faithrunner

Our Goal from the Road into Red River On Wednesday, July 17, three friends and I hiked out of the Middlefork trailhead parking lot to camp at Lost Lake and then summit Wheeler Peak the next day. This would be my fifth or sixth summit of Wheeler Peak and second year in a row to camp overnight at Lost Lake. Jim and Sara Craig drove in from Santa Fe to join us. This would be Sara's first hike and overnight camp out. She is a marathoner and triathlete, so she was definitely strong enough to make the trip. Jim climbed this trail and summit with two other friends and me last year, and he made the summit of Mt. Rainier that same year. My son-in-law, Graham , rounded out the band of hikers. This was his first summit of Wheeler but hiking and camping is part of his premarital and child-filled days. The weather was ideal and the trails were in good shape from the trailhead to the lake. The trail (#91) to Lost Lake is more scenic than either the East Fork or Middlefork trails, i...

Got up this morning and met Kyle Knighton at the family cabin in the Upper Valley of Red River. Kyle is new to trail running but he is truly hooked on it. He has run trails in Italy and Switzerland, but has not finished a sanctioned run yet. He and his wife Emily live in Waco, and he got the bug while running in Cameron Park. He signed up for his first ultra, The Rough Creek Trail Run (40 miles), September 19 in Glen Rose, TX. He will do great.  We headed to the East Fork trail head and walk/ran for an hour on the East Fork, Sawmill Creek, and part of the Sawmill Park trail. We reversed our run and got back to the car in half the time. 1.5 hr run at altitude.  It rained, and the trail had several washouts and fallen trees. Altitude was a problem going out (Ditch Cabin is 9,730) but coming back was ideal. Cool, soft trails, and my breathing fell back in pace.  Kyle ran ahead and turned back to check on me a couple of times. I soon learned I have not trained adequately for ...

Took to the trails this morning for the first time on my secondhand mountain bike. (Thanks K Brown) The conditions were ideal, but I was super cautious. I was glad no one else was riding! There was one runner, and I told him I'd rather be running than riding as I passed him. He laughed. (At me?) Rode the 2.5 mile loop at Arbor Hills in Plano. Excellent for newbies like me. I'm sure if you go more than 5 miles an hour it would be even more challenging. Made two loops before heading to the office, and I'm ready to go again. More upper body work on the mtn bike, and the climbs are trickier than road cycling for sure. No clipping in for a while. Needed to bail too many times. Someday. Trail running is my favorite sport. Now I can drive up to a trailhead and either run it or ride it. Nice.

My new rock edging I have been nursing a stress fracture from running for a little over a month. I injured my right foot about a year ago, but I kept running on it and treating it like a bruise that would eventually go away. After a trail half-marathon , trail full marathon , and 5K on streets this spring, my foot finally said, " Not one more step until you take care of me ." So, I went to the doctor, got x-rays, and she put in a boot for three weeks. No running. No riding. I began to re-learn life without running and went reluctantly back to the pool to swim but excitedly got back on my back after the three-week required break . To add to this complete stoppage of activity , over a week ago a cable on my bike broke , and I have not ridden once during that time. More no running or riding. As you can imagine, the removal of running and riding from my life caused me to reshuffle my priorities and find different ways to stay active. I slowed way down, and gain...

Last Saturday, I ran the Grasslands Trail Marathon outside Decatur, TX. The trails are part of the Caddo-LBJ National Grasslands , which are mostly used for horse riding, but last Saturday, the runners took over the trails early. Thanks to the Race Director and all the volunteers (and cooks!) who made it a wonderful experience. The weather was ideal in the morning , but got up to 80F in the afternoon, which made for a warm finish. What added to the fun was it had rained hard the week before , and the trails were muddy and many places had standing water --memories of our trail half-marathon about a month ago . (Although, that was a much more rugged course.) Every run is a laboratory. You learn something every time you go out because every time is different. You are different. The course is different, and the conditions are never the same.  Grasslands Trail Run, NTTR.org So what did I learn this outing? Running in creation is still better than running on streets....

This weekend I will run my tenth marathon since 2000. The Grasslands Trail Run will be my first trail marathon but not my first trail run. Trail running is my preferred environment and community for running. Running on dirt in forests, fields, and mountains is how running has always been done . I have run as many 25M and 50K trail runs as I have marathons during this same time period, and I have finished a 50M run, DNF'd one other, and attempted one 100-miler, which ended me at mile 73. Why the partial running resume? I like to run . I haven't been to a psychologist yet to dig into why my obsession is so deep or why I started running ultras until I was 45. But, more important than why I like to run, running--distance running--has become a metaphor for life for me . I reminded my listeners this past Sunday as Legacy Church that long-distance running is a metaphor for life because somewhere in a long run  you come to the point you want to give up. It's usually ...

My Lone Peaks after 13.1 trail miles I put my new Altra Lone Peak trail shoes to the test today at the Cross Timbers Trail Run near Lake Texhoma. The conditions were cool, windy, and muddy ! The trails rise and fall along the shores of the reservoir and into the surrounding hills. It made for a crazy, challenging run that wore me out. I own a pair of Altra Instinct for road running , and they were everything I needed one evolutionary step beyond my Vibram FiveFingers . When I got the email from Altra about the Wasatch Front Lone Peaks, I ordered them immediately. I had still been running in my old Montrail Hard Rocks because I could not find anything that gave me the protection I needed on trails with the minimalist technology. The Lone Peaks were everything I hoped they would be. Post-run shoes They remained stable on the rugged downhills, and gave me the comfort I needed for the 13.1 miles on the rugged trails. Even when we got into some shoe-sucking mud , they held t...

Okay, this is an installment for the "runner" part of "faithrunner," so bear with me if you are more interested in the faith side of things. I'll come back to that next week. This week, I want to update where I am in running barefoot or in minimalist shoes. The evolution of footwear in my running continues...(at 58, I don't know how many more renditions there will be :-) I bought my first pair of Vibram five fingers KSOs two years ago this month after hearing Christopher McDougall pitch his book, Born to Run, at the Dallas Cooper Clinic. (You can read of some of my journey in previous posts in this blog.) I bought into the philosophy and technology of barefoot running and took off running in them--never to wear conventional shoes again. (And, I haven't.) What happened, however, was that the concrete of my suburb and the rocky terrain of North Texas only allowed me to go so far in this running footwear . I could only run about a maximum of six ...

The three worst letters in the alphabet for a runner are: DNF , which mean, "did not finish." There are a variety of reasons why runners don't finish races but, if you train to finish and enter to finish, DNF is not what you want to read on the final result list. You also don't want these three letters on your spiritual epitaph, but I'll get to that in a moment. This past Saturday, I entered the 20-mile length of what Tim Neckar calls, The Toughest n' Texas trail run . I completed the first two 50K runs Tim hosted on this course, and I thought I'd take on a shorter distance in the sixth running of the event. I love the run because it winds through Cameron Park in Waco . I believe these trails are the best kept secret in Texas . Multiple elevations, terrain, and different stands of trees (and bamboo) make it a trail runners delight. It is, however, a butt-kicking combination of rocks, roots, climbs, and washes. The course begins at Redwood Pavilion ,...

It's getting cooler (30 degrees F this morning), and I want to stay in my fivefingers . The other day I went to our local Luke's Locker and bought a pair of injinji toe socks to see if they would fit my fivefingers. They did, and this afternoon I tested them out. (It was 52F at the start of my run.) I admit that this arrangement pushes me even farther away from true barefoot running , but I'm not quite ready to head out on a December afternoon truly barefoot. The run went well. My feet were actually a bit too warm, but I know they'll be fine in cooler weather now. After the 4.5 mile jog, I did feel my socks and fivefingers became tight. When I removed them, I felt the difference, and that is not usually the case without socks. (My feet swell when I run, so that was the issue.) While my feet were warm, I did loose some of the on-the-ground sensation I have when running without the socks. This will only be an arrangement while the weather is cold. So, to answer ...

If you have been following some of my exploits in five fingers , you have read my disappointment with the KSO for trail running . I continue to run in them on streets and grass without any issues. Well, five fingers has created the right amount of protection to still have a minimalist feel to running on rough terrain. The five finger sport/trek provides enough protection for open field, packed trails, and rocky paths. I broke mine in at my parent's farm in East Texas in their open fields and wooded paths. I found them light and flexible like the KSOs, but with enough protection not to slow down on rocky paths and hard-packed trails. I had no deep bruises in my insole or heel like I did with the lighter KSOs. The only draw back was the occasional long-stem weed between my toes, but that's part of the five finger experience. I like the added traction on both the sole and toe of the shoes . The added plastic covering on the top of the toe seems like it will come in handy on wet...