Catching Up (or mostly recovered from Riverlands)

 I'm coming back from Riverlands 100. It is all consuming for many months. This year, with each step, especially the tedious ones, Squirrel and I would say, "Just one more year." It became our mantra. I never thought I would get to the point where I was ready to say, "I'm done." But I'm there. Putting on a successful 100 takes more work that you can imagine, unless you've RDed one. 

Mindy and I aim to make our race the best experience the runners can have. We know our race is challenging. It is unrelenting. Our roots, rocks, and constant undulation are enough on their own, but then throw in spring weather in Maine, giving us "The Hot Year" and 2025's "The Mud Year."  The Hot Year's finishing rate was 28.8%. Yikes!! This year's rate was 28.3% 

We have the best volunteers. Though Mindy and I fret every year about filling the slots, we've never been let down. Most are Trail Monsters or other runners, but, even volunteers new to aid stations quickly learn from the seasoned folks. I think every year we have a few runners that dropped make sure to find me or Mindy to let us know how great the aid stations were.

Turner Timberland ATV Club haul all our supplies and volunteers to and from Middle Earth (the aid station about 4 miles in  by ATV). It's been a great partnership. We don't know how we would have been able to do the race without them. I think it was the very first year when I went over to their Trailer to ask a question that I found them following the race on our tracker! They were in to it!!

 I am going to try to get a race report done from the RD perspective, but I still have to put together the photo album I promised for the FaceBook page. I received so many good pic and videos, but Facebook isn't letting me download the videos. I took a break from it to stop from being so frustrated.

 I also need to get more of Jeff Mikesell's race reports up. I at least want to create a list of the races he's done with links to the reports. It would be a great resource for runners considering what race to do next.

I also am starting to get back to a training plan. With Riverlands, my own running has suffered a bit. No races for this year yet, but I have some interesting ideas for 2026!