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Freedom Run 10K

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Location:

Saratoga Springs,UT,

Member Since:

Jan 31, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

2016 Finished 12 100-milers during the year.  86 career 100-mile finishes, 9th in the world.   First person to do 6 consecutive summits of Mount Timpanogos.  Won Crooked Road 24-hour race. Achieved the 5th, 6th, and 8th fastest 100-mile times in the world for runners age 57+ for the year.

2013  First person to bag the six highest Wasatch peaks in one day. First and only person to do a Kings Peak double (highest peak in Utah).  I've now accomplished it four times. 

2010 - Overall first place Across the Years 48-hour run (187 miles), Overall first place Pony Express Traill 100.

2009 - Utah State Grand Masters 5K champion (Road Runners Club of America).  National 100-mile Grand Masters Champion (Road Runners Club of America). USATF 100-mile National Champion for age 50-54.

2006 - Set record of five consecutive Timpanogos Summits ("A record for the criminally insane")  See: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=42

2007 - Summited 7 Utah 13-ers in one day.  See: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=14 

Only person to have finished nine different 100-mile races in Utah: Wasatch, Bear, Moab, Pony Express Trail, Buffalo Run, Salt Flats, Bryce, Monument Valley, Capitol Reef.

PRs - all accomplished when over 50 years old

5K - 19:51 - 2010 Run to Walk 5K

10K - 42:04 - 2010 Smile Center

1/2 Marathon: 1:29:13 - 2011 Utah Valley

Marathon - 3:23:43 - 2010 Ogden Marathon

50K - 4:38 - 2010 Across the Years split

50-mile - 8:07 - 2010 Across the Years split

100K - 10:49 - 2010 Across The Years split

12-hours 67.1 miles - 2010 Across The Years split

100-mile 19:40 - 2011 Across the Years split

24-hours 117.8 miles - 2011 Across the Years split

48-hours 187.033 miles - 2010 Across the Years

Long-Term Running Goals:

I would like to keep running ultras into my 60s. 

Personal:

Details at: http://www.crockettclan.org/ultras/ultracrockett.pdf Married with six kids and six grandchildren.  Started running at the age of 46 in 2004.  My first race since Junior High days was a 50K. I skipped the shorter road stuff and went straight to ultramarathons.  I started as a back-of-the packer, but have progressed to a top-10-percent ultra finisher.  Wish I would have started running at a much earlier age.  Have had several articles published in national running magazines.  Check out my running adventure blog at www.crockettclan.org/blog

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Total Distance
321.00
La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 47.00Montrail Wildwood Miles: 52.00Mizuno Wave Elixer 5 - Green Miles: 30.00La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (new) Miles: 106.00
Total Distance
7.00

Heat and Hills. Returned to Yellow Fork canyon and ran up another spur, did a steep ridge climb, followed a trail that took me back down and then ran up another spur with a huge climb to the top of the ridges.  A great workout, reminded me of the Chinscrapper climb at Wasatch.  I had the trails to myself again.  I had to turn back because I was running out of water.  With two miles to go, I drank the rest and then blasted down the soft single track clocking 7-minute miles.  Great fun.

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 7.00
Comments(1)
Total Distance
12.00

Steep, steep hills.   From near Jordanelle State Park, ran up the old Mayflower mining trails to the Deer Valley ski slopes.  The mining road was overgrown at that point and slow going so I looked up and just decided to climb straight up the black diamond slopes.  I was able to find some deer trails away from the tall grass and pushed it all the way to the top of Deer Valley resort.  At the top, there was an employee there and I asked about any roads or trails that head down the Jordanelle side.  He was puzzled and asked how I got up.  I explained that I came straight up.  He was dumbfounded.   I managed to find some trails and also went straight down a slope until I rejoined the mining roads below the Mayflower lift.   It was a great workout.

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 12.00
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Total Distance
16.00

steep hills. climbed a canyon in Midway to the top of the ridge above Pot Bottoms aid station location for Wasatch 100. Ran on the high road all the way north and came down the very long road through Wasatch Mt Park dow to Midway by the Homestead and back to the summer home.  Pretty hot.  Tough workount.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 16.00
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Race: Freedom Run 10K (6.2 Miles) 00:42:20, Place overall: 58, Place in age division: 3
Total Distance
13.00

I ran the Freedom 10K for the 4th year.  This is a fairly tough course with some long hills, making it a tough course to PR on.  I ran it with my sister and brother-in-law.   Another brother-in-law and niece ran the 5K.

I had a pretty good race, set a course PR by almost a minute and came within 16 seconds of my 10K PR.   I didn't realize I was that close because my watch wasn't working.  It would have helped push me more if it would have been working.

My splits were 6:44 (long hill), 6:32 (downhill), 6:42, 7:00, 6:47, 7:19 (long hill).

My family had a good showing.  My brother-in-law, Ed, placed 2nd in this age group, my brother-in-law Greg placed 3rd in his age group, and I took third.  There were 1,233 runners in the 10K.

After returning to our family reunion in Midway, I needed more, so I went a ran up and down Sids Canyon above the Homestead.  It is about three miles up and climbs about 1,600 feet.  Near the top a guy with a dog was jogging down.  I pushed to the top and then decided to try to push hard and overtake him. About half-way down I did.  I was surprised that he started to hang with me.  I pushed it pretty hard and he kept up pretty well. It was a blast.   At the bottom I stopped and said, "You must be an ultrarunner."  He asked, "Have you run this before?"  He was suprised that I hadn't run down it before.  He said he runs it all the time but it had been a long time since he ran that fast down it.   He was Kerry Collings from Midway and this was his training trail.  He basically his trail.  He does trail work on it and keeps it in great shape.  I could tell that someone was carring for it.  He recognized my name and explained that he was running Hardrock 100 next week.  Wow, that was cool to meet him.

Mizuno Wave Elixer 5 - Green Miles: 13.00
Comments(6)
Total Distance
14.00

I did a new run that included about 3,600 feet of climbing.  I started at the Yellow Fork trailhead west of Herriman and climbed clear to the top of the highest of the Butterfield Peaks that have the towers on them.  It was an amazing run first through scrub oak, then maples, then aspens, and finally pines. Going up the prickly pear cactus were in bloom, some of them bright pink others yellow.  They were incredible.  Coming down the flowers were closed.  I saw plenty of deer along the way.

The view at the top was amazing.  To the west, I could see a glimpse of Tooele, the salt flats, and the Great Salt Lake.  To the North, I could see the Bingham Copper Mine and the entire Salt Lake Valley.  Further south, I could see Utah county, Utah Lake, all the Wasatch mountains clear down to Mount Nebo.  I could see all of Cedar Valley.   The best view was to the south, a view of the massive, hidden valley of West Canyon.  Few have been in this valley because it is private property, but it was a wonderful site of green forest and steep mountains surrounding it.  I wish it was open to enjoy.  I know there are some ancient Indian settlements that are being protected.   The mountain valley with streams looks like the perfect place for cabins.  Oh well.

It took me almost 2.5 hours to get up the seven or so miles.   I took it pretty easy.  I did this run as a low carb run to lose some weight.  I ran down pretty fast, in 1:10.   It felt very similar to a Timp run up to the saddle and back.  Roughly the same miles and elevation gain.   I see no evidence of any other runners or hikers doing this.   I'm glad I discovered this and plan to do it many more times.  It is much closer to home and work than Timp.  The route is very runnable except for a very steep rough section for about a half mile or so.

Map of run: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/ut/herriman/497127846923913797

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 14.00
Comments(9)
Total Distance
14.00

A repeat of the same run I did on Tuesday, up to Butterfield Peak.   On the trail at about 4:15 a.m..   I kept some split times to push me in the future.  Last picnic area: 24:07, ridge road: 1:02, sign frame: 1:27, summit: 2:02:53, sign frame; 2:22, ridge road: 2:37, end of yellow fork: 2:49, finish: 3:14:25.  Plenty of room to improve.  I did it 20 minutes faster than Tuesday, most of that time improvement on the climb.   This is one very challenging section, steep rough single trace only used by horses that feels like the Windy Pass climb at Squaw Peak.  It is great.  It climbs 1,000 feet in about a mile and then connects to a dirt road that takes you to the top.

Dawn arrived while I was high on the ridges, a spectacular site with the orange glow and the city lights.   I saw plenty of deer and a few cows high up on the mountain.

I've climbed 9,000 feet so far this week.  Not bad.

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 14.00
Comments(4)
Race: Hobbler Half Marathon (13.15 Miles) 01:30:41, Place overall: 22, Place in age division: 1
Total Distance
22.00

I decided this cap off my week of training with a long tempo run.  With Tahoe Rim 100 a week away, working on some foot speed would be helpful.  My climbing training went well this week, so I need some speed work and signed up for another half marathon.  I hoped that the course would be fast and let me break my half marathon PR.

I ran in the new Hobbler Half Marathon put on by race13.  This half starts up in Hobble Creek and finishes in a park in Springville. They bussed us up and dumped us off in the middle of the road, not much room for a start of the race.  I warmed up by running a couple miles up the canyon, up on the Squaw Peak 50 course on the dirt road at the top of the canyon.  Three other runners did the same.

At the start, we were all very crowded with lots of slow people near the front.  There was about 434 runners in the field. The crowd near the front slowed me down in the first few hundred yards but I soon broke free and was running in the top 20. A Kenyan was with the leaders and eventually won the race.

I have run up the Hobble Creek Canyon several times as part of the Squaw Peak 50 and Katcina Mosa 100K but never have run down it before.   It had some great downhills.   For the first few miles, I ran near Lorenzo, a solid tall runner a few years younger than me.  I've never beat him in a race and still didn't today.  He soon was a small figure down the road.  My splits for the first miles were: 5:53, 6:32, 6:33, with a 19:35 5K split, better than my 5K PR.

Things were going well.  I banked time and eventually was up to 1:30 ahead of my PR pace.  I was very surprised how many small hills there were along the way and lots of winding turns.  The course wasn't as fast as Utah Valley Half.   My splits for the next three miles were: 6:37, 6:32, and 6:43, with a 40:07 10K split, two minutes faster than my 10K PR.  The downhill was helping a bunch.

More short hills appeared and things started to slow down.  I tried very hard to keep my splits near 6:40.  Miles 7-9 were: 6:42, 7:04 (hills), and 7:03.  I knew I now only had about a minute cushion on my PR pace.  I pushed it harder and mile 10 was 6:47.  I was hanging on.

But then things fell apart as the heat blasted us now that we were out the canyon and the sun was pounding on us.  Also the last three miles were a gradual hill and my legs could feel it.  I had to stop at an aid station for about 15 seconds to fill my bottle and pour water on me.  Coming in my splits were: 7:25 (aid station), 7:25 (heat), and 7:56 (out of gas).   I reached the finish at 1:30:41.  It was only 27 seconds over my PR.  I was pleased.

22nd overall and 1st in my age group.   It took 1.5 hours for the awards to be given out.  They need to do better.  Also, to help with the heat, they should have started an hour earlier. I ran laps around the park to use some of the time waiting.  My legs feel good.  I need some more heat training this week during my taper.  Next up is Tahoe Rim 100 on Saturday.  It runs on the ridges high above beautiful Lake Tahoe.

Today I can't keep my thoughts away from Hardrock 100, going on now in the mountains in Colorado, the toughest western 100.  I have so many friends in it and they are all still climbing the mountains.  I'm envious.  One of these years I'll go do it.  Sorry to see Karl Meltzer had to DNF.  I'm sure his injuries caught up with him.  Tough to run with a healing broken arm. 

P.M.  More heat training. Five miles with the dog.

Mizuno Wave Elixer 5 - Green Miles: 17.00
Comments(11)
Total Distance
0.00

In honor of my friends running Badwater today, I did heat training.   My workout was in the 105 degrees hot tub at the Saratoga Springs pool.   By kicking, I can bring my heart rate up and try to endure the hot temperature with a heart rate above 100. It is brutal and very uncomfortable.  I could only stand 25 minutes of it.  But I think this will help get more used to heat for my race at Tahoe on Saturday.  The afternoon will be rather hot when the course dips down near the lake.

I'll do very little or no running before race day.  I need to heal up a reaccurring internal injury.  Running aggrevates it, so I just need to stop.   Tapering is good.   No running training at this point will help my race on Saturday.   Heal up and I'm good to go.

To follow Badwater splits, see: http://dbase.adventurecorps.com/results.php?bw_eid=51&bwr=Go   They start in three waves.  The most experience Badwater runners are in the third wave that starts 1000 PDT.

 

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Total Distance
0.00

More swimming and hot tub.  The pool and hot tub were much cooler today, so hard to get the heart rate up, but still got some heat training.   Will probably get out in the heat this afternoon.   Following Badwater progress today is getting me psyched for some heat on Saturday.

Comments(2)
Total Distance
0.00

Still in major taper mode.  No running, just resting...some minor exercises to keep the taper pains away.  Doing heat work, driving around without the air conditioning, etc.

Last night went to the Paul McCartney concert.  Wow, it was great.  Brought back lots of memories from the '60s.  He did lots of Beatles stuff.  We had a great time.

Comments(6)
Total Distance
0.00

At Carson City, NV.  Race checkin is tomorrow afternoon.   It is 103 here today.  Driving down I continued my heat training by driving much of it without air conditioning.  The hot temps don't seem to bother me much, good sign.  Tomorrow morning, I'll checkout the new portion of the course and maybe golf some.

Comments(1)
Total Distance
5.00

Its been a good day in Carson City, NV.  Got up with the dawn and golfed nine holes.  Had a good round.  Next, I went and powerhiked and ran down some of the new sections of the 100-mile course near the Diamond  Peak ski resort.  The big new climb isn't that bad.  Over  half of it is on snowcat roads that switch back and then the last half mile or so is straight up a ski slope, so that will be interesting.   I then checked out the section that comes down to the ski resort.  It is a beautiful trail shared with bikes, nice and smooth that follows Incline Creek, so it is shady and cool.  Looks like a ton of fun!  The climb up the slopes will be hot, probably with the sun in my face, but I'll just push hard and get it over with.

Next, I checked in. Several people recognized me and I had fun talking with them.  The best news is at the weigh in, I'm about nine pounds lighter than last year.  Wow, that is a nice surprise.

I'll go to the race briefing at 2:15 p.m. to say hi to friends, go to dinner with friends and try to hydrate well and relax.   All systems are go.  I think the course will be about an hour slower than last year due to the course change.  My goal is to at least match my time for last year which was 25:43. I'll need to get up around 3 a.m. for the 5 a.m. start.

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (new) Miles: 5.00
Comments(4)
Race: Tahoe Rim Trail 100 (100 Miles) 26:05:39, Place overall: 15, Place in age division: 2
Total Distance
101.00

Race report at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=347

Detailed race report later. Tahoe Rim Trail 100 was tough this year.  The weather was hot and the new revised course was tough.  The toughest new feature is a climb right up a ski slope without switchbacks that we had to do twice.  It was about the same as the Windy Pass climb at Squaw Peak.

My strategy was to run fast when it was cool, back off when it was hot, and then run fast again at night.  Worked great except for gut problems and terrible chafing for the last 30 miles.  I believe I was running in 3rd place for the first 15 miles when it was cool.  Once dusk came with cooler temperatures, I had a blast again cranking up the speed 

I had a good race, but not perfect.  Some issues probably cost me two hours.  But still, I finished 15th out of about 110 starters.  I guy in my age group finished in just over 24 hours, so he took the age group championships this year.

La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (new) Miles: 101.00
Comments(6)
Total Distance
0.00

Back home.  I have mixed feelings about my 100-mile run.  On the bright side during long stretches I felt very strong and fast.  I ran through sections of the course faster than ever before and was astonished at times how I could run the uphlls strongly.  On the downside, non-training issues slowed me down way too much, very frustrating.  The last 20 miles took me 6.5 hours because of chaffing that just couldn't be solved.  I'm chalking this up as a very good training run.  15th place isn't bad either.   Those two guys who were ahead of me during the first 15 miles didn't even finish the race.

Recovery?  Legs hardly sore at all, but the heat wore me down.  Glands swolen yesterday be not any more.  I can't stand being in the sunlight or heat at all, makes me feel sick.  That will all go away in a couple days.

Comments(1)
Total Distance
14.00

Was at Scout camp with my son for three days at Mapel Dell in Payson Canyon.  Got up at 4 a.m. and did a run up a pipeline trail to a lake and then up a side canyon as far as I could go on what looked like a rough hunter horse trail.   Turned back once the trail turned into mostly bushwhaking.   Fun morning run.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 14.00
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Total Distance
15.00

On the trail at 4:20 a.m. and climbed almost to the top of Butterfield Peaks before I ran out of time.  Took a longer route and took it easy.   Wow, talk about wildlife this morning!  I ran into what I think was my first mountain lion.   It was ahead of me on the road and screeched at me very loud.  It was definitely a large cat.  Even with headphones on, it got my attention.   It ran a little up the road and then it turned around and screeched very loud at me again.   It repeated this again and finally went off the road.  I went by very carefully.  It had no interest in greeting me.  Not long after that I spooked some deer that really ran off fast.  They probably heard the mountain lion.  About a half mile later as it became lighter, two foxes were on the road, spotted me, kept watching me and then ran away.   Coming down I saw two eagles flying above me and near the bottom a bunch of pheasants.  What a morning!   The sunrise was spectacular too.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 15.00
Comments(11)
Total Distance
7.00

After work I ran up Yellow Fork and coming down found yet another very long single track, very nice.  Ran into Cody Haycock who will be running Wasatch 100.

Planning on a birthday run this weekend.  Turning 52 so need to run at least 52 miles.  I'm planning on establishing a speed record for the Uinta Highline trail.  In 2007 I ran it with Matt Watts from Chepeta Lake to Hayden Pass in 30 hours, but this time I'd like to do the entire length from Leidy Peak to Hayden Pass, probably 75-78 miles.  And, I think I can do it in less than 28.5 hours depending on thunderstorm wait-outs (there could be many).   There are 8 passes to climb over.  It is a spectacular run but very gruling because of all the rocks in the Uintas.  I'll be renting a SPOT, so you probably will be able to track my progress online.  I'll be starting early Friday morning.

It will be a speed record mostly because no one else has recorded a time in under two days for this length of the trail.  Someone claims that Creighton King and Rob Landis did Highline Trail in a day in the 1980s, but it isn't known how long it took them and which length they did.  In any event, I'll do it solo.   I like posting speed records not for recognition but to inspire others to try to do the same and break it.  The Highline Trail doesn't get a lot of attention and is a hidden jewel in the US back country.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 7.00
Comments(2)
Total Distance
2.00

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Race: Uinta Highline end-to-end (78.5 Miles) 33:19:12, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Total Distance
79.00

Read my detailed report here.

Not a race, but worthy of a highlighted report.   I ran/hiked the Uinta Highline trail from Leidy Peak (northwest of Vernal) to Hayden Pass (near Mirror Lake) east to west.  In 2007 I did 65 of these 78.5 miles with Matt Watts in 30 hours.  This time I did then entire trail solo.

What an adventure.  It is so remote.  The only hikers I saw were near Kings Peak.  Other than that I saw a Forest Service guy at mile 27 and a sheep herder at mile 42.

It was a tough, tough run.  It is impossible to maintain a fast run because of all the obstacles, hundreds of creek crossings, lots of marshes, mud bogs, and trails with bowling ball or bigger rocks.  You get a good pace going and are quickly brought to a slow run/walk around the obstacles.  If you run too fast, you also lose the trail because it is very faint in so many areas. But still I covered it all in 33:19 which can be posted as the record.  My motivation for posting speed records is to get it documented so someone else can try to break it.   I also broke the record for the section of the trail from Chepeta to Hayden.  Did it in 28:33.

What is amazing, is that I only covered 18 miles during the night!  I had to climb three major passes in the dark and lost the trail dozens of times.  Without my GPS and my waypoints, I would have had to stop for the night.  With maps it is impossible to navigate many sections during the night.  When I would lose the trail, instead of going back, I would just bushwack to my next waypoint, usually within a half mile and then pick up the trail again.  Trail markers are tough to see at night.  Elevation grinded me to slow hikes above 11,500 feet.  My entire run was between 9,950 and 12,500.

The mosquitos were blood thirsy starting at mile 32.  I really regretted not bringing spray.  I probably was bit 100 times before a hiker near Kings Peak let me use his spray.  I also stopped to help this group because a boy of about 12 was throwing up repeatedly.  His father didn't know anything about electrolytes and they had only been drinking water.   I left them with some Succeed caps.  I hope they helped because they still had a long way to go and only a few more hours of sunlight.

My last 15 miles or so were a death march.  My feet was very sore from the rough trail.  I couldn't slow to take care of them because I would be eaten alive by the bugs.

After the run, I washed up the best I could and hitched a ride to Kamas with some guys were were running an aid station for the bike race Tour De Park City.  Nice guys.  They were flabergasted to hear about my adventure.  I then called my wife and she drove up to take me home.  On Sunday we spent the entire day retrieving the car left back at the eastern trailhead.

Well, I'll write a detailed run report sometime this coming week.   Even though the distance was less than 80 miles, it felt like a 100-mile race effort, a slow one.  The GPS showed 13,000 feet of climbing.  There was probably several thousand more.  As far as toughness goes, this is easier than Wasatch 100.  But this course is much slower, just impossible to run fast.

My GPS track across the Uintas:

Comments(8)
Total Distance
321.00
La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (old) Miles: 47.00Montrail Wildwood Miles: 52.00Mizuno Wave Elixer 5 - Green Miles: 30.00La Sportive Wildcat - Yellow (new) Miles: 106.00
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