My #1 Fan (and sponsor)

"I don't think he wants to talk right now."

This is the half of the cellphone conversation I hear the BW say to my mom as I have my hands on my knees after a 30 minute mile and meltdown at mile 94 of my first 100. When I told my mom that I was going to do a 100 miler, she was less than thrilled. Ok, maybe just really worried like a mom would be. I take that back. She was less than thrilled.

That didn't stop her from being 100% supportive though. Moms worry. That's what they do. She (and my stepdad John, aka a real dad) came to a marathon the BW and I did in SD, and even though I had a PR at the time, I developed a huge cramp about a mile from the finish. Needless to say, I was doing an awesome imitation of pirate peg leg when I crossed the finish and one of the volunteers kind of  grabbed and propped me up when I finished. Now this might embarrass her a little, but as I'm standing there catching my breath, Bobbie says "You better talk to your mom, she's crying a little bit". Going over to her I ask what's wrong, and through a little sob she says "I don't know". We both laugh and all is well. Just a mom being a mom.

My parents came over for Christmas Eve before everyone else and of course the talk is about Western States. Apparently mom has been spending a lot of time on the WS website! It looks like they may even take vacation at that time so they can be there for the race. She hands me an envelope and says this doesn't have anything to do with Christmas.

 

This doesn't have anything to do with money, and everything to do with my mom always encouraging and being there for me. Always.

Love ya mom!
-YOUR #1 fan

*note* - Probably more aptly titled "Tie for #1 fan" since the love of my life is always there...but she'll probably get a separate post. :)

A Little Christmas F(R)un

What the heck is a 20k solo relay?
Our friend Bryan West sent out an event invite for the "First Annual Christmas 20k Solo Relay, December 23-29". What do we have here? A quick read through revealed that as a fun solo race, people would pick any one of the inclusive days and run four 5k's separated by ideally 6hrs in one 24hr span. Knowing the difficulty of scheduling around this time of year, a more lenient do the best you can attitude was granted within still trying to do four separate 5k runs. There's still plenty of time to jump in, so if you want, attend the Facebook event and scroll down to get your own bib to print out.

Christmas 20k Solo Relay

Cool bibs, but I figured if I'm my own personal RD, I deserved a personalized version

Leg #1 - Blair YMCA
Bobbie & I were going to hit the yoga class after work, so I decided to start my relay at 5:15pm. BANG! An uneventful 5k beside a number of other people, none of which could pull away from me to get the party started.

Leg #2 - Seeing how this might be my only outside run, I decided to man up and take it to the streets.
10:20pm, zero degrees, several layers of clothes and off we go. And it was all I thought it could be! Most definitely one of those alone runs where you can just soak in the silence and enjoy the Christmas lights. I did pause to wonder what would happen if I saw a cop. Not a soul out on the streets because it's freezing, but here's a dude running down the sidewalk with a ski mask on.



Yukon Cornelious

Leg #3 - Nothing like 5k on the treadmill and an episode of Moonshiners at 7:30am.

Leg #4 - Here comes the finish! Huh? Must have been a loop course. 11:30am and Moonshiners is still on.



1st Place finisher in the Solo 20k Relay



                                      
Things like this help put things in perspective. Enjoy what you're doing. Go out and run in the middle of the night and dare the cops to catch you! Do things you'll be called an idiot for. Print out that bid and make some memories.

To close out this Christmas edition, I'd like to thank my Beautiful Wifey for another awesome Christmas of love and support and may God's blessing be on all of you.

Merry Christmas!

What's it gonna be?

"You keep looking at that hill."

Now, this isn't a training log per se. Besides, let's be honest. Do you really care how much I can sweat on the stair stepper doing 100 floors (If you've seen the movie "The Rocker" you'll get the idea) or what my weekly mileage is? There are a few of you that would be glad to graph that or set up a multi-tab spreadsheet for me, but I digress.

More of my intention is to document the memorable things that occur on the way. Just so happens that today's training run was one such thing.

My good buddy Bill Colbert offered to hit a 10 mile loop around Lake Cunningham with me this afternoon. 28-30 degrees, low wind and mostly snow packed trail. That'll work just fine. Friend Bill turned into coach Bill as he kept me moving well, encouraged my efforts up the hills and knew to back off enough to give me some recovery. Either that or when he didn't see me in the rearview he thought maybe he should let up a squeak. My reward for giving it a good effort? A secret hill that I hadn't been up before. Thanks "buddy". After about 7.5 miles we came to a split where you could take a pretty flat low trail or go up a climb and across a berm before dropping back down. We stopped for a second to get a drink and tighten up my laces, but I must have been contemplating which way to go as Bill says "You keep looking at that hill." I told him I couldn't get better without doing them and we start to trot up the climb. Here's another reason friends are awesome. They're going to let you know when it's smarter to just put your head down instead of getting cocky. I try to turn it on as much as a little fat boy can and beach bully Bill responds by kicking sand in my face and crushing me up the hill. Note for later - Send 25 cents to Charles Atlas for the hill running course.

The rest of the run was just two dudes out on tour, but Bill gave me my training mantra for the duration as we topped that hill. As I wheezed up to the top he laughs and says:

"You wanna do it the easy way, or the Western States way?"

Amen brother.

Prize Fighter! But I aint no good.

Attention grammar Nazis. It's from a song. Let it go.

I don't live the most pain free life
Boxin' for money for my kids and my wife
Cauliflower ear and a flattened nose
My body aches from my head to my toes

Well I make my money fightin' yeah, that's what I do
That's why my arms are broke cuz you know I always lose
When I'm in the ring I swing, can't hit anything at all
Prize Fighter!

Prize Fighter! But I ain't no good
Prize Fighter! Did the best I could

You know I have a  heart baby, it's made of gauze
It's those uppercuts that put me in a fog
It don't mean much to me, it don't mean anything at all
Prize Fighter!

"Prize Fighter" - The Heroes

Click to download it FREE The Heroes - Prize Fighter

Let's talk about FUN! Wait a sec, did Ron take an uppercut? I'm not making the connection here. There are many reasons we attach to our running/races - health, being the best we can, causes such as MS, cancer, abuse, military or any number of things. I'm not making light of that and we'll have plenty of time for introspection and serious matters later. What I AM talking about is running for yourself and having fun.

That's all fine you say, but what's up with the boxing?
Simply put, this song puts a smile on my face. My theme song if you will. It makes a direct correlation to how I picture my running. Not in a down, self-pity way but in a heck yea, I'm going to keep doing it no matter what way. You can almost picture the run version.

I don't live the most pain free life
Running 100 milers with my friends and my wife
Cauliflower knees from the downhill I suppose
My body aches and I've blistered my toes

You know I don't run baby, it's more like a jog
It's that high altitude that puts me in a fog
It don't mean much to me if I don't win anything at all
Ultrarunner!

Ultrarunner! But I ain't no good.
Ultrarunner! I did the best I could.

You'll get the feel better if you go out and download the song. The point is, find your theme song! I don't mean that literally, although it could be. Find what makes you happy about why you're out there. Music, friends, dancing on the trail, pushing for the victory, solo runs at night, white sweatpants, tutus, because people don't think you can, WHATEVER. Don't let others dictate why you do what you do or at what pace you do it. My saying is run for yourself and you'll never be disappointed.

So download the song (The Heroes - Prize Fighter), put it on your device of choice and go running. Scream out Prrriiiize Fighter! during the chorus' and do your best Rocky imitation.

And find your theme song.

...And so it begins - Lottery, friends and tutus.

12.6%. Infinitely better than Powerball, but still not the kind of odds you double down on. So with the comfort of knowing there was no chance my name was getting drawn and soiling my shorts, we joined a bunch of GOATz at Mamma's Pizza for the Western States lottery drawing. 

If you're not familiar with the lottery, there are roughly 270 available spots open to people who run a qualifying race (Rocky Raccoon 100 this year, Lean Horse 100 last year for me). If you qualify one year and are not drawn, but qualify/enter in consecutive years, your "tickets" are cumulative. Some people have tried unsuccessfully for 5 straight years to get in. 2704 people, 4307 tickets (2 were mine) , here we go.

We watched the internet feed of the drawing live on the big screen, with one window on the actual drawing and the second on a scrolling list of winning names. With only the laptop speakers to hear and a lot of noise, we basically waited to see the names scroll by on the second screen. Up to #75 and.....no, not me, but it was our friend Shannon McFarland from Rogers, AR (4 tickets). A lot of pizza and small talk, when Miguel and Kaci yell Ron Ruhs! Ron Ruhs! I look at the screen, and there is NO Ron Ruhs! Ron Ruhs! Miguel walks over and hands me a Western States arm band and says you got in. My reply is quit jacking around because somebody is going to get hit if you're messing with me. After an agonizing couple of minutes, the list gets caught up to the live drawing and there it is!













In case you're wondering what Ohhhh sh*t, it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like, it's suspiciously just like this.

Luckily no one needed to get slugged. It was official - lottery winner #154. While this really wasn't registering, we continued to watch as there were several GOATz trying to get in. Unfortunately no others were drawn, but our good buddy Dave Cockman from NC slid in at #248.

The bad thing about thinking there is no possible way your name will get drawn is that you say things like "JDP, if I get in, I'll wear a tutu you make me for the entire race". This will be by far the hardest race I have ever done and I'm thankful for my loving wife (Beautiful Wifey, or here after known as the BW) and all my friends who have already offered help in various ways.

In the words of the man who started it all:

People just don't get the chance to do something epic anymore. But each and every person that starts this race will have an epic adventure.
-Gordy Ainsleigh

Sluggo, a tutu "with skulls" and so it begins.......