Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Kilian Jornet and Krissy Moehl take the Tour Du Mont Blanc!

Published
by
Speedgoat Karl
on August 29, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 10 Comments

If ULF CLERWALL is out there, please email me again as my email back to you was spammed.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Now go run!

Wasatch 100 odds coming Sunday, stay tuned for a look at this year’s stellar field.  It may be the race for “Speedgoat of the Year” !!!!!

Congratst to Krissy Moehl for winning the UTMB for the 2nd time.  One more time for the hat trick for her!  Kilian Jornet, showed who’s the best in Europe garnering his second win in as many tries in  Chamonix.  Keep watching the race here.  Scott Jurek should be next to finish at 17th. He has the monkey off his back now in getting the UTMB done.  Now it’s my turn in the future to get the monkey off of my back!

ERIK SKAGGS UPDATE:  Erik is no longer horizonal!  He’s out of the hospital.  Check info at Roguevalleyrunners.com. 

For those who don’t know Erik has had some kidney issues after his stellar performance at the Wheres Waldo 100k last weekend.  Read on for details….and consider helping this guy with his med expenses.  He’s a star and we all want him to fully recover….so he can kick my arse later!    Read on——-

As you may already be aware, Erik Skaggs is currently in Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, OR.  Erik ran and won the Where’s Waldo 100 Kilometer Ultramarathon last Saturday in record time but began having medical difficulties later that day. After being treated with IVs in the emergency room earlier in the week, he was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday suffering from nausea and pain.  His kidney function has not improved during the last few days.

 

Erik remains his usual good natured, positive self.  He has been surrounded by many of his friends during his hospital stay.  His brother Kyle arrives from out of town on Friday to be by his side.  At last report, he was timing his splits as he walked around his hospital wing.  Jenn, his girlfriend, has been supplementing moldy hospital food with treats from home.

 

Many friends throughout the ultrarunning community have already asked how they can help.  One of Erik’s biggest concerns is the mounting medical bill.  Erik does not have health insurance. He may be eligible for some assistance through his membership with USA Track and Field, but will no doubt require monies for the deductible and for the expected costs well above the coverage.  An Ashland runner and friend of Erik’s has opened a bank account at Umpqua Bank in Ashland, Oregon to receive donations that will be used to help defray these medical expenses.  You can contribute by sending a check to Umpqua Bank, 250 N. Pioneer Street, Ashland, OR 97520 made out to the “Erik Skaggs Medical Fund.”  Any assistance that you could provide would be much appreciated by Erik.  Please note that the Fund name should be on the outside of the envelope. 

 

Updates on Erik’s medical condition will be posted to the blog at Rogue Valley Runners’ website, at http://roguevalleyrunners.blogspot.com/, as it becomes available.

Check out Mt. Blanc now!

Published
by
Speedgoat Karl
on August 28, 2009
in Race Updates
. 5 Comments

Scott Jurek is currently in 3rd place and still in position to win the European’s big dance.  Check it out here.

Last year’s winner is currently leading, but the pressure is on.  Let’s hope Scotty J can rally and pull it off….completely under our radar….go Scott!

Krissy Moehl is now in the lead and looking to win her 2nd UTMB!  We’ll see

The Leadville 100

Published
by
Speedgoat Karl
on August 19, 2009
in Race Updates
. 14 Comments

Timmy Parr takes the dance at 17:27!  A fast start weeded out the field, but a few guys hung tough to the end.  Nick Lewis from Memphis, TN placed a strong second in his first 100 mile adventure and paid 13-1. He plans on spending his winnings on prep for next year.  I had the pleasure of running the last 13 miles with this year’s bride’s maid, running the fastest split of the day for the last 13 miles.   Tony K had issues at roughly mile 70 and had to bail after the Fish Hatchery.  Never underestimate the distance.

Darcy Africa was leading early with all smiles thru Twin Lakes.  I’ll do my best to report the women’s winner….if I can stay awake.   Watch the race live at:  www.leadvilletrail100.com

It’s about that time again to see if I can pick’em at the Leadville 100.  The guys and gals I have listed here are straight off of the current runners list.  One guy who we all know may or may not be running.  Tony K is not on the list right now, so I won’t put him on top where he belongs.  If he is running, it’s his to lose.  I’ll be in Leadville for the race watching, spectating and enjoying this great 100 mile race from the sidelines.  I’m waiting for Wasatch in a few weeks.

The Men:

Tony Krupicka  1-2.  Not a good bet if you are trying to make money….he’ll be gone once he gets down the road!   Great to see he is in.  I bet Mr. Carpenter is watching!

Duncan Callahan  4-1.  Duncan ran a great race last year winning around 18 hours.  A great time.  No doubt he’ll be thinking about breaking that 18 hour barrier and even pushing 17.  He gets the nod as the favorite for now.

Andy Jones-Wilkins  5-1.  This year’s field is really tight.  Andy probably is the best in the field at keeping it together for long distances.  He’s proven that with the great run at Hardrock around 28 hours only two weeks after Western.  He’s been rested now and should be in the thing to win it if noone really steps up and runs sub 17.

Nick Pedatella  6-1.  Nick ran great in the early season at Antelope Island.  He had a rough run at Massannutten, but probably has a little redemption on his mind, not to mention he’s back on some familiar turf in Leadville.

Ryan Burch  7-1.  Ryan has all the tools necessary but lacks a little 100 mile experience.  He also ran fast early season and a good run at the San Juan Solstice 50 in June.  If he nails the day, look for him to be near the front at the end.

Harry Harcrow  8-1.  Harry kind of flys under the radar, is not really fast enough to win it, but is strong and should crack top 5 on his home turf.  He’s got good experience here, he knows the track.

Dink Taylor  10-1.  He would love to do well here.  He lacks some altitude experience, but still has speed.  Leadville is a speedsters course at altitude, so he’ll need to find some extra oxygen somewhere to be near the front.   He might, he’s quite talented.

Nick Lewis  13-1.  He’s the sleeper from Memphis.  He’s super fast, but lacks a little 100 mile experience.  He’ll have good advice and help from Billy Simpson…he’s the mystery man in the field.

Aaron Schwartzbard  16-1.  Another east coaster hoping to crack top 10.  If he runs smart he could crack top 5.

Garrett Graubins  20-1.  I’d love to see Garrett kill it here.  Another sleeper to crack top 10.

Other fast guys to watch:  Ryan Cooper, Jeff Beuche, Timmy Parr, Zack Tiernan, Bryon Powell, Jason Koop, Todd Gangelhoff.         ( Thanks Garrett! )

The women:

Jamie Donaldson  3-1.  Jamie proved last year that she’s for real.  If she runs textbook style it should be a good race with the smiley girl below.

Darcy Africa  4-1.  Darcy is always the cheeriest runner in the field.  If she stays happy, she can certainly outrun Jamie.  She always runs pretty well, it’s just a matter if being a mom has taken over some of her training time.  She also knows Leadville as well as anyone in the field.

Julie Fingar  6-1.  Somewhat of a mystery for me to predict, but she should make top 3, probably in 3rd behind the two above.  She’s just a little slower…she’ll run 3rd.

Susan Brozik, Jen Foster and Michelle Barton should duke it for the top 5 positions.

The Wind River expedition this past week was simply epic.  5 days backpacking in the Bridger Wilderness is simply the best around.  One comment from Mr. Belzz was simply…”No place can possibly be better than this”.  Classic quote!

I caught a total of 14 trout, the largest being about 14″.  We only ate a few as we decided to eat that wonderful dry food to take off some weight in our packs.  We got snowed on Friday night with 2″ on our tents in the early AM.  It killed off the mosquitos.  The first two days, 20,000 mosquitos carried me out of my tent.   We had a taste of it all!  I was only heckled a few times on day one as the distance creeped up to 12 miles of essentially all uphill miles. Sometimes I get a little out of hand and forget about distance :-) !

Gear Reviews at Backcountry.com

A little Hiatus to Disneyland!

Published
by
Speedgoat Karl
on August 11, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 13 Comments

Tomorrow morning begins a 5 day backpack trip to the infamous Wind River Range in Wyoming.  No mountain range compares to this one for prime backpacking and fly fishing.  I’ll be eating lunkers in no time!

After this week’s Jupiter Peak Steeplechase 16 miler, I came home with some neuritis in my left foot.  The 3rd and 4th toe are numb, but feel ok walking around.  I’ll wear my nice soft La Sportiva Wildcat’s for the adventure, protecting my toes from further damage.   Hopefully this won’t create any issues in 4 weeks when the Wasatch 100 comes into play.  Do bad things come in 3’s?…maybe.  While sitting on my couch watching Mr. Woods win again, a yellowjacket decided he’d sting me. This ain’t good for me, my arm is swollen, I broke out in hives, and my arm itches like hell.  So now what’s next?  Hopefully nothing.  I keep telling myself, “it’ll go away”. 

Let’s hope 5 days walking around the Winds will cure all issues.

On another note, I’ve teamed up with Sherpa Fit in NY to start running some guided mountain and desert running tours of Utah and surrounding states.  We plan to run 3 of them a year.  Spring, Summer and Fall trips.  The summer trip may just be in the Wind River Range.  I’ll be scoping it out this week.  During winter months, guided ski tours will also come into play for anyone who is interested in finding all the cool spots to ski…local style.  Not all locals tell where the stashes are, we will! 

ON RACE NOTES:

The leadville 100 is coming the following weekend, I’ll have odds for that one when I return, we’ll see if Mr. Krupicka can rack up win #3 at the “Race across the sky”.

Check out Backcountry.com for sweet deals on summer stuff now. Summer is almost over and the gear will be flying off the shelves, time to bust a move.

Look for the Leadville 100 odds Wednesday morning and a brief summary of our epic 5-day pack trip in the Wind River Mountains.

A race shorter than 100 miles?

Published
by
Speedgoat Karl
on August 6, 2009
in Race Updates
. 9 Comments

This coming Saturday, I’ll test myself at the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase in Park City, Utah.  This race is a whopping 16 miles with about 4000′ of elevation gain on prime PC singletrack.  I’ve run it before in a little over 2 hours.  I don’t plan on racing real hard, just trying to put in a good 16 miler over the weekend. 

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been running big miles with big vertical.  For the locals here in SLC, that means running over the 11,326′ Pfieferhorn in Little Cottonwood Canyon and connecting Bells Canyon on the backside of Hogum Fork.  I had a brief stop with 14 mountain goats on the ridge.  Old Billie said he’s been watching me, and expects me to go for number 7 at the Wasatch 100 next month.   We’ll see about that as the competition is pretty stiff with Mr. Western, ( Koerner ) Mr. HURT, ( Roes ) and Josh Brimhall from the sweltering land they call Vegas. 

Over the weekend, along with the rave runs I’ve been doing, I went tubing on the Weber River.  A day of relaxation floating down the river with a few beers, some cold water and only one capsizing of the tube!

Next week I plan on doing the Leadville odds if I can find the runners’ list.  It’s been a tough search though, as it’s not listed on the website.  If anyone out there has some inside info on getting the list, let me know so I can figure out who’s gonna run fast at the “Race across the sky“.  Tony is the man to beat at the moment, but he’s the only guy I know that’ll challenge for the win. Tony should run away with it and possibly make a run at Matt Carpenters’ record!  

Another cool race on tap for August 15th includes the El Vaquero Loco 25k and 50k in Star Valley, Wyoming.  Ty Draney puts on a great show on some of the best singletrack in Idaho.   The Teton races start a few weeks later, along with the Pikes Peak Marathon near the end of the month.  Tune in to find results on these races and any other good ones I can find. 

Off for a night run here in the Wasatch.  A cold front is coming just in time to dump hail and lightning on us…….sounds like another fine day at the office!

Nice Map,  everyone understand?  Just follow the blue dots….they say!

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