The mountains are rocky and so are the trails. But Vasque trail team athlete Duncan Callahan has been training to find a smooth groove through the Colorado Rockies for the Leadville Trail 100 race Aug. 22-23.

With Callahan, the 2008 winner, and other world-class runners in the lineup, the standard is high for the race, which will draw athletes from around the globe. As with any ultra running event, the Leadville 100 is a drama: a 4 a.m. start in the dark, 50 miles out and back on forest trails and mountain roads, a low point of 9,200 feet and a high point of 12,600 feet at Hope Pass. And all along the way, each athlete’s high and low points and hopes.

The competition this year at the Leadville 100 will be intense. There will be many top names there, and I see it as my job to run my own race, stay conservative and swoop in and clean up the wreckage of a fast early pace,” Callahan says.

Runners to watch include Tony Krupicka, the Leadville Trail 100 winner in 2007 and 2006; Darcy Africa, one of the top women in the field; Tim Parr; and Charles Corfield, Callahan notes.

As a presenting sponsor of the Leadville 100, Vasque’s involvement is big — and multifaceted. Vasque employees will help support athletes and race sponsors during the week of the event and Vasque product manager Brian Hall will attempt his first 100-mile foot race.

Callahan, meanwhile, has had success this year in other races. The Gunnison, Colo., resident, 26, took the top finish at the notable Moab 100 earlier this season and notched an impressive third-place finish in the Leadville Trail Marathon in July. The race starts at 10,200 feet with an elevation gain and loss of 5,500 feet and is considered one of the country’s toughest trail races.

In addition to races, Callahan has been working his running legs with cross-training in mountain biking, roller-skiing and strength training. “I am stronger than I have ever been and healthier than I have ever been. I’m hoping the strength training and my past experience will carry me through,” Callahan says.

If the training for the Leadville 100 is grueling, the course is, too—but it’s a stunning route: around Turquoise Lake, along dirt roads at mountain passes, through meadows and past beaver ponds.

“This will be a tough battle, one that is won with the mind and the heart, not just with the body. I’m looking forward to ‘going to the bottom of the well’ and seeing what is there,” Callahan says.

Photo credit: Rob O’Dea

Way to go Amy Golumbia! An impressive showing at the 2009 Canada National Trail Running Championships…next stop: The Worlds in Campodolcino, Italy, on September 3-7, 2009.. Check out her writeup of the race.

Get to the Canadian Mountain Running Championships and qualify for Worlds in Italy: that was my focus since coming back from an Achilles injury over the winter.

Transitioning back to regular training was tough. Getting out of the pool and transferring back to trails and hills was painful, but my first mountain running coach once told me that I had to “get comfortable with the pain”, so that’s what April was for me—pain. It took two months of swimming and biking and my incredible physiotherapist, Somer, to get me back on my feet and training near my home in Calgary, but whatever I did must have worked.

Race day was chaotic as usual. I performed my usual routine: forgetting a pair of shoes or shorts, then spending the hour before the race madly running back and forth between the bathroom, my car, and the start line. (That actually works as pretty good warm up and certainly gets my heart rate up.) I also psyched myself out by meeting a few of my competitors before the race. Fortunately, my kids were there to watch me race, which distracted me from worrying that I might not be properly warmed up, hydrated, rested, or trained.

Then it was race time.
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Overcoming temperatures that reached more than 100 degrees, Hal Koerner, 33, of Ashland, OR, defended his men’s title while Anita Ortiz, 45, of Eagle, CO, made a smashing 100-mile debut to win the women’s race during Saturday’s 35th annual Western States 100-mile Endurance Run.

Koerner, who won the race in 2007, ran 16 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds for his second win at Western States. Tsuyoshi Kaburagi, 40, of Japan, was second in 16:52:06. Jez Bragg, 28, of England, was third in 16:54:26.

Koerner broke the race open with a sizzling 58-minute split from the race’s 55.7-mile checkpoint at Michigan Bluff to the 62-mile Foresthill checkpoint. Continue Reading

After a one-year hiatus due to fires, the world’s most prestigious 100-mile trail event returns deeper and better than ever.

The Western States 100-mile Endurance Run returns on June 27, 2009, when more than 400 athletes from around the world toe the starting line in Squaw Valley, CA. Their journey will finish following 100 miles of running and more than 40,000 feet of climbing and descending through the Sierra and the California Gold Country at the finish line at Placer High School in Auburn, CA.

This year’s Western States 100 marks the return of the world’s oldest and most prestigious 100-mile trail running event. In 2008, only days before runners were prepared to start in Squaw Valley, the 35th annual run was cancelled due to severe smoke and major fire that had been sparked by a series of Northern California lightning strikes. The cancellation was the first in race history.

A year’s hiatus, however, has ensured that this year’s event has become even more eagerly anticipated. A year off has also helped make an already deep and talented field that much stronger. Due to the race’s partnership with Montrail and the Montrail Cup (a series of top-level ultra events held throughout the country where the top-three finishers earn a coveted spot in Western States), the field now has two full years of Montrail Cup qualifiers, as well as many of the runners who finished in the top 10 in 2007.

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5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes: 5 Years, 29 Marriage Proposals and 53 Pairs of Shoes

     I met Rosie up in the Yukon Territory a few years back. She ran past my campsite carrying a cart set up with a tent. I thought I was seeing things.

     Down the road, I caught up with her and we shared a cup of tea while she shared a few highlights of her extraordinary global adventure including: being chased by packs of wolves, frostbite/pneumonia, and even getting hit by a bus.

     Coming out late May, her book, “Just a Little Run Around the World,” chronicles the extraordinary adventure of this 62 years old, grandmother of two who set out on a 20,000 mile run to raise money for cancer charities after her husband died of prostate cancer. 1,790 days later she arrived back in Tenby, South Wales, succesfully circumnavigating the globe by foot.

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
     “After her husband died of cancer, 57-year-old Rosie set off to run around the world, raising money in memory of the man she loved. Followed by wolves, knocked down by a bus, confronted by bears, chased by a naked man with a gun and stranded with severe frostbite, Rosie’s breathtaking 20,000-mile solo journey is as gripping as it is inspiring. Rosie’s solo run around the world started out of sorrow and heartache and a wish to turn something around. Heartbroken when she lost her husband to cancer, Rosie set off from Wales with nothing but a small backpack of food and equipment, and funded by the rent from her little cottage. So began her epic 5-year journey that would take her 20,000 miles around the world, crossing Europe, Russia, Asia, Alaska, North America, Greenland, Iceland, and back into the UK. On a good day she’d run 30 miles, on a bad day she’d only manage 500 yards, digging herself out of the snow at -62 degrees C, moving her cart inches at a time. Continue Reading