It's More Than Talk Now

Today I received the following e-mail

"Hi Stan,
I have three more 2012 Grand Slam of Ultrarunning registrants. Could you please add them to the slam list at your run100s.com website? Thanks for your help.

Steve Baugh

David Peterman, 49, OH
Brian Pilgrim, 45, NM
Craig Wheeler, 50, KY"

Here is the 2012 Slam list that is being referenced.

So there it is, I got into all the races, paid all my fees and sent in my $80 to officially be considered an entrant in the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning. If I finish I will be the 8th New Mexican to do so. Here is a list of those New Mexicans who have finished the Grand Slam. Just over half did it back in the day when Old Dominion was still one of the four you could use to complete the series.

Year Grand Slammer Total Time for all four 100s
1991 Steve Mahieu 85:21:56
2000 Bobby Keogh 108:57:30
2001 Bobby Keogh 105:11:13
2001 Myrrl McBride 115:40:56
2001 Fred Abramowitz 112:08:52
2003 Dennis Drey 110:04:55
2004 Cathy Tibbetts-Witkes 116:09:29
2007 Pat Scott 105:03:50

Other Slam stats include:
The Slam has been run since 1986 and has been completed 251 times by 221 individuals. A few like Bobby (above) have done it more than once and two guys have done it six times. Actually I think one of them is going for a seventh finish this year. On average, 43% of those who start the Slam finish the Slam with a high one year of 70% low of 26%. There have been more years where it has been upper 20 to 30% finish rates than years where there has been high 40s or better. The average age of a Slam finisher is 44.7. I am 45 and my 46th birthday is on the day the last race of the Slam begins.

As far as my training and injury goes, I've been back to running but it has been a delicate balance. In the last three weeks I've run a 50 mile week, 61 mile week and finally a 70 mile week. I haven't decided how much I'll run this week but I'm thinking at least 60 but preferably I'll repeat a 70 mile week just because next week I do need to drop to 50 to get in a rest before the Bataan Death March Memorial Marathon on March 25th. While the injury seems to be getting better it keeps whispering to me and every once in a while it gives me a sharp poke. At this point most of my miles are on relatively easy terrain and relatively modest paces but eventually I need to start doing things like trying to run fast, trying to run down mountain slopes and trying to run on rough terrain.

Fortunatly for me I don't need to do the running up and down mountains or over rough terrain until after Boston, which gives me another month and a half to heal and strengthen some more. In all honesty I don't really have to run particularly fast at any time this season. As I have been reminded running Boston is just the victory lap for all the work I've put into running over the past seven years and while I want to do well at the All National Guard marathon time trials the possability of me actually earning a spot on the All Guard team is virtually zero even if I were completely running at 100%, the times of the "slow" people who make that team are about one minute per mile faster than my fastest marathon time. However, that doesn't matter to me either. The fact is I get to go and represent my state and possibly motivate some other young people in the New Mexico National Guard to train hard and take my place on the team next year.

Next up, the first race of this epic year, Bataan!