Old Man Still running

Earn your Turkey 4-mile

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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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Race: Earn your Turkey 4-mile (4 Miles) 00:25:48, Place overall: 46, Place in age division: 2
Total Distance
4.00

The weather is getting cold and wet, chasing me out of the hills and off the trails.  I decided to take a crack at another road race and went over to Orem to run in this traditional Thanksgiving 4-mile race. 

I'm currently training for Across The Years 24-hour race in Arizona on Dec 30.  I hope to cover 110 miles in the 24-hours.  If successful, it would be my 8th 100-mile finish for the calendar year, capping off a satifying ultramaraton race year.

To train for this next race, I'm backing off the extreme elevation training.  I've climbed 421,000 feet this year.  What I need to do now is increase my foot speed on the flats.  Thus, I'm doing more training on flatter dirt roads for the next few weeks.

Running in the Earn your Turkey 4-miler would be a nice test of my foot speed.  I rarely run on roads, but looking at the past year's times, I thought I could be competitive in my old-fart 50-54 age-group.

As the race started, plenty of youngsters went off sprinting like crazy.  I decided to be careful for the first mile and not burn out my lungs.  I'm just not used to cranking at such speeds.   I quickly noticed a tall strong 50ish runner in front of me, Bill Bedford, of Oregon.   I realized that he would be my competition.   I couldn't see any other gray-hairs ahead of us.  I decided to carefully hang behind Bill and hope that I could pass him later in the race.  

My first mile was a little slow, 6:22, but I sped up a little and cranked out a 6:15 second mile.   The lungs were working hard and I watched Bill pull ahead, fearing that he had dropped me.   I struggled on mile 3, still not warmed up, but had a 6:59 split, still under seven minutes.  I did notice at the 5K mark that I was faster than my 5K PR.  Very nice.

Finally I started to feel warmed up and pushed the last mile much harder, passing a few runners ahead.   Bill was in view, but I realized I wouldn't catch him.   I finished mile 4 in 6:11 for a strong finish, about 30 seconds behind Bill   My finish time was 25:48, 46th place overall, and 2nd to Bill in the 50-54 age group.   I was pleased to see that no other old runners beat us, in fact the oldest runner to beat us was 44.   If I was a year younger, I would have won the 45-49 age group.  My pace was under 6:30 miles.   Nice for an old slow guy.

Well, it was a fun morning.   I took home a turkey and a coupon for a pie.

Comments
From Smooth on Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 00:46:04

CONGRATS on taking 2nd in your AG and a turkey home. NICE JOB on that 5K PR too. You're an amazing runner. GOOD LUCK on your Across the Year 24 hr race in AZ. I always enjoy reading your 100 miler race report. BTW, I'm Mrs. Lew of Lehi. My son, Bryan, and your daughter went to high school together. Have a great weekend.

From Dad on Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 03:43:54

A marvelous list of accomplishments. Virtually in a class of your own over such a narrow window of time and at your tender age. You have inspired me to ge back in the game. My 61st BD is this Friday. Thanks for the push. Good luck on 12/30. I'll be following you. BTW, my son is Sean who won this race.

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