H.U.R.T. Hawaii

Hotly Contested Hogback ends in Heated Heartbreak

In a dramatic test of personal resolve and fortitude the competitors of this years Hogsback 12 hour night run managed battle it out through the last hours of the night.   Yet, in the beginning, it came down to one man, Rex V, who made it on to the course before the other contestants  to snatch victory from the hands of the other runners before they could even work up a sweat.  

As the opening gong was rung and the runners crossed the bridge,  it was Rex, and Rex alone, who stood there at the finish line.  When asked of what led to his victory Rex commented.  " I'm done, I got here early, these other schnooks can follow the rules, but I got connections.  Give my prize Marv. I got to go!"  

What a man!  Our hero, Rex, manages to utilize his competitive spirit to get to the race early and with the help of the guy who makes the rules, i.e. Marv Mango,  get the first prize regardless.  It's the new American way and its coming to a race right near you....if it hasn't already done so. 

 

Rex V. accepting his First Place Award.

 

Hogs Back 12 Hour---Why won't it drown in the mud and die?

 

Enter.....the DARK SIDE ii!ir

 
FRIDAY, December 16th, 6:00PM--
 

Muddy Hell Comes to Makiki !!!!...

It is very worst of the Porcine runs.  No smiling piggies here, no tired porkers hawking fad hikes that are simply daylight jaunts, this is the ultimate HOG. This is the Hog Back.  And not just the Hog Back, but the 12 hours of Hog Back.  The one, the original Hard Hog Run.  

And to make it just a bit more hard, to sort out the real runners from the want-to-be’s....This is 

The Hog Back 12 Hour NIGHT RUN.  

ALL RUN, ALL NIGHT!.   

This is the Dusk to Dawn nightmare of climbing up and coming down, and climbing up and falling down. A time when hard is supposed to last more than four hours..and you don't actually have to consult your physician if it does. This is the run people dream of....in their nightmares....any yet, if you are signed up for the 100, or are considering such, why mix in all the sightseeing?  Lets just cut to the muddy quick! Come on.....if you can not show up for this, then you are just silly dreaming about running the 100, just an Ultra want-a-be.   

As Rob Lahoe said of the Hog's Back....."This is the one that taught me to slow down and pace myself....about the eighth time up the Hog's Back I had to learn something!"....

Peacocks: From the Back-of-the-Pack

 

Mike M at the Back of the Pack

Don called me a few days before Peacocks, excited by the upcoming race, more excited than I  that’s for sure.  I was dreading it.  Pecocks had come up on me far too fast, allowing very little training. I’d done Are’s twice, the Lower Loop twice and still didn’t have names for any of the subsections. I just didn’t know the course very well, didn’t think I could finish it, and was mentally only going out to do one loop because Gordon said it was OK if I did only one and then worked the aid station at Long Road.

The only hope was that Rex and I had done the first sections of the first loop and pronounced it ‘doable’. Doable in that kind of iffy-maybe kind of way that we back-of-the-packers look at these endeavours.  Doable in the sense that if every thing goes just right then maybe, just maybe, we can finish the damn thing before they ring the bell that signals the clearing of the aid station tables, the removal of the chairs and water jugs from the finish line, and an empty field at the finish.  Doable, just doable, and no more.  But that was the outside chance, and I was not cashing any gold shares to bet on my finish.  

My knees have been hurting me on and off for a year now, and I had aggravated them again with some Peacock training and some bad shoe choices. A similar problem had haunted me last year so this year saw an early return to some stockpiled ‘old faithful’ shoes, and I manged to bring back my knees a bit.  But I still could not go down Long Road without a lot of pain and soreness. The fact was I could walk backwards down the damn thing faster than forwards.  The issue of knee pain is bothersome to say the least.  My time-bomb clock it ticking and I know it.  Peacocks is a miserable test of stupidity if you have leg issues.  So, ‘Doable’  is just sad theater, a kind of tragicomedy of an ultra-running sort for old guys with short running lives ahead of them.  And I was doing Peacocks?  It was theater of the absurd, and I knew it!  

So, There you go. Is it any wonder I was not excited when Don called?  I just did what I had to do to prepare, realized I didn’t really want to be doing the run, and tried all the harder to make sure that I did just what needed to be done. There would be no heroics out there, just one long managed push. I loaded all my tricks into a bag, and at 4:00 AM Saturday morning Ed came by my house, we picked up Fishy, and away we went to Dillingham.   

I’m not going to go through all the things I do to prepare for these insanities, but let me assure you I did them.  I reluctantly found my way to the start, hung back, and waited for Gordon to start the race. This year was much more formal.  I believe it was last year that Gordon said something about Peacock’s, jumped off the bed of his pick-up truck and was gone running up the road.  It was at least ten seconds later that people realized the race had started.  This year Gordon led us over to the chain gate, said something about Peacocks, and was gone up the road.  The increased formality helped the slow witted, who generally hang at the front of the pack, and Gordon had a much smaller starting advantage.  

 

Follow this link to read the competion

http://runningovertheedge.blogspot.com/

 

The Ultra Season is upon us.

 

 

The goal is far beyond the horizon, the task is before us.

   

   

The Ultra season is suddenly upon us.  We are finally looking at some longer competitive races.  Jeff Huff has roused himself out of his ‘other world’ and come forth like Punxsutawney Phil, to once again act as the wigged Mercury messenger of the running god to mortal runners and proclaimed the annual commencement of the HURT rites of passage.  A  herd of ‘trail runners’ has heard his call and now contemplates the very edges of ultra running while all those weathered guys and gals who have been helping at races and basically standing around looking bored finally grab their mudders and begin getting ‘out there’ for longer training runs and actually preparing to run the next few races.  

Training distances will subtly increase, the ritual of the ‘stash’ and its unspoken ceremonies will intensify again, and the brief love affair with speed will give way to an understanding that time on the trails is what really counts. Night runs will no longer be mythical adventures talked about over the goodies table, and newbies will find themselves totally disoriented running along dark muddy jungley trails on moonless rainy nights wondering if the graying older runners who have talked them into this insane adventure with promises of ‘great fun’, and who now coax them onward with assurances of ‘almost there’, are  completely mad or actually intent on luring them to the Ultrarunner heiau of Kukukinimamaonui tucked in cold dark wet ravine along a forbidding ridge above Nu’uanu where they will be sacrificed to the always hungry god amid the droning chants of ‘’Aole makou e ho’ohikiwale kela!‘ ..’We don’t want it to be easy’ .. not that we need to request this of the god.

Must see Chicago Marathon Finish!!!!

Even for the trail/ultra die-hards out there who shun the roads and any distance less than a 100 miles, you have to watch the last 3 minutes of today's Chicago Marathon.  Entered in the race were no less than 4 guys who had PR's in the 2:05's, all between the ages of 20-23.  Wanjiru, the Olympic champion and North American record holder went head to head down the stretch with Kabede, an Ethiopian runner and current London Marathon champion.  After Kabede's repeated attacks which would not stick, Wanjiru finally surged after the second to last turn with 500 meters to go.  The drama was only heightened by the fact that whoever won this duel was going to walk away with a cool $500,000 for taking the World Majors points title.  Tony Reavis, the announcer, was also on fire, at one point stating that Kabede's tough pace was like "taking a baseball bat to the other runners" and Wanjiru's "football" sized balls were also mentioned after Wanjiru put on his final move.  Enjoy the footage below.  The photo was of Wanjiru holding Nate after he won last year's Chicago Marathon.  We are trying to figure out how to get Wanjiru to train Nate to kick like this in the late stages of big races!

Aloha, Matt  

VIDEO LINK: Wanjiru Opens Up a Can on Kabede

 

 

Ode to the Road

Something to turn those friday night dreams pleasant.....tomorrow's reality.

I headed out toward Dillingham before the Friday afternoon rush hour fouled the roads and brought the flow of traffic to a standstill. Made it there in less than an hour and with surprisingly easy driving.

Moving along the bottom of long road by 4:10, I was hoofing it up the quickly sloping road with an extra gallon of water on my back. The going was slow, very slow at first, and the longer and higher the trudge the heavier that extra gallon became. If you have not had the pleasure of doing long road I have to tell you that the first mile is pretty flat, and the 1 mile marker sits at the base of a large tree that marks the first real steep. But the road is wide and smooth asphalt making it just a 'dig-in and do it' kind of up. Farther up, at the 1.5 mile marker the road moves through a gate and becomes narrower, older, and rougher, as it turns into the first valley. There the trees get a little taller at the sides of the road offering small patches of shade in the afternoon sun, false promises of relief from the humid warmth that rises off the old asphalt and the heat of the late afternoon sun. Moving toward the back of the valley the road hair-pins and heads up once again on the first of a long succession of switchbacks.