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Showing posts from May, 2015

The Party Culture of Born to Run Ultras

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The golden hills of East Creek Ranch Exactly two weeks after the Swagon was unloaded from Badwater Salton Sea 2015 , it was cram packed again with an inflatable sofa, a camp kitchen/tiki bar, disco chandelier lights and red cups for the keg. It was time for my annual pilgrimage to the place where my ultra running tribe takes up residence for about four days. A little spot in the golden hills of Los Olivos where we arrive, detach from the grid, and connect to something bigger and more meaningful.  Oh. And we run. The Born To Run Ultra Marathons are way more than a race. It's been more accurately described as a running festival, but even that falls short of the true experience. Maybe that's just me, but I would venture to say that anyone who has made BTR their annual tradition has pulled back the layers to reveal something much more significant. Born To Run 100k 2012 (Photography by Larry Gassan) I first experienced the lure of the East Creek Ranch back in

SingleTrack Running's Badwater Salton Sea Ultra

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Salton Sea - Below sea level So I guess once you embrace the sulk and the mope over adventures thwarted something magical happens. Adventures appear out of nowhere. Shit just starts to happen. And I get a message like this from my friend Bill, a SingleTrack Racing Team member, regarding the 2015 Badwater Salton Sea three man team race: "Hey Krista!!  So I've been waiting to extend a formal invitation to you because I didn't know how things were going to shake with our crew situation. But I want to officially ask you to be part of our Badwater crew with Clint and Maggie we would be so excited to have you! In Paulo's words it would be 'crazyfantastic'" Crazyfantastic? That's quite a compliment. But, I'll admit I'm partial to unauthorized vocabulary that punches grammar and punctuation rules in the face.  SOLD. SingleTrack Running Racing Team Paulo, Ben, and Bill I felt honored that the guys wanted to recruit me to be