Race Report - 2017 Grand Viduta Stage Races 43M

About halfway through stage 1.

I don't recall why exactly, but it seemed I always had something else on my running schedule ever since the Grand Viduta Stage Races were created a couple of years ago. As a result, I had only ever run one of the Saturday stages a while back. So this year, and as a result of my goal to run races I hadn't done before, I decided to sign up as soon as registration opened for the 2017 Grand Viduta Stage Races.  Early commitment and signup also ensured that I got to benefit from the ridiculously low "early bird" registration fee (so keep that in mind for 2018 as you don't want to miss this event).

Race Report - 2017 Boston Marathon

Huntsville peeps chilling at the athlete's village a couple of hours pre-race.

Well, Boston didn't quite go as planned. In fact, if it weren't THE Boston Marathon, I'd say it was a complete bust. But since this is THE Boston Marathon, just getting qualified to be allowed to toe the starting line is an amazing opportunity and the reward in itself. I always felt the BQ to be more important then the actual participation in the Boston Marathon itself, but after getting my first finish last year, I decided that I would try to push for a performance close to a PR. While I do not like to place blame on factors outside myself, I will say that the second hottest conditions on record in the last ten years certainly didn't help. This was to be my wife's first Boston Marathon and my second. I won't talk about her race as I know she prefer I didn't, but I'll summarize how my race went.

Race Report - 2017 Yamacraw 50K

View of the beautiful Big South Fork Cumberland River, our race location.

Yamcraw 50K, what a cool name for a race. I wondered what that name stood for. I had never been to Kentucky for an ultra before, but this race came highly recommended (thanks Doug Daniel), so I signed up. On Friday, Rick Rawls picked me up at my house and we started our 4 1/2 hour road trip to Stearns, KY near the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.