The Limping Buzzard

Hasn't been the best month for the Buzzard. 

Early in the month - saw the cardiologist for a 6-month follow up visit.  Haven't seen any improvement in cardiac function.  And, they are once again talking about a defibrillator.  I'm working to get a 2nd opinion before making any decisions - but, it really wasn't the news that I was wanting to hear.

On the upside, the doc's didn't put any restrictions on my exercise or workout routines.

But, my own body is doing that to me.  By the end of XC season, was having some problems with pain on the outside of my rigth foot.  Was more or less holding it together through the end of the season - but, went on a trail run with Julie Gilchrist, Mike Foote and Anders Brooker the morning of the NXN regional meet in Boise and that seemed to put it over the edge.  In the last couple of weeks, it's gotten to the point of not allowing me to run.  So, have an appointment with the doc on Tuesday to see if there is any type of stress fracture.  Here's to hoping for the best.

And, here's to hoping that the holidy season and the first of the year see the Buzzard healthy and ready to be back out on the roads, tracks and trail.

The Muddy Buzzard

Montanan's Lite Up XC, Road & Ultras

Been a big last week for Montanan's on the running front.

On December 3rd, Mike Wolfe of Helena won the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Mile Championhsip in San Francisco.  Wolfe took down some of the big names in the ultra world, including Dakota Jones and Geoff Roes.  Also representing MT was Mike Foote of Helena - who scored a big 9th place overall finish.  Results are here:  http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=101612


On the 4th, Sarah Graves of Ballantine (outside of Billings), successfully fulfilled her 4+ year quest to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials.  Having made multiple attempts at the "B" standard of 2:46:00 - she had come close on several occasions - running a couple of races in the low 2:47 range (and, one in the high 2:46's I believe).  On Sunday, she ran a spectacular 2:44:25 with even splits of 1:22:11 & 1:22:14.  Congratulations to Sarah.  Good luck in Houston.  Reults here:  http://www.flashresults.com/2012_Meets/CIM/searchind/Results.htm

This past weekend was the USATF Club Championship Cross Country meet in Seattle.  Multiple Montanan's were present.  In the master's women's side, Jenny Newton, Mary Thane and Jennifer Burke competed as a team for Mountain West TC and brought home a 3rd place team tropy.

Lois Ricardi Keller was part of the 3rd place Club Northwest team in the women's open division.

On the men's side, former Montann's Brent Winegar and Kevin Murphy also competed for the Club Northwest teams.

Also, this past weekend, Makena Morley of Bigfork placed 9th in the Footlocker Cross Country Championships in San Diego.  She was the highest placing fresman in the meet.

All in all, a pretty impressive last week for Montanan's.  The Big Sky studs shows that they belong on the national stage.

See you on the roads, tracks and trails

The Muddy Buzzard

Costa Rica Baby

The Buzzard took a nice little break to Costa Rica over the last week.  It was a big trip for the family.  In attendance were me and my wife, my brother and his family; and, my older sister and her family (including her 3 boys, 2 daughters in law, and 3 grand kids).  There were 17 total of us and it was largely a celebration of my parent's 60th wedding anniversary this summer.  It may be the last big trip we get to take with our parents; and, we enjoyed it thoroughly.

The week was dominated by lots of reading, relaxing and good eats.  But, we still had time to fit in a bit of fun.  Zip-Lining though the jungle canopy, snorkling at Isla Tortuga, swimming in the ocean, exploring the beach, and shopping in Montezuma.

Here was our beach outside of our rented house:

And, here is the beach area where I did my core work, strenght exercises and stretching every day.  Not a bad workout room!!!!

But, now the Buzzard is back to reality - sub-freezing temps, freezing fog and the dreaded four letter word - WORK :-(

It was a great break though and the first extended time off in a couple of years.  It was well worth the time with my family and the trip will be remembered for some time.

See you on the roads, tracks and trails.

The Muddy Buzzard

 



Tottin' In The Magic City

Congrats to Kelly Fulton in his debut as a race director.  Getting tired of seeing folks from Billings having to travel all the way to Bozeman to get in a Thanksgiving Day race (Huffin For Stuffin) - he decided to do somethng about it.  And so, about 10 months ago, the idea of the Run! Turkey Run! was born.

Talk about a resounding success - over 1,500 registered finishers (with a couple hundred more that didn't get registered due to overwhelming race morning demand).  Great local press (see Billings Gazette story at http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/inaugural-run-turkey-run-event-attracts-s-raises-thousands/article_97577728-6fff-5894-b2b1-ace68dbc324e.html ), good competition, fun social aspect, great fund raising cause (all proceeds went to the Billings Food Bank).  And, the Buzzard's favorite - post race adult beverages courtesy of local breweries.

It's pretty much everything that Billings area runners could hope for to kick off their day of feating and football.

Up front, the race was fast and fairly competitive.  Matt Adams (MSU alum) took the win in a speedy 15:11.  Clearly, he's kept up the training since his Bobcat days.  Second place wen to local stud Alan King in 16:22 with third place going to Zach Hunter in 16:52.  1st Master was Ian Blair of Billings with a nice sub-18 clocking (17:54).

The women't win went to Nicole Lair in 19:23. 

Great job Kelly.  And kudos to the Billing community for getting behind the event.

See you on the roads, tracks and trails

The Muddy Buzzard

Gone Too Long

Funny how life sometimes gets in the way of things you enjoy.  That's been the case for the last couple of months with my ability to post. 

Coaching XC at Plains HS takes a fair bit of my free time.  And my professional life has been busier this year than at any other time since we moved to NW Montana.  And, there's always plenty of things to be done around the house and property.  All of those are good things - it's just that they don't leave me much free time.

That's meant that something's gotta give.  And, unfortunately - that's meant that the buzzard hasn't pecked at the keyboard keys in a while.  And, I'm not too thrilled about that.  I like putting my thoughts down on (digital) paper and enjoy trying to keep up with the MT running and racing scene.  I'm going to try to do better - more for my sake than anything.  Writing in this blog is a stress reliever and "fun" thing for me to do.  And, hey - we all need a bit more fun and pleasure in our lives.

Which then segue's me into thinking about a whole lot of fun that I had this fall.  It started on the 3rd week of October at the MT High School XC Championships.  One of the advantages of being a coach is being right in the thick of the day's activities.  I had a great time with "my kids" from Plains High School.  The individual highlight was the 3rd place finish in the Class B division by Carter Montgomery.  But, just as much fun was hanging out with the kids at our post race dinner at Famous Daves.  Being with these kids helps to keep my young and can be just plain fun.  With the group of kids that I've had the last 3 years, it's been way more laughs than tears - which is a good thing.

The next weekend was a road trip to Great Falls for Montana Cup.  Racing at the Cup is always a highlight for the year (even on years like this where my racing was the equivalent of a big steaming pile of dog poo).  But, more than the racing is the ability to see a wide swath of friends from all around the state.  One of the great things that this sport has blessed me wih is friends and acquaitenances from all corners of the state.  And, Montana Cup is the place where I get to see many of them all in one place. 

After a "free" weekend - it was back on the road with another bunch of high school kids (comprised of Carter Montgomery of Plains and the Missoula Hellgate varsity boys and girls teams) to go to the Nike Cross Regional Meet in Boise.  4 cars of parents and friends drove down 14 boys and girls (7.5 hours each way) to compete against runners from all over the NW.  [It was 8.5 hours down for our car as we missed the turn to a bit of a short cut and took the long scenic route :-) ]  On race morning had a great sunrise run with Julie Gilcrhist, Aders Brooker and Mike Foote in the Boise Foothills.  Great trails as the sun rose over Boise on a crisp, calm morning - pretty great way to start your day.  In my car it was me and 6 high school boys - and, let me tell you - that much crazed testosterone in one car for hours on end makes for some interesting discussion and body noises!!!

Then, a couple more weeks, and here we are at Thanksgiving.  Early in the week my brother-in-law and nephew came to town to hunt; and, I got to spend a few hours in the mountains.  Then, my Zoe came home for 5 days.  It's nice to have her home from College for a few days.  We had a nice Thanksgiving morning hunt in the mountains close to home.  Then, dinner at the home of my wife's uncles.  Most of her side of the family was around and it was a pleasant afternoon. 

So, life for the last month has been awfully full for the Buzzard.  Full in many ways - activity, work, friends, family, memories and more. 

See you on the roads, tracks and trails

The Muddy Buzzard

Big Kid Kamping

For the 3rd time since 2005, a group of Montana distance runners got together for a weekend of running, story telling, imbibing, and hiking.  Following on the heels of Camp Waterloo (2005) and Camp Vermillion (2008) the Helena crew (led by Pat Judge and Jeff Thomas) hosted Camp Vigilante. 

Starting Friday night, we met at the end of York Road east of Helena in the Big Belt Mountains; and, took over 3 camp sites in Vigilante Campground.  Present for the full weekend were Pat Judge, Jeff Thomas, Lila Thomas (solidly representing the female side), Alan King, Evan Eck, Thomas Jodoin, Ray Hunt and Josh Panasuk (representing the kiddie crew).  For day campers, we had Chris Colberg (Saturday and Sunday morning runs) and Jesse Zentz (Sunday morning run).  On Friday night we were even blessed with a visit by Peter Dan Sullivan.  [However, his visit was made less stellar due to the fact that he arrived sans any home brew :-(  ]

Friday started with a nice 6-mile run up the Trout Creek Trail (which takes off right from the campground).  Pat, Thomas and Josh got out ahead of the rest of the crew (with Ray tagging along on his mountain bike).  Tony, Jeff and Evan got up a bit later in the afternoon.  We then waited for Alan, who was about an hour behind the rest of the crew.......................Funny Story:  Alan calls me up en route to Helena.  We meet up in Townsend and we're going to follow each other up to the camp (since neither of us had been there before, we figured that there was safety in numbers!).  As we meet in Townsend, he realizes that he left all of his clothes at home.  Running clothes, underwear, shoes, socks.  All he has is what he's wearing in the car.  So - he had to make a side trip into Helena to visit Target and Famous Footwear.  [Sorry to throw you under the bus Al; but, figured Dave Coppock would be happy to hear of another Billings runner that had a challenging road trip.]

Then, it was on to some dinner, a few brews and swapping of stories.  Oh yeah - and the seeting of the Big Honkin' Tent.  Jeff Thomas once again brought out his old World War II surplus, canvas, wall tent.  It's a monster.  But, it's great to have when you want a bit of protection from the sun or rain.

Saturday morning is when the real fun started.  Things didn't start too early; but, by 9:00 a.m. Ray had divided up the runners into four two-man teams for an interval relay workout.  The campgound had a nice 550 meter +- loop around the perimeter.  The first 200 meters were dowhnill t flat, then 200 or so of moderate uphill, with a nice final 150 or so of downhill.  But, given the relay and format and the competitive nature of the group assembled there was only one possible outcome of the workout - as quoted by Clubber Lang in Rocky III..................................................PAIN.

So, here were the teams.  Team Teeny Bopper = Evan Eck and Josh Panasuk.  Team Vigilante = Chris Colberg and Pat Judge.  Team Trail Kings = Alan King and Jeff Thomas.  Team Birdmen = Thomas Joidon and Tony Banovich.  Pretty quickly the relays turned into two "races" in one.  The Teeny Boppers and the Viginlantes were in a tight battle right from the start.  They were quite evenly matched and ran neck to neck all the way.  In the end, the experience of Colberg and Judge won out on the final leg of their cat and mouse game.  The other two teams were more of a tortoise and hare sort of affair.  Big Bird Joidon went out hard against Jeff The Mountain Goat Thomas and built a bit of a lead.  Then, Tony The Muddy Buzzard Banovich tried unsuccessfully to hold off Alan The King.  And, that's how it went for the 6 laps of the relay.  In then end, Alan blew by Tony in the last 200 of the last leg and easily secured the 3rd place finish.

After a bit of a cool-down, the runners were treated to a breakfast of Omelette's In A Bag by Lila Thomas.

Mixin' Up Some Bags O'Omelettes

Next up was some Montana Cup business.  With 4 of the 7 Regions/Cities represented (Butte, Helena, Billings and Kalispell), we had a quorum.  So, we took the opportunity to review the status of the event, talk about the 2011 event (to be held in Great Falls) and visit about any tweaks that could make the race even better.

After being fed and getting rehydrated, the crew headed off for the next adventure - a 12-mile hike (round trip) to Hanging Valley.  It was pretty hot out; and, some of the crew had dogs that weren't handling the heat too well.  So, the puppy mill headed back after getting in about two miles.  Meanwhile, Pat, Tony, Alan and Josh did some hard hiking with the goal of getting back in time for 6:30 p.m. dinner.  It was some tough hiking; but, in the end it was all worth it.  The last quarter of a mile was through a narrow canyon bordered by towering cliffs of the Madison Limestone Formation.  And, then - the trail abruptly ends at a fenced area that keeps you from stepping off a several hundred foot cliff.  The view (which just happened to look down into the end of the Trout Creek trail taht we ran on Friday night) was spectacular. 

The View down into the Trout Creek drainage from the end of the the Hanging Valley trail

Alan King, Josh Panasuk, The Muddy Buzzard and Pat Judge at Hanging Valley

Running a bit short on time, we really had to hump it back to camp.  On some tired legs, we ended up jogging in the last 2 miles to try to make it in time for dinner.  Which, was not to be missed.  Nikki and Eric Eck - Evan's parent's - volunteered to drive up from Helena and bring us a fantastic dinner of Chicken Parmesan, Twice Baked Potato's and Fresh Fruit Salad.  Add a Sam Adam's Boston Lager and it was the ideal refueling meal at the end of a long day.

Then, it was on to some videos.  Ray had a bit of footage from Wulfman.  Pat had a nice vid from the 2008 Cup.  Then we got to see a great 5,000 with Pre, Shorter and George Young from the 1971 AAU Meet, the 1971 Dream Mile at the Penn Relays with Marty Liquori and Jim Ryun, and a quirky video about ultra runner Anthony Krupickza (sorry if I hammered the spelling of his name there).  By then, the beers made us all a bit sleepy - puls we heard the trail calling for Sunday's run on the Refigerator Canyon trail and into the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness.

It was a 30-minute drive from camp to trailhead - where we met up with Jesse Zentz (Billings Native, UM Alum, current sports writer at the Helena Independent record).  Off we went at 10:30, already about 80 degrees out, heading up Refrigerator Canyon and into the Gates of The Mountains Wilderness.  The trail featured plenty of  climb going out - which meant cranking down the pace when coming back in.  It was a bit hot out; but, it was a great final run for camp.

Slot through the rocks on the lower part of Refigerator Canyon

How many people ever get to see wilderness areas?

And we got to run several miles into it!!!!

But, camp wasn't quite done yet.  We had to do some refueling - and York Burgers and drafts of Cold Smoke Scotch Ale were the perfect recipe.  Then - the super secret manly challenge.  So secret that Pat Judge wouldn't share the details; and, turns out he ended up being the only one with the necessary tools for jumpinf off the York Bridge and into the Missouri River.  So, even without towels and water shoes, 5 of the campers were up to the challenge.  Pat, Tony, Thomas, Alan and Evan all made the stupendous "Leap of Death".



Big Bird (left) and The Muddy Buzzard (right) take flight off the York Bridge

And the, it was time to break down camp and head back home and the real world.  But, what a great way to spend a weekend.  Hanging out with some pals, runs on great trails, stories and laughter.  What more could you want.

My recommendation is that when you get the chance for this type of camp/gathering/fellowship/ect. - take advantage of it.  These types of opportunities make for great memories and great friendships.  Good times indeed.

See you on the roads, tracks and trails

The Muddy Buzzard

Life Is Good

Had a chance to visit with Peter Dan Sullivan last night.  One of the topics was the age old questions - how are things going.  The primary focus of our discusison was with regards to my cardiac issues and it's affect on my running.  But, we also got to talking about life in general.  And, after thinking some more about our converation - I'd have to say that things are going all right.

Here's been my first half of the year:

In March, my son got married to a fantastic young girl.

In mid May, he graduated with a B.S. in Antropology and was accepted into the Doctoral studies program in Human Genetics at the University of Chicago.

In late May, our daughter graduated as co-Salutatorian of Plains High School and will attend Montana State University to study biosciences.

This spring, I coached the Plains H.S. track team - which included a double state champion, and 3 other athletes who brought home all-state honors.

I was cleared to return to full training.  And, while my physiological issues aren't completely resolved, I have begun the long slow process of getting back to racing fitness after 9 months of limited training.

On this past Thursday, I was part of a suprise party to celebrate my parent's 60th wedding anniversary.

On Saturday night, I was able to celebrate the wedding of my good friend (we've known each other 33 years this fall) Jeff Thomas to a wonderful woman.

In a few weeks I'll celebrate my 26th anniversary to the love of my life - Erin.

And, at the end of the month, I'll spend a long weekend with some of my favorite running pals at a semi-regular group get together.

Through it all, I have a job that I enjoy at a company that does great work with great people.

So, yeah - I'd say that things are pretty good.

And, while the next half of the year approaches and life carries on......................I'll see you on the roads, tracks and trails.

The Muddy Buzzard