The Multisport Maniac: Adventures of the Endurance Kind

"It's not what you are capable of, it's what you are willing to do." - Mike Tomlin 2024, the year of the Tahoe 200 (hopefully).  After a massive build up over the first few months of 2023, only to have Tahoe postponed, I have been anxious to hit the ground running again (pun intended).  On January 1st, I kick started my 2024 campaign with 50 miles with a 2am start and have barely taken my foot off the gas since.  I managed to clock 396 miles in January which included 2 work trips, one to Germany, and another to San Francisco, complete with 2 red eye flights. I figured Tahoe was going to be as much about training the mind to endure as training the body, so why not start early (pun intended again).   Over the first two and half months of the year, in addition to the New Year's day 50 miler, I knocked out another five marathons and three 50k+ runs. I reached a peak week of 116 miles and total of 328 miles over three weeks ... and I have never felt better.   I even g

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present." -- Bil Keane Last year's recap was titled " 2022 - Tightening Friendships Through Running " and 2023 was definitely more of the same.  Not only did my friend group increase in size, but many of the athletes I have been coaching / advising had a standout year as well.   Tahoe 200 Training New Years Day The year started off with big hopes and big expectations and while it didn't disappoint, it definitely didn't follow the expected path either.   I started the year off (and the beginning of year 10 of the run streak) with a 31 mile run and would run over 1000 miles in the first 3 months of the year as I trained for the Tahoe 200.   Unfortunately, Tahoe wasn't meant to be in 2023 as the race was postponed due to the record snow fall.  None the less, I got some really good experience running high mileage and putting in back to back to ba

 “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” - Muhammad Ali Every once in a while, one of your friends does something truly epic, and invites you along for the ride. Becca's been running marathons for over 25 years and has logged a mind numbing total of 104.  This past Saturday, by completing the Jackson Hole marathon, she has now run a marathon in each of the 50 US states.   While this project dates all the way back to 2001, she got really serious about it in the past 18 months and picked Jackson Hole on 9/23/2023 as here finish line.  She then invited all of us to join her and her family for the race.   So jump ahead to last Thursday and a whole bunch of us made our way out to Jackson Hole (many of us starting with a 4am wake up).  Amy and I caught a 6:10am flight to Salt Lake where we met up with Erin and made the dr

A few weeks ago, I took on "run my age" for the 9th consecutive year. This year I turned 43 and decided to run out to the end of Winthrop / Deer Island and then up Revere Beach.  Like last year, Becca joined me for the whole run.   We started the run off at the Belmont track at 4:30am where Karalyn joined us for the first 15 miles.  It was in the low 60s, but with fairly high humidity. Most of the first 5 miles were uneventful as we cut through Harvard and Union Square.  Our first stop (unintended) came at the Chelsea Street bridge 10 miles in.  We had to wait about 10 minutes as the bridge was up to let an oil tanker through.   From there the route got a lot prettier as we made our way out to and around Winthrop and then Deer Island.  It probably has been over 30 years since I last went to Winthrop.  It really is a beautiful area, but as for Boston traffic goes, nearly impossible to get to.   At the southern most point of Winthrop, you enter an area called Point Shirley and

 "Scot, what are you doing on May 23rd?  We need you and your van." -- Becca Pizzi This past week I participated in a relay run from Veteran's Park in Hyannis to the Boston Common to raise awareness and funds for Homebase , an organization that provides clinical care to Veterans and their families.   Similar to the Mass Dash , this run was a Dave McGillivray Sports production and lead again by Ron Kramer.  Additionally, a couple of "Dave's guys" tagged along and helped out including my old neighbor Ken who always keeps it fun and entertaining.   The run consisted of 2 teams, primarily veteran's, plus a few of us who are generally up to run any distance, anywhere, at anytime.  Team Miles for Military Pre-Run Our team was known as Miles for Military and consisted of the following cast of characters.  Becca: our fearless leader, fresh off a 9 minute marathon PR, 50k outright win, and her 100th marathon BJ: veteran, world marathon challenge finisher, police

"It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer." -- Orison Swett Marden Similar to my post last August, I once again was a bit too optimistic that I would be able to complete a Hut traverse.  This time, I was planning a two day trip, but with the weather and trail conditions, even that was a bit too much.   The Original Plan The original plan was to drive up on Friday afternoon, drop a car at the Basin, a second at the Highland Center and then catch a ride to and stay at Pinkham Notch.   Day 1 involved going over the Wildcats and down to Carter Notch and back out to 16 (via 19 Mile Brook Trail).  After a short road section, turn onto Great Gulf Trail, then Osgood trail to Gulfside Trail up to of Madison.    From there, stay on Gulfside trail / presidential ridge until just before Washington and take Westside trail over to Lake in the Clouds.  Then take Crawford Path almost all the way to the H