Tuesday, November 20, 2012

80 mile run on his 80th birthday

80 miles in 23hrs. 50 min. 43 sec's, in under 24 hours.
Earlier this year my dad set a goal to run 80 miles on his 80th birthday. He looked on line for a 100 mile training program for ideas to help him train for this long of a distance. He has a long distance running background. He's been running marathon's since he was 40. He also ran 78 miles for his 78th birthday. On that one he broke it up into one marathon each day for three days. he has been blogging about his 80 mile training on this blog - http://runningforeighty.blogspot.com/2012/11/november-19-monday-2012-i-finished-80.html if you want to read about it. This one he planned on doing it on one continuous run.
Our family all came together to support him not only with aid stations but running and walking along with him. 
Here's a summary of the epic -

 My dad Chuck ready to start

Dick, my husband ran the first 30 miles with him


 My husband Dick finishing his 30 miles with my dad as they come in to the 30 mile aid station.


My brother Phil and I set up the aid stations every 3 miles but after the first 30 miles we stopped every 2 miles. This kept us pretty busy for the 24 hours. Needless to say no sleep for any of us. He ran one 30 mile loop, one 30 mile out and back and one 20 mile loop, So I drove the first (daylight) aid station duty. My brother Phil has a motor home and he drove the night section of our aid station duty.


Jason came from Flagstaff, Arizona to run 50 miles of this with my dad. So thankful he did this, as he is an ultra runner and had some inside information about how to keep my dad hydrated and fueled to be able to finish. He did a great job.


with my brother Phil and  Jason - halfway 40 miles!


The focused march at 70 miles in the cold of the night, along with Jason, my brother Bruce (he walked 12 miles) and my nephew Douglas (he walked 12 miles).


Here he is finishing on the road near his house. Some friends had put a line across with a sign with "80" written on it for him to run through. Jason, my brother and my nephew decided to drop off when they got to this road so he could finish alone.


All of the aid support and runners and walkers together. Such an epic, and glad we could all come together to help my dad complete this big dream he had for his 80th birthday!








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