Post Christmas Calorie Burning

Hope we can all connect on Saturday 12/27 for some post-Christmas calorie-burning. Can we shoot for 8 AM since it's a holiday week? Not sure if the rain will be heavy in the AM, I'm hoping the trail will be less snowy/icy...

what a screwy idea!

Got this message from fellow MC200 runner Howard Atsma - and since I'm sick of the treadmill already and it's only December, I'm going to try this as well:

Tom, Saturday I debuted my new winter shoes. I've been tired of slipping and sliding so I took the advice from our blog and bought a small box of sheet metal screws. They cost me $2.29 for 100, I used about twelve in each shoe. You can see from the picture that I put them around the perimeter of my sole. I didn't want them to poke my feet. I also put an extra pair of insoles in the shoes to further protect me. They worked great! That was the most sure footed run I've had since the snow started flying! Page 50 of the new Runners World also has an article about putting screws in your shoes.

winter time running

The team minus myself met yesterday for a great five miler. I was with them in spirit and put in my five miles today. The roads were clear for the first time in a few weeks and even though the wind was whipping at 30 MPH at least the air temp was reasonable (40 degrees). I was thinking as I was running into the wind on my return of the weather this past June when I ran the MC200 with another group - we had 30 MPH plus winds to get us started that weekend except the temps were in the high 80's and high humidities as well (like high 80's). In a word: miserable. Which led me to this question I pose to the blog followers: What is the perfect running weather conditions for you? I'll be anxious to see your responses. In the meantime, enjoy all those Christmas goodies at work and at home as long as you keep running!

Why the name Ultra Baal Out?

WHY the name Ultra Baal Out?

The Old Testament Prophet Elijah had an incredible victory in defeating Baal (one of the god’s that the ancient people worshipped). However, when later confronted, Elijah still fled for his life. In 1 Kings 19: 3, it says that Elijah ran from Mt. Carmel to Beersheba which was over 100 miles away. Today, there are many “Baal’s” that distract us and get our devotion, things such as money, sex, power, selfishness, etc. Our team is a group of Jesus followers who have a strong desire to kick these “Baal’s” out of our lives. And we are pretty impressed with Elijah's running prowess as well - if he were alive today he could have done this MC200 relay almost single-handedly!
And, with all of the economic doom and gloom, bail-out vs. baal-out - it just made sense...

Race Registration: DONE

We met the early deadline for registering...put these dates in June on your calendar in INK that you cannot erase!

MC200 here we come

Welcome to our blog...we are six amateur runners that have come together for our next running challenge and adventure - a 200 mile team relay in June 2009. Some of us have a few marathons under our belt, some of us a few 5K's. Five of our team members are experiencing a team relay like this for the first time.

Today we connected for a chilly, but sunny five miler - minus our sixth team member Joe Fifer - somehow he was detained at some post Thanksgiving festivity - missed you Joe! In the photo above, back L to R: Ken Nash, Clint Nickoles, Tom Dean, front L to R: Chris McKenna, Howard Atsma

Stay tuned as we update the blog, and highlight a different team member every month for the next six months. And share our highs/lows and running tales.

We'll run from Madison, WI to Chicago, IL on June 12 and 13, 2009. See the website at http://www.mc200.com/. Each of us will run a total of somewhere between 29-38 miles each - in six different legs each. Yes, we are an ULTRA team - most teams that participate are 12 member teams (wimps).

There is significance to our name - tune in soon to read more about that...