100 miles is a long way. I mean, it’s far. It’s far enough to use as an excuse. Like: I would go, but it’s 100 miles away.
Ultrapalooza is a running event put on by our friends, Midwest Endurance Race Company. The same group that brought us the Kansas City Last Man Standing event, Miola Madness series of fixed time events, and the Mile 0 run. They do a great job with their events, and Ultrapalooza is no different.
There are 5 distances available to race at ultrapalooza: 50k, 50 mile, 100k, 100 mile, and 1/2 marathon. I was doing the 100 mile as part of my attempt at the grand slam of Kansas ultrarunning super slam. I had friends running in just about every other distance.
A couple of notable ones:
Kerrie ran her 100th half marathon. Apparently, her finish was amazing! I wasn’t there. I was on the trail, trying to run 100 miles.
Adam had intended to run his first 100 kilometer race there at ultrapalooza. He has been doing amazing things lately (the hawk trail marathon and pike’s peak marathon,) but life takes a toll. He dropped down to the 50k and did amazing! I hope his foot pain is temporary. He told me about it as he passed me on the trail, twice, while I was trying to run 100 miles.
Our friend and regular pacer David “Bootsy” Boots ran his first 100k. He did amazing, even though he told me he was seriously undertrained. We saw each other a couple of times on the trail while I tried to run 100 miles.
Sydney’s coach Randy ran the 50-mile race. I mean, he RAN 50 miles. At the start line, he gave me solid advice: “don’t follow me” lol! And I didn’t. I had a plan(ish). I saw him on his way BACK from the turnaround. He was flying! I was trying to run 100 miles.
I did, by the way. I ran 100 miles at ultrapalooza. It took 28 hours. It was really hard. I did it with the help and support of a couple of amazing pacers and my girlfriend, crew chief, and H.B.I.C., Sydney.
The entire weekend was a fun, trippy, unbelievable experience. Syd and I drove down Friday afternoon for packet pickup. The entire main street through Osawatame was ripped up for some sort of project.

Saturday morning, we made it to the start just in time. It’s funny to me how much I have to hurry at the start of these things. The shortest distance takes over an hour. We should be allowed a bit of a grace period at the front end. Maybe there would be, I hate being late, so I’ll probably never test it.
The forecast called for thunderstorms. Luckily I was moving too slow and missed the heavy rain, hail, and lightning. Gay Ann got some awesome video of a lightning show in the distance overnight.
Besides lightning, there was a lot of animal activity through the night. I saw a couple of opossum, some armadillo (possum on the half shell), deer, frogs, and an owl. The noise and being sprayed by something really freaked out my pacer Jeff and me! All the action settled down after he started blasting 80’s hits from his mobile. We agree that music without headphones is gauche, but since we were the only people left out there, it would probably be okay in this instance.
Yes, I was the last runner to finish. I’m okay with it. I wasn’t going slow, according to the stats. In fact, this is my second or third fastest 100 miler. And “last” was still 2nd place. I got a really nice framed print. It’s on the mantle.
Ultrapalooza was on the same weekend as some other popular races. So I didn’t have a lot of crew or pacers. I don’t mind. I understand there are only so many weekends. I hardly ever volunteered before this challenge. I will after, for sure!
So between the heat, humidity, lightning, limited support, and active wildlife… I think it went pretty well.

