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Showing posts from 2016

Savage 50 - Tunnel Hill 50 mile

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     Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack followed by groan grumble grumble followed by a hand patting the night stand looking for the evil device pretending to be a duck at 4:00 AM Saturday morning.  I think to myself 'why do I do this?'.  With a cough and a sniffle I ease out of bed onto my feet padding lightly across the bedroom floor on tendinitis ravaged achilles.  I hear Marcy stirring as I start downstairs to make some breakfast for us and start getting ready.  A few minutes later Marcy joins me to eat some eggs and start packing our gear in the truck to head over to Vienna IL.  She is coughing and hacking, the bonus gift from our recent trip.  I am coughing and hacking because my beautiful bride is a giver....and gave me her cold.  The clearing of mucus, filling of belly, and loosening of tendons brings a more positive attitude towards the day.  The weather app on my phone confirms it's going to be a beautiful day for a race.  I pull up the directions to the race and see it w

Guatemala Adventures

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      It was a warm fall evening and 10 well trained professionals were gathered for a final meeting to sort gear and prepare for their upcoming mission...well, trained professionals might be a stretch. I had about 3 evenings of Spanish class and a little time on some phone apps. We were actually a diverse group of newbies and old hands sorting out 800 lbs of school supplies to transport to Guatemala along with our own gear.  We got our sorting done, some serious prayer time, and left with our plan to travel and meet up at the airport in St Louis.  During the week I had a little freak out on the the volcano hike portion of the trip.  We were getting some sketchy information on availability of packs for the trip, but it was decided that all would be ok. Just in case bring one if you can. Saturday morning started with a 1:45 AM wake up and 2:30 departure.  We met up with our fellow travelers and got our two 50 lb bags per person checked.  We flew to Atlanta where we met up with two more

Savage summer

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   Time has gotten away from me!  It has been a few months since I even thought about writing.  It has been a fun summer.  No great feats of strength or endurance, but plenty of racing and hunting.      In July me and Marcy went to Missoula Montana to hang out with some awesome friends, run the Missoula Marathon, and see water shoot out of the earth. Thanks to Marcy I now have some awesome new flag shorts which have become a hit! The photo people at the marathon took some great pictures.  I like this one so much it is now on my wall!    The weather was beautiful and we had a good run. I ended up with an ok time and a 2nd in age group award.  I might have gotten 1st in age group if Matt hadn't made me run up a mountain the day before the race!      You can't go to Montana without seeing Old Faithful, so we headed to Yosemite Park the next day and climbed around on trails and watched the geyser. I love the entrance quote 'For the benefit and enjoyment of the people

Run Under the Stars AKA Savage redemption

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     A year ago I decided to run the Run Under the Stars 10 hour race with Marcy and a group of runners from Cape Girardeau.  I was coming off a long series of multiple races every month and had a knee that was really starting to bother me.  In true Savage fashion I figured "why not?" and that "I can deal with anything for that long".  It didn't turn out so well and I quit at 33.5 miles and about half way.  This was my first DNF and I was in a very very very bad place.  I ended up being an extremely grouchy (my wife's opinion) crew man.  Since then I have been seeing that race in my dreams at night (for you Ray Stevens fans)!      This year was going to be different.  I have been training hard, feeling good, and on the 1 year mark of running on the ketogenic diet. I missed my 140 miles at the Aslinger 24 hour, but the weather just did not cooperate.  The savage was screaming to be let loose! I starting hitting hills and trails again to build back some stren

Boston Strong

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     One month after completing the Aslinger 24 hour run it was time to go to Boston!  Time ticked away as I recovered from the 24 hour and tried to get a few weeks of last minute speed work in.  I managed a recovery week, a few good workout weeks, and the taper.  Marcy managed to get increasingly nervous about Boston, but it wouldn't be a race if Marcy wasn't fretting.  I didn't worry about anything...except the room. After some last minute excitement we finally got room confirmation and all was good.  Marcy and I joined the group, loaded the plane, and headed to Boston.      Boston was a lot of fun .  The people were great and we didn't have any bad experiences while there. We stayed close to the hospital and a homeless shelter, so it was a little colorful.  I am definitely a country boy, the sirens and horns would drive me crazy in short order. The group went to the expo and spent a little hard earned money, then we got to run on a treadmill as part of a study on im

Savage circles

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Well, I fell way short of my goal for this weekend’s race.  I had a great big goal of 140 miles and ended up quitting at 118 miles. The weather this year at the Aslinger 12/24 hour race was very tough!  Earlier this week I watched the weather bounce around from 10% to 20% to 30% to 20% to 40% in a roller coaster of emotions.  A few days before the race the forecast looked awesome with 40-50 degree temps, light wind of 4-7 mph and a 10-20% chance of rain.  The day before it was clear we were in trouble.  We got there a little after 6pm to unload and set up my spot. I paid some extra money for a very awesome VIP spot.  Marcy helped me strategically placed my coolers, clothes, electronics, changing tent, and nutrition.  We had cups with a concoction of Ucan, chia seed, coconut oil, and almond milk with an option of homemade chicken bone broth. We had a few minutes after setup to chat with some friends and fellow runners from around the area and far away.  6:50PM and the lineup cam

Savage Culmination

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The Aslinger 24-hour Endurance Race is almost here!  I have been focused on this race for months and have great big hairy audacious goals. Each day it gets closer the excitement builds.   I know some folks get nervous about racing, but I absolutely love it and can’t wait. April will bring another highly anticipated experience at the Boston Marathon, but I don't have much planned after that. I definitely had some setbacks in my training with pretty bad shin splints after my December 100 miler, but I am getting over them and feeling pretty good. Savage Doug took a new training strategy and slowed down a bit, which has really helped my body recover and heal.  Don't get me wrong though, my running partners won't have me lazily jogging around.  Training has included pacing Marcy for 30 miles in her 100 miler the fist of January, then running with Kelpe on his birthday for over 30 miles in the snow mid-January, and several torture sessions with Laura, Joe, Andy, Scott, Gen

The Savage Year

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It has been a great and fun year. I think I should explain a few things though for those who don’t know me really well.  My wife Marcy says that I can take the fun out of anything.  I have come to realize that I find hard work to be fun.  I really enjoy misery, difficulty and suckedness. The other thing that tends to happen is the hijacking of a fun hobby and taking it to the most extreme level.  She likes to make out that this is a bad thing, but truth be known I think it might take the people in my life to new and awesome places that they wouldn’t get to without my influence.  I am currently writing this as I crew Marcy on another 100 miler…..hmmmmmmmmm That brings me to the title Single Track Savage.  This represents a few of the things I identify with.  Single track is of course a reference to running trails.  There is just something about the freedom of running on a trail and being in the woods.  This is something deep in who I am and few things compare to a day in the wild