The North Face Endurance Challenge Trail Run in the Marin Highlands

Short runner update from TNF endurance challenge trail run in the Marin headlands.

Travis Gaylord - Wins his age group and gets 5th overall in his first 50km with 7,000ft up and down in under 5 hours. Awesome!

Lydia  - wins her age group and 4th woman overall in 1/2 marathon

Topher Gaylord- 2nd overall in 1/2 marathon!  Wins age group.

Great day! Tim Gaylord ran the last 5 miles with his son Travis.

Long run the Gaylord's!

Sad Day at the Courthouse

On Thursday December 3, Judge John Linde died unexpectedly and suddenly while swimming during a vacation in Hawaii.

The sudden death of Judge John Linde was felt hard at the San Juan County Prosecutor's Office. San Juan County Prosecutor Randall K. Gaylord sent out this statement: "The legal community is small and we know each other well. We are shocked and saddened by this unexpected turn of events. This is a loss to the family, the entire county and to the legal system. It was great to have Judge Linde back at the courthouse every day for the past two years as a full time superior court judge. In these uncertain times, Judge Linde was a rock. When he spoke, people listened. We will miss him greatly.
Our thoughts and hearts go out to John's family, and especially to Carol and his children.
Randall K. Gaylord
San Juan County Prosecutor

Memorial Service for Hugh Keenan, Marny's Dad, (1919 to 2009)

The Ultra Trail Mont Blanc TDS Race 2009

By CLARK GILBERT
Special to The Journal
Aug. 25, 2009 and it's almost 5 a.m. in Chamonix, France (population close to 9,800 people), which is nestled in the Rhone-Alpes region of southern France.
Close to 800 runners are gathered in the pre-dawn chill waiting for the start of the Tour du Duc de Savoie (TDS) foot race that would take them over 106km, or 65 miles, of mountain trails leading from France into Italy. Total cumulative elevation gain is 6600m or 21,000 feet.
Minutes before the 5 a.m. start, instructions are given in French. Local ultra-marathoner and county prosecutor Randy Gaylord listened intensely, but couldn't understand a word that was spoken. A few seconds before the hour, the countdown begins, in French, from 10 to one, and at the shout of "Allez!" all 800 runners, wearing headlamps, begin running in the dark and cold, as the temperatures were in the 30s and cloud deck low, similar to the Pacific Northwest.
This would be a long day for all of them.
The TDS is one of the four races that make up the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc mountain race series, sponsored by North Face. The longest route, some 103 miles, is the last race to be held, with the course covering mountain trails from France, Switzerland and Italy.
Gaylord finished this event in 2007. This year, Randy’s brother Topher finished 24th overall in 26 hours 47 minutes.
The TDS course winds along some of these same mountain passes that the UTMB covers, with more than 20 miles above tree line and down through scenic valleys formed by glaciers of long ago.
Finishing in Courmayeur, Italy, some 20 hours 13 minutes later, Gaylord finished in 100th place overall and 11th in his age group (50-59). Kim Gaylord, his sister-in-law, finished the TDS third among women, in 18 hours 10 minutes.
This journey began months before with Gaylord training in Moran State Park, often in the dark, running up and down the trails of Mount Constitution. In May, he traveled down to Marin, Calif., to run the Miwok 100K (62 miles) race, which started on the beaches of Rodeo Lagoon and climbed up through the trails of Mount Tamalpais and Point Reyes National Seashore — a total of 10,000 feet of gained elevation. This was the event in which Gaylord qualified for participation in the TDS.
Toward the end of his training, Gaylord was running up to 8 hours on any given Sunday, again traveling up and down trails of Moran.
When asked which part of the event he enjoyed the most, Gaylord replied, “The arrival in the town of Bourg St. Maurice, France, to La Thule, Italy took us over the Petit St. Bernard Pass. I loved running through the crowded narrow shopping street, and after I left the town, it got dark. The moon shone brightly in the sky, the trail was less rocky, and I was able to run while others walked.
"I loved arriving in Italy because the meat, cheese and bread at the aid station tasted the best.”

— Clark Gilbert is a local marathoner, sports promoter and writer for running magazines.

MS 150 Bike Ride Fundraiser -- Team Swedish S'mylin Babes

A fabulous two days of bicycling with firefighters from Auburn, Washington to raise money for research for a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.  Each day begins and ends at the Mount Vernon fairgrounds.  On the first day, we ride south across the Deception Pass bridge to Oak Harbor and then back to Mount Vernon.  On the second day we ride north to Fairhaven and then back to Mt. Vernon.  This is the third year in  a row of doing this ride .  A great cause.  A great route. A great group of guys to ride with.  Nice!

Miwok 100k -- May 1, 2009

Finished Miwok 100k in 13 hours 1 minute. Amazing raining day for at least 8 hours. Mud washed up over the top of socks and wind rained in my ear! Thanks to Clark Gilbert for making a great day of it. Same to Topher and Kim.

Ragnar Relay -- Gaggle of Gaylords Race 157 Miles

Top Photo: Gaylords racers on the next day.
Middle Photo: Car 2 in Huntington Beach.
Bottom Photo: The Gaylords at the start of the Ragnar LA -- in Santa Barbara, California

Cousin Will MacFayden has a webnewspaper in Santa Barbara that carried this story:

Gaylords Race to 1st-Place Finish in Ragnar Relay Open Division
In overall standings, Ventura's Runner X team is edged out of winner's circle by minutes

By Melissa Marsted, Noozhawk Contributor | Published on 04.28.2009

The inaugural Ragnar Relay Los Angeles was won last week by a Los Angeles squad, LA Frontrunners Masters, which finished the 157-mile course in 16:41:42.

Finishing second overall in the race between Santa Barbara’s Chase Palm Park and Salt Creek Beach Park in Dana Point was Runner X, representing Inside Track in Ventura and which included Joan Mayer, Noozhawk’s Inquisitive Canine columnist.

Meanwhile, finishing first in the open mixed division (men and women) and fourth overall in the 105-team field was Team Gaylord by the Dozen, a far-flung, multigeneration, all-family group with several ties to Santa Barbara. The Gaylords clocked in with a time of 19:14:50.

The race was part of the Ragnar Relay Series, the nation’s largest series of long-distance relay races, with 10 events across the country and more than 30,000 participants. The Santa Barbara-Los Angeles-Dana Point course had more than 1,200 runners taking three- to eight-mile legs while they leapfrogged down the coast with support vans. Each participant was to run three legs and, in between, ride in a van along the course. The unique format makes the relay race accessible for beginners yet challenging for competitive runners.

The course was laid out as a 187-mile affair but organizers had to lop off 30 miles through Malibu city limits as a result of a permitting snafu.

Team Gaylord included Preston, 56, of Alta, Utah; Randy, 51, of Orcas Island, Wash., and his son, Colin, 22; Tim, 50, of Park City, Utah, and his children, Travis, 25, and Courtney, 22; Mark (a twin), 49, of Salt Lake City; Peter, 44, of Seattle; Sarah and her husband, Ron Williams, both 41, of Atlanta; and Topher, 39, the team captain, and his wife, Kim, 38, of Santa Monica. Sarah Williams and Topher Gaylord graduated from UCSB and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, respectively, and are cousins of Missy Macfadyen, the wife of Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen.

Preston ran the first leg, Colin the last, and they had the distinction of being the oldest and youngest competitors, respectively.

Runner X ran the course in 16:57:58 and was just edged out of first place. In addition to Mayer, the 10-member team included John Spiker, the team captain and owner of Inside Track, and J. Eduardo Arces, Haven Barnes, Will Bernaldo, Laura Diamond, Lindsay Ferro, Dan “Frosty” Frost, Tim Keller and Roydog.

Click here for complete Ragnar Relay Los Angeles race results.

Click here for a Noozhawk slide show.

— Melissa Marsted is a Noozhawk contributor, author and freelance writer.

Chuckanut 50K Bellingham Washington

Orcas Island 50K

Krissy Moehl has a nice recap of Orcas Island that can be found here. Matt Hart has a video of the Orcas 50K up on his blog. Full results can be found over at Rainshadow Running. Photo courtesy of the world’s best trail running photographer, Glenn Tachiyama).

With daughter Genevieve at Inaugeration

Fall 2008 -- Wakeboarding in Westsound with Colin and Friends