Christmastime in Crockett

After a convivial send-off from the French Legation Museum (thanks again to Noel Freeze, its director, for her kindness and enthusiasm for our crazy project), we find ourselves this evening 190 miles north-east of Austin, in Crockett, Texas. We are staying at the wonderful Warfield House B&B, which is a veritable explosion of pre-Christmas cheer:


This is stage running grande luxe! Ten runners will toe the start line tomorrow in Moscow - 4 French, 2 Swiss, 2 American, a Dutch and a German. A leisurely 9:30am start time is dictated by our 7:30am breakfast seating. Quite the vacation!


Thanks again for support received from Rogue Running, Austin Runners Club and the FLM. Our European running guests are having a truly unique experience.

Napoleon Ultra Day 0

At least eight of the field are now assembled in Austin - race starts tomorrow in Moscow! Much French currently being spoken chez nous.

Austin Fit Magazine

Super piece about Napoleon Ultra by our good friend and excellent writer Leah Nyfeler. Find it at the Austin Fit website

Napoleon Ultra - 3 days to go

Thanks to Rogue Running - to Erik, John, Chuck, and especially to Ruth and Carolyn - for all their Ultra-fantastic Napoleonic help and support. They have equipped our little army with a table for food, a cooler for water, and snappy drawstring Nike bags for our sweaty runners' clothes.


Good people!

Lightnin' Hopkins and Crockett, Texas

Five days from now, the Napoleon Ultra heads off to our "base camp" in Crockett, 190 miles north-east of Austin.  An interesting sidenote is that Sam Lightnin' Hopkins frequently played there back in the day.  Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the classic blues figures my father introduced me to as a young kid, along with the likes of Brownie Terry, Sonnie McGee, Sonny Boy Williamson and Leadbelly.

According to the Houston Chronicle: 

Sam Hopkins was born in 1912 to a sharecropping family in Centerville, a few farms west of Crockett. His grandfather was a slave who hanged himself. His father, Abe, was a ruffian murdered after an argument over a card game.

In the 1930s Hopkins crisscrossed East Texas, playing for hat money in Buffalo, Brenham, Palestine, Leona and Crockett. On Camp Street, Crockett's hot entertainment district that somehow circumvented the county's prohibition on liquor, Hopkins found opportunity in music.

Hopkins served on a road gang for gambling and wrote up the experience in Penitentiary Blues. It was a song sung by many on Camp Street, where vice raids were commonplace. "When the police went in the front door, the gamblers were jumpin' all out the windows."

Conveniently, the jailhouse was down the street.

Groveton, Texas

The first stage of the upcoming Napoleon Ultra on December 1 will finish in Groveton, Texas.  Like much of Texas back in the early years of the state, Groveton has some pretty interesting history:

From the Cameron Herald, 2 May 1907

Shooting at Groveton

Last Friday, R. O. Kinley, an attorney, shot Texas State Ranger J. D. Dunaway six times. He also shot ex-county attorney Rabb, which he claimed was an accident. Neither man was killed on the spot. The shooting is an outgrowth of the killing of a Houston detective some time ago at Groveton.

Texas Governor Campbell had sent several rangers to Groveton to preserve order. Dunaway sent a masterfully understated telegram to the Governor saying: "Riot stopped. I am shot all to pieces. Everything quiet."

Napoleon Ultra starts in 2 weeks

Although I have directed a few running races before, the experience of directing a multi-day stage race is a new one for me.  I conceived the idea of a Napoleon commemoration run years ago, and was originally planning to run it alone and unsupported from Moscow to Paris, Texas.  But after observing first-hand the great and stylish job done by three of my French friends and stage race directors J-B Jaouen, Patrick Bonnot and Dominique Chaillou, I decided to try hosting an event of my own - something unique, quirky and fun. I hope it turns out to be so.

There's a huge amount of work involved in getting ready for this type of adventure.  The good news is that I know almost all of the dozen runners well; they are experienced and good natured, and hopefully they will be forgiving and tolerant when the inevitable glitches arise.  Apart from concern about logistics, the biggest stress is fear of traffic accident and/or police intervention. Hopefully it will all go swimmingly.

Yesterday was spent arranging our send off festivities with the nice people at the French Legation Museum, Austin's oldest building.  On November 30, after meeting and introducing the runners, we will leave from the Museum and head to "base camp" in Crockett. The run from Moscow to Paris will take 7 days - 230 miles averaging 35 miles per day - from December 1 - 7. We stop along the way at  Palestine, Athens, Canton and Sulphur Springs.

Outer Banks Marathon

Sunday will be my first true road marathon in three years. It has also been three decades since I was last in North Carolina's Outer Banks, where the Wright brothers took mankind's first flight.


Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to speak at the runners' expo. Then at 7:20am on Sunday, the marathon gets underway. I feel good, despite a sore hamstring which I managed to tie in knots two weeks ago in Suffolk. The weather is forecast to be perfect. I only need to get to the finish line in a reasonable time to qualify for the 2013 Comrades Marathon in South Africa. Things feel good - very relaxed and enjoying the trip.

An English county new to me

I find myself at a lovely Suffolk B&B, having just finished a cup of tea and piece of cake provided by my very nice landlady called Pat. I spent the afternoon nosing around coastal villages; sights ranged from the Sizewell nuclear power plant which is right by the bird sanctuary through which we run tomorrow...


...to the Wenhaston "Doom", a church painting dating back to 1500 or so. It was discovered a while back when a pile of whitewashed boards were thrown out of the church. The rain subsequently revealed this amazing depiction of the process of entering heaven or hell:


This is a lovely tranquil spot; it seems quite remote despite being less than 100 miles from London. I'm looking forward to running along the coastal paths and through the ferny forests I've seen today. Unfortunately for me, cold, windy weather is predicted, but maybe with a little sunshine thrown in?

Location:Hall Road,Wenhaston,United Kingdom

Suffolk, England

Eight days from now, I will be back in England, running a half-marathon along coastal paths, trails and roads in Suffolk, then afterwards speaking at the Live More Lectures organized by the nice folks at Endurancelife.  I really like the concept of tacking these lectures on to races. All too often, we travel to events, run, and then leave straight away.  If we're lucky, we might meet one or two new people hanging around at the start or finish, but that's usually it. The lectures allow us to spend more relaxed time in the company of like-minded people, while hearing some great tales of challenge and adventure.  It seems a shame not to get this kind of post-race, inspirational spin-off benefit.

I spent all my growing up years in Hertfordshire, which is a mere 50 miles away beyond Essex.  I've been back there a lot in recent years, but amazingly I have no clear memory of ever having been to Suffolk. It's terra incognita.  I'm looking forward to it.

Napoleon Ultra 2012 - our start list

A group of seasoned ultrarunning internationals are now less than two months away from running between Moscow and Paris - without leaving the Lone Star State. They will cover 230 miles along East Texas roads during the first week of December.


The starting line-up includes five runners from five different countries who are already transcontinental runners. German Klaus Neumann and Jenni de Groot from Holland are the two most recent sign-ups. They join multiday legends - Gérard Denis (France) and Don Winkley (USA), plus Christian Marti from Switzerland who is currently less than three weeks away from completing his second Trans Europe footrace.

The female runners comprise Ursula Marti, Rachel Wasilewski and Claire Secker. Completing our P'tite Armée are three more fine Frenchmen: Xavier Servel, Romain Valle and Loire Intégrale race director Dominique Chaillou.

Location:Austin, TX

Napoleon Ultra course reconnaisance

With just two months to go, I spent a great weekend driving the 230-mile Napoleon Ultra course from Moscow to Paris (Texas), and making accommodation arrangements in overnight towns. I am very pleased that (a) the course is quite attractive and mostly runner-friendly, and (b) there are suitable places to stay.There are very few turns on the road, so getting lost will be difficult!The roads are generally rolling, but not hilly. I have added some photos of my trip to the www.napoleonultra.com website, and put together a roadbook and list of accommodations. At the moment, we have 8 confirmed runners (from France, Switzerland and the USA) and 10 more “possibles”, plus some stage runners and cyclists.

The start in Moscow (hardly St Basil's by Red Square, eh?):

The finish in Paris (hardly ...errr... Paris, eh?):

Space shuttle sighting

THE most amazing run this morning! At 7:40am, the space shuttle (aboard a 747 and with an F-16 in close attendance) flew right over my head just a few thousand feet up. The noise and the view were both incredible. I found myself standing alone on a deserted street whooping at the sky and beaming from ear to ear.

This photo is from our local paper as it passed over downtown. I had a much closer encounter!

Location:Austin, Texas

Happy anniversary

Tomorrow is Grito de Dolores - Mexican Independence Day. It also happens to be our wedding anniversary, which we will spend on separate continents. (Last year we celebrated in style by running across Ireland together.)

I passed some time today organizing our baubles and trinkets from races run over the last twenty years. It was nice to reflect on many of the long-forgotten efforts; between us, we've run 223 marathons and ultras.


Happy anniversary, Claire...good luck next weekend completing three more ultras...and "¡Viva México!"

Napoleon Ultra - 3 months to go

There are now just three months to go before the NapoleonUltra, from Moscow, TX to Paris, TX. At the moment, there are 6 confirmed runners, from France, Switzerland and the USA. More are hoping to take part, including some French, Germans, Dutch and of course Americans. It will not be a Grande Armée... more of a P'tite Armée, really... but we will hopefully have a great time together.

Location:Austin, TX

Trans Europe Footrace 2012 stage 2

The runners have now negotiated about 3% of their journey to Gibraltar, after an increasingly warm day on the Jutland peninsula. I was sad to bid them all farewell on the road today, as I cycled off to Aalborg and towards home. Some were looking very good, some are already distinctly appearing to suffer. An uncomfortable night on a gym floor and this morning's 4 a.m. wake-up call vividly reminded me of the depressing emotional lows of transcontinental stage running. I have some twinges of regret that I'll not reach Gibraltar with them, but I am very happy that I'm not going to be reliving this morning in Groundhog Day fashion for the next nine weeks.

Here's yesterday's start line in Skagen, with race director Ingo Schulze on the right and my friend Christian Marti on the extreme left:


And some friends Robert Wimmer (Germany), Trond Sjåvik (Sweden), Jean-Benôit Jaouen (France) and Neil Bryant (UK). Best of luck, gentlemen!













And finally...a photo from the center of Aarhus. They do love their bikes here!

Location:Aarhus, Denmark

Trans Europe 2012

The race is underway! Top marks go to the Japanese for zany running attire:


And to Stéphane Péllissier for kicking off with the first stage win, 4hr 41 for 56km:

Location:Øster Vrå, Denmark

Denmark has it all...

...even camels!


As I rolled into Skagen after 5 hours in the saddle, the first two people I see running down the road happen to be my Swiss friends Christian and Ursula Marti. (I ran many miles with Christian during TransEurope 2009.) Now I'm relaxing with beer and pizza at prices that could compete with the London Olympics while they dilligently continue to run.

As I woke this morning, rain was absolutely hurling down. There's nothing like a wet saddle to start off the day. But by the time I got underway at 7am, the storms had abated. The cycle paths were fantastic and the hills very moderate. What a great place to ride a bike. Even slogging along on Old Bessie, more than 50 miles passed very comfortably and quickly. And now - defying the forecast of more storms and rain - the sun is shining and the Danes and I are happy.

Location:Skagen, Denmark

Denmark - a well kept secret

Well, I'm seriously impressed. This country is really nice - friendly, happy people; a great road, rail and public transport system; and miles of gently rolling farmland as far as the eye can see. Maybe a bit bleak in the winter months...but today was absolutely perfect.

Here's my carbon fibre and titanium time trial bike ... er, 5-speed, steel "sit up and beg" rental ... outside a typical Danish church. :


And here's the gorgeous B&B I found on the Internet, a huge horse farm dating back to the 1870's, wonderfully modernized and updated, for the princely sum of $35 a night:



Fifty miles or so to ride in the morning to reach Skagen. I'm praying for no flats or mechanical problems, as "Old Bessie" came with no repair kit, pump or spare tube. What are the chances? Thinking positive...

Location:Frederikshavnmotorvejen,Hjallerup,Denmark

The land of Hamlet

Denmark has the world's highest level of income equality, and (not coincidentally?) ranks as the happiest and least corrupt country in the world. Maybe those folks who wrote The Spirit Level were on to something?

The population of Denmark is 5.5 million, and they manage to kill 28 million pigs between them each year. Five each, basically. Pig happiness is actually increasing, as now pregnant sows have to be kept in "loose housing systems". But they are probably still less happy than the Danes who convert them into bacon.

Danish pastries are called wienerbrød (Viennese bread; in Vienna, the danish is referred to as Plundergebäck or Golatschen.) They appear to be everywhere here:


Well, that's all I know about Denmark so far. Buses, trains and a rented bicycle will now transport me to the start of TransEurope Footrace 2012 in Skagen, in the northeast corner of the Jutland peninsula. The race starts on Sunday. It will be odd being there and not running, but relaxing and peaceful at the same time. I know half of the field of fifty runners from previous multiday races, and am looking forward to seeing them all again.

Location:Aarhus airport, Denmark