Spring can't be far

With winter still hanging on in the Pittsburgh area, local ultrarunners have found many ways to cope during the recent record snowfalls. Folks traveled to Texas for the Rocky Raccoon 100, to Florida for the Lean Horse 100 and to North Carolina for a long training runs. The Pittsburgh area will once again be well represented at the Iditarod Trail Invitational with Tom Jarding and Tim Hewitt doing the full 1100 mile race. Loreen Hewitt will be attempting to lower the course record in the 350 mile race, a record that she already holds. Rick Brickley and Chuck Struble will also be competing in the 350 mile "fun run". Rich Cook will be in New York for the inaugural Beast of Burden 100 mile race. It looks interesting, and I have to admit, I thought about heading up there this weekend to do it.

The ultra running season gets underway locally in a few weeks with the J.C. Stone 50k in North Park. You can find race information on Facebook, and on Lou's race page. Just do a search for the jc stone 50k. I will be there helping out. If you are looking for a spring tune-up race, this a good one to do. It is a fairly flat course, run on good roads and has lots of support.

We are still snowshoeing a lot in Boyce/Mayview Park. We had the trails worked in well last week. Enough so that we could actually run on them. But the recent thawing and new snow have left them pretty rugged, so we will be out packing them down again this weekend.

Keep training hard during this inclement weather, you will be thankful you did once the days turn warm.