Several of our group were running long in the north country this past weekend. (Hey, Kansas is north!) And it could have just as well been the Arctic Circle as cold as it was. The race was Heartland Spirit of the Prairie, a 100 mile and 50 mile on gravel roads through the Flint Hills of central Kansas. The race started and finished in Cassoday, Kansas, a town with less population than 21st and Boulder has on a Saturday morning. Cassoday is the Prairie Chicken Capitol of the world, and lo and behold, Roman managed to capture a pic of a couple of the squawkers!
Kathy, TZ, Jason, Lisa, Roman, and Ken Saveth represented the RunnersWorld gang in the 10th running of this ultramarathon.
Temps were low 30s. There was not a lot of wind at the start of the race, but boy did it ever pick up an hour or so later!
Brian had a distinct interest in the outcome of this race. Seems a wager had materialized as to whether Jason, who was doing his 1st 100 miler, and Lisa and Roman, who were doing their 1st 50 milers, would finish their race. Brian was betting no, and his opposition was saying yes. The bet was, if they finished, Brian would have to wear a PINK TUTU AT THE TULSA RUN!!! OMG, this is gonna be fun! Do they make tutu's that big????
(Pic courtesy of TZ's photoshop.)
The 1st hour was before dawn, and when the sun came up, it was quickly blanketed by clouds. Those of you running your early Saturday run, know this: We felt that cold wind hours before it reached Oklahoma! The Heartland course is ran across the Kansas prairie, but it is anything but flat.
We were treated to hill after hill after rocky hill.
And, we had great aid stations every 6-8 miles with an occasional unmanned water drop where needed.
TZ, Ken Saveth, and Lisa turn into a fierce north wind at mile 16.
Lisa breezes through the 16.8 mile Lapland aid station. Bobby, Susan, and Dana were on crew babe duty, and kept us fueled up and revved to go.
Jason has a posse crewing him. Jason's parents Cindy and Brian, as well as his sister, uncle, and grandparents were on hand to crew, cheer, and pace. Other runners may have questioned, "Who is that guy? Some superstar?"
The whole McGinnis posse waits in a tent at Matfield Green for their runner to come back through.
Roman makes the turn at Teterville, 25 miles into his race and heads back to the finish. Roman had a few aches and pains, but found himself on the way back and finished 12:54.
Lisa ran with Roman for most of the 1st half, and then pulled ahead and almost ran an even split, finishing in 12:27.
Kathy ran with happy feet most of the way....she always does. Despite dealing with some nausea, fatigue, sleep, and cold, she finished strong, 3rd woman and tied for 17th overall with Jason in a time of 24:23.
Jason and Kathy ran side by side all the way. Kathy is becoming a legend on pacing peeps in their 1st 100 miler. She's 2 for 2 doing this. 
Jason started in shorts, and ran with bare legs all day and all night. Crazy? Yup.
TZ and Ken Saveth ran fairly well for 43 miles, and then began to flirt with the time cutoffs. They managed to stay just ahead of the cutoffs for 5 checkpoints, and then missed a cutoff at mile 69 by 5 minutes. Ken S called it a night, and TZ with the pacing of Russell forged ahead, but failed to pick up the pace enough to make the next aid station and time and were picked up by the sag wagon. Tough night, guys. You'll get 'em next time.
One of the highlights of the event was the presence of the Crew Chicklettes.
Head Crew Chicklette, Sandra has recruited Chicklettes Susan and Christin. Having people scream and cheer for you while trudging into the aid stations is so motivational. Makes me wanna run another mile....or maybe a half a mile. But the chief Crew Babe is Dana, aka TaturCakes.
Dana could turn pro with her crewing abilities, and in renowned in 4 states. Crewing all night, staying awake and driving from aid stop to aid stop for 30-40 hours straight is almost as hard as running all day and night.
If you see any of these crazies, congratulate them. And think about joining in on some of the fun in the future!
Sunday was TATUR's Mud, Sweat, and Tears Adventure Race. Tulsa has not had an adventure race for a few years, and it was an exuberant crowd that drug their mountain bikes and running gear over to the Westside YMCA early Sunday morning. The course consisted of a 4.5 mile run, a 17.5 mile bike ride that had a 2.5 mile canoe expedition sandwiched in, and a few surprises at the transition areas. Close to 100 brave adventure hungry crazies toed the line for the 8:00 start on this cool drizzly fall day.
Watches ready, Garmin's cleared, and then the blast of the shotgun!
The trail wound around up and down hills, through creek bottoms, over craggy rocks, some slick from the rain. There were a few falls, some bumps and boo boos, everything that makes a great trail run.
Toby Smith and Tim Davis make it look easy, clicking off what must have been 7 minute miles.
Jimmy Jones leans into the turn before heading up a nice climb.
There were 23 checkpoints along the way, and one team member had to punch their passport card at each one. Missing one would result in a penalty. Most check points were in plain sight as this was a "beginner-friendly" adventure race.
Glen Kerr and Karrie Garriott finish their run, and head into the YMCA gymnasium for a series of physical endurance tests. 
Each member of the two-person teams were assigned a letter, A or B. The A's had to do a series of exercises: 10 pushups, 30 jumping jacks, 25 hops on the right foot, then the left foot, several crunches, and then....
they had to cover the length of the gym doing the crab crawl. But that's not all! They then had to scoot the length of the gym and back on a small wheeled cart.
Their partners, those with B's had a slightly easier task: they had to ride an obstacle course the length of the gym and back on tricycles....
and then shoot a layup, a free throw, and a three pointer.
Then it was on to the bikes. About 2 miles of the ride was on trails, and there was a lot of climbing to deal with, as well as some technical downhills. Then, the bikers were treated to a little over 5 miles of nice pavement, all downhill or flat. Nothing like giving those trashed legs a rest! The bike ride took them down the west bank of the Arkansas River to the Tulsa Rowing Club boat house. 
Off the bikes and to the water! 
There, the teams boarded canoes and paddled a mile up the mighty Arkansas, across to the east bank, to the 23rd Street bridge, and down the west bank to the transition area, all the while picking up 4 checkpoints.
A quick landing to grab check point #15.
Front-runners Scott Ostrem and Steve Lee were the first out of the water.
But there was another surprise task to be done.
Teams had to find 11 words in a word-find puzzle!
From there, it was about 8 miles of easy biking, and 2 miles of technical trail.
The finish line, wild cheers, hot pizza, and cold beers.
The winners: in the coed competition: 3rd place went to Rob Johnson (pictured in the white shirt) and Jacquelyn Erbacher (not pictured.)
2nd place went to the duo of Glen Kerr and Karrie Garriott.
1st place went to John Stanfield and Amy Crawford.
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3rd place in the ladies division went to Tiffany Brown and Becca Brant, pictured at the top.
2nd place went to BOMBs Melanie Biskup and Ginger Renshaw.
1st place honors went to Dee Smith and Julie Ladehoff.
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The men's winners were: in 3rd place Jordan James and Ron Haveman.
In 2nd place and only ONE SECOND behind the winners, Toby Smith and Tim Davis.
Winning this event for the men, the team of Scott Ostrem and Steve Lee.
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Congratulations to everyone who participated in this great event. It took a lot of work, and a lot of great effort by the volunteers to pull it off. From all I have heard, everyone had great fun! Don't miss it next year!
It's been a good summer for running. We've had good weather, a few warmish days, a few wettish days, and some coolish days are just ahead. We've put in some long runs, a few have done a little speed work, some have done their first trail run, a few crazies have run double marathons and half marathons. Some have brought home some cool medals, some are nursing not-so-cool injuries. But never, ever, have I had the pleasure of doing a race where the goal was to catch girls!!
Kathy was approached by Robin Hudson to help put on a race to raise money for suicide awareness. Kathy had been toying with the idea of doing a "skirt chaser" race where the ladies got a head start and the men got to hoof it to try to catch them. What a cool idea!!!! So, Kathy and Robin partnered up and put this race on in conjunction with the Scottish Games, where men in skirts (kilts) was a common sight.
All the men received a nice Brooks podium tech shirt with a crusty cowboy dude smoking a cigar. 
The ladies received a nice running skirt with the taunting words across the fanny. Gotta luv chasing that!
Good friends Earl and Jen appear to be all costumed up for the occasion, but in fact, this is normal garb for the Blewetts.
So with a three minute head start, would a woman win this 5k race?
I meandered around the back of the pack before the race to see which skirts I thought I could catch. Soon they were off, and exactly 180 seconds later, the men were sent off in hot pursuit.
Took me about a half mile, but I caught my 1st two skirts!!!
Passed these two glamor girls and turned around to snap a pic. But my goal was to catch Lisa. I saw her after she had reached the turn-around and was on the way back. Hmmm....about a half mile behind her.
I did manage to catch her though, as well as a lot of other skirts. :-)
A lady in fact did win the race! McKale Davis from Stillwater looked strong when she blew by on her return trip. I could have not beat her even if "I" had a 10 minute head start! In fact, 3 of the top 4 runners were ladies!! Very cool!
Afterward, they had a fashion show where 9 or 10 of the finest looking ladies ever modeled running skirts. And, not to be slighted, us men got to model our kilts.
A sexy leg content followed and some very worthy legs were passed by for the tantalizing muscular props of Jason McGinnis and Scott Ostrem. It was a very close vote, and finally the competition was declared a tie. Kiss your sister!
This was such a fun race, and it's sure to become an annual event.
A man whom I consider my friend ran the Turkey and Taturs 10K this past Sunday after reading about it here and on the Zombie blog.
I have followed Alan through his blog, "Yogi's Den for a couple of years, and we've chatted via email and blog comments off and on. I had hoped to meet him, but my pokey self left out early (4:15 am) and finished way after he was gone. Alan posted a great race report with great pictures, and you can view it here.
Several of our group were running long in the north country this past weekend. (Hey, Kansas is north!) And it could have just as well been the Arctic Circle as cold as it was. The race was Heartland Spirit of the Prairie, a 100 mile and 50 mile on gravel roads through the Flint Hills of central Kansas. The race started and finished in Cassoday, Kansas, a town with less population than 21st and Boulder has on a Saturday morning. Cassoday is the Prairie Chicken Capitol of the world, and lo and behold, Roman managed to capture a pic of a couple of the squawkers!
Temps were low 30s. There was not a lot of wind at the start of the race, but boy did it ever pick up an hour or so later!
Brian had a distinct interest in the outcome of this race. Seems a wager had materialized as to whether Jason, who was doing his 1st 100 miler, and Lisa and Roman, who were doing their 1st 50 milers, would finish their race. Brian was betting no, and his opposition was saying yes. The bet was, if they finished, Brian would have to wear a PINK TUTU AT THE TULSA RUN!!! OMG, this is gonna be fun! Do they make tutu's that big????
(Pic courtesy of TZ's photoshop.)
We were treated to hill after hill after rocky hill.
And, we had great aid stations every 6-8 miles with an occasional unmanned water drop where needed.
TZ, Ken Saveth, and Lisa turn into a fierce north wind at mile 16.
Lisa breezes through the 16.8 mile Lapland aid station. Bobby, Susan, and Dana were on crew babe duty, and kept us fueled up and revved to go.
Jason has a posse crewing him. Jason's parents Cindy and Brian, as well as his sister, uncle, and grandparents were on hand to crew, cheer, and pace. Other runners may have questioned, "Who is that guy? Some superstar?"
The whole McGinnis posse waits in a tent at Matfield Green for their runner to come back through.
Roman makes the turn at Teterville, 25 miles into his race and heads back to the finish. Roman had a few aches and pains, but found himself on the way back and finished 12:54.
Lisa ran with Roman for most of the 1st half, and then pulled ahead and almost ran an even split, finishing in 12:27.
Kathy ran with happy feet most of the way....she always does. Despite dealing with some nausea, fatigue, sleep, and cold, she finished strong, 3rd woman and tied for 17th overall with Jason in a time of 24:23.
Jason and Kathy ran side by side all the way. Kathy is becoming a legend on pacing peeps in their 1st 100 miler. She's 2 for 2 doing this. 
Jason started in shorts, and ran with bare legs all day and all night. Crazy? Yup.
TZ and Ken Saveth ran fairly well for 43 miles, and then began to flirt with the time cutoffs. They managed to stay just ahead of the cutoffs for 5 checkpoints, and then missed a cutoff at mile 69 by 5 minutes. Ken S called it a night, and TZ with the pacing of Russell forged ahead, but failed to pick up the pace enough to make the next aid station and time and were picked up by the sag wagon. Tough night, guys. You'll get 'em next time.
Head Crew Chicklette, Sandra has recruited Chicklettes Susan and Christin. Having people scream and cheer for you while trudging into the aid stations is so motivational. Makes me wanna run another mile....or maybe a half a mile. But the chief Crew Babe is Dana, aka TaturCakes.
Dana could turn pro with her crewing abilities, and in renowned in 4 states. Crewing all night, staying awake and driving from aid stop to aid stop for 30-40 hours straight is almost as hard as running all day and night.
