Veteran Acres – Crystal Lake, IL Some races are “challenging.” Some are “hilly.” And then there’s Soul Crusher, which is best described as: What if Satan personally designed a 5K loop and the race directors said, yeah, let's run it THREE TIMES and then tack on a bonus tour of the park out of …
Race Reports
Race Report: 2025 Sugar Badger 50 Mile
TL;DR: I DNF’d at the 50-mile turnaround in Brodhead, but it was still a great day out there! I woke up bright and early at 4am in Illinois, hitting the road and arriving at the race with just enough time to scramble and get my gear together. Unfortunately, I missed the race instructions at the …
2017 Painful Elimination Race Report
The 2017 Painful Elimination Race took place on Saturday 8/26/17, in lovely Hudson, IL. From the burbs of Chicago, Hudson is about 2 ½ hours away, so I opted to drive down the night before and camp (White Oak Primitive Camp at COMLARA Park), which I thought was a really great idea. I figured I …
My First Marathon: Des Plaines River Trail Marathon 2013
The year is 2013. By now I have been running a couple years, and have completed a few races. The longest run of my life up until this race was about 11 miles on dirt. Yes, 11 miles. Plus the months leading up to this race I had been running very little. This perhaps sounds like the recipe …