Todd Chandler 2/1/17 Todd Chandler 2/1/17

Athens Big Fork Marathon 2017

Unfortunately, the first race on my 2017 schedule got cancelled due to the weather.

The warning for the Athens Big Fork Marathon is stern and intense. While the January 2017 running was cancelled due to weather, I still had a chance to run the trail and provide this race report.

But thankfully, we were able to run the course anyway, and have a great weekend.

After the 2017 Athens Big Fork Marathon was cancelled "due to weather," six of us ran a 22-mile trailhead to trailhead fun run on the course. In honor of the Precious Moments Chapel being on the way to Arkansas, we affectionately referred to our run as the Precious Moments Fun Run.

BAR (Beer Appreciation Run) Scavenger Hunt

Here's how my team won a 4.5 mile race with the really slow time of 1:25.

And here's my other video explaining my first experience with the BAR Beer Gift Exchange.

Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run 2016

Recap of my first ultra!

The Run Toto Run 50k is the winter version of the Psycho Wyco hosted by the Trail Nerds. The race is mostly on bridle trails at Wyandotte County Lake Park with 4,263 feet of elevation. For the 50k, you run the same loop three times. That can get a little boring. And there are many hills that are too steep to run. From the bottom of the dam, to the entry of speed-demon ridge is a 220 ft climb. That's like walking up stairs in a 22 story building.

The weather for February was unusually warm - 70 degrees - which is not something I could train for in December and January leading up to the race. I logged plenty of miles and did regular squats and lunges training for the race. It paid off. While I hit the typical wall, it came a little later around mile 22, and I had pretty fast recovery. My goal was 7:30, so I was extremely pleased with 6:55:58 which was 73rd out of 101 finishers.

What sets Trail Nerds races apart from others is the quality of the volunteers. Friendly, supportive and here's the real difference, knowledgable. Not only are they willing do anything for you, they know what to do for you. Many are ultra runners between events, and there is great variety of food that you can get at the aid stations.

The SWAG included an awesome hoody, a sweet medal with an actual spinning tornado, and most impressively, a finisher's trucker hat. Hope to make this race an annual tradition. It's an nice regular for achieving my New Hampshire Compulsion of 50 marathons before September 1, 2023.