“What do you think of the trail so far?” Gary “Story Hawk” Henry asked.

We were shuffling along the north shoreline of Clinton Lake, Gary providing the first of two “previews” he’d lead that morning. We’d be doing some trash pick-up later, but at the moment we were engaged in a little footwork. At our current position on the “5K-ish” course, the terrain involved big, white, untrustworthy rocks mixed in with little, white, untrustworthy rocks—enough of a challenge that even the venerable Story Hawk had a couple ankle-wiggles. It was a beautiful mid-September morning, Clinton Lake seemed within reach …

Good fuel is as essential to a nice long run as quality shoes. And, just as there are seemingly endless choices for running shoes, there's also choice after choice for on-the-go fueling. Bars, gels, chews, beans, sports drinks — the list goes on and on.

But have you ever taken a good look at what that expensive, prepackaged fuel has for ingredients? If you flip the package over and start perusing the ingredient list, there's a good chance that you'll see some ingredients that sound like they belong inside your the soles of your shoes rather than in your …

Headlamps! Everyone has one or wants one. What's good what's bad? Should I even have one?

Anyway, When it comes to light, you wanna find something that has the highest lumen count, using the lightest batteries that'll last for as long as you'll need to be on the trail. Each and every one of those attributes fight against each other.

So what does that all mean? Well the higher the lumen count, the brighter your light will be. If the count is really high, then it either needs lots of batteries, or goes through batteries, like me through …

I want to thank each and every one of you for participating, volunteering, and just plain being at the inaugural Hawk 50 this last weekend.

All of you who participated in the event, if you have a spare moment could you please fill out this "survey":http://coronainsights.com/survey/surveylogin.asp?k=127387677276

Again thanks to all the participates, volunteers and spectators of the Inaugural Hawk 50!

Thanks for the feedback guys. I hope you don't take this as a bikers vs. runner issue either. Not trying to do that at all. I trail run in the fall and winter to mix it up. I raised the questions post race as a sustainable trails issue. I just happen to be the EarthRiders president right now so I'm representing the biker questions about the race. There was some disappointment and surprise by the conditions by some riders that went to Clinton to ride post race and I just wanted to get the full story from all sides.

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Hi Ben,

Mike Goodwin and I closely monitored the trail conditions up to the afternoon before the race. While they were quite muddy in some places, we – well, Mike – determined the trails were in condition to withstand the 59 starters who went out.

We had to put in a new trail section Friday on the blue-blazed trail just down the hill from the corps of engineers trailhead. The Lake was on the verge of taking the old tail down. Since then, the Lake HAS taken down the old trail, and is now on the verge of …

Hawk 50-Mile & Marathon Race Director’s Report

A few hours into the Hawk 50-Mile & Marathon Trail Runs, May 22 on the Clinton Lake North Shore Trails in Lawrence, Kan., our official timer and honorary co-race director Tony “Marine Hawk” Clark says, “Gary, everything’s going pretty smoothly.”

“That’s what worries me,” says I. Then I quote Tony a line from an old Grateful Dead song – “When life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door.”

My cell phone buzzes. It’s Willie Lambert, the West Park Road aid station captain. Willie’s also the owner of …

Our generous sponsor (and great runner), Garry Gribble, of Garry Gribble’s Running Sports in Lawrence, is not only letting us hold Packet Pickup for the Hawk at the Lawrence store, 2-7 pm Friday May 22, he is also offering a 20 percent discount to all Hawk entrants – once they have their bibs. Repeat—your Hawk number, 50-mile or Marathon, gets you 20 percent off at Garry Gribbles in Lawrence when you come in Friday to get your race packet. You can register there, too, if you haven’t already, and still get the discount.

Great way to get all your …

We put the final touches on the Hawk 50-Mile & Marathon Trail Runs course yesterday. The marathon course measures 26.8 miles, and the 50-Mile, is right at 50 miles.

We'll mark the course with hot pink (a color not found in nature) flags and ribbons, and supplement those with signs and volunteers.

The trails are already fairly well-marked with paint blazes in red, white and blue, and for the most part, the course will follow them. All runners will complete the 26.8-mile marathon course, then 50-milers will continue for a second, but shorter 23.2-mile lap.

Here's how …

Sunday morning I couldn't resist heading out for a run in the sun. If you're from around the area, you know we haven't had much of it lately. Not only was I excited about the sun, I was still riding an accomplishment high from the day before. I ran 10 miles for the first time in a month. It was solo, except for the voices in my head (Metric and Muse). It was a great run and I needed more so I decided to find out if I had any juice left. As I was getting ready to leave, I …