50 at 60 in 10

Elevation Change for Leadville Silver Rush

A lot of people (well, a few) have asked what I mean by "50 at 60 in 10".  What I mean is that I want to run the Leadville Silver Rush 50 Mile Trail Run when I am 60 years old (July 2016) in ten hours or less.

Non-running people "get" running. Sort of. Healthy. Stay in shape. Stay or get thin. So why would I want to do such a thing as run an ultra. It isn't needed to be healthy. Or be thin. Or stay in shape. I can achieve all those things with far less strenuous pursuits. And the goal is four years in the future! Even running friends give me an odd look when I mention an ultra. If its not about fitness or weight or bragging rights or trying to deny the fact that I am getting older, what is it?

I helped staff the Leadville Silver Rush aid station at Mile 43 this year. Last stop, I think, on the 50. We helped the runners with water, ice, potato chips, sandwiches and other stuff - and conversation and encouragement.  Bad '80s music was blaring. They were dusty and tired and sore. And happy. The joy of running was on their faces. Even the tiredest and slowest looked happy (OK...most of them looked mostly happy).  At one point, a top ten male finisher came loping into the aid station and was met by a buddy with two bottles of Guinness. They popped the tops and both drained them. Then the running buddy took off towards the finish line seven miles away.

There is something about running really, really long distances that elicits a certain attitude. I don't know if the attitude comes first or if the long running brings the attitude. Ultra-runners seem to enjoy life more, take it both more and less seriously and care about each other. Its odd because ultra-running races are lonely endeavors in so many ways, but  that couldn't happen without a solid community. There are no Rock 'n Roll Ultras, and I hope there never are. Its that attitude towards life that I am most interested in. It's why I run.

And I am hoping that if I just run far enough, I can catch it.

Why I'm Running Again

 
Life and age are funny things. They creep up on you. Ever since I stopped running with any regularity or goal a few years ago, they seem to be creeping up on me faster and faster. Which means I'm going slower and slower.

I remember a run that I had perhaps a decade ago, running through Rockefeller State Park Preserve just outside Tarrytown on the Hudson River on a sunny, chilly October afternoon. It was my last long run before my second  New York Marathon.

Now the Preserve is really quite hilly from mellow meadow to a steep pitch you swear you should have a safety line to run down or up. The only semi-flat path is the one around the lake in the middle of the Preserve (a lake the Rockefellers built so they would have one to picnic by...) and even then the path slopes and rolls up and down around the duck filled waters.

And on that day I ran and ran and ran. Up those hills, across little fast flowing streams, leaves scrunching under my running shoes, sweat pouring off me. There was one hill in particular, that I'd always had trouble making it up. I always ended up huffing and puffing. Oh, I'd make it but it was a "just barely" and "I think I can, I think I can" kind of thing. If I'd owned a heart rate monitor back then I probably would have scared myself into having a heart attack by the time I got to the top.

But this day, at the end of two hours, I soared. I reached the top in a smooth segue of heart, soul and breath, and as I rounded the top and made the crest of the hill, the Hudson lay glittering before me. The wind and the sun and the river all clapped their hands and twinkled with the laughter of sun and swirling red, yellow and orange leaves. I can still smell how the wind was, the smell of earth, and decaying leaves and season more beautiful for its fading. I don't know that I have ever felt so alive as I did in that moment. That sense of connection between body, mind, soul and world. A bit, maybe, of what the Buddhist call "Big Mind" I suspect.

I've missed that connection since I stopped running regularly, that feeling of one's mortality pumping strongly in your chest. Of knowing its strength and weakness. That it can carry you to the top of the hill but not beyond your numbered days. Its a good thing to know. Life that is. That's what "running for your life" really means. That's why I've started running again through the trails around my house here in Evergreen. Its a tough slog right now, I'll be honest. It's not much fun. The altitude is a killer, the extra twenty pounds are a knapsack I'd rather not carry. Nor the years for that matter. But its coming back a bit.

Yesterday when I ran across the Elk Meadow and up Bergen Peak, it was cold and damp and the sun flitted from pine branch to pine branch, here and there I could see it, that Big Mind. Once or twice I felt it poke my soul. "Big Mind happy to have this old runner back chasing it", it laughed deeply and silently.

And this old runner, well, this old runner is glad to be running for his life again.

Thanks for reading.

Sluggo Koan

At one time Nancy asked Master Sluggo, “Does a cartoonist have Buddha Nature or not?” Master Sluggo answered: “No."

The Greatest Pancakes. Ever.

We runners - we like to eat. Most of us will admit that this is a motivator for our running. At least one of many. As for me, pancakes are king when it comes to carbo-loading and general treating myself. They are comfort food par excellence! I've tried many, many recipes over the years but I think I have stumbled upon the best yet - in the October 2012 issue of Runner's World.  I've tweaked it a little by subbing egg whites for whole eggs and cutting the sugar and salt a little but this seems to affect the end result not at all.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Dry Ingredients:

•  1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup each of cornmeal, whole wheat flour and old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Liquid Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups low fat buttermilk
• 1/2 nonfat milk
• 2 egg whites from large eggs
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in one large bowl and the liquid ingredients in another bowl.

Heat a nonstick griddle over medium-low heat.  Instructions on heating the griddle never work since everyone's stove and griddle are different. You'll no doubt have to fuss around with a few test pancakes. While that is heating up, pout the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until just combined. Don't over mix.

Use oil or PAM or your choice of something to help keeping the cakes from sticking!

Pour out 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. Drop a few blueberries on the cakes at this point if you desire. Cook. Serve.

Real maple syrup and butter are musts.

You know what to do now!

Thanks for reading!