace, since he’s 30 mins behind his 40 hour timing – including one hour lost during the night and two hours of sleep.

My comments – Record is in the bag (sub 45 hrs); sub 40 schedule is on the edge.  I find it interesting that he slept for 2 hours – its a different style – running harder with more rest.  What I really find surprising is taking a wrong turn and losing 8 km and one hour … I would think that what his pacer is supposed to be taking care of.

Euro style sponsored adventure running comes to the States!

Kilian Jornet started the Tahoe Rim Trail this morning.  He will be paced the entire distance, with full support including media.  You can follow it live on the Salomon site.  Adam Chase is writing the updates now that the team is Stateside, so we can tell what is actually taking place, rather than the breathless but contentless hyperbole that was coming out of France.

The goal is sub 40 hours; should be no problem if he adjusts to the dry air and stays hydrated.

A little different style than Brett’s recent JMT record.  All good.

Multi Day Update

“I DIDN’T FAIL” – David Horton on the Colorado Trail

David, the multi-day king, wanted to go out on a good note after a sour day on the CDT last year. He and Jonathan Basham came to Colorado to train and acclimate for three weeks; their preparation was good.

I was thus taken aback when David’s smiling face greeted me at the Grouse Gulch aid station during the HR100. He was in excellent spirits, looked good, and it was great to see him. He had called it quits after 6 days – oddly while still right on schedule for the record – but with mounting issues that clearly precluded continuation.

His blog has an excellent account, excerpted here:

“Going after the CT record might have been my most difficult multi-day attempt so far. The CT record is very TOUGH. The trail itself was tougher than I thought it would be. I averaged 40 miles per day on the PCT and AT and 45 miles per day running across America. Averaging over 54 miles per day on the CT was VERY tough. I started very day before daylight, usually around 4:00 AM and finished every day after dark. My average time on the trail was around 17 hours per day. This left very little time for anything. I was usually in bed 30 to 45 minutes after finishing each day. Each day, the last section ATE my lunch. It took everything that I had to finish each day. I never knew at night if I would be able to go again the next day.”

“Day 6 should have been an easy day but it was not. We got lost before daylight and ran 4 miles off course. Later in the day it was very hot and the dry heat started sucking the life out of me. In the middle of the days my hands started swelling, sausage fingers you say. I have had them before but NEVER as big as they got this time. In the last section of the day, I became very concerned about them and how big can they get before damage occurs. On the back of my hands, the skin stuck grossly very high. My forearms started swelling all the way up to my elbows. It was getting tighter and tighter. How big can they get?? What damage can occur?? I was also thinking about the next day as it was going to be the toughest day yet, over 60 miles with one road crossing. I knew the possibility that if I got in trouble in this section that I would put myself and my crew in a serious problem. I knew then that I must stop. Could I have run the next day? Yes. Could I have caused myself or others some serious problems? Yes.”

2008 Multi-Day Wrap-Up

Marshall Ulrich just finished running across the United States in record time, ending in NYC the evening of Election Day.  His massive 52-day effort wraps up a great season of multi-day record runs!  

First summarized on this blog back in June, this was a big year for multi-day running.  While clearly a fringe activity, multi-day runs do capture the imagination; besides the obvious extreme aspect, their real allure might be how they arouse our yearning to “be a runner” instead of “going for a run”; to live the life of a self-propelled person fully and wholly.  Our re-cap follows; this list includes only record-attempts (non-record runs are wonderful but are not included here), and all but Marshall’s are off pavement.

Adventure Running Article

I am honored to have been asked by the Northwest Mountaineering Journal (NWMJ) to write a feature article about my adventure running in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. It was interesting to write about myself. The article was just published so check it out!

http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/08/081_Pantilat.html

From the journal website:

“The mission of the Northwest Mountaineering Journal is to be an edited, permanent, annual record of mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest. The journal documents the events, people, history and spirit of climbing and other mountain sports in this region. The journal is published by volunteers from the mountaineering community in collaboration with The Mountaineers.”

Also, check out the rest of this year’s edition for great photography and awesome mountaineering trips. For more info and photos on my adventure running, visit my website.

Karl Meltzer – AT

Karl is on his 37th day on the Appalachian Trail. A few of the big questions have been answered:

Q: Will he break the record?
A: No. A very rainy New England summer meant wet feet which led to bad blisters which caused him to favor one leg which contributed to an Anterior Tibialus injury which necessitated a 4 day layoff to let it heal. This is not a soft record; one can no more take a 4 day break and still get it than one can stop and eat a watermelon during a Marathon and still win.

Q: Will he quit if he can’t get the record?
A: No again. Pre-attempt speculation arose on this point, because experienced multi-day runners knew how hard it would be to nail this the first try, and since Karl is a very successful ultrarunner, would he bag it and get out of sight at first sign of failure? Karl is soldiering on, putting his head down, respecting and honoring the sport and the Trail.

Q: Is Karl tough enough?
A: You’d better believe it.