Still on the catch-up game. (a proud Post Oak Tradition)

So a few weeks ago was the Post Oak Challenge. This is one of my special races every year. On Saturday they host a 10k, 25k, and 50k and Sunday has a quarter, half, or full marathon on tap. Now crazy runners have the option to do both (the doublers) and more than a few do. The race is in a beautiful part of Tulsa and the course in difficult, which I think is a great thing. This race began in 2010 as a very different style race with a quarter, half, and full marathon on Saturday taking place on the road, and all of the other events taking place on the trail on Sunday. Over the years the race has changed and grown, and all the directors have put their hearts and souls into the race making it the two-day trail party it is today.

I ran the very first Post Oak 50k in February of 2010 as my very first ultra. I had only began running in October of 2009, so this was a pretty big deal for me and 2010 would end up being one of the most important years of my life. However, we will save the recap of 2010 for the next blog post. Let’s focus on Post Oak. After running it I decided that I wanted to give back to this race, so in 2011 I teamed up with TZ to help run one of the aid stations at the base of the biggest climb of the race, Holm’s peak. It was awesome. And I don’t just mean that our aid station was awesome, in fact that year it was pretty basic just us and some music. But the runners were the best, they were as excited to see us out there as we were to see them. So I decided that we needed to bring this up a notch. I vowed from that day on that every year I would return to Post Oak to have the best aid station I could and do my part to make it a party for the runners.

Me Pre-Beard with My Mother at the end of 2010 Post Oak

Me at 2011 Post Oak working the aid station explaining running to Mitch

In 2012 TZ and Ed made the mistake of inviting me to be part of their aid station team, and I unloaded my scheme. So rather than having a normal aid station with all the supplies and what not that the race provided (which was all great stuff) we made breakfast burritos, had beer, and just for good measure decided that the station would have a disco theme. Why disco? Because my awesome friend Ame made me this sweet ass Disco Stu jacket for Christmas and I needed more reasons to wear it. So we went into this not really knowing how the people would react, and of course because they are runners and runners are awesome they went nuts. It was a big hit. And, thanks to Susan Westmoreland and Brynna who cooked all the food and what not; Ed, TZ, and I were able to just run around like idiots the whole time. But of course there was a downside. What could we do to top this and make it even bigger next year. I didn’t want this to be a one and done type of deal, I had made that stupid promise to myself that we would keep this thing going to make it the place to be, so we needed a plan for the next year.

Team Disco

Disco Stu does not advertise?

Mitch said this burrito was better than my pep talk last year

So in 2013 Ed and I hit the aid station again with a sketchy plan of two different themes for the two days. On Saturday we elected for 80’s glam rock, and Sunday would be the Mexican Fiesta. We had a blast with this, finding that there is a surprising amount of 80’s memorabilia at the local party supply store. So manned with plastic inflatable guitars we attached Saturday’s aid station with more music and crazier food. Now people knew we were coming so I was happy to find that we did not disappoint. The other benefit to us running an aid station (the first being that we are crazy) is that almost everyone that we had at our aid station was an accomplish ultra runner. So not only did we bring the party to help lift spirits, but we also had our own aid station supplies to help get people through low spots and knew when to push on people to eat more, or whatever else it took to get them through the race. We would all laugh hysterically when someone said they wanted to drop, because we knew that they came to the wrong aid station to do that. It is always a little rough being a runner at a race you are not getting to take part in, but if you have not spent time working an aid station at a race you need to get on it. It is one of the best ways to spend a weekend, and you quickly find those volunteers are working much harder than the runners. (No offence to runners). Sunday we had a Mexican Fiesta on tap, with the now infamous salsa challenge. See on Sunday they placed us at the bottom of the “Hill from Hell” it is a 0.7 mile climb straight up to the finish line. So we decided that was too easy and encouraged people to take a shot of salsa before running up the hill. And thanks to Danielle as a reward they got tiny plastic sombreros to wear up the hill. It is amazing what people will do for tiny hats, and we quickly ran out. Totally underestimating the number of people that would do this stupid challenge.  

Rocking with Ed

Just what runners need

So classy

Notice the Sombrero 

Ok, by 2014 this had become a thing. So we really had to step up the game, luckily we had some new recruits for the craziness. Adding to the normal gang of Ed, Brynna, Wes, and I we had Philip and Sarah. Plus, a gang of other friends and people that wanted in on this action. So to keep with the Saturday theme we went for 90’s grunge rock. In those days the aid station was at the Pole Barn (the starting line for the race back in 2010) which was really nice, because it has electrical power. We needed that power by this point as we had several radios and even more griddles going to keep the music and food hot. During the race that day Shannon was with me at the aid station when a guy who had been way out front came in after just having twisted his ankle. He really felt like he was going to have to hang it up and drop out of the race. Luckily Shannon and I were able to talk him into letting us wrap his ankle up and told him to promise us that he would at least try and finish the race. Having been so far in the front of the race he had plenty of time. He hoped off and I really didn’t think much of it after that, just continued my craziness for the next group of runners. A few months after the race I received a letter in the mail from the US Airforce Base in OKC, which seemed strange. I opened it to find a letter from Captain David Temple who was the runner we helped. He thanked me for my assistance and included a challenge coin from his unit that he carried into Afghanistan during his tour. I have to say this was one of the most touching things I have ever seen, Captain Temple could have never sent that letter and I would have still been happy to help him and never really given it another thought, but he did take the time to send the letter and it is one of the few items that I have framed and hanging in my office. And every time someone comes in and looks at it I get to think of that day and tell that story, it is amazing what happens when you are grateful and take the step to let someone know. I am grateful for that letter and love sharing that story.

For Sunday we had to pull an all-nighter. We kind of forgot to make a plan for Sunday and did not want to do more 90’s rock. There was a lot going on with our friend Wes at the time so we had a little excuse for being distracted. However, thanks to the Wal-Mart in Sand Springs and a lot of felt we came up with a plan. And as the sun rose over the course on that day the Monty Python’s Holy Grail aid station was born. Complete with coconuts for horse noises for the runners (a suitable alternative to cowbell if you ask me). It was a blast and by the end of the day we had the surprise of Wes joining us out at the aid station. So we had a lot to cheer about. Also, we may or may not have convinced a running legend (I mean a for real running legend) to do a keg stand from a keg we stole from another aid station. But there is no way to confirm this, other than the photos. To this day I am not sure why Johnny has not kick us out of his race, but I am sure glad he hasn’t.

Pip and Sarah (she is the evil bunny)

Me knighting Eddy James

We really class up any race

For 2015 we did a mashup with the LMFAO v. Michael Jackson aid stations. This quickly just devolved into a be as crazy as possible aid station. That year someone made the mistake of not only allowing us to bring a much more powerful sound system, but allowing me to have a microphone. So you can imagine how that went. But our crew keeps growing and if anyone questions the dedication of this aid station group just take a look at Sarah’s fingers by the end of the day. She will have worn all the skin off her hands from shaking the cow bell of every person coming through. I mean come on people you have to love this group.

We somehow got on the website (pretty sure it was hackers)

The man, the myth, the legend

This year we decided to do an Oktoberfest theme, complete with costumes, polka music, brats, potato pancakes, and homemade pretzels. Not so German but totally awesome were the electrolyte cookies Pip and Sarah made and the just badass cookies that Danielle made. To add to that Johnny (the race director) brought us a for-real professional sound system, and the brew master Frank made us two kegs of beer. You heard that right friends, he brewed us beer just for our ridiculous aid station. And as awesome as this all was, we had some real competition from the other TATUR aid station down the hill where TZ had set up a Cantina (or as most would call it just a full bar). All in all, a great couple of days, and just the best people all around. The runners, the other volunteers, the race directors, and the spectators. If you have not taken part in this race in the past do yourself a favor and put it on your calendar right now. I will promise you, if you come out and run it we will offer you a beer. What more do you need? Now Go Run Tulsa.   

Grill master Wes with Ed creeping in the background

Me filling in when Wes got called into work

Frank prepping more beer behind me

Part of the Crew

Good times

So it has been a few weeks but we have stories to share about my running adventures.

I am sorry that I have been a little lacking in the blog posts as of late. But with all the traveling I have been doing for work plus some big weekends it has been tough to get some time to sit still and write an update. So this morning I am using a flight to Carlsbad NM as my chance to get some writing in. I will share what I can and maybe in a few post  we can get caught up to current.

One of the biggest highlights for the last few weeks was the fastpacking trip we did for Shannon's birthday. Shannon for those of you who do not have the pleasure of knowing him is a great person with a great heart, and on of the reasons we make so many trips to the northwest Arkansas area. Being a big time trail runner there was only one way in his mind to spend a birthday, and that was in the woods with friends. The previous year he took on the Buffalo River Trail solo and had a bad fall coming up short on finishing. This year we (John, Pip, Stan Ferguson, and I) came along to offer support and ensure that he got it done. So on Friday the 12th of February we headed to Rogers Arkansas to crash at Shannon and Jody’s for an early departure to the trailhead. I had John and Pip with me for support and that night when we go into Rodgers we met Shannon and Jody at a cool dinner spot in town.

Shannon and Jody

Pip eating all the bacon as a sacrifice for all the non-meat eaters

When we got to Shannon's house after dinner we found a massive stash of GU products that we stole most of. Just in an effort to punish him for his hospitality. Before we hit the sack I asked Shannon about the plan for the next day. You know the kind of thing normal people would do before driving to another state with limited supplies and whatnot but we are geniuses. So we ask after we cannot do anything about it. “Will this be a trail run or a hike?” He was adamant that it will be a fast pack. Which in my tired state I took as hike, rather than asking questions of clarity. Now if I had bothered to do one second of math I would have put together that if we were going to cover 34 miles in one day before it got dark we would have to run. But I am dumb. So even in the morning when I got up and saw that Shannon, John, and Pip were all in running clothes I still dressed like we would be on a slow hike all day. And it is not like we were in a rush, Shannon had got up to cook us all breakfast before the departure, and Jody’s 11 cats made sure everyone did not need an alarm clock. About 1 mile into the trail I regretted every choice I made on gear, but those are the breaks and we had a big adventure ahead of us so no time for looking back.

Pip and John (notice the running gear)

Shot heading to the trailhead

Unloading from Stan's war wagon

Maybe we should have taken a photo of the map

Our plan was to park at the end of the trail and meet up with Stan Ferguson (the RD for Arkansas Traveller) who would ferry us to the start line and join us on the trail. His sister agreed that she would drive up and pick up his car later and move it back to the end of the trail. Not only was this a baller move on his sister’s part but it meant that we would get to share the trail with a running legend. Not the kind of thing you get everyday (the man has finished more than twentyfive 100 mile races).

The entire hike (really a run) was beautiful. Arkansas has some of the most wonderful trail systems in the area and the biggest bonus is they are really not much of a trip from Tulsa. I highly suggest checking them out if you are unfamiliar, it is worth the 2 hour drive. Now my assumption going into this was that we had some kind of plan and Shannon knew the trails. Both of these proved to be false. Despite the ungodly amount of food I was carrying it was just impossible to carry enough water. Now Shannon like a good man came out the day before and dropped some water off on the trail. The only issue was it was 20 miles in. And as we got lost several times the distance kept growing. So only about 8 miles into the run we found ourselves off the single track after leaving a campground and on a country road. And it looking like we were trespassing on a homestead with a SUV parked out front. As we stupidly stood in the middle of the road having a heated debate on who got us lost and where we had the best chance to get back on trail, we heard some shouting from the SUV. Great here we go, I thought, we are going to get killed for trespassing during this run. But rather than an angry landowner we got the surprise of the year. It turned out it was Chris Cantwell, who parked his car facing the part of the trail we should have come out on.

Cantwell's aid station number one

This is the magic of our running community, unprovoked Chris and his wife drove out to the middle of nowhere to guess at when we would be coming by on the trail to provide us aid. It truly was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. So awesome. This would not be the last time we saw them and that evening we even talked them into eating dinner with us. So spoiler alert, we totally lived through the the run. Not only did they have water, the best peanut butter sandwiches you could get (with the exception of TZ’s wife Dana), and Pringles. They also gave Shannon gloves because he did not bring any and it was just cold enough to make that a very bad decision, and they called Stan’s wife to find what aid station food he liked and had his favorites on board as well. It was truly amazing.  

Some sites from the trail

More

Steel Creek Campgrounds 11 miles from end of trail

The trail had all kinds of cool waterfalls and rock formations to check out. And as we continued to get lost we got to see all kinds of extra sites. The sites helped to take away from how rough the trail really was. In terms of both technical foot work and sheer climbing. Towards the end of the trail our little group got a little split up, my legs were giving me a little trouble on the downhills so I was pushing it in hopes of banking time in case I ended up needed to walk it in. John ended up having a little bit of stomach trouble as well. So it was late in the day when I suddenly got to a major road and was cursing everything as I was sure I got off trail again. It ended up that is was the end of the trail and the parking lot we had used that morning was just on the other side of the street. It took me several stressful minutes to come to this conclusion. But we all made it in before dark and felt completely wiped. It was a great experience and something I will not soon forget. But it seems to be becoming a tradition that Shannon's birthdays have been memorable experiences for me.

Old Structure at the end of the trail, a great site

In the end we made it back to Shannon's place and talked Jody into getting ready and joining us for dinner before John, Pip, and I headed back to Tulsa. We found a place and John sweet talked us into a table for our large group. The restaurant was very accommodating for a group of 10 on a Saturday night in a busy part of town. The table became a place for good times and stories about the day. It was the perfect end to another amazing adventure, and the best part is we would see Shannon and Jody again the next weekend when they made their way to Tulsa for the annual Post Oak Challenge. So everyone left happy.  

From this trip I got some good lessons. First gear is not all that important. Now I would have been much more comfortable with some proper running gear, but at the same time after a few miles it was only a minor annoyance compared to the amazing scenery and wonderful company. This is an important consideration, you will find yourself in a running sanario when you don’t have all the gear or whatever for a race or run. You can let it ruin your day and ensure your running is a disaster, or you can just roll with it and figure out that it is really not that important. Next, downhill running is a difficult thing to master and I will need to seriously focus on it in the build up to Western. Finally, as with most of these stories I have shared, running is the most minor part of it. Truth be told I almost bailed on this whole weekend. I have been traveling so much for work the prospect of spending more time away from home wasn't ideal. But if I had not succumb to peer pressure I would have missed this experience that I will remember forever. Not because of the running, but because of the time with friends. People that I care about and don't most likely don’t deserve to have in my life. I only wish that there was more time to spend with all the great people that I have the chance to be around. Look at this deal with the Cantwell’s I have a whole new level of respect and gratitude for them (even if I already knew they were awesome). They drove out of their way to help some fellow runners. If they had not decided to do that we would have never known any different but now we all got to share this special moment. And at the end of the day feelings like respect and gratitude are things we could all use more of in our lives.

Keep running my friends, and find some people to share the trail with. Hope to see you out there.

Zoe update, she is fitting right in and is happy they we let her be in charge of our whole house. The most amazing part is how well Rush has been with her.