A couple of people have made reservations for the WWW Marathon in Lone Pine in May. I know for a fact that wazzu is in. I just made my reservations.

Anybody else doing this?

I am hoping to run uphill and walk downhill. This is 26.2 miles up from Tuttle Creek Campground to the Portal Road, then down Hogback, making a sharp turn at Movie Road, up "Mother Hill", then back to the Portal Road and up to Tuttle Creek. It's mostly dirt road and trails. You will cross Lone Pine Creek a couple of times and you will go through the Alabama Hills. Lots of water stops and aid available.

Pasta dinner the night before the marathon. This run is very fun, but way slower than a street marathon. The friendliest people I've ever met at a marathon.

If you are doing this....please let me know.

Here's the website:

Wild Wild West Marathon info

Joe

Bump....this is only about 5 weeks away. My training is going well and I'm expecting to finish in the last 5% at around 8 hrs. It's all about the experience and trying to get into good overall shape to make the Whitney summit this year.

Any last minute takers on joining some folks from this board and walk/jog 26.2 miles on May 7? Maybe if Doug has the store open, we can head up for a burger & beer a couple of hours after crossing the finish line?

Good luck! I can't join you thIs year as I am running Boston in 14 days. I would love to run the Wild West Marathon one day though.

There's three of us...wazzu, my buddy DJ and me. All three of us have had some light to moderate knee problems (my first ever!) But, should be fun with lots of conversation and absolutely gorgeous scenery.

If anybody else goes, let either wazzu or me know.

I'm envious. I'd like to try at least part of it some year, but it won't happen this year.

You guys have fun!

...and we want to see some pictures!

I am with Steve. I have always wanted to run a marathon. Since I can no longer run due to knees and back degeneration I still plan to walk one. I have a patient that walks marathons in 6 hours. So I am gonna walk one someday. I will be in Pittsburgh the weekend of this WWW marathon. Maybe some of us can start planning and training for next years. That would be awesome to have a large contingency of the Mt. Whitney Hikers Association.

Trail runner - Congrats on qualifying for Boston. That's a great accomplishment. Would you be willing to post your bib # so I/we can follow you on race day?

I had a good friend in the race a few years ago and it was really nice to be able to check his progress during the day on the web.

Rod - I have walked/jogged in all the marathons I have completed. Very possible to finish in the 6 - 6.5 hr time. Just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other. Have you thought of trying a 1/2 marathon? 13.1 miles is still a good distance. Long enough to feel like you've done something, but not so long that you are wiped out at the end. Very possible to walk a 1/2 marathon in 3 - 3.5 hours.

Wazzu:

Sure, though nothing like a little extra pressure of being watched from afar. My bib number is 11125. My goal is 3:15 to 3:20, so if you see anything over 3:30, it was a bad day at the office.
One week from today, so wish me luck. Good luck to you and the others in the Wild Wild West Marathon.

Kent

3:15 to 3:20? Wow, that's flyin'!

7:30 to 7:40 per mile -- Way to go!

When I did a marathon ten years ago, that was my first mile time, and it went downhill from there. I think the last one was something over 10 minutes.

Have a blast Kent! Show them young'uns how a not-so-young'un kicks ass!

Maybe you need to be doing MR doubles with Mr.Pickering . . .

Thanks guys. Obviously setting a goal is one thing, while getting it done on race day is something else. I will give it hell and see what happens. This is my first Boston and second marathon ever, so I am a little concerned about this tough and hilly course. I think I am ready, but will find out for sure this time next week.

Kent

Wow...you should change from Trail runner to Speed Racer. Your goal is to finish 26.2 miles in the time it takes me to finish 13.1 miles.

Good luck and thanks for sharing the bib number.

Ran Boston in 1975 with a runner I was coaching. Only advice & I am sure you have heard it before: take it easy at the start with all the downhill as you don't want to go out too fast too early.

Enjoy the experience. Too bad they no longer offer the free bowl of stew for all finishers which was traditional back in the "Old Days"

wazzu I just want to check off a marathon off of my list.I really don't think once I start training again that walking a marathon will be too brutal.Even if it wacks me good I just want to check it off. I am not a runner or desire to do 5Ks 10Ks or anything less than a full marathon. I'll be one and done.

Congrats Trail Runner!!! A finish time of 3:18...a 7:35 pace...all I can say is WOW, you are fast!

Kent, that's incredible - congrats! Definitely worth the trip to Beantown. Way to go!

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words. I didn't quite hit my goal, but I will take it for my first Boston. I was on pace through about 16 miles, then the hills came. I now know why Boston is considered such a tough course as somebody put the hills right where you don't want them, (miles 16-21). I faded some at the end but didn't lose too much time. I will say I left it all on the course and felt like I had been beat with a bat afterwards and still do today.

It was a great experience though and a tremendous race with unbelievable crowd support.

Please let me know how the Wild Wild West Marathon goes and good luck to all who are running!

Thanks,
Kent

Way to go, Kent. That's a great time, and "not making your pace" seems tiny compared to the achievement.

Congratulations!

CMC2: You were right about the down hill in the beginning and yes plenty of others had also warned me. It is hard not to let it go a little on the down hills as you want to make up some time you lost in the congested first couple of miles and you also know you won't negative split the second half of the course. You feel good, but don't realize how the down hill is shredding your quads until you hit the hills at mile 16. I now know what everyone was trying to tell me.

I know some of you guys enjoy playing with the new mapping software tools. Let me know if you want to see the Boston Course information from my Garmin GPS watch and I should be able to email it to you.

Kent

Kent, I'll bite on the gps data. My email is in my profile.

I'm pretty busy these days though, so no promises on getting the map posted. ...but if it isn't too difficult, I might. Fishmonger is the man who can go the job. ...Any others??

I wasn't really planning on you posting the GPS info unless there is a compelling need for it. I just know we have some other marathoners on the board and a few guys who are wizards at manipulating GPS files who might enjoy seeing the course profile information. I will try to email the link to you tonight.

Kent

Are you serious??? Run uphill and walk downhill. OMG, that would kill me....you all would be holding a funeral for me after the marathon if I did that. I can walk 26.2 without hills (maybe one hill, but that' it). Best of luck to you and Wazzu....I won't be at the WWWM, but I'll be thinking about you and anxiously awaiting a post after you cross the finish line. I sure hope you get a medal for all you effort.

Thanks for the well wishes. Walking uphill puts less pressure on my new hip. The problem is that it's uphill the first 5 miles until we cross Whitney Portal Road at about 6400 feet. Then it's pretty much downhill for another 10, then rolling hills and then the DREADED "Mother Hill" at the 18 mile point. Then a nice relaxing stroll through Alabama Hills (not real relaxing as at this point you really want to be done.) Then back on to Whitney portal road for about 1/2 mile, make a left and stroll through soft sand and chaparral till we get back to Tuttle Creek Campground.

No Medals.....it's actually made of ceramic. But, you do get a t-shirt for your $70.00!

That cracked me up because one of the sponsors of the WWW Marathon is the Mt. Whitney Funeral Home.

I wanted to know the course and could not find anything online. I called the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce and was sent a very nice 4 page color brochure with beautiful pictures of Mt Whitney, the Alabama Hills, movie road, etc, with a very nice map of the course inside. Each picture on the brochure has a name of a sponsor. The Mt Whitney Funeral home is on the front page. I've been wondering what I committed myself too ever since.

OMG I would LOVE to do this. Unfortunately...don't the best excuses always start that way...I can't be in LP that day.

Trails are the best and with a little altitude thrown in, a complete endorphin-rich headrush of epic proportions.

Haven't run that far in..well...long time but so what...if I can get free that day y'all can just drag me across that finish line.

Have fun!

Wazzu,

Thanks for sharing the funeral home sponsorship info. How enterprising of them to sponsor this event..... I think it's fantastic AND FUNNY! I'm really jealous that I can't join all of you. I've walked many marathons and I'm sure with enough training I could have walked this one too. Oh well, maybe another year.

QS mentioned the medals are ceramic and this fact jogged my memory. I believe I heard somewhere that the Lone Pine High Schoolers hand make the medals....what a special medal that would be to have. Maybe QS can teach the high school kids some sculpting techniques and help them design some new medals with some new materials. The QS touch would be just the midas touch to bring even more runners to the Wild Wild West Marathon. Hey, I'll be dancing to that song at Stagecoach this weekend, there's a great dance to the tune of Wild Wild West.

Good luck and remember "no cheating", and no cutting across trails, you have to do all 26.2 miles, and be sure to post lots of pictures from the marathon,or as wagga would say, "no pictures, it didn't happen".

Thanks....it should be interesting. I did 18 miles on Saturday and wazzu did 20 on Saturday. I've been working out for a while, can do 12 to 15 miles easy, lost a decent amount of weight and am hoping for the best.

Yea, I understand about the "no pictures" thing. Wagga still doesn't believe the thing about me and Scarlet Johansson :-)

I have the LiLo pics - I thought you were a classy kinda guy.

Go get em men! Have a great run and let us know how it goes.

Kent

You guys are animals! I love it!

Longest I've ever done in my life running is a half marathon. My brother and I would drop cones every mile out of Badwater and run back. Always in July and always with a noon start. Sounds kinda tough, but it isn't really. We had a support van with wet towels, water, Gatorade, and anything else we could have needed. Still, a 1/2 is all I've ever been able to do.

Maybe someday I'll a full marathon.................DUG

Ditto - wazzu, Joe, have a great time!

I'm going to follow wazzu's suggestion of giving Joe a wake-up call at 4:30 am tomorrow (7:30 my time) and wishing them luck. Having backpacked on Whitney with Joe, I have first-hand experience with the degree to which Mr. Q hates the very early morning.

SirHikeAlot, welcome to the board.

I wouldn't be so quick to draw too close a parallel between hiking and distance running. Similar, possibly. Predictive, no. Some do both well, while some do one well and not the other. A lot lies in whether it's an activity you enjoy. Personally, I'll strap a pack on and hike all day happy as a lark, but I absolutely despise the thought of putting on a pair of running shoes and going for a jog. I was a sprinter in college, so I have a natural distrust of any run longer than 400 meters.

Plenty of accomplished distance runners have been defeated by peaks like Whitney. As to DUG's limit, I think he said the longest he had chosen to run in the past was a half-marathon, and that he'd like to do a full one some day. To me that doesn't pre-suppose that some "limit" exists, just that a choice has not yet been made. What I do know about DUG is that, on the trail with a pack, he's pulled some monster back-to-back-to-back mileage days in the Sierra, and has successfully made it to at least one very difficult destination that relatively few hikers have even attempted (Gambler's Special).

I can't speak to any first-hand knowledge of C2C2C, but I would never link DUG's having never entered a full marathon with an inability to crank out a hard, difficult hike. That assumes way too much.

As to the other thread you were questioning, just a disagreement between two respected, highly capable board members. The dialogue went off the reservation for a bit, but equilibrium has been restored and you'll probably see them scarfing a Portal burger and a brew together this summer.

So how did it go? I am sure it was a hard day, but hopefully enjoyable.

Kent

It was a long day but we finished. And we weren't the last to cross the finish line. YEAH! Took us 8.5 hrs and there were still a few folks behind us.

Thanks to Bulldogs wake up call, QS and his friend DJ were up and moving by the time I knocked on their door at 5:15am. Still had to wait for them to finish up and then a trip to McD's so they could get some breakfast and much needed coffee. (I was up at 4am and had eaten, geared up, and packed the car before knocking on their door.) Made it to the start line with 10 mins to spare.

Overall it was a great day, but there were a few miles on the course that I would never want to do again.

May need to write something up under 'Trip Reports', because for me, it was more of a 26.2 mile day hike than a marathon. Went on some trails that I would never had known existed, at several sections needed to use route finding skills, and there were several stream crossings that included rock hopping. There's a lot more. Will post more details later.

Hi Kent, yes wazzu, DJ and I all survived. Wazzu was the smartest, with a nice private room with microwave, coffee, TV, breakfast and cold air conditioning. DJ and I shared bunks and I ended up with about 4 hours sleep. McDonalds was the breakfast of choice early A.M.. And yes, that jerk Gary did wake me from Atlanta at 4:30 A.M.

Once I learn how to put videos up, I will do it. This marathon is a bit different than the Boston for several reasons: Trails not marked well, dirt and sand, a start at 5100 feet that goes to 6300 feet in the first 2.5 miles. Add several creek crossings, more sand and rocks, some light bush-wacking and you have it......ooooops, I forgot the "RATTLESNAKES"!!!!!!! Not one, but TWO! DJ ran across one stretched out on Hogback road, while we both saw a nice rattler on Movie Road, near Mother Hill. The second rattler didn't much appreciate us almost stepping on him and warned us, rattles, striking pose and his tongue sticking in and out quickly. Thoughts of Rattlesnakes certainly made the last 5 miles interesting as it was on a very narrow and steep horse trail.

I don't want to give people the wrong idea about me running this thing, as I didn't. I ran approximately 7 to 8 miles of it and walked the rest. Since all I've done is hiked the last few years I haven't run much because of my new hip, and it showed after mile 16. My buddy DJ is a Chiropractor and he worked on my knee several times in the last few miles. At the last aid station, there was a woman who was completely conked out, sprawled out on the ground in agonizing pain from cramps. DJ went to her aid and after several minutes, we headed back to reach the finish line.

It is absolutely Beautiful around the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine. Add in the spectacular views of the Sierra's, capped off by Mt Whitney and you can't ask for more. Wazzu, my buddy DJ and I did our own pace and separated after a few miles, but after mile 18, we got back together and bitched and complained on WHY we were doing this to ourselves. The temperature was a bit hotter than expected, so sunscreen was a must, and I'm not sure if I've ever enjoyed the water/aid stations as much as I did this time.

No world record in this marathon as we all finished together in 8.5 hours, slower than I thought we would do, but since the downhill running kind of made my left knee totally unusable, I figure that's not bad since I looked like Quasimodo in the last few miles of horse trail. Yes, about 3 hours slower than DJ's and my time in 1999, but we're still pumping and still keeping the dream alive. I think the best thing about this marathon is how friendly and caring everyone is. The organizers really enjoy being of help and asking you if you need anything to help you finish. Aid stations were supplied with pain relievers, sunscreen, salt crystals, sodas, Snickers, Cytomax, tons of fruit, juices, cookies, chips and one even had guacamole and chips. The worst thing about this marathon is the trail markings. Many people got lost!

But....You can't beat Mt Whitney Views!!!!!!

Wazzu.....thanks so much for the Snickers Bars. Gary will NEVER, ever have as many as I now have :-)

As a note, I have never seen so may snakes along the 395. Most of the snakes looked like rattlers and gopher snakes. And, several were two to three feet long. The majority were alive on the sides of the road waiting to cross and warming their bellies, but there were may dead snakes also.

And DUG.....setting out cones at 12:00 noon at Badwater so you can do a run......sounds like HEAVEN!!!! It's nice to know you're as sick as I am. I can't imagine anything more FUN than that. Now I gotta call DJ and tell him what we're doing next!

Awesome guys! That's pretty impressive and I want to give it a go with you guys next year. We did our Death Valley 1/2s by running into Badwater since I thought it would be down hill. It's not. Nothing nearly as bad as you guys went through though. I had a support van and pavement.

Again - great job!...........................DUG

Well done! Snakes, creek crossings, horse trails, big elevation changes...quite the adventure! I definitely want to come out and experience this one day.

Rest up.

Kent

Here's a video of appx mile 18....with 8 to go. Excuse my shaky hands, but you can see how pretty it is up there.

Mile 18 Wild Wild West Marathon - Mt Whitney

Great going everyone that did this incredible-sounding run/hike/walk/snake hop!

What a great report. Time to rename it the Wild West Snake Hop!

Congratulations on completing it.

Great job Joe. Loved the video. It is a spectacular view.Loved DJ singing...lol
Hope to recover for next years WWM.That looks amazing.I was in Pittsburgh this weekend and could barely walk up a set of stairs so I am a long ways away from any training or hiking, walking yet.

Actually, Joe, it was 4:45 a.m. - if it had been 4:30, there's no telling what label I'd be wearing . . .

Glad you, DJ, and wazzu had a blast. The video was cool, and makes me itch to get out there.




Might that be Mt. Whitney on July 5th, by any chance?

QS wrote up a good recap of the day, so not too much to add except the next time I hike the WWW Marathon I'm going to use this.

And if anyone ever gets a chance to hike with QS and his buddy DJ, be prepared to laugh and hang out with 2 really terrific guys. If it wasn't for them, I don't think I would have finished.

On second thought, if it wasn't for QS, I wouldn't have been there at all.

The one thing missing from the recap, and I may be spilling a secret, some of the water stops had ice cold beer, and one had tequila. (The tequila water stop had lime and salt to go with it.) I have to admit to being tempted to just hang out at a water stop, have a beer or two and get a ride back into town with one of the volunteers.

Really, think about it, a beautiful day in the Alabama Hills, cold beer, plenty of snack food, and really nice folks to hang out with. Why would I keep hiking up and down hills in very dry hot weather, with snakes, lizards, flies, blooming wild flowers, and a couple of wild and crazy guys? But I did and had a once in a lifetime experience.

So, Thanks to Quillansculpture for making me aware of the WWW marathon.

QS, Wazzu and DJ,

Awesome job on the marathon, you all ROCK! I was thinking about you over the weekend and wondered how you were doing on your WWWM quest.

I loved watching the videos QS posted, but I got a bit confused when I saw QS on the top of Mt. Whitney. Did the marathon take you all the way to the top of Mt. Whitney? If you all went to the top and back down in 8.5 hours that's an amazing feat that I can hardly fathom.

Can someone please post a picture of your medal. I've always wanted to see what the medals look like since they're handmade.

lynn-a-roo,

I posted the 'medal' in the photo forum.

We did not summit Whitney. The 1st video is from the race. When it ends, a video of QS on the summit starts. Just one of those technology things that has the videos run together.

Hmmmmm . . . that video looks familiar. Where have I seen it before? Oh yeah - from the other side of the camera!

Bulldog,

So that was you with QS on the video and at the summit. Funny, you don't sound like a Bulldog.

By the way, I think I asked you this question before, but I forget what your answer was, 'who or what is wearing sunglasses in your avatar'?

Wazzu,

As I said once before in a PM, I LOVE THIS MEDAL, IT'S BEAUTIFUL! I didn't want to comment on the photo forum because I hope everyone will see that you have posted the Wild Wild West Marathon Medal and will take a moment to look at it. I'm really impressed by it. Did you get the story behind the making of the medal. I would love to read it if you know the story and will post it.

Thank you for posting this photo of the medal.

Lynn

Lynn, yep that's me capturing Joe in all his glory. As to sounding like a Bulldog - if you mean the southern accent, most Atlantans don't have one of any consequence. I lost most of mine at a pretty early age.

The avatar is Tucker (see Bee's Hiking Buddies thread). He was originally my daughter's, but she gave him to me before a solo Death Valley trip years ago. Since she couldn't go, she wanted me take him along so I wouldn't be "lonely". He's been dangling from my pack ever since on any trip out west.

I've almost lost him a couple of times - once at Mt. Rainier and another in Yosemite. Luckily I found him both times. I use a pair of carabiners to keep him on my pack now, instead of just one. The shot in the avatar photo was Tucker at Cottonwood Pass on a very sunny day. He borrowed my shades for the shot.

Here's Tucker on Wildrose Peak in Death Valley a couple of months ago - looking for the summit register: