William’s hobby has infected us!    Ashley and I are trying to keep up with William, who’s kind of our teacher.

On the way back from Alabama, William and I made a detour to begin a quest that I’m sure will last for many years.  We are going to climb to the highest point of all 50 states, that is our goal.  On January 27, 2008, we started the quest in Florida at the lowest of the 50 states high points, Britton Hill, a whopping 345 feet above sea level.

Some will be easy, almost administrative, like this one, whereas others will be quite the adventure.  We intend to do each one with some type of hike or some adventure associated with it, so even if a high point is drivable, like Alabama, we will go to the bottom of the mountain and do the climb/hike to the top if it is at all practical.  On this one we did about a 1 mile hike around the park, just exploring the nearby woods. 

We don’t have a timeline, and plan to just have a fun time of knocking off as many states as we can.  We’ll probably get 7 or 8 mostly in the East this year.

 But number 1 of 50 is down.  We took a few photos and I’ve set up a separate photo album where we’ll have photos of us as each high point here…http://daveharperphotos.irun100s.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=63301

William and I made the trek up to North Alabama for Mountain Mist 50k.   I love that race, it was the first Ultra I ever ran, and it’s pretty much all gnarly, rocky, steep single track, which is right up my alley.    We lived in Huntsville for 10 years, and I spent many hours running up on Monte Sano mountain when we lived there.  Though at the time, I was running roads and not trails.   I’ve completed Mt. Mist 6 times now, on my way to 10, to earn a 10 time finishers jacket.  That will be the first event of any kind that I’ve done that many times. 

In any case, I ALMOST did not even go up to run.  On Monday, I called my friends in Huntsville and told them I wasn’t coming.  I was so out of shape, I really didn’t know if I would be able to finish, and saw no need to just go up there and suffer.  By Wednesday, I was rethinking it.  I called again, and let them know that I would be there Friday evening, ready to run (or try to) on Saturday.

Turns out, I had a great time.  While I am very overweight, and have not done much of any running since last July.  Since Badwater last year, I have done two 13 mile runs, and a few 10 milers.  Other than that, it’s been 1 or 2, 3 miles runs most weeks, and not every week at that.  My weight is as high as it’s ever been in my life.  So trying to cover 31 miles of rocky, mountainous single track trail, with fairly strict cutoffs was not going to be easy, and maybe impossible.  The race is advertised saying ‘ THIS IS NOT A HIKE’ and I know this course is not for walkers, it’s a trail RUNNING course.   Being aware of my lack of fitness going in, my Hunstville friends and crew smartly decided to use two vehicles and be setup in two teams, one team for William (their William, not my son William) and girlfriend, who likely would be very fast, and me, who would not be very fast.  I knew that my job was to be conservative, use the knowledge of my body, effort and caloric/fluid needs to maintain a fast enough pace, without putting myself into too difficult a situation by pushing the pace.  I would not have time to overextend myself, crash and burn, and recover.   Had I done that, I would not have finished.

My goal was just to enjoy the day, and put another finish in the bank.  I actually had a great time, never was in any distress or pain, and just cruised very easily.  I was somewhat nervous the first half, as I really didn’t know what to expect of my out of shape legs and cardio system, but everything held up ok.  By the half way mark, I was feeling pretty good about things, and able to really enjoy it.  Vince met me at every aid station, and I really enjoyed stopping and chatting with him for several minutes each time.    One guy on the course, that I kept passing, asked me how I kept passing him, when he never remembered passing me.  Turns out I was hanging out in the aid stations talking to Vince, and he’d go by, then I’d catch and pass him.  I ended up running the last 1.5 miles with this guy, who was also from Florida, and finishing HIS sixth MMist also. 

The day was classic Mountain Mist, heavy fog in the morning, with very limited visibility and cold.  William Ansick, my young 21 year old friend from Huntsville did awesome.   Tami and I are friends with his parents, and we’ve known William since he was a little bitty boy.  He was at my first Mountian Mist run with his family helping me at the aid stations, and has been to several of my triathlons as a spectator.  In addition, he’s been part of the crew on all three of my Badwater runs.  After High School, he took up the triathlon sport, and is now also ultrarunning.  This was his third, and fastest MMist, and the cool thing, his time 5:19, is also MY Personal Best on the Mountain Mist course.    I’m sure next year he’ll blow that away and it’s been pretty neat to see him go from little boy, to coming to watch me race, to crewing Badwater,  to now becoming a quite accomplished young ultrarunner.  Congratulations to him.

For me, I’m very motivated now to hit the trails again, do some running, start eating right again and get myself back into a fit, running state.  It is going to take a while, but I’ll get there.

William(my william) and I had a good trip up, and back.  He had fun climbing and playing on the playground while I was running, though I know he tried the patience of everyone.  On the way back, we made a detour to Florida’s highest point, details of that to follow.

What do to, what to do?   I’ve really not been doing much running as of late, and feeling a little bad about that.  I’m missing it, and it’s time to get back on a regular schedule.  It’s alway easier for me to get out and do my runs when I have some goals in mind, and 2008 will be no different.  Compared to the last few years, 2008 will be very mild, I’m going to do some races, but they will be fairly close to home, and pretty low-key affairs.  Just running to be out running and enjoying it. 

For 2008 I’m currently planning to run

January – Mountain Mist 50k North Alabama, this was the first ultra I ever ran and will be my SIXTH running of it, after completing 10 of them, you get a nice jacket.  I probably won’t be in great shape at this time, but it will be a great long workout. We lived in Huntsville for years and Ashley was born there, so it’s a great chance to go back and visit.
February – Mount Cheaha 50k Central Alabama,  3rd running of this race, I’ve run it every year, the first year, I placed 10th overall, 3rd place over 40.  A very tough and rugged trail run.  A very well put on and fun point to point 50k.
March – Carl Touchstone 50 miles Mississippi, I’ve never run this race, but it’s supposed to be nice and will be a good, fairly easy 50 miler to build some endurance.
April – Barkley (yikes!) Tennessee, I am actually hoping to do much better this year, if I can  take some exceptional hill climbing fitness and my experience from last year, possibly to make an official 2 or MAYBE even 3 laps (60 miles, the fun run).

 That’s all I have on the agenda and I probably will not do a lot during the summer.  The last 3 years I have trained like a maniac in mid-summer, mid-day Florida heat, this year, I think I’ll not do that.  More likely to take it easy, rest, and pick it back up in the fall.

Well, that title is not exactly correct, firstly, it’s not about a run, and there isn’t much in Florida as far as high points to climb, BUT we live right at Sugarloaf Mt, some 310 or so feet above sea level, the highest point in the Florida Peninsula, and the THIRD highest point in the state.  AND William and I made weekend of a two park camping trip into the panhandle to some caves, to the highest waterfall in Florida, which also sits on Falling Water Hill, slightly taller than Sugarloaf and the SECOND highest point in the state.

The trip was the result of me meeting to deliver a motorcycle that I sold to a guy from Louisiana.  I used the meeting as an excuse to make a weekend trip with Will.

I have a full photo gallery posted at

http://daveharperphotos.irun100s.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=51540

Here’s the short version… (click photo for larger image)

We spent all of our time hiking, exploring, and just hanging out.  A very cool weekend.

Barkley Marathon is a very extreme, mysterious, ‘underground’ sort of event, that I had the priveledge of participating in early this year in Tennessee(100 miles).  I’ve been thinking about that event again lately. I maintain the mailing list for the Race Director, and as things are being prepared for next years events, my thoughts go back to that crazy day .  I did write a race report, with photos and videos, but didn’t really let very many people know about it.  In a sport(ultra running) that is already on the fringe of fringe sports, Barkley is over the cliff.  When you decide to enter events that are essentially impossible to finish for almost everyone, (most years there are no finishers), they light a cigarette to start the event, and the race shirt says ‘Endless suffering without a point’, well, let’s just say it doesn’t bolster the argument to friends and family that you are a sane individual.  That seems to get questioned more and more these days.

http://www.daveharper.com/Barkley/index.htm

I was playing an email game with my daughter and some friends, where you think of one word to describe the person you are emailing and what they mean to you.  My daughters one word description of me was WILD.  Not great, not inspiring, not loving, not caring, not honest or strong… WILD.       

I’m a little afraid to ask, but how about it.  Describe me in one word …. just one single word. Send it to me and to me only via email.  I’ll post the results afterwards if they are printable, without your name of course.  I’ll send you an email you can forward to others with the instructions for doing the same.  It’s enlightening to see what folks think about you, as you see can above.

In any case, here is the race report that I wrote from Barkley, it has photos and short video clips of different parts of the course, finding the books, etc.  http://www.daveharper.com/Barkley/index.htm

Saturday’s ride…

Click on photos for full size and description. (when that page opens, you can then click the photo again for larger size.)

Today was a fun morning.  I was invited to speak to a 10th grade Life Management class for an hour.   I got to tell them all about my ultra running, and we talked about goal setting  and stuff like that.  It was cool.  For some reason, my wife thought it was rather comical that I was talking to anyone about Life Management, I can’t imagine why.  I mean, our life with 3 kids, 4 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds, a hamster and fish is the most calm, peaceful, relaxed, well planned, and organized vacation of a life that a person could ever imagine.  Isn’t it Honey?  NOT!  Yea, I suppose complete chaos is a more accurate description, but hey, only WE know the truth.  SERENITY NOW!!!!!