Tread Lightly

Idaho Centennial Trail

8/9/2016

8/9/16 Hoodoo Pass, MT - ID Border
Tread Lightly's Manager Connie Jacobson and her family had the pleasure of meeting up with Andrija Barker and Taylor Neal for a meal and resupply stop last evening as they arrived at the top of Hoodoo pass outside of Superior, MT. This is day 10 of their run/fastpack journey traveling the length of Idaho, on the Idaho Centennial Trail, during the month of August. They will run/fastpack 960 miles in 30 days. Follow their grand adventure on Facebook, Idaho Love Thing.

Andrija is the Saucony rep for Tread Lightly and both she and Taylor are incredibly strong athletes. The pictures below are of Taylor and Andrija, and the third is of a cute little Pika that we couldn't resist taking a picture of. Can you pick him out of the rocks?

Thank you to Taylor and Andrija for very graciously allowing Tread Lightly to be a tiny part of their incredible journey. Happy, safe travels to you both!!

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Run with Janji Co-founder David Spandorfer

5/5/2015

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Janji ‏@RunJanji Co-founder David Spandorfer @spandorfer had an amazing time running with the Tread Lightly @treadlightly406 crowd on Sunday 5/3/15. Thanks for all the Janji love!

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Running in Arizona in the Winter

1/23/2015

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This is a guest blog from Mike Jacobson.

On Jan. 9th, Connie and I boarded a plane to Phoenix to spend a few days with my parents, who own a home in Sun City. We decided that we wanted to run and/or hike everyday spent in the Grand Canyon State. I thought I'd share some of our experience with you.

We ran in regional parks around Phoenix as well as "city park trails" we also spent a day in the Sedona area. Here are a couple of pics from our adventure.

View of Lake Pleasant from the end/top of the Yavapi trail. We ran in three trails in the Pleasant Lake park on Saturday and Sunday.

End of the Wilson Canyon Trail just North of Sedona.

start of the Camelback trail

It was really nice to run in shorts and a single shirt and the trails are spectacular. We had a lot of fun and will be back next year.

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Cold Weather Running

1/23/2015

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Some of you may know that I stage a semi-non-serious running event called the Fat Ass 50K. One of the non-serious aspects of a Fat Ass event is that there is no pre-race day signup. This means that I have no idea how many runners will show up. The weather forecast for race weekend was sub-zero cold. Several runners who expressed an interest suddenly made other plans. The best reason I heard for not showing up involved a sick cat. Well… whatever… I looked at the run as an opportunity to check out equipment for cold weather running. The most obvious concerns for me include my face, hands and feet. Even with a hat and neck gaiter, there is still some exposed skin on nose and cheeks. I’ve found that smearing on a layer of Vaseline works pretty well. It always reminds me that I heard (long ago) about runners in a late season cross country race wanting to wear shorts and singlet in well-below-freezing temperatures. They used olive oil. The word was it kept you fairly warm… if you didn’t mind smelling like an Italian restaurant. Too address any issues with my feet getting cold, I used an idea borrowed from my snowshoe running experience. I wear a thin crew sock (wool or some other non-cotton material) and pull on an over-sock made of neoprene (or similar). I wore shoes that have always felt slightly large on me. They fit perfectly with the two layer sock system and my feet stayed pretty warm during the run. The rails-to-trails section near Montana City was still fresh, deep snow, so it really helped ensure my feet stayed dry even if snow worked its way into the shoes. My hands have always been a concern as well. When your hands are too cold and stiff to work zippers or open gel packets, it can get pretty miserable. I used some medium weight gloves, with some heavy-duty over-mitts. I remember picking up the mitts from a bike store. I know some people ride their bikes all winter, and it’s amazing to me that they can keep their hands warm. These over-mitts are double-layer gore tex shell material. The nice thing about them is that they really extend the warmth of any weight glove. This system kept my hands toasty warm the whole way. I know, at this point, winter is almost over. The Snow Joke Half Marathon is just around the corner, and I’ve run it wearing shorts (but no olive oil or vaseline!), so how much winter could be left? But these suggestions may be worth considering for future winters. See you out there, Martin

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Running in the Heat

7/26/2013

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My week day routine involves getting out for a run at about 4:30 PM. I’ve noticed that temperatures at that time of day have been a little bit warm. Maybe even hot. OK, it’s been very hot on some of my runs. When other runners point this out to me, I often respond with some variation of “The heat kills more brain cells. Must be time to sign up for another ultramarathon.” I do have steps that I take to deal with the heat. When it started getting warm, I would soak my hat under the kitchen faucet and wear it out the door. I’d know I had the correct amount of water soaked into the hat when a stream of cold water dribbled down the back of my neck for the first several minutes of the run. As temperatures warmed up, I would take the additional step of soaking my shirt under the faucet. I would actually be chilled as I left the house. Even though these steps are temporary, they would help until I made it off the pavement and onto the trails where temperatures are always cooler. Even so, the heat experienced out on the trails can still be a factor to be dealt with. It’s times like this when I reflect on some of the wisdom handed down by the ultra community. One old saying goes, “Discomfort [or pain, in some versions] is inevitable, suffering is optional”. A positive attitude goes a long way in getting past environmental factors like heat. Sure, I feel the heat beating me up, but, even so, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than running along on one of our trails. Stay cool out there! Martin

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Notes from Martin

3/25/2013

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I’ve made a couple of trips to California that included races on subsequent weekends. One memorable combination included running the Avenue of Giants Marathon in northern California on Sunday, followed by the Bishop High Sierra 50 Mile the following Saturday. It was an interesting experiment. I felt ready for a marathon PR (Personal Record), hoping to slip in at something under 8 minutes per mile pace. The course, although very scenic, provided my first real experience with The Wall, making the last 6 miles ugly and painful. A marathon PW (Personal Worst) was what I ended up with. After a few days of woefully painful “recovery”, I managed a 3 mile shuffle. It wasn’t looking good. I made my way over to Bishop, in eastern California, with some anxiety about how this experiment might turn out. If I fell apart at the 20 mile point, it was going to be a very long day! By Saturday, my legs felt OK at the start. I was surprised when I felt back to normal for much of the race. The biggest surprise of all was over the last 6 miles, which felt about as good as the last miles of any race have ever felt, and way better than the same portion of the marathon just a few days before. So don't sell yourself short. If you have race goals, go for it and don't look back.

See you out there, Martin

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Martin Miller

Martin been a runner for nearly 30 years. He moved up to the marathon and ultramarathon distances in 1990, and have since completed about 70 ultramarathons, including 8 100 mile finishes. In addition to running quite a bit, he keeps busy with his involvement in local running events like the Don't Fence Me In Trail Runs and the HURL Elkhorn Endurance Run. Martin is also the non-event disorganizer for the HURL Fat Ass 50 Km.

Idaho Centennial Trail

Run with Janji Co-founder David Spandorfer

Running in Arizona in the Winter

Cold Weather Running

Running in the Heat

Notes from Martin

Martin Miller

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