Tag Archive | "trails"

Trail 13_1 Half Marathon Medal 2014

Trail 13.1 Medal (2014)

This is the medal the finishers of the Trail 13.1 received on April 26, 2014 in Pinckney, Michigan.

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[medal photo submitted by RIF #322 Jeff Van Demark – follow him on Twitter @66mustang16]

Posted in Bling, Featured, Half Marathon, Medals, TrailsComments (0)

Backside Trail Marathon Medal 2013

Backside Trail Marathon Medal (2013)

This is the fun finisher’s medal for the Backside Trail Marathon that took place on April 28, 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky.

What a lucky medal. 🙂 It must have been lucky for RIF #181 Donna because she was one of only 35 people to finish this muddy, hard trail marathon. Go Donna!

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[medal photo submitted by RIF #181 Donna Pittman. Follow her on Twitter @RunslikePhoebe]

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Griffith Park Trail Marathon Buckle 2013

Griffith Park Trail Marathon Buckle (2013)

Here is the race bling for the inaugural Griffith Park Trail Marathon that was held on April 13, 2013 in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California.

All finishers of this tough trail marathon received the buckle in the middle of the photo above. Yes, I said a buckle. Not the norm for a marathon but a very cool buckle. The medal at the bottom of the photo was also provided to those who signed up in the in the initial lottery for the race.

And finally, congratulations to RIF #1 Josh who was 10th Overall Male and got to take home a mug as well!

MORE PHOTOS OF MARATHON/ULTRA MEDALS AND BUCKLES

[Medal photo submitted by RIF #1 Joshua Holmes.  Follow him on Twitter @bayou]

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The North Face Trail Running Challenge Medal 2012

The North Face Trail Running Challenge Medal (2012)

This is the medal for the North Face Trail Running Challenge that was held on August 19, 2012 in La Calera near Bogota, Colombia.

A simple, but solid medal for the challenge which includes a 5K, 10K, 21K, and a 50K. Congrats to Juan who ran the 21K!

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[Medal submitted by Juan Escallon – follow him on Twitter @casquetas]

Posted in Bling, Featured, Medals, Trails, Ultra MarathonComments (0)

scarytrails

Mountain Lions, Creeps, and Bears…Oh My!

I have access to “civilized” trails close to where I live. There are probably 20 miles of single track & fire road in a park that’s bordered by 2 freeways, a local airport, and the town I grew up in. They are used by hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, and runners. There are even water fountains and bathrooms just yards off the trail. The only critters you’re likely to see in there are coyotoes, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, ducks, and birds – nothing scary. They are practically perfect in every way…except elevation. It’s all hills but there are no long, extended mountains to climb. For that, I would need to hit the trails that go up into the San Gabriel Mountains. Which I happen to live in the foothills of! Lucky Me!

Or it would be lucky me if I wasn’t so nervous about running them alone. I could get lost! I could run into a mountain lion or a bear! Or a rattlesnake! Wait, that already happened. Still it has to be safer than running on the street, right? At least there wouldn’t be cars.

Anyway, I was curious to see what other thought was safer (running trails vs running streets) so I tweeted a poll on Twitter yesterday. “Which do you think is safer, trails or streets? Why?”. I only asked women at first until I was scolded for discriminating against the guys. Sorry about that! All in all, 22 people responded and these are the results:

 Streets: 15

Trails: 7

I can’t say I’m surprised that more people picked streets. Are you?

Most of the reasons people chose streets was because of visibility, light, more people (“witnesses” – scary thought!), and surer footing. One person said “I sometimes worry that if I collapsed in a trail nobody would find me” and another said “trails is where the witches, zombies and werewolf’s live”. Although I would think you’d have to watch out for zombies more on the streets than the trails. 😉

The biggest reason that people chose trails over the street was because there are no cars but also because there are fewer people and it’s “too early for creeps”. And the consensus was that you would meet more like-minded adventure people on the trail than some random joe/jane.

How would I vote? I would vote for My Trails over the streets but I’d vote for streets over the mountain trails. I’ll work up the courage to hit them though. I swear. 🙂

Which side of the fence do you fall on? Would you rather run on the trails or the street? Do you run trails at night? Have you run into any wildlife? Any advice for newbies hitting the trails for the first time?

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Beth McCurdy and Dena Cyr

BFF Time on the Trails

BFF Time on the Trails

2011 ended with a challenging 100 mile race, Ancient Oaks 100, and after some time off and the New Year, I decided to get back to the basics of why I love to run. As much as I enjoy the challenge of finishing a race with a time goal in mind, I needed to take a step back from that and focus on why I really run.

Fat Ass 50k is a GUTS race that is has been a tradition for me since 2009. All week, I was excited to travel with Dena Cyr to Sweetwater Creek Park in Lithia Springs, GA, see all of my GUTS friends, and enjoy some time on the trails.

Dena and I met the summer of 2004. We both joined the newly formed, Hamilton Mill Road Runners club (that I now am the director of).  People come and go in running clubs either due to pregnancy, moving, or changing athletic goals. Dena and I are the  original club members and have shared many miles together throughout the years. I have so many fond memories of our runs.

We became good friends outside of our runs and our kids essentially grew up together. In fact, our sons are only 4 months apart in age. Grant has been friends with Parker longer than any other friend. We have been to parties together, out of town together, and lunch together throughout the duration of our friendship. Our  friendship expanded far beyond just running into a deep caring for one another.

Because life can get busy and we may not speak to eachother for a few weeks at times, we always know that if I needed something or if she needed something, we would be there for one another in a heartbeat. I don’t have a ton of friends in my life that I know will truly be there for me.

Dena and I were so looking forward to BFF time; not only on the car ride there and back, but hopefully also on the trails. In a long race like this, we always have the understanding that it’s not required that we stay together, but on this day, it just worked out perfectly that we were wanting to stay together.

What can be better than over 7 hours in the woods with your BFF? I would get so caught up in our conversations that at times, I would forget to run again after walking a difficult section. We talked about everything: training, kids, husbands, other running friend’s successes, Christmas, and anything else that came up in the moment. On the 4th loop, I suddenly lost my balance while climbing one of the boulders (yah, I need to work on that, lol) and Dena caught me! We were a team out there all day-even when the rain came down hard on the 5th loop and we yelled, “HTFU!” and “Who else runs 34 miles on trails in the torrential rain!”.

On the way home from the race, we literally found a Taco Bell right off the interstate. This made the end of our day just perfect!

“Dena, why does this burrito taste so dang good?”
“I don’t know I should have gotten another one”.
“I know we should have gotten two!”

We laughed remembering other times that we devoured Taco Bell food after races and how we would never eat Taco Bell unless it was after a race.

Another Fat Ass in the books and more running fun in the future with Dena and my other running buddies. 2012 is going to be a good year and I’m so grateful to have friends like Dena in my life. A run like this makes you remember what’s important in life and I’m thankful for this reminder.

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Killian Jornet’s Killa’ Slo-Mo Quest Trail Grinding (Video)

Many of you have seen this but here is the Kilian Jornet in a newly released Salomon Running video called “Kilian’s Quest S3 E07 – Slow Motion.”

It was recorded at 1,000 frames a second and uses excessive slow-motion technology to show Jornet shredding some intense trails.

Posted in Celebrities, Running, TrailsComments (0)



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