Whiners are Wieners" - Winner"You play the Game" - N/A"Go F*ck Yourself" - N/A PERSONAL LIFE AND RANDOM FACTS:Wife: Wifey Why I'm awesome: I won the CGCF over 3,000 yds of wire at 11'6" and was the only individual to place over 1000' among the field. At least for now. Got to the finish 4 hours before most and then some. Got 2 wins and 3 or more place (including my wife's, which was in her first marathon ever). This was a big year for me personally and I was the only person to break 6:45 out of over 50. I also saw the most distance of anyone else, including a 5'3" person. I had a lot of fun. I'm hoping to have more success at other local events like the Great Western Double, Western States Rumble, and a couple more. I really enjoy the CGCF since it's so different from the other races. I look forward to doing it again next year and hopefully not sucking as bad as I did this year (which was not nearly as bad as my first one, that was in 2012). For 2011-2012 I ran over 15,000 miles for free (I bought my own shoes) and saved over $3,000 doing so. In 2013 I will be paying to race with the CGCF for the first time and it will be the first time I have paid to race a road marathon in 20 years. (I've always done trail or mud runs). If I can come up with some big savings/miles in 2014-2015 I'll do another. Last year was not a great year for me running in general. To be honest I felt like I could have done a lot better if it weren't for the time off running and the shoulder injuries that held me back. The best is yet to come! 2011: Ran my first Marathon (Chukyo) in 3:30:30.5. Raced it again as part of the CGCF (I'm a proud member of the Chukyo Ultra Team, Chukyo Chapter) and finished it in a more respectable 3:27:23. This was also the same race where I found out that something in my foot had swollen up into a giant cyst. So much for using the Marathon as a measuring stick for distance and time. It was a fun race, despite the sore knees from the week before (after running a race that had 40,000 people), and was actually more or less a long time trail run with a loop through an orchard, a town, and back to the highway and then back to the start/finish. I got there early, set up camp, went for a walk, then got yelled at for staying outside "too long". I was trying to catch up with some other group that was way ahead of me (2 minutes), and then had to dodge some cows that decided to cross the road right as I was crossing it. I don't remember how much I ran that race, but I do remember it was not much (probably about 12-14 miles at the most). 2014: Did the CGCF again, but changed my goal to attempt 6 hours and came close but didn't quite hit it. Ran for 5 hours. Did the Marathon de Sables again (got to the finish in 13:23). This time did better in the desert with 16 hours and 39 minutes and 2 bad legs. 2015: Did the CGCF again, but made my goal to do a faster marathon (than last year). Had fun doing it! Ran for 5 hours and 59 minutes and then walked for 12 miles to meet up with some friends (we missed the race start by accident because we weren't in our room when they checked our IDs). It was funny when we had to go and get our pictures taken together again for the day of the race and I was wearing my 5 hour shirt (forgot to take it off when I left the starting line). This is a list of my goals for 2016: -Get in the CGCF 50 again, or find a way to get my wife to do it instead. -Race the CGCF 100 (in the hopes of improving on 2014) -Run the Ultra. (I hope to at least break the 9 hour mark) -Get at least 1 100 mile weekend with the guys in the Bay Area (Trek to Oregon 100 and another local 100) -Run 1 ultra and 1 100 mile race in Italy. (Rome to Florence 100K and something else) -Stay healthy all year, not do anything stupid like the last time, and race more often. -Get better at pacing, making mental toughness/pain more acceptable. -Stay happy. -Do some fun things outside of running with friends. -Find the strength to go do awesome things that I find interesting but that aren't races. (Bike, sail, paddle) -Have an awesome life, that's not always just about running -Stay healthy! -Get in the CGCF 50 again, or find a way to get my wife to do it instead. -Race the CGCF 100 (in the hopes of improving on 2014) -Run the Ultra. (I hope to at least break the 9 hour mark) -Get at least 1 100 mile weekend with the guys in the Bay Area (Trek to Oregon 100 and another local 100) -Run 1 ultra and 1 100 mile race in Italy. (Rome to Florence 100K and something else) -Stay healthy all year, not do anything stupid like the last time, and race more often. -Get better at pacing, making mental toughness/pain more acceptable. -Stay happy. -Do some fun things outside of running with friends. -Find the strength to go do awesome things that I find interesting but that aren't races. (Bike, sail, paddle) -Have an awesome life, that's not always just about running -Stay healthy! "Do you mean like this post?" - Winner"This is about the best thing I've ever read on here. Ever." - runnerchick59 "I'm fairly certain I could fart you a better post, but you'd have to break me out of my apartment and then feed me until I could walk again. But you're welcome to try." - rovelog"The only thing better than Donkey Kong is a unicorn eating a donkey Kong while it is still alive." - Shigeru Miyamoto Thanks! I was trying to put all the info for each stage of CGCF, but then someone beat me to it and said I should put links. Oh well, at least I put them at the end. Also, if you like one of those events or want to check them out you can click the links and it will take you to the web site. _________________"In order to build a ship, a sound ship, they have to start with a sound crew." -- Sampson "When I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut. Now that I am old, I am too wise to want to be an astronaut." -- Steven Wright Bumping my own post with an update. CGCF came to my area this year for the first time since 2011. I've never been to any of the other races, so I'm excited to try it out. It will be my first trail marathon, I've only run a few ultras, and my longest race is a 50k. I've tried to train for this for the past few weeks and I've gotten in better shape than last year, so maybe I can do better this time around. I will likely be getting my first tat this year as well. If you like what you've seen so far, you can see a picture of it at the bottom of this post. I got it in the CGCF, a few years ago. I've also started adding the links for each stage of the CGCF to the bottom of my race reports when I write them. I know there are other ultras out there, I want to try and get