Give me some inspiration, road or trail or track or treadmill: what’s a bucket list race you’ve done!? Or what’s a crazy race you wanna do? I’m thinking Barkley, Sahara, Wine marathon, Great Wall of China, type of crazy races

This past weekend I lined up for the Estes Park Backyard Ultra. Start time was 4PM, about 75 to 80 degrees, with 25 mph winds and 45 mph gusts hammering us until around midnight. I ran for 15 hours. Roughly 64 miles. I was one of three left in the race. Then I started having trouble keeping food down and made the call to stop. A second runner dropped after the next loop and the last man standing ran one more loop to secure his victory. But, I walked away happy! This was exactly the kind of training run I needed before Leadville, and it handed me a list of lessons I want to share. Here are my five big takeaways. 1. Slow down. Then slow down again. Then slow some more. These backyard ultras are painfully slow if part of you still wants to run fast. I have spent the last 16 weeks chasing speed work for Leadville, and what I thought was my easy pace was nowhere near easy enough. Whatever you think slow feels like, go slower. 2. Don't be first to finish the loop. Don't be last either. Early on I kept coming in as one of the front finishers because I wanted 10 to 15 minutes to rest at the aid station. That time vanishes fast and I never wanted to feel rushed. But I watched other folks come in with only a few seconds to eat before the next loop started. That is what we call "circling the drain". The winner, who has now taken this thing three years in a row, targeted 7 to 8 minutes of rest between loops. Right in the sweet spot. 3. No guesswork. Be automatic. My aid station looked like a 2 year old's buffet. PB&Js, cheese quesadillas, M&M's, Nerd gummy clusters, fruit, pretzels. My strategy was pretty loose in the beginning - pick 2-3 foods, salty, solid, and sweet and eat those before the next loop and change it up next loop to avoid flavor fatigue. The winner? His nutrition was dialed and his crew handed him exactly what he needed. High carb foods like ramen and rice. All measured out for him before he even finished the loop. No time wasted refilling bottles or deciding what to eat. He made every second of those 7 minutes count.

Race info - Grandma's Marathon, Duluth, MN - Saturday, June 20, 2026 - 26.2 miles x2 - 11:19:42 (including the break between marathons) - Garmin link - Cool, humid, mix of clouds and sun - NOTE: The first marathon is unofficial and unadvertized. The second marathon is the actual Grandmas Marathon - a top 10 largest marathon in the US. Goals The goal was to finish and have fun. Get the medal for the 50th Grandma's Marathon. Training background I've been putting in lots of miles the last 4-5 years, over 2,000 miles per year. I had a great training cycle for a backyard ultra in April, took a short break after that race, and then trained for this double marathon. In my long runs leading up to the race I practiced a run-walk strategy to prepare for 50+ miles on roads. Four weeks before the race I did a 59 mile week, and three weeks before the race was a 50 mile week. Race day I slept on a cot in my tent in the parking ramp of the convention center where the expo is. I got about three hours of sleep, and woke up at 1am. Put on all my gear, packed up my sleeping stuff and tent into the car, ate a bagel with honey, and headed over to the finish line for a 2am meet up. I got there about 1:58am and there were about 8 other runners there. One double runner had printed up unofficial bibs for those of us running the double - I picked number 33 for no particular reason. Then a few more runners joined us and we were 14 people, we took a group pic at the finish line, and we started the first of two marathons at 206am. I anticipated a run-walk strategy, as we had about 5.5 hours to get to the start line. Instead, it was a slow and steady run about 11 minute pace. We ran together, sometimes would split into smaller groups, regroup, and separate again. The roads were “open” but very little traffic. We rarely used sidewalks in Duluth, and when we got out of town it was all highway running. About 8 miles in, a guy had set up an aid station for us, and we stopped there for about 7-8 minutes. We passed through the half marathon start line as the first buses of runners were arriving, and we got some cheers, some high fives, and some looks of “what is going on here?” After the half way point, we saw the sun rise over a foggy Lake Superior, and the course was starting to open up. We ran through aid stations preparing for the day, we thanked the volunteers in advance and said “see you in a few hours” and were able to fill our waters.

Just got in the Berlin Half for next year, it’s a super half now I want to complete all 6 races! Something to aim for! https://www.superhalfs.com/en/

Apparently my previous marathon major post manifested a win in an Instagram giveaway 🥇 so I got a spot to Berlin! Anyone else here who’s going to be running it this fall?