The Stubborn Tortoise

Robert Gonzales ran his first 50K about a month ago.

He is 74 years old.

He had a mishap during that race that later required surgery, but he finished the race in 8:47, well ahead of others much younger.

Gonzales tells me about his running journey, with credit to his coach, Christi Myers Faulk, and his daughter, Roxanne Lockhart.

He is not ready to stop at a 50K. He now has his sights on getting a 100-mile buckle.

I reached WAAAAAY into the archives and uprooted this old gem from the early days of this podcast. This is about the relationships you make while on the trails. It's fun, short and sweet. Enjoy!

This week, I thought it might be helpful to offer advice and tips to those who are new to trail running. You generally won't see people holding signs and cheering for you in the woods, like you might on the road. I go over things like shoes, hydration, sports watches and more. I don't cover everything, but there are some useful tidbits if you want to hit the dirt.

After years of running at Colorado Bend State Park at night, I finally got to see it during daylight hours. It's almost more gnarly because you can see stealth rocks that catch your toes, the narrow, terrifying rock ledges and tombstone-sized rocks.

I also found new parts of the park where I'd never been. I learned that you should never ignore the race director's pre-race briefing, where they go over the details of the course. Had I listened, I would have heard about the multitude of water crossings, like seven of them (I didn't count, but someone told me this).

It was one for the books for me and reminded me of why I do this stuff: it's all about the stories. It's also about strategizing where to put your feet and, sometimes, other body parts.

Steve Carter is a Michigan-born, San Antonio-based retired Air Force veteran. He is also an accomplished cyclist and ultrarunner. We chronicle his running and cycling career, including him crewing for Kenneth Anderlitch, who spent 19 days in 2022, running across Texas. Steve has some big ultra goals coming up, along with a couple of cycling events. Oh, and he finished Rocky Raccoon 50-miler this past weekend, with an impressive 10:19 finishing time.

Kate Motsko and I share a common conceit: we've both received the Spirit of Dan Keitz award, the highest honor bestowed by Tejas Trails. I won it in 2022 (and had no idea that it existed) and Kate got it this year. It is well-deserved.

She has a storied career as an ultrarunner but also has sustained some epic injuries along the way.

She's taken up cycling in the meanwhile and has some ambitious goals.

Last fall she was the assistant race director for the inaugural Great Springs trail race in San Marcos.

She says she enjoys volunteering at the particularly long races because she can apply her hard-earned expertise to help the runners get through the tough parts.

She has an infectious smile and upbeat attitude. You should run a Tejas race to see her in action.

In other news, my washing machine saga continues. I had lunch with my birthday-month buddy, Jessica Kestermann and offer shout-outs to a few folks who tackled the Rocky Raccoon 100 and 100K this past weekend. It was a slopfest, based on what I saw.

Kudos to anyone who tried.

Timothy Sneed, admittedly, dealt with addiction to stimulants, off and on, for years. He is finally clean and is living away from bad influences in Kerrville, Texas. He is wicked fast on 50Ks and loves the trail scene. I cajoled him into doing the Cactus Rose 100K next year and offered to crew for him. I love that runners are so suggestible. (I should know.)

Meg Eckert, a native of Spring, Texas, began her running career seven years ago.

In that time, she has won a number of long-distance races.

Over the New Year's weekend this year, she set the course record for female runners at the Snowdrop 55-hour event, running 100 miles in 16 hours and 6 minutes.

She went on to complete 218.87 miles in hours - another record.

The middle-school special education teacher, who now lives in Santa Fe, NM., likes a combination of road and trail races, but likes mountain trails.

She is super upbeat and generous as a runner.

Photo credit: Susan Kretschmer Leining

Snowdrop 2023-24.

This was a weird year: not much running, a lot of introspection, new gym challenges, new goals and dealing with the beast known as menopause. It's not kind, ladies.

Also, re-ditched a person who was incredibly selfish and unkind in my life. I don't know why I let myself put up with this nonsense, but I saw through it and stopped it.

Anyway, hoping to run more in 2024.

I met Angela early on in the Wild Hare 10K at Bluff Creek Ranch. The reason I met her is because I heard this gutteral voice in the woods belonging to our mutual friend, David Salazar.

She invited me to join her crew, doing an interval walk-run, which I appreciated.

She is fairly new to the trail scene, but plans to do her first 50K next year!

Robbie has been a friend of mine for a few years. (He made a shirt that I gave to Orville Peck -- long backstory) And, he has proven that he is there for us all.

He started out as a runner at a young age and later got into ultrarunning in his 40s.

He and his significant other, Ann Ludewig, have gone on many adventures.

For him, it's all about the love of running.

I once had a colleague from Southeastern Kentucky who was a master storyteller. She's start in one direction, veer off into left field, go to center field, then right field and manage to tie it all up by the time she got to home plate. Weird analogy, but that's kind of where this episode goes.

I talk about staying consistent in November, interval joy, road bike riding (including a spectacular tale about a crash where I zoomed downhill at 30 mph and lived to tell about it.) Oh, and there are some assorted other bits. But stay with me. I think it's worthwhile.

I ran my favorite race yesterday -- WildHare. I just did the 10K, but ran into a bunch of friends from the San Antonio Off-Road Runners.

Later, I watched a longhorn give birth (see photo) and a marriage proposal.

It was an uplifting day after a sort of dark one.

Hip feels good, so there's that.

I was privileged to join the Band of Runners this past weekend in Leakey, Texas, for its annual Band Camp. It is a trail running event for veterans and their families.

I was a pseudo-mentor, chronicling the event but participating in a group's activities: meal cleanup, prep, yoga, running form, running various courses/miles.

I enjoyed it so much. I met so many inspirational folks and made lifelong friends.

Again, trail-running is all about the stories. Expect to hear many, many more.

Today, I worked a couple of aid stations at the Hill Country Trivium in Marble Falls, Texas. I also got to hand out medals at the finish line. It was so fun to meet people, hear their stories and see them complete their first half, full or 50K.

Yesterday, I ran/hiked an 8K (5.2) out at Government Canyon. It felt pretty good, although the arthritic hip made me feel like The Tin Man.

Earlier in the week, I traveled to Atlanta and brought home eight national awards for Texas A&M-San Antonio's student magazine, El Espejo. I'm the adviser. It was super-cool.

But with the time difference and now the time change, my internal clock is at WTF o'clock.

Christine Foster is only 29 but she's already tackled three 50Ks. The Cincinnati, Ohio native has always been active and figured doing ultras was a natural next step. She's eyeing 50-milers in the future.

Oh, and she said it was a dream to be featured on a podcast. I was happy to oblige. :)

I had a great time volunteering on Saturday at the inaugural Great Springs Trail race in San Marcos. I was the person handing out medals. We got to witness the annualar solar eclipse and everyone finished! Good times.

Switching gears....I had an annual physical the other day and it triggered my eating disorder issues, big time. I was deemed "overweight," according to the BMI (my height is wrong and I was wearing more clothes than the last time.) The nurse-practitioner wanted to up certain drugs for cholesterol and blood pressure. No heed given to my thyroid being removed in 2015 and that I have been on the same dosage of synthetic thyroid since then. (narrator's voice: I think I should be on a higher dose, but my lab numbers are considered "fine.") I explained that I was concerned about post-menopausal weight gain and body changes, despite hard workouts, lifting weights and doing functional training and eating mainly plant-based. My words were ignored. Instead, she suggested that I go on one of these diet drugs that have become so popular. She said I would need to check with my insurance company to see what would be covered, and that the co-pay would be the equivalent of a steak dinner with wine.

I went into a tailspin. I still am. I have never been overweight, except for when I was 10 and a growth spurt slowed, so I eventually turned toward disordered eating.

Menopause is a bitch. I was spared most of the symptoms, but the shifting weight has killed my sense of self. I still feel like me, but when I see photos of myself or catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror, I want to die.

I have a lot of friends in the same boat, so that sort of helps.

It's just infuriating that when men can't get an erection, they're offered all sorts of options. Women, when dealing with a loss of estrogen are told to eat less and buy bigger clothes.

This can't be the way it should be.

This is a little heavy, but it comes from the heart.

I'm still only running very little once a week, but am optimistic this will gradually increase now that the torrid heat has left for the season -- I hope. I look back on captaining an aid station after its anniversary popped up in my FB memories last week. Oh, and I managed to lock myself out of FB for two, long days after attempting to publish last week's episode, which ended up being deleted by me. This coming weekend, I'll be at an aid station at the new Great Springs half in San Marcos. Looking forward to that. Oh, and last week, a song on my playlist made me smile during a run and I feature it at the end of this episode, instead of the usual outtro. Hopefully, I won't get thrown in the penalty box for this.

I discovered over the weekend that while I can lop branches from cedar trees, doing so in almost 100-degree heat with little shade is not my thing. I learned a few things and enjoyed myself, but once I became overheated, I realized I'm better off serving up drinks and sandwiches and encouragement at aid stations. It's a good discovery to make and it taught me to respect my limits.

It's coming up on the nine-year anniversary of my first 20-miler, with my friend, Orly (aka Hundo). I look back on that experience and talk about the importance of having another person to mentally help you get through something hard. I've mentally Sherpa'd a couple of friends through 100-milers (doing a 20-mile or 31-mile segment -- usually in the middle of the night because I'm a talker.) There are also times, though, when you need to decide if someone you run with at a race needs your help or whether you need to run your own race. Sometimes, it's good to help someone through. Other times, you can give yourself the permission to run your own race.

Also, looking ahead to next weekend, I'll be heading up to Hill Country SNA (aka: Bandera) to help the folks at Tejas Trails build and maintain trails. I'm not especially handy but I do have a sweet set of Fiskars limb cutters (which I employed this morning after discovering that a HUGE tree part was in my side yard.) We'll be camping and eating and running/hiking at one of the most beautiful places in Texas.)

And, hey, leave a review, subscribe and all that jazz! It's free. If you want to sponsor this podcast, lmk.

I didn't have a ton to talk about and then it hit me: why not share my Top 10 favorite places to run trails in Texas? This is highly subjective and limited to my experience. Hint: I'm not a huge fan of those gnarly, super-technical courses, so don't come at me.

The majority of these places are venues patronized by Tejas Trails races. BUT, there are a handful of small, San Antonio parks and some obscure spots that aren't on a map in the Rio Grande Valley. (From Mission to Sullivan City to outside of Rio Grande City.)

I count 'em down in reverse order, like any awards show. Ha ha.

Yes, there are places I still want to run: Big Bend and maybe some others in West Texas.

Liz Casa Perez is sort of infamous in the Trail Racing Over Texas community because she occasionally puts up a canopy emblazoned, "You Are Not Alone."

She is also an accomplished ultrarunner, who currently lives in Victoria, Texas and loves the 100K distance. She recently attempted the 100M race at Habanero Hundred, but did not finish. Still, she is undeterred and ready to tackle it next year.

I missed going to Habanero Hundred last weekend because two Interstates were closed and traffic was being funneled onto service roads, creating a ridiculous backlog of traffic. I was already cutting it close to arriving on time -- my theory is I didn't want to get there too early and then be stuck hanging around in the heat. When it became clear I would miss the start by over 30 minutes and maybe an hour, I turned around and went home.

In retrospect, it might have been fate sparing me a DNF because people were dropping out of the race because of the extreme heat. As it was, seven people didn't finish the 10K, so that tells you something.

In other news, I picked up a new phrase that describes what I do: Hogging. It's a combination of hiking and jogging. I rather like it.

So, I did a thing last week.

I signed up for the Habenero Hundred on Aug. 12.

I'm *only* doing the 20K because I'm crazy, but not insane.

The real masochists are doing the 100-mile and 100K.

Here's the rub: the race starts at high noon for the big distances. For the rest of us, we start at 12:30. PM. In August. In Texas.

I'm hoping to not throw up because I am known to do that in the heat or if I ingest too much ice-cold water (but, oh, it tastes sooo good going down.)

Also big shout-out to Liza Howard for winning the Badger 100. Other pod-adjacent folks who finished the 100 include Jenny Gruber and Lydia Rios. And high-five to my buddy, Chris Prairie for crushing the 50K.

I spent a few days in Southern Utah where I hiked at Zion National Park, sandboarded down a white-hot dune, soaked in a river and hung out on a pontoon boat with my sister and her family. Oh, and I saw this place that had haunted my dreams for years. It was a road that ran alongside a mountain. I knew it was out near California but wasn't California. It's in Utah. It's weird when you finally see a place that has been in your dreams. See photo.

This episode is about the humble origins of this podcast four years ago to all about YOU listeners! And, stick around for a personal update involving self-esteem, the injury that hasn't gone away, image, and some embarrassing, yet helpful, information about why you should not use a debt consolidation settlement company. I'll be OK but it's been a tough week.

Here's to a happy new season of the pod. Please send any feedback to donnapaz@gmail.com. (No lectures, please. I get it.)

Sarah attempted her first 100-miler in December/January at Snowdrop. She had some serious health issues and was pulled by the medical staff, two loops short of finishing. Unfortunately, the time cutoff was called and she couldn't go back out and finish. Fast-forward to June, when she traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and spent six days inside the Petit National Ice Center's track, and she got her hundo and a buckle!

It's been a while since I've caught up with my friend, Orlando Montalvo (Hundo). This year, after finishing his fifth Snowdrop 100-mile race, he and his lovely wife, Kathy (Babe) are dialing it back this year.

We reflect on past races, talk about the future and more.

Jessica Kestermann loves to remind me that she is exactly half my age. Ha ha. Still, we met on a cold, January morning a few years ago at Pedernales State Park, where we warmed up inside a mutual friend's Prius and got to know each other as our other friends finished their longer miles. Since then, we've tackled Rocky Raccoon half-marathon prior to the 2021 Big Texas Freeze. Later that year, I dragged her to Marble Falls to volunteer at the Trivium race. She is an ultrarunner, but considers herself a roadie at heart. I don't know about that.

Two friends decided to attempt the Cocodona 250, an arduous 5-day race set in the mountains of Arizona. Despite their best efforts to train appropriately, both were pulled by race officials on the first day. After processing this devastating situation, they stuck around and continued running/hiking parts of the course, while cheering on the remaining runners. Both admit to learning a lot from the experience and are determined to try this

Gordon Montgomery, 54, is originally from Ireland and ended up in the US. He is a longtime rugby player who turned to trail running. He has a storied career as a runner and was sidelined with the need to replace both hips. He's on the comeback trail and pursuing his PhD in transpersonal psychology. He is a leadership coach and practices Transcendental Meditation twice a day. He recently moved to Virginia to be with his girlfriend.

Bill Luttrell was told he no cartilage in his knee and that he shouldn't run.

Instead, he signed up for the Bandera 50K not long after. He made it 21 miles before he called it quits.

Undeterred, he signed up for it again the following year. A few months before the race, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

That didn't stop him, either.

Race day was a rainy, sleeting, snowy mudfest, just to add something extra to the mix.

Then, The Marine (William Kohmuench) joined him and made it his mission to get Luttrell to the finish line. They got into the Chapas aid station and Luttrell was hypothermic. The aid station crew, comprised of folks from "The Big Ass Runner" podcast, took over. Both The Marine and Luttrell finished the race. They went on for another adventure, running the Grand Canyon from the north rim to the south rim.

Luttrell, 65, has another race coming up in the fall: The Great Divide 25K in Colorado.

For him, he is at peace and says the important thing is to believe you can finish.

Cyrus Walker lived a sedentary lifestyle her entire life. She left a corporate job after 24 years, lost 100 lbs with diet and exercise and found her true love - trail running.

Amanda Eaton has only done a few races, but she has won a few of them. Most notably, she won the Habanero Hundred in August 2022, along with her fellow Rio Grande Valley compadre, Art Hurtado. Amanda talks to me about her running adventures, wins and future plans.

I also talk about "active listening" and upcoming events.

After the devastating loss of his longtime partner, Kenny Gardner got more bad news: he was overweight and diagnosed with diabetes. He had to change his habits from eating junk food as a comfort to finding joy in eating clean and working out. He's also returned to running and plans on conquering his first 50K this fall. As of this recording, he is down 47 pounds and counting.

Aurora Kerr ran her first 50K in February at Jackalope Jam. She turned 11 in November. Aurora, who has the cutest giggle, recounts that race and what led up to it in her running career. She likes math and science and has some ideas about what she wants to be later in life. Oh, and there will be more 50Ks.

Howard Avery suffered a stroke while training last fall. After a brief hospitalization, he was back at it. The only concession was that he dropped from the 50-miler to the 55K at Antelope Canyon race in mid-March.

He finished the race and is eyeing a flattish, warm-weather 50 or 100-miler in the not-so-distant future.

Avery, who hails from Memphis, will turn 74 in a few days.

I'm trying to make a lot of changes. Some are going better than others, but I haven't given up.

One of the biggest realizations is the need to be grateful for something every day, no matter how crappy the day is.

This is hard for me because I am hard on myself and sometimes set unrealistic expectations.

But I'm getting there.

Liza Howard is one of the kindest, most down-to-earth ultrarunners you will ever meet,. She wins races but is humble about it. She also coaches runners to reach their goals. She also has a couple of other hats she wears. Oh, and she has a family. On March 18, she will tackle Badwater Cape Fear.

Find her at https://www.sharmanultra.com/coaching