Ok, so I'm not a planner. In fact, while the whole idea of the MO-AR TREK is a couple of years old (conceptually speaking), the idea of a run specifically from Kirkwood to Bentonville is less than a year old.
My wife, Lauren (A.K.A. MO-AR TREK Support Crew Chief), is a planner. She does it for a living and believe me when I say - she's good at it.
Last weekend offered me an opportunity to attempt to copy one of so many endearing qualities Lauren has. I decided to plan something for a change because it seems to work so well for her (Oh, I mean US, Honey).
Last Friday afternoon I drove the 1st hundred miles or so of the MO-AR TREK route (there's a link on the main blog page if you want to see it). After 100 miles or so I hopped on I-44 to "hurry" down to Bentonville so that Saturday morning I could drive the last 100 miles planned for the end of the run. This strategy for planning would only leave out the "middle" 100 miles of the route.
How well has this worked? You be the judge. I took the time to map the run again today using MapMyRun.com. A cool feature of MapMyRun is an option to see the elevation profile of a particular route. If was I wasn't scared before, I am now. Embedded in this post you can see the elevation profile of the 311-mile journey.
Ok, so it's not the Leadville 100, Western States 100, and it's certainly not the Badwater Ultramarathon either. Plus, I'm not attempting to run this in "one-shot" like those amazing contests I just mentioned are run. I'm sleeping each night and trying to live to fight again the next day so I can complete the MO-AR TREK in 9 days or less.
However, it is 311 miles (500k for my Canucks!) with 18,753ft of elevation change (5,716 meters). The good news? The high point is only 1,566ft at about the 271-mile point near Butterfield, MO.
Support Crew member Charlie Holyfield helped me scout the western most end of the 100 miles Saturday and he gave me some good advice after seeing some of the hills and valleys I'd be faced with. "Don't psych yourself out before you get started", Charlie said. I think I'll take that suggestion and just approach this one step at a time!
For those interested in the MapMyRun version of the route, check out:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=658123845114310719
Regardless of what happens, Girls On The Run will be better off for me having tried, so I'll rest easy knowing that.
This planning is for the birds. I’m going for a run!
My wife, Lauren (A.K.A. MO-AR TREK Support Crew Chief), is a planner. She does it for a living and believe me when I say - she's good at it.
Last weekend offered me an opportunity to attempt to copy one of so many endearing qualities Lauren has. I decided to plan something for a change because it seems to work so well for her (Oh, I mean US, Honey).
Last Friday afternoon I drove the 1st hundred miles or so of the MO-AR TREK route (there's a link on the main blog page if you want to see it). After 100 miles or so I hopped on I-44 to "hurry" down to Bentonville so that Saturday morning I could drive the last 100 miles planned for the end of the run. This strategy for planning would only leave out the "middle" 100 miles of the route.
How well has this worked? You be the judge. I took the time to map the run again today using MapMyRun.com. A cool feature of MapMyRun is an option to see the elevation profile of a particular route. If was I wasn't scared before, I am now. Embedded in this post you can see the elevation profile of the 311-mile journey.
Ok, so it's not the Leadville 100, Western States 100, and it's certainly not the Badwater Ultramarathon either. Plus, I'm not attempting to run this in "one-shot" like those amazing contests I just mentioned are run. I'm sleeping each night and trying to live to fight again the next day so I can complete the MO-AR TREK in 9 days or less.
However, it is 311 miles (500k for my Canucks!) with 18,753ft of elevation change (5,716 meters). The good news? The high point is only 1,566ft at about the 271-mile point near Butterfield, MO.
Support Crew member Charlie Holyfield helped me scout the western most end of the 100 miles Saturday and he gave me some good advice after seeing some of the hills and valleys I'd be faced with. "Don't psych yourself out before you get started", Charlie said. I think I'll take that suggestion and just approach this one step at a time!
For those interested in the MapMyRun version of the route, check out:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=658123845114310719
Regardless of what happens, Girls On The Run will be better off for me having tried, so I'll rest easy knowing that.
This planning is for the birds. I’m going for a run!
Jason
