I went down to Texas for the 24 hour run US championships. Mizuno gave me a couple pairs of Wave Riders, Tifosi gave me a couple pairs of sunglasses, Yankz! paid for my hotel and gave me their laces, Black Diamond gave me a spot headlight, and miomed gave me some lotions. It was nice to get the support from all these great companies. The course description said that it was a flat cour9 amse, only 9 feet of elevation change and that it was a 1 mile loop. This made it easy to keep track of the distance that I had gone. But when I showed up at the course I was surprised to find an extremely hilly course, with three hills per lap. Also the laps where about 1.15 miles so it was more difficult to keep track of the distance you had traveled. I also was told that I had the best chance of anyone of breaking the American Record at the race, but when I started running a guy in Brook's gear just took off. I soon learned that he was the best 100 mile + runner in the world. So obviously I had been lied to on every front. It soon became apparent to me that it would be nearly impossible for me to get any money out of the race, due to the requirements on distance which were established before the race, to after just over 3 hours I decided to quit and head home a day early. It was a miserable experience. I would definitely advise people not to ever race the ultracentric, as I feel that it is run by a dishonest organization. It was a miserable introduction to ultra running. | 