Day 2 of a multi day tend to eat it’s competitors to the core, and if you make it through Day 2, you’re only going to get stronger. Day 2 has eaten it’s share of athletes, while others had quite a few spectacular performances down at Cambelback Ranch in Arizona. Ice cold nights didn’t stop Ed Ettinghausen from reaching 201 miles in 48 hours, nor Debra Horn from breaking the American 48 hours Road Record in the Women’s 55-59 age group with an astounding 170 miles breaking Liz Bauer’s 2014 mark! Davy Crocket earned his 1,000 mile lifetime jacket with over 150 miles in the 48 hour. 33 year old Marine Chavet Breslin is leading …
2015 Across The Years Preview
Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona will heat up next week as hundreds of runners will converge on the spring training baseball home of the Dodgers and White Sox. This fixed-time multiday running event celebrates the New Year. Each racer is free to walk, stop, eat, and sleep whenever they wish, but the clock is always running on these ultra pedestrians. 16 different races begin at 9am on Monday, December 28, 2015 with the 6 day runners starting simultaneously with the first group of 72, 48, and 24 hour participants. The last group of racers will finish at 9am on Sunday, January 3rd. The route is a 1.05 mile loop that consists of 90% dirt paths with …
Aravaipa Cave Creek Thriller 50K Race Report: ALWAYS Pre-Grease Your Butt Crack, and Other Advice from a Tired and Happy Trail Runner
This is a long post. Here are the top 6 essential cliff notes for those of you too lazy to read the whole thing (you know who you are): Always run long when training for a 50K: 10 miles is not long Always go into a run with the mindset that you’re going to enjoy yourself Push through feeling crappy: we all feel crappy at some point in time, it’s not a reason to quit Watch for Desert Tortoises, they’re awesome Always drink Coke in conjunction with running, it’s amazing Always pre-grease your butt crack: butt crack chafing is unpleasant The Beginning of the Story: My morning began at 3:40am. I slept in my race clothes, …
Aravaipa Pass Mountain 50K Race Report: Hooray for Pizza and Coke!
Le sigh. My life is a whirlwind of my own making. I keep telling myself the frantic pace will calm down eventually. I am about 95% sure this is true. Of course in addition to my already frenetic life, I must run far. It’s fun. Pass Mountain 50K. Honestly I was in no better condition for it than for the Cave Creek 50K, but I went out to finish it. Why not? My longest training run this time consisted of pacing my dear friend Kathi to her 3rd place finish at the Javelina Jundred K– this was about 15.5 miles. While that’s better than my 10 mile long runs for Cave Creek, it’s not much better. …
Our Commitment to the Trails We Love
Aravaipa Running was born out of a deep respect and love for nature: exploring it, finding and overcoming limits within it, and embracing the pain and euphoria it can cause. One incredibly important aspect to this is understanding that the same nature is home to creatures that allow us to share their habitat. While wilderness areas can be roadblocks to creating the ‘ultimate’ event and certain times of the year are ruled out immediately for conservation purposes, even as race directors, we not only respect these limits but know how important the preservation and protection of these lands and animals are to our continued enjoyment of nature as we currently know it. With that said, …
Race Report: FLGX Big Pine 54K
**Flagstaff Extreme Big Pine 54K Race Report from Aravaipa Ambassador, Amber Fifield** I am sitting on my couch, still sporting the slightly-stiff-muscles hobble indicative of a good tough running effort; in this instance that effort was Aravaipa’s Inaugural Flagstaff Big Pine 54K. The events of the race, and indeed, of the weekend, are still so fresh in my mind that I feel the need to put them to computer immediately. Even though I have other adventures still begging to be written, I feel this one must take precedence. In the month after my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim crossing, I took it very easy with my running, just doing a couple of easy …
A Ramble
“So how does a 50K work?” I was asked this question the other day and it completely confused me; I didn’t understand what was being asked. “Well, I mean, you don’t run it all at once right?” Oooohhhhh. Me: “Well, yes. You do.” I think there was confusion on their face. It’s mind-boggling to me that there are people who haven’t heard of ultra-marathons; it is what I breathe. All I seem to be able to talk about is either geeky immunology or microbiology (or some other “ology” entirely), or running ultras and the best trails. Everybody I know is the same… well, at least regarding the latter part. I’m always wanting to hit that …
2015 Crown King Scramble Recap
The 24th Crown King Scramble 50K is in the books and ‘the hill’ was conquered by many with the sweet reward of beer and a festive finish line. This year had the noticeable disadvantage of high temperatures throughout the day but the advantage of flowing creeks from the rains earlier in the month. The starting line was relatively cool but as soon as the sun peeked its head above the horizon it started to scorch the trail and those on it. Almost 75 runners took advantage of the early start and an additional hour of darkness with the remainder of the total 234 starters heading out an hour later. With the remote nature of …
Flagstaff Extreme Big Pine Update (+$10 Gift Card Offer)
Are you ready to Test Your Limits? Big Pine just got even bigger with the official name change to Flagstaff Extreme Big Pine and some serious fun in store for all runners, crew, family and spectators! If running at 7,000’ elevation just isn’t enough for you we have teamed up with Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course to take your journey higher: up into the tree tops! Zip, scramble, balance, climb… The Adventure Course is designed to challenge you both mentally and physically with courses that get harder the higher you climb. Anyone registering for the race will receive a 10% discount off the Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course Passes (Adult passes with discount are $44 and Kids …
Ultimate Direction & Black Canyon 100k Photo Caption Contest
Thanks to our friends at Ultimate Direction, we have some hydration packs and bottles to give away to the winners of our Black Canyon photo caption contest. “How do you stay hydrated on the trail?” We asked followers to use their creativity to tell us what these runners are saying as they are “running” at mile 39 of the Black Canyon 100K. Here were text submissions on Instagram & Facebook: coffeeandtrails “Training for Arizona Ironman?” “Sure beats tempe town lake” wandering_coconut “They said tubing down the Salt river would be fun” fleetfeethkry “So, I asked for a bottle of Perpetuem to be ready at mile 23, and I get Sustained Energy! I mean, how do …