dirtbagcorgi

[dirtbagcorgi]

Trying get out the door for a Sunday morning walk and the corgi is like

#dirtbag corgi #corgi #sunday #lazy #blessed #blankets #dog #animals #walk

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag corgi tumblr is one year old today! Can't wait for life on the road for the summer months in just a few days

#dirtbag corgi #wisconsin #roadtrip #corgi #pembroke welsh corgi #wildcat mountain #Kickapoo reserve #driftlessregion #dog #animals #sunset #hiking #adventure #wanderlust

[dirtbagcorgi]

On the road: Chattanooga and West Virginia.

#corgi #dog #chattanooga #west virginia #dirtbag corgi #roadtrip #hiking #animals #tennessee #corgination #gnar #sunrise

[dirtbagcorgi]

Getting dirty by a waterfall at Governor Dodge SP

#dirtbag corgi #corgination #corgi #dog #wisconsin #hiking #waterfall #governor dodge state park #camping

[dirtbagcorgi]

#summer #swimming #corgi #dog #wisconsin #picnic point #ice age trail

[dirtbagcorgi]

The life of a pet owner: “What are you eating? OH GOD WHAT ARE YOU EATING???”

#gpoy #corgi struggles

[dirtbagcorgi]

Back in Wisconsin but the dirtbag spirit lives on

#corgi #pembroke welsh corgi #dirtbag corgi #wisconsin #hiking #cute #dog #blue mound state park #justin bieber

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag corgi on the assist #crewcorgi

Lows in the Bighorn Mountains

Thirty eight miles into the Bighorn 100 and I am half-lying off the side of the trail dry heaving. The nausea began barely four hours into my day making food nearly impossible to stomach. For over two hours I have been sustained only by intermittent sips of water and I have gone from running comfortably in around ninth place to a sluggish stumble, stopping every few minutes in hopes of settling my stomach and retrieving some mental alertness. Close to twenty runners have passed in the last hour. Sundown is only probably two hours away, but I neglected to pick up a headlamp at mile 30. I never saw things going this far south so early and now I have to dig deep—really deep—just to make it to the turnaround at Jaws Aid Station before dark. Where I will be warm and safe. Where I can pull the plug on this race gone awry.

This is the sort of situation you never envision in all the months of preparation leading up to a first hundred mile race. The prospect of wanting/needing to drop out less than halfway through the race was unfathomable from the moment I hatched the plan to run the Bighorn 100 nearly a year ago while sweltering away in a small, damp rented room in Old Town, Mombasa. The race, or the idea of the race, was a beacon at the end of months of difficult fieldwork in Kenya. A centerpiece in a multi-week road trip that Caitlin and I planned and discussed to make the thousands of miles of separation more manageable. You don’t think about the massive low points when devising ambitious travel and racing plans. You don’t think about dropping out.

I limp into the mile 40 aid station. The sun is quickly retreating behind distant hills that mark the turnaround point a thousand feet above. The aid station consists of a tent, a campfire, and a few generous volunteers. There’ll be no dropping out here. Just like the aid station volunteers that hiked into this spot earlier into the day, I will have to make it out under my own power. I begin explaining my day…nausea, hours without food, light-headedness…a woman hands me a cup of ginger ale. I take a tentative sip, and then another, and by the time the cup is finished my mind and body are already coming back to life. I accept another cup of ginger ale and then fill my hand bottle up with half ginger ale and half water. Though temporarily revived, I know I need to really push to make it to Jaws before dark. To drop out safely.

Except now I start passing people. The countless runners that flew past me during the previous stretch are coming back one by one. Many had stopped to ask if I was OK or to offer water, salt, a gel, just a few miles earlier. They give encouragement as I move past, excited by my apparent revival—the ultrarunning community really is special. I stop thinking about how I will explain to Caitlin that I am dropping out when I get to Jaws. I am finishing this damn thing…

…hours and hours later I crossed the finish line at Scott Bicentennial Park in Dayton, Wyoming, ninth overall in 22 hours and 35 minutes. The slow evening ascent to Jaws, no more than 42 miles into the day/night, was the last time I had any thoughts of not finishing my first 100.

Photos: 

1&2: getting in some course recon at Dry Fork and near the Jaws turnaround

3: the scene at Dry Fork Aid Station near dawn (photo credit Caitlin Tyler-Richards @ctredits)

4& 5: with my crew dog, Piper, at the start and finis (photos by @ctredits) 

[dirtbagcorgi]

Chillin in the Grand Tetons

#dirtbag corgi #corgi #dog #grand teton national park #lake #mountains #cute

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag encounters Yellowstone wildlife.

#dirtbag corgi #roadtrip #corgi #yellowstone national park #bison

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag crewing for the Bighorn 100

#dirtbagging #roadtrip #bighorn100 #trailrunning #corgi

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag cruising on some Bozeman backroads

#dirtbag corgi #roadtrip #montana #corgis

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag at Palisades Falls, Gallatin National Forest, MT

#dirtbag LOVES montana #we might have to move #corgis #montana #roadtrips

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag Corgi does South Dakota

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbaggin from Wisconsin to South Dakota

#dirtbagcorgi #dirtbagging #corgi #roadtrip #fort pierre national grasslands

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag ready to go!

#roadtrip #corgi

[dirtbagcorgi]

Dirtbag does not travel light

#preparing for the road #corgi #roadtrip #dogs #on adventures