Old Man Still running

Uinta Highline end-to-end

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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

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Total Distance
103.00
Montrail Wildwood Miles: 22.00
Total Distance
15.00

On the trail at 4:20 a.m. and climbed almost to the top of Butterfield Peaks before I ran out of time.  Took a longer route and took it easy.   Wow, talk about wildlife this morning!  I ran into what I think was my first mountain lion.   It was ahead of me on the road and screeched at me very loud.  It was definitely a large cat.  Even with headphones on, it got my attention.   It ran a little up the road and then it turned around and screeched very loud at me again.   It repeated this again and finally went off the road.  I went by very carefully.  It had no interest in greeting me.  Not long after that I spooked some deer that really ran off fast.  They probably heard the mountain lion.  About a half mile later as it became lighter, two foxes were on the road, spotted me, kept watching me and then ran away.   Coming down I saw two eagles flying above me and near the bottom a bunch of pheasants.  What a morning!   The sunrise was spectacular too.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 15.00
Comments(11)
Total Distance
7.00

After work I ran up Yellow Fork and coming down found yet another very long single track, very nice.  Ran into Cody Haycock who will be running Wasatch 100.

Planning on a birthday run this weekend.  Turning 52 so need to run at least 52 miles.  I'm planning on establishing a speed record for the Uinta Highline trail.  In 2007 I ran it with Matt Watts from Chepeta Lake to Hayden Pass in 30 hours, but this time I'd like to do the entire length from Leidy Peak to Hayden Pass, probably 75-78 miles.  And, I think I can do it in less than 28.5 hours depending on thunderstorm wait-outs (there could be many).   There are 8 passes to climb over.  It is a spectacular run but very gruling because of all the rocks in the Uintas.  I'll be renting a SPOT, so you probably will be able to track my progress online.  I'll be starting early Friday morning.

It will be a speed record mostly because no one else has recorded a time in under two days for this length of the trail.  Someone claims that Creighton King and Rob Landis did Highline Trail in a day in the 1980s, but it isn't known how long it took them and which length they did.  In any event, I'll do it solo.   I like posting speed records not for recognition but to inspire others to try to do the same and break it.  The Highline Trail doesn't get a lot of attention and is a hidden jewel in the US back country.

Montrail Wildwood Miles: 7.00
Comments(2)
Total Distance
2.00

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Race: Uinta Highline end-to-end (78.5 Miles) 33:19:12, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Total Distance
79.00

Read my detailed report here.

Not a race, but worthy of a highlighted report.   I ran/hiked the Uinta Highline trail from Leidy Peak (northwest of Vernal) to Hayden Pass (near Mirror Lake) east to west.  In 2007 I did 65 of these 78.5 miles with Matt Watts in 30 hours.  This time I did then entire trail solo.

What an adventure.  It is so remote.  The only hikers I saw were near Kings Peak.  Other than that I saw a Forest Service guy at mile 27 and a sheep herder at mile 42.

It was a tough, tough run.  It is impossible to maintain a fast run because of all the obstacles, hundreds of creek crossings, lots of marshes, mud bogs, and trails with bowling ball or bigger rocks.  You get a good pace going and are quickly brought to a slow run/walk around the obstacles.  If you run too fast, you also lose the trail because it is very faint in so many areas. But still I covered it all in 33:19 which can be posted as the record.  My motivation for posting speed records is to get it documented so someone else can try to break it.   I also broke the record for the section of the trail from Chepeta to Hayden.  Did it in 28:33.

What is amazing, is that I only covered 18 miles during the night!  I had to climb three major passes in the dark and lost the trail dozens of times.  Without my GPS and my waypoints, I would have had to stop for the night.  With maps it is impossible to navigate many sections during the night.  When I would lose the trail, instead of going back, I would just bushwack to my next waypoint, usually within a half mile and then pick up the trail again.  Trail markers are tough to see at night.  Elevation grinded me to slow hikes above 11,500 feet.  My entire run was between 9,950 and 12,500.

The mosquitos were blood thirsy starting at mile 32.  I really regretted not bringing spray.  I probably was bit 100 times before a hiker near Kings Peak let me use his spray.  I also stopped to help this group because a boy of about 12 was throwing up repeatedly.  His father didn't know anything about electrolytes and they had only been drinking water.   I left them with some Succeed caps.  I hope they helped because they still had a long way to go and only a few more hours of sunlight.

My last 15 miles or so were a death march.  My feet was very sore from the rough trail.  I couldn't slow to take care of them because I would be eaten alive by the bugs.

After the run, I washed up the best I could and hitched a ride to Kamas with some guys were were running an aid station for the bike race Tour De Park City.  Nice guys.  They were flabergasted to hear about my adventure.  I then called my wife and she drove up to take me home.  On Sunday we spent the entire day retrieving the car left back at the eastern trailhead.

Well, I'll write a detailed run report sometime this coming week.   Even though the distance was less than 80 miles, it felt like a 100-mile race effort, a slow one.  The GPS showed 13,000 feet of climbing.  There was probably several thousand more.  As far as toughness goes, this is easier than Wasatch 100.  But this course is much slower, just impossible to run fast.

My GPS track across the Uintas:

Comments(8)
Total Distance
103.00
Montrail Wildwood Miles: 22.00
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