Training, this years races, and other random stuff...

Haven't really posted much goings on since the fall, so here goes!

Cooper had a successful XC season for Monmouth, capped off by finishing fourth at his conference meet. The team shocked the conference with a second place finish. Considering in 2015 they didn't even have enough healthy runners to SCORE at conference this is an amazing turnaround. Out of the top 7 Coop in the only Junior, the rest being Freshman and Sophomores. Coop also set a Pr in the 5k last week with a 15:39, nabbing a third place finish at the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships. He also scored in the DMR and 3k, heping the Monmouth men to a mind-boggling 18th straight Indoor crown!

Claire and the rest of the Arvada West Wildcats had a great finish to their XC campaign, also. Both the girls and boys teams won the Jeffco Conference 5A Championship and followed that up with first place finishes the next weekend at Regionals. Colorado State saw the boys finish 4th in 5A and the girls 5th. Those state finished were good enough to get an invite to the Nike Cross Regionals in Casa Grande, Arizona. Times were on the slow side because of an unfortunately hot and windy day, but it was a great experience. Gina, Marc (Claire's teammate Katie's dad, and I ran in the "citizens" race early that morning. It was quite a kick to run the course that Casey Clinger and Brie Oakley, both the eventual Nike national champs, would run (much, much faster than we did of course) later in the day. Also got a look at 8th grade phenom Grace Ping, who advanced to nationals and finished 6th there.

Actually, that trip to Arizona ended a running streak at 41 days of running at least three miles. I've never actually tracked that sort of thing before but with the possible exception of my marathon training I doubt I have ever run more than 10-14 days in a row before. I made up my mind to try to run every day this winter and I gotta say, it's made me a bit of a believer. I've always been on the side of a couple rest or cross training days a week but I felt like really putting together a super solid base of training this winter.

I have a tentative plan for racing this year. In April I am planning on running 24 Hours of Palmer Lake Fun Run in Monument, Colorado. The race name is pretty self explanatory: a 24 hour race around Palmer Lake. You run the .8 mile loop as many times as you can for 24 hours at an elevation over 7.000 feet. For some reason this sounds fun to me. Gina, on the other hand, is not quite as overjoyed about the prospect of crewing me for this event! After that I am leaning toward doing my second Tommyknocker 12 Hour in May (last year it was a Fall race, so I am hoping for cooler weather this time around) or perhaps a trail marathon up near South Park. It all depends on what scheduling conflicts I may have or not have with track and Coop coming home from school.

After that I am thinking I am going to ease back on the running during the hotter summer months and tackle some 14ers. Coop, Brandon, and I have tentative plans to take on Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado, sometime this summer. I also want to do Grays and/or Torreys again, this time during a day when I can actually see some of the views! There is a 14er route near Leadville where you can bag four peaks in one shot that is also calling my name.

I might take on some sort of 50k trail race or a road (eewwww) half or marathon late in the Fall. I have some vague notions about running (more like power hiking) the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon in 2018 but I need a qualifier race to enter. We'll see. I also have notions about trying to get into The Barkley Fall Classic in '18. That is pretty much my big dream race at this point. It's the one I have got to try before I quit running. Hoping to avoid the big DNF at that one and get a finisher medal draped over my neck by Laz himself! I've definitely got access to enough vertical close to home to get trained for the Fall Classic.

Here is a super impressive feat: Ultra-marathoner Micheal Wardian won the World Marathon Challenge recently, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. and averaged just a shead of 2:45 doing it. Read more about this miraculous achievement here. Retired elite marathoner Ryan Hall also completed it, the last marathons he will ever run.

Identity As A Runner

Today Facebook, thoughtful as ever, brought up my memories, which as most of you know is a regurgitation of your old posts, friends made, etc. on that day in years past. Yeah, I'm being a bit of a smart aleck about it but it is actually pretty interesting many times and this is one of those times.

Anyway, according to the sluggish media giant allI posted five years ago this day that while on a walk I had jogged up a few hills. If you don't know me well or were not aware, on the day before thanksgiving of 2011 I suffered a neck injury, a bulging disk that pinched a nerve. It was a freakish thing, starting that day with a sharp pain while bending over to pick up a paper I had dropped on the floor and yawning at the same time. By the end of that evening I was in severe pain at an ER and I spent two weeks on my back doped to the gills. It wasn't until this day five years ago that I began cautiously returning to running.

The reason I bring this up is that was the first time I had ever been totally out of commission running-wise since I began hitting the roads a few years earlier. I remember being pretty sure I was done running for a long time, maybe for good. I had pain every time I walked, hit a bump while driving, anything that caused the least little bouncing of my body. Particularly scary was when I tried to put a gallon of milk in the fridge with my left arm only to find I could not lift it high enough to get it onto the shelf. Hard to imagine doing much physically when you cannot arm curl a gallon of liquid a few inches!

Worse than the physical toll of that injury, though, was the mental part of having running suddenly ripped away from my life. I won't lie. I was seriously depressed for a few weeks there. I felt a real loss, almost as if a loved one had passed away. My drug cocktail probably wasn't helping things in that regard either, but I was shocked how much it was effecting me mentally. I felt similarly later on when I had to resign my coaching positions to move to Colorado. In both cases I really couldn't believe how difficult it was for me to rally and get through it emotionally.

As time goes on however I am coming to realize that it really only not being able to run (or coach) that was truly bothering me, though that was definitely part of it. Mostly it was because my identity as a runner (and later as as running coach) wad gone or in jeopardy of being gone. At the time of my neck injury I was living in tiny Lanark, Illinois, a town the size of which meant that everybody knows everybody else. Me and my family were a big part of the running community in the town. My wife and I had both run a marathon, I had started running some longer trail races and my son was making a name for himself in the area as a distance runner.

Suddenly I was questioning myself big time. If I could not run, if i wasn't that dude everybody in town always saw running around all the time, then who was I? I had a run of the mill, ordinary job. I didn't really "do" much, at least in my mind, except run. I was a runner. And the worst part was until i couldn't do it anymore, I hadn't even been introspective enough to realize how much of my identity was tied up with running. I was completely blindsided by the entire experience.

Eventually and gradually, with a lot of help from my chiropractor, traction, and time, my neck got better and I did return to running as before. And I think I learned quite a lot from the entire ordeal. When I had to give up coaching a few years later, and also had my running seriously curtailed by a bout of ulcerative colitis just before that, I like to think I handled it better. Maybe I did. Maybe not. What would happen right now if I faced another long stretch of time when I couldn't run? Or worse yet, couldn't run at all anymore? I can't say for sure.

Right now I am running more than ever. I recently had a streak of 41 days straight broken only because of a travel day to the Nike Cross Regionals to watch my daughter and her team. Last fall I ran my first ultra. From the outside it would appear that I am loving running more than ever and it's true. I am. It's kind of hard not to when you live fifteen minutes from their Rocky Mountains foothills! But I know that in part it's also because I am a small fish in a small pond and just trotting out some miles a few times a week just doesn't feel like it cuts it.

And that's ok.

Whew! Well that's enough off that!

"Running should be free, man."
Caballo Blanco

Tommyknocker 12 Hour, Double 14er, Cross Country Fun

I am going to cram a lot of great stuff into this single blog post!

Last weekend I took part in the coolest race I have ever done, the Tommyknocker 12 Hour Run. Part of the races put on by the Human Potential Running Series, I heard about his race a while back on a Facebook page and it immediately got me interested A) because it was being held about fifteen minutes from my apartment at a park I was very familiar with and B) it had a random draw course.

What? Random Draw course? Yep. Fast forward to race day. Me and about twenty other crazies (a few of which were running a half marathon course) gathered at the bottom parking area of White Ranch Park for a six a.m. start. The first section of the race took all the runners up the "Purgatory" route to the upper parking lot of White Ranch, a distance of 5.5 miles and about 2,300 feet of elevation gain. Once up top we all were required to do the Green loop, a 2.2 mile loop with a (relatively) easy 500' of elevation gain. At this point the half marathoners headed back down Purgatory to finish their run. For the rest of us, things had not even really begun.

After finishing the Green loop the fun began. In a bucket there were a bunch of ping pong balls marked with the first letter of all the four loop possibilities, Green, Yellow, Red, or Orange. All of varying lengths and elevation gains. I plunged my hand in and picked: Green. the one I had already done just after the Purgatory climb. I knocked that out pretty easily. Another pick: Green. Finished that up. Picked Again: Green again. It was getting pretty comical and slightly frustrating. I wanted to do some other loops, see what they were all about. Be careful what you wish for kids.

At this point I was up to a little over fourteen miles and it was only about 9:30 or so. I was eager for a different loop. I finally picked a different color, Orange. This loop was 3.8 miles long with a hair over 1000 feet of elevation gain. It was nice to run something other that the Green loop but I knew from training at White Ranch that this loop was going to put a bit of a hurt on me, plus the day was quickly warming up to an eventual high in the low eighties. I'd been walking and hiking most everything that was not flat or downhill up to this point in the ultra runner style trying to conserve my legs as much as possible. With the amount of miles under my belt and the steepness of some of the orange loop sections, I was going to be power hiking and going a bit slower from now on.

Heading out for an Orange Loop

After the Orange loop I picked..... another Orange. Though my energy level was good and my fueling/hydration had been going pretty flawlessly, I was getting really tired toward the end of the second Orange and I was running less and less. And I was getting a real feeling of dread because I was hearing rumblings and whisperings from other runners all day about a lurking beast on the course: The Yellow Loop. Being a White ranch veteran I knew from the race course map that this would be the toughest test of the race if I was unlucky enough to select it. Six miles long. A shade under 2,000 tortuous feet of elevation gain, almost every foot of that in the last two soul-crushing miles. I was tired. I was getting hot. I DID NOT WANT THIS LOOP!

I picked the yellow loop.

At his point my quads were so shot I could only run flat-ish trail sections, and those are few and far between in Colorado let me tell ya. So I was down to speed walking and power hiking for the most part. I was exposed  to the sun more on Yellow loop than any other time during the day and it was now early afternoon. The heat was on. I was moving fairly well the first four miles then I began the long climb up. About 1,500 feet up. In two miles. If hands on knees power hiking with a hot Colorado sun beating on you is your idea of a great time Yellow is for you. You would also be a sick human being. I won't lie, there was some not-for-kids language being spoken at fairly loud volumes during that relentless climb.

I eventually made it back to the upper lot and the aid station and told our race director John that the Yellow loop should be reserved only for a person's worst enemies! I knew from a previous hike that I could make it down Purgatory without running in a little over two hours (if you did not make it down to the lower lot where we started by 6 p.m. you got zero miles for the day!). With roughly four hours left I debated whether to pick another ping pong ball. I was sitting at almost 28 miles for the day so I knew if I headed down I would more than top my goal of 30 miles for the day. But John had taken the two longer loops out of the bucket, leaving just Green and Orange. I decided if I picked Green I would do it, if not I was heading back down. I got Green and headed out after a pretty long stay at the aid station fueling up, hydrating, and contemplating the meaning of it all. I probably ran the first couple hundred yards of the loop. The rest was walking. I was really, really done.

After finishing Green I thanked John for putting on the most fun race I had ever done and headed back down Purgatory with about 2:30 left in the race. I was pretty much dragging my right leg at this point though I was able to speed-shuffle some of the flatter portions toward the bottom. Also had some good company on the way down from a couple other runners, making time go a bit faster thank goodness!

I hit the finish with about twenty minutes to spare. Final tally: 35.4 miles with 9,944 feet of elevation gain and loss. The best race experience of my life, hands down. I blew away my best expectation for the race and gave myself confidence that I can do an ultra distance. I was super happy with my fueling and hydration. I never bonked. I felt sharp and mentally into it the whole day. I would say a spring or early season 50 k or trail marathon is definitely going to happen. And you can pencil me in for next years Tommyknocker 12 Hour. Although my quads hurt so much I could barely sleep for two days afterwards I wouldn't miss it!

In the XC world, my son Cooper is healthy and running well for the Monmouth Scots, finishing first on the team in their first two races of the season. The team has come a long way since his freshman year and he is looking good to go for an All Conference spot later on this fall.

That's Coop second from the left

 Claire has become a leader on her Arvada West team, which is one of the top ranked girls teams in Colorado. She recently won and set a meet record and The Standley Lake Gator Invite!

The only decent running pic Claire has ever taken lol

Since I don't really like to run high mileage weeks a huge part of my training for Tommyknocker was tough hiking including a couple 14er trips. The most recent was a double 14er of Grays and Torreys. I won't go into a bunch of detail since it was a while ago and there isn't much in the way of pictures since it was a foggy, cloudy, rainy trip with no views from the peaks. It was a great day in the mountains despite the conditions and I was happy I was able to push through to do both peaks like I had planned. I can thank those nasty Midwestern winters for giving me a thick skin, I don't think the windy, mid-thirties weather above 13,000' affected me like it did a lot of other people up there. Many were turning back or abandoning the double and heading down after only one peak.

First 14er!!! Day hike to the summit of Mt.Evans!

Well, I have finally hiked my first 14er! For those not in the know, a 14er is any peak that is over 14,000 feet above sea level but less than 15,000. There are fifty-three 14ers in Colorado, zero that are 15,000 or more. So it's way, way high in the air basically. Coop, his friend Brandon, and I decided that Mount Evans would be a good choice for our first time. The routes are mostly class 2 (basic hiking with some occasional scrambles) with no real scary exposure.

We decided that the Guanella pass would be the route we took. While not as much vertical or mileage as some of the other routes, it was intriguing because a good amount of it had faint, or nonexistent, trails. I have always been a sucker for going off trail. After an early wakeup and about a 90 minute drive through Georgetown and up to the trailhead we got moving around 6;45.

Coop and Brandon finding a way through the maze of animal trails 

We followed the trail that eventually goes to nearby 14er Mt. Bierstad for a short time then had to begin forging our own path along a creek surrounded by dense bushes. There were trails... many, many trails. Animal trails that went this way and that or went nowhere at all. And a good amount of the trails were also soggy, wet messes. After a couple miles of that or so we reached the bottom of the gully that would lead us up in a hurry.

The gully was a super steep climb that probably included at least half of the overall altitude gain in about a mile and required some scrambling. Towards the top things settled into a more reasonable pitch. We were well above tree line at this point and some pretty amazing views were there for the taking.

After the climb up the gully and back on a clear trail towards Evans

We had to climb around the right side of the large rocks (false summit) you can see in the picture above. That got a little dicey as far as footing was concerned, you basically were walking over a very long boulder field. I took a rather embarrassing spill while standing taking a rest, but that happens to us older fellas on occasion! No damage done, we continued to the summit.

Rock cairn marking your trail among the boulder
fields with Mt. Bierstad in the background

Another view of Mt. Bierstad

View of Summit Lake from top of Evans

The summit was perhaps the least exciting part of the hike up. I felt the views away from the summit were better and because Evans is one of two 14ers that you can drive up to the top, it was crowded with sightseers. But it was still plenty cool to be that high and I was pleasantly surprised how my body was handling the altitude. I had a pretty good headache but considering I was probably 3,000 feet higher than I had ever been before I felt pretty good. You can feel the body fighting  it though. It wants you to go back down!

Brandon and Coop on the summit of Mt. Evans

After a good half hour or so on the summit we all headed back down uneventfully. Navigating the gully going down was not quite as sketchy as we thought it might be, though we turned the marshy valley into an extended adventure in an entirely unsuccessful quest to keep our feet dry. But hey, nothings perfect.

Coop and I on the summit of Evans

The only thought once it was over was something like "what the Hell took me so long to do that?" The views and feeling of being above treeline with the whole world seemingly below you is undeniably intoxicating. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life, and much tougher than I expected it to be (though my choice of route had a lot to do with that). I am already making plans to climb at least one more this year.

Overall it was somewhere around 9-10 miles (we all were gps watchless for the hike) with over 3000-3500 feet in elevation gain. Took I think about seven hours or so. 14,264 feet above sea level. All in all another awesome day in the Rocky Mountains!!!

Bear and South Boulder Peak Run

Today I parked at the South Mesa lot near Boulder to run up to Bear Peak. I hadn't planned on running there but as I often do, I changed my mind in the car while driving to one of my usual weekend run spots. I had run up to Boulder Peak a couple times last summer, once from South Mesa and once from NCAR. Since I had never been to the top of South Boulder Peak and it is on the other side of a saddle from Bear, I decided to bag a double and hit that one also.

I parked and stretched out a bit and hit the trail. I was even more conservative in pace than usual, wanting to save a lot for the latter part of the 2500 or so feet climb.

Cool little cabin about a mile from the start of my run, only accessible by trail. I want to live in it!

The first couple of miles is steady climbing up double track, nothing too dramatic until I hit Shadow Canyon. The trail becomes mostly a power hike up steep trail littered with large boulders for about a mile. (you will have to forgive my estimates, I almost never wear a GPS watch anymore.)

Example of  what Shadow Canyon trail
looks like

 When I got near the saddle the trail levels out to the point that it becomes mostly runnable for a bit.

Burned out forest near the saddle

I headed right at the top of the saddle to head to Bear Peak then after a brief stay at the top headed back down the saddle to South Boulder Peak. Both peaks require some fairly exposed scrambling to reach the true summits. The views to the west are absolutely beautiful and fantastic.

View of the big mountains to the west from Bear Peak

Survey marker near the top of Bear
 Peak. I love coming across these

After hanging out for a bit I headed back down the canyon. Downhill may be harder than going up for me, I don't have the quads to pound down steep grades with boulders!

I got in about eight miles or so with a good amount of elevation gain. Guess it would probably be about 60% running, the rest power hiking. A nice change of pace and good fourteener training. Planning on hiking up Mt. Evans sometime in the middle of July.

One of my little friends. These chipmunks
were all over both peaks.

This fellow is my personal hero. Ran into him three times during the morning.
He hiked up from NCAR and bagged both peaks. I was not rude enough to ask
but he had to be at least seventy years old. Amazing dude!

Special mention goes out to the fine folks that make the Flip Belt. We bought one a couple weeks ago and I wore it today, Packed keys, phone, two gels and some energy chews into it with no problem. Never even knew it was there.

Pauley family summer and fall

Again, it's been forever since I have posted! Its been a pretty eventful few months for the Pauley kids. Cooper overcame a late summer foot inury and a late XC season bout with some sort of fatigue issue to help his Monmouth Scots climb back to repectability in the Midwest Conference, scoring a 7th place finish after not even having enough healthy runners to score as a team in 2014. With the seven scorers at conference being made up of a junior, a sophomore (Coop), and five freshman I am really excited to see if they can regain their rightful place at the top of the conference in the next couple of years.

At the Golden Turkey Trot

 Gina and I managed one trip to the Midwest around Claire's own high school XC schedule to see Coop run at the Lamb-Kohawk Invite in Cedar Rapids. It was well worth the trip, since Coop medaled for the first time at a college meet, finishing 13th out of 109 competitors. We also got to see Colorado native and Cornell runner Abrah Masterson compete in person, though she lost to teammate Sanjuanita Martinez, Masterson would go on to win the Division III national championship later in the fall.

Coop receiving his medal/shirt at Lamb Kohawk

Claire had an even more exciting season than her brother. She lowered her 5k P.R. to 20:02 and was the third scorer on her team most meets. She and the other Arvada West Wildcats won the Jefferson County 5A league championship and Claire was all conference with a sixth place finish! The girls then qualified for the state meet, where they finished 18th. Much like Coopers team, the Wildcats are young, only losing one senior that scored varsity. The rest of the squad was made up of two freshman and four sophomores (also known as The Fab Five when one isn't injured!). So a couple more Jeffco titles and state trips are almost certainly in the cards!

Arvada West boys and girls team, plus coaches, dispaying their Jeffco first place plaques

I did run one trail race in late spring, The 10-mile Mesa Run at North Table Mountain, about fifteen minutes from the house. I actually began a race report that I never bothered to finish. Maybe I will clean that up and publish it. Anyhow, I felt I ran well for my first longer race at altitude with that amount of climbing, clocking a 1:35:30. Somehow in the race results they had me down for 1:21, switching me and some guy name Patrick Thiessen. Sorry Pat, we both know the truth. It was a very low key race (only 55 racers), which I like, but mistakes happen.

The real running highlights had nothing to do with my races. Cooper and I headed up to the Leadville area before he went back to school. We got in a short run and did some sightseeing and hiking. I also ran up to the top of Bear Peak near Boulder a couple of times, about 3000 feet of climbing, running, and scrambling to bag that surprisingly exposed peak. Gina, Claire, and I also took in the Pikes Peak Marathon, getting to see mountain and ultra runners such as Rickey Gates, Alex Nichols, and Brandy Erholtz in person. Other than that we spent most weekend days bumming around the foothills, hiking and running.

Coop near wonderful Leadville, Colorado

My plans when the winter weather breaks? I still have yet to "bag a fourteener", which means to climb one of Colorado's fifty-plus mountains that reach over 14,000 feet above sea level. I have my eye on Mt. Evans (literally, I can usually see it looming from just about anywhere in the Denver area) in June. I also plan on running the Evergreen Trail Race Series throughout the summer and fall, a five race series ranging in distance from 5 miles to half marathon, all taking place near the mountain town of Evergreen. It appears they are pretty laid back affairs, with not much more than fifty participants or so in any of the races. Should be a blast with good vibes. There is also (eeek!) an ultra in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. That would be a tall order with a ton of climbing at elevations near 10,000 feet at times, but it is tempting to run a race in that wonderful park!

Claire just moments before giving her phone a bath in Bear Creek after a run at Lair O The Bear Park

A few days ago ESPN, celebrating twenty years on the air, released it's list of the top twenty athletes during that time. I am not going to argue who should or shouldn't be on the list, though having Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds included seemed borderline antagonistic to me. But listening to Mike And Mike discuss the list and read texts and tweets suggesting other athletes that could have been included got me thinking. Some athletes from outside of the mainstream, major sports were included. Micheal Phelps, Serena Williams, and Armstrong, to name a few. One runner did in fact make the list, sprinter Usain Bolt.

Now I am not delusional enough to expect that an ultra runner would even get considered for such a list of athletes. It is an athletic occupation way too far out of the scope of most sporting fans to have a chance. However, let's play fantasy land and pretend ultra marathoning were as popular as, say, soccer, which had Mia Hamm and Messi make the ESPN top twenty. What two stars from ultra running would make this list? Assuming that the stellar Killian Jornet is a tad too young and in the infancy of his career to be eligible, in my opinion that can leave only Ann Trason and Scott Jurek. Let's take a look at each of their crazy-great resumes.

First Trason, who in my opinion is the most accomplished ultra runner of all time, period. She arrived on the ultra scene in 1985 with a splash, winning the first event she entered, the American River 50 miler. The next year she entered again, won again, and broke the course record with a 6:23. In all she won American River five times and in 1993 set the course record again, 6:09. It has yet to be broken. She won the Leadville 100, one of the toughest races in the world, four times, once finishing second overall and on another occasion, third overall. According to her Ultra Signup page (Ultra Signup tracks results of North American ultras, among useful ultra type stuff), Trason completed 51 ultra marathons between 1985 and 2004. She was the top female finisher a mind-boggling 49 times. Four times she was the overall winner.

While those stats are undeniably impressive her feats at the Western States 100, one of toughest and most competitive ultra races in existence, are absolutely mind blowing. Since the first women's champ was crowned at States in 1978 (the 2008 race was cancelled due to wildfires), Trason has won a staggering fourteen times! In fact, she won fourteen out of fifteen years with a streak of ten in a row from 1989-1998. She held the women's States record (17:37) until 2012. Just for good measure, she also is the only American woman to win the 56 mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. She won it twice in fact, back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. Oh, I almost forgot to mention she won Western States both those years even though that race took place just TWELVE DAYS after Comrades.

Scott Jurek's credentials are in many ways just as impressive as Trason's. While still living and attending college in his home state of Minnesota, he competed five years in a row in the Voyageur 50 miler, finishing second twice and winning the other three times. After relocating to the West Coast Jurek began running in more high profile races. And winning. In 1999 he began a seven year win streak at Western States, including a course record of 15 hours and 36 minutes is 2004. In 2005 and 2006 he won the 135 mile suffer-fest Badwater back-to-back. The first of his Badwater victories was a course record effort.

Never afraid to try new things, Jurek traveled to Greece in 2006 to compete in the 153-mile Spartathlon ultra, which follows the footsteps of Pheideppides from Athens to Sparta in 490 B.C. Jurek, of course, won the race, becoming the first North American to do so. 2006 also saw Scott travel to Mexico's Copper Canyon to take part in the first Caballo Blanco Copper Canyon Ultramarathon, finishing second to Tarahumara legend Arnulfo. That entire trip is chronicled in what is perhaps the most popular running book of the last couple of decades, "Born To Run", a tale that made Jurek and Jenn Shelton the closest things ultra marathoning has to household names.

In 2007 Jurek returned the Copper Canyon and this time emerged victorious. He also made it back-to-back victories at the Spartathlon (he won again in 2008) and defeated the field at The Hardrock 100. In what might have been his last top elite finish, he set the American twenty-four hour record in France, covering a staggering 165.7 miles. 

Jurek dominated some lesser know races in his day. He  was the victor at the Leona Divide 50 Miler four times and the Miwok 100 three times. In 2004 he entered and completed the Ultra Running Grand Slam, finishing Western States (1st), the Vermont 100 (5th), the Leadville Trail 100 (2nd), and the Wasatch Front 100 (17th) over a four month period.

Now one factor to consider when comparing ultra running to most other sports is that in any race, all the top current runners are not there. Due to the extreme rigors of running 50 or more miles, racers pick and choose their events and seldom do more than a handful per year. Also, participant limits that result in lottery systems to enter most big ultras also results in many top runners being left out of races they want to run. This is not NASCAR, in which almost every weekend all the best in the world are participating in that race. That is why victories at Leadville, Western States, Hardrock, etc. are so crucial to an ultra runners lagacy. The field is simply stronger at those races than most others.

Anyhow, those are the two ultra marathoners that I feel would be included in the top twenty athletes in the last twenty years if they had a snowballs chance...