BCRRers Hank
Kastner, Michelle Wolpert and
Scott Bounds teamed up with
Hasher Doug Aitken to run the
Lone Star Trail with several
other intrepid runners. The first
LST run was Mother's Day 2006,
remember:
"I
don't care what they say, I had
a great time. This was my
mother's day present to myself,
and I certainly got my money's
worth. I go to run through
fire, ride in a Porsche, then in
the back of a pickup truck, and
then once I got home and cleaned
up, my family was willing to
take me out to dinner."
"A
great inaugural first leg for the
LST! We'll see how many
people show up later: I
really enjoyed the fire
sections... how often do we get
to do that, huh????"
"Awesome
fun today! A number of us
decided that the second aid
station was an excellent point
to retire from the run."
"Thanks...
After stern words and clear
directions at the start... I was
always on a marked trail, and
like Daniel Boone, was never
lost. And naturally I
missed all of the supply drops,
so I ran all those miles without
so much as a sip of water.
But that's OK because the biting
flies (as big as
pigeons-really!) kept me moving,
and I reached the finish a tidy
half hour before the torrential
rain, lightning and hail.
And then there was the
"minor" forest
fire. I've run several
hashes, but never once was the
shiggy on fire. That Hank,
how does he do it? I can't
wait for the next one."
"It all started so
eerily. We ran through a controlled burn section that
resembled a National Geographic "walk through fire" special.
Remember the ones where the vulcanologist in his heat suit steps
in the volcano. It was like have open-pit barbeques along
the trail. With smoke included. Just like hell. I
started singing, whistling, cussing and screaming to
silence. When you're on trail to nowhere you get plenty of
silence. I scratched my legs badly through the underbrush,
and fought through lots of spider webs, eek. After 5 hours I
popped out of the woods unto the highway and soon after (the
BCRRers) snatched me from hell, the trail. There's
more. Then at the finish what else can we get but golf-ball
size hail. Hail, fire and brimstone. Did I mention
that last time we ran the trails we had floods. What's next?
Locusts? Fortunately there were no gator sightings at the
crossings."
OTHER NEWS: BCRR
Trail Runner Michelle Wolpert Makes
Texas UltraRunner of the Year
Inside
Texas Running (March 2007, page 14-15)
reports that Michelle Wolpert is
co-winner of the first inaugural TUOTY
award. TUOTY award criteria
includes excellence as displayed by top
finishes in Texas ultras, and durability
as shown through running many ultras in
the state. Michelle had two top-3
finishes in 7 ultra-runner events.
Other LST runners receiving recognition
were Larry Teeter and Kathryn Vidal.
