A few unpublished sketches...

Here are a few unpublished sketches/comics which I sent to Bryon as examples of my work pre-Happy Trails at iRunfar.com. If you haven't figured it out by now I have stepped down from my duties as the resident cartoonist at iRunFar.com. I thanked Bryon for giving me the opportunity and as I know he had high hopes for the comic series I can't help but feel that I let him down. I will always be grateful to him for allowing me to try although ultimately I, "Failed To Deliver" or FTD'd on what I had promised him. Unfortunately, after giving my all(including my talent, my available time, my resourcefulness) to the comic I came to the conclusion that I lacked a depth of knowledge and understanding of the "ultra culture" and "ultra scene"  which the "Happy Trails" series needed to make it relevant to the iRunFar community. FTDing on my first job as a cartoonist is a bit disappointing but I am at peace with it because I tried my best, I learned from the experience and I am moving forward.

THE HARD THE BAD AND THE COMIC

 Hardrock and Badwater, two great ultras that taste great together...so I put them both in one Happy Trails column on iRunFar.com.

Hardrock is over and Badwater is just beginning. Check out the entire comics here and all of the pre and post Hardrock stuff over at iRunFar.com including an interview with the winner Hal Kroener, and a pre-race interview with Karl Meltzer the star of the Hardrock comic(no he is not an alien...I don't think)

Also, as he was preparing for his 10th Badwater Ultramarathon, the Ultra Marathon Man himself, Dean Karnazes, shared some of his insights about what it takes to survive Badwater with the support of his crew and pacer. You can follow Dean and the other racers here as they set out in 3 waves at 6am, 8am and 10am PDT.

HT on IRF #8- A Portrait of the Western States 100 Course Records

Click on the picture or link below to see the entire portrait on iRunFar.com
 Happy Trails on iRunFar #8- A Portrait of the Western States 100 Course Records 

Some interesting resources and reads I found during my research-

Craig Thornley's- WS Historical Temperature and Snow Data

Jim King's 1984 race report How the West was won

Sarah Lavendar Smith's 2009 interview with Ann Trason
Western States Historical Data with link to Ultra-Sign up stats
John Medinger's All-Time Top 100 Men's and Women's Performances Lists

Scott Jurek's , "Run & Eat"?

Happy Trails on iRunFar #7, "Run & Eat"

A comic featuring Scott Jurek who has a new book out called, "Eat and Run". Check out the comic here and then check out the book at Amazon. The teaser chapter previews will probably have you clicking to buy it.

A Run 3 Years In the Making...

Happy Trails on iRunFar #6- A Run Three Years in the Making...

Here is your chance to Toast/Roast Mr. iRunFar himself. Check out some of the funny stories and make sure to join in the fun and add one or two of your own.

BIG Words for Ultrarunners #1

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Happy Trails on iRunFar #5 - It's Just Running

What could possibly be going on in this scene? Well go on over to iRunFar to get the full story.

Also a new URG is on it's way this week so stay tuned for that.

Happy Trails on iRunFar #4- Calculated Splits

"Do you take a highly analytic approach to your races, completely take it as it comes, or something in between?"

Check out the entire comic at at iRunFar.

Happy Trails on iRunFar #3- When I Grow UP!

A bit of a teaser for today's Happy Trails comic #3 - When I Grow UP! See the entire comic at iRunFar and make sure to check out Bryon's call for comments. I would love to hear what you have to say about it;-) 

ONE HOUR URG CHALLENGE- LAZY GUY CHAIR

This is the first, "One Hour URG Challenge". I gave myself one hour to come up with an idea draw it and upload it. I can't dwell on posting it because I am over my 1 hour time limit. Enjoy!

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Happy Trails on iRunFar #2

First panel of the 2nd installment of Happy Trails on iRunFar.com

See the comic in it's entirety on iRunFar.com ;-)

Barkley 2012 Race Reports etc-

John Fegyveresi

Rob Youngren

James Adams

Support the Barkley Marathons Documentary

Matt Mahoney's Unofficial Barkley Marathons website

Sherpa John's acticle 

Bev Anderson-Abb's race report

Jared Campbell's

Brett Maune interview

URG at The DEPOT!

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Thanks to Bryon for sending in his idea for an "URG".

Bryon's idea with some of my thoughts in (bold)-
Ok, now that I have my sketch in front of me, I have a two panel comic(2 panels Bryon, really??)... though, now that I think about it, it might be three panels(more like 6).
Panel 1: URG walks into a huge home repair/construction store akin to Home Depot/Lowes in the States. You can prominently see a sign that lists many, many aisles. Maybe you can read all of them, maybe you can't, but the last one is "outdoors" or "garden" or something like that. There are also an huge number of aisles radiating from the entry way.(huge number of aisles? I do have a life you know. Do you know how much work that is?? I did 5.)
Panel 2 (optional... originally not included): URG walking around some ridiculous aisle looking forlorn. He's clearly out of place.
Panel 3: URG has found the outdoor/garden department and is either completely at ease or running around the tree selection.
I suppose there could be another panel before Panel 1 in which Guy and Gal are talking about fixing an issue (leaky roof, broken pipe, etc) to set the story. Maybe it's clear it's a weekend and URG is gonna miss his Saturday run(Good idea but yes it did mean another panel plus one more to wrap it up).
Ok, there's my idea. I won't be the least bit offended if you toss it. :-) (well your idea escaped the trash bin, hope you like the final product;-p)

NEW COMIC SERIES "HAPPY TRAILS" on iRunFar.com

First panel of the debut comic, "It's A Bird".
To see the full comic go to iRunFar.com

Please check out my new comic series, "Happy Trails" on iRunFar. The debut comic, "It's A Bird", was inspired by Jill Homer's flyover pictures of this year’s Iditarod Trail Invitational. The series will run every other Sunday, but don't worry, "URG" will continue to be published here with the same random irregularity you have all come to expect;-) So what are you doing still reading this? Head on over to iRunFar and check it out.
Thanks,
EJ

Movie Night

Apparently some people like a little(90 inches) entertainment while getting some running time in.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE

SPOT THE 8 9 DIFFERENCES;-)

A remake of an old URG Classic;-) I remade it to adorn the top of the this blog because the sentiment of it warms my heart and makes me smile. I have been wanting to put up just the right comic at the top of this blog for a while and hearing about the loss of a friends BEST FRIEND was a sign that this was indeed the right choice.

Note- I added the, "Spot the 8 er 9 Differences" game after Sara's comment that she liked the "tail wag" in the original.

People say I'm CRAZY for Running Ultras!

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Cold Weather, Digit Protection System

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Next Saturday is the Yukon Arctic Ultra where the temperatures have been hitting -40 C lately.

GOOD LUCK to everyone heading north(or south) next weekend including my coach Derrick who will be tackling the 100miler

and David who is giving the Marathon a try.

CAN WE GO DAD?!

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Is this the KEY to RUNNING?

This video was inspired by a comment exchange between Derrick and Keith at Keith's blog.

An American URG and An English URG walk into a Pub...

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Thanks to Keith for sending me the story that inspired this URG way back on November 18th, 2010. It has been simmering on the back burners of my brain since then and to tell you the truth I am relieved to finally get that pot off of my stove to make room for the other things I need to obsess about. As I told Keith I had hoped this would become a one panel gag comic, however it turned out to be somewhat of a "Monster" for me in the end and I was happy to have taken on the challenge of it. Anyhow here is Keith's story -

In September I ran a 100 mile race with Mr Rajeev Patel, maybe you've heard of him. He came over to the UK and we ran the South Downs Way together... we got lost in the middle of the night, missed a cutoff and DNFd but that is another story. During that race we passed through a quaint english village, deciding to pop into a typical english local pub to fill up our water bottles ( we both carried 2x handhelds ). I thought we would quietly ( in a polite english manner ) sneak into the toilets and fill up our bottles there. Not Rajeev. He walks straight to the barman, gives him his water bottles and asks him to fill his bottles. The barman was taken aback a little at this loud talking, presumptious American fellow who was Indian looking. We both had backpacks on and all the wet weather gear of course. Then Rajeev proceeds to order a bottle of beer in thanks... and necks it down. I very politely refused. Rajeev says "come on, come on, it's calories man, calories!!". I again polietly reassured him I wouldn't be participating, feeling a little embarrassed for the barman at my friends 'strange' ( but normal ) behaviour as far as some englishmen are concerned. The barman is surprised and I can almost see his toughts... "who runs a 100 miles while drinking beer along the way". We finished filling our water bottles and went on our way leaving behind the bemused barman and wife. I often wonder what they said to eachother after we left the bar.

Here's a picture of me

Here's a picture of Rajeev 

Cheers

Keith

HAPPY NEW LEAP YEAR!

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...or is it, Happy "Leaping" New Year?