Dave Mackey Pre-Bandera 100k 2012
January 6, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 106 Comments
We caught up with Dave Mackey defending champion the day before the 2012 Bandera 100k. In the interview, Mackey talks about the Bandera course, the draw of USATF championships, who’ll be his biggest competition at the race, and who his competition might be for the 2011 Ultrarunner of the year.
Dave Mackey, 2012 Bandera 100k Pre-Race Interview Transcript
iRunFar: You’re the Bandera defending champion and the USATF Trail 100k Champion.
Dave Mackey: So it seems. Yes, if that means something, so I am.
iRF: It must mean something to you. You seem to run a bunch of these USATF races. What does being 100k Trail Champion mean to you?
Mackey: It usually means a few more of the faster guys will show up which is the primary reason to go to one of the races. There’s a little bit of prize money, which is nice, and usually it’s in a cool location. USATF has their standard with their races, so you know you’re usually going to get a good event and good competition. Some races you don’t get as good of competition. Last year was pretty good. This year it’s really stacked. It will be a good challenge.
iRF: What is this course like? A two-lap 100k course?
Mackey: Yes, two 50k laps. The first third is pretty technical, the middle third is pretty fast, and the last third is pretty technical, too. Overall, you can get some good leg turnover. But when you’re not, you’re kind of in rocky, rutted canyons and baby head rocks, limestone sharp rocks. It’s pretty technical overall when you’re not doing this sort of flat, fast burns through the middle section, you’re definitely going up and down pretty often. There are some pretty good climbs and it adds up. I don’t know what the total vert is but you get 500-foot climbs all the time. It’s pretty good, pretty technical singletrack.
iRF: So even though there’s no high elevation and no big mountains around us these hills add up.
Mackey: Yes, there’s one 600 foot hill right there and that’s as big as it gets.
iRF: What do you think about having course knowledge either just the feel for it or the technicality of it? I ran a few miles of it today and the course is very well marked but if you’re looking around it’s not obvious… the line… there might be two or three paths in one section.
Mackey: Yeah, I was telling my friend Charles when we were driving it, you’ve got to pick some lines. You might lose one second if you go one way or one second if you go the other way but you always end up in the same place. It’s just like a little blurb around a hump of rocks or grass or something. It doesn’t make a big difference. So you go around the first loop, and then you’ve seen the course. So the next time you might take little variations, but course knowledge won’t help out much at all.
Overall, it will help out with pacing. I know what I did last year, and I know this year I want to run it slightly differently. In that experience course knowledge helps a lot. Knowing where that middle fast section is and knowing where the technical sections are might help a little bit, but anyone can onsight this course and do really well.
iRF: Who do you think is going to be out there pushing you the most tomorrow?
Mackey: Just go to iRunFar.com and they’ll highlight it for you. Nick [Clark] is solid, he won it two years ago. I think it was pretty cold two years ago, but I’m sure he’s going to do faster tomorrow. Tim Olson is obviously super fast. Jason Schlarb. Dave James who was second last year, he goes out aggressively. He’ll be going out really fast I’m sure, he always does. Joe Uhan is here. Todd Braje is coming, is that right? Who am I missing? Oh yeah, Yassine (Diboun). Justin Ricks, oh yeah, he’s a really interesting one. He’s set some really fast times in Colorado a few years ago and then he kind of fell off. But it’s good to see him back in it.
iRF: Do you think you can run faster than last year?
Mackey: I’m probably 10 minutes slower right now but hopefully I’m 15 minutes smarter. I don’t know, we’ll see if I can run a little bit faster. It could be by the nature of the competition I might be able to go a little bit faster if I get sucked along in it. I might be faster, but I doubt it. I don’t have the training base that I did last year.
iRF: Busy with school?
Mackey: School and life, I guess.
iRF: It is the beginning of 2012 and it’s the time people are looking back at 2011. Rumor has it that today was the day that Ultrarunning magazine Ultrarunner of the Year ballots were due. Your name was obviously in the mix. Who besides yourself would you have picked for men’s Ultrarunner of the Year?
Mackey: If I had a choice it would be the people who have been listed numerous times: Nick [Clark], Mike Wolfe, Mike Wardian and for the girls you’ve got Ellie Greenwood who’s hard to top and Kami [Semick]. Probably those four guys. I’d go with them. You never know who could pop in there. David Riddle ran an awesome JFK 50 mile and dominated the 50k scene and that didn’t mean much as far as Ultrarunner of the Year which is fine, it’s a different distance. So yeah, those four guys probably.
iRF: No one standing above the rest?
Mackey: I don’t know who I’d pick. Of course I’d vote for me, but, I don’t know. That’s a tough call. Everyone’s got their different specialties. Mike Wardian dominates the roads. Nick’s the 100-mile guy. I’m somewhere in between on the dirt. So yeah, hard to say.
iRF: It’s going to be a beautiful day here tomorrow so enjoy the trails!
Related articles:
- Timothy Olson 2012 Bandera 100k Champion Interview A video interview with Timothy Olson, 2012 Bandera 100k champ and USATF Trail 100k national champion....
- Cassie Scallon 2012 Bandera 100k Champion Interview A video interview with Cassie Scallon, 2012 Bandera 100k champ and USATF Trail 100k national champion....
- 2012 Bandera 100k Coverage Live coverage of the 2012 Bandera 100k....
Filed under Interviews and Profiles, Races, Video ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Congratulations Dave. I love following your adventures on your blog and irunfar. I would love the opportunity to try a pair of Hokas. They don’t sell them around here as far as I can tell (St. Paul, MN).
Congratulations on 2011 and UROY!
Interested in trying out the Hoka’s, got my fingers crossed.
CJ LaFond
Madison, WI
Congrats Dave on the UROY, great to see a 40 something guy take on and beat the young guns! I have a pair of the Mafate’s and love them and I’m impressed with their longevity – over 600k and still going strong.
Terry Gagnon
Innisfail, AB. Canada
Congratulations Dave from a Marin County runner! Impressive year! Would love to try a pair of Hoka’s.
B Baker
Mill Valley, Ca
Hoka Hookup!
Luke S.
Mountain View, CA
UROY! BOOYAH! HOKA!
Impressive year Dave, big ups!!
need some new shoes! 9.5
Congrats Dave!
Great Race, Dave! Impressive start to the year.
Well done Dave, and way to represent the fatherhood set.
Lander, WY
-Tavis
Congratulations on UROY! Would love to try some HOKA’s.
I wear cushioned shoes, so I would love to try out some HOKAs.
Brett
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Congratulations on an excellent year!
Ferndale, WA
YOU DA MAN MACKEY!
I would love to try me some dem dare HOKA’s.
Thanks!
Congratulations Dave.
I love HOKAs.
I already posted this on your blog, but it is worth repeating:
It is amazing you can race this well and have such a full life. Very inspiring.
I’ll be at WS for the first time this Spring, volunteering at the finish line.
Should I put you down for a sub 15 hour finish? :)
P.S. — I hope Hoka knows a lot of people (like me) have embraced those shoes because guys like you and Karl speak and race so highly in their regard.
Congratulations on the UROY and a great season Dave.
Daniel
11 or 11.5 for me Dave. It’s really generous of you to provide free Hokas to everyone who ever comments on this post. But, then again, those are the spoils of UROY, huh?
Thanks!
Amazing run, Dave. Congrats! I hope to see more stellar performance from you in 2012!
I like Hoka’s already and would love a free pair. Congratulations this year again.
Kick some 2012 butt
I have been reading about the Hoka’s on the Ultra list. And would love to try a pair. Would be using them at 3 days at the fair and Vol State.
I would love to try a new pair of hoka’s. As I am now 4 companies deep trying different models.
Congrats on your run at Bandera, your terrific 2011 season (UROY!!) and here’s to a great 2012!
Congrats on a great year! Yes, I would love to have a free pair of shoes and feel like one of the elites by getting shoes for free! Keep running and writing.
Thanks,
Drew
Ok… have to admit… i’m just commenting here for a chance to get some sweet sweet MOON BOOTS!
Although I do love me some irunfar so it all works out nicely.
Stack
Dave you are an amazing runner, would love
to see how you run at UTMB
One by one, more elite athletes are wearing the Hokas -love to see it.
Great year Dave! Would love a pair of Hokas!
Awesome job Dave!
Thanks for posting this, great interview!
Amazing year, Dave.
Great work this year! Congrats on UROY.
Amazing stuff man. Always fun to watch others succeed!
Great motivation from your experiences that I can use in my 2012 goals. Best of luck going forward! Look forward to further posts
Keep up the good work. Loved it!
Strong work throughout! Love the insight these interviews give.
Awesome work – great year! Hope 2012 is even better!
Great work in 2011 ! Looking forward to following your success in 2012!
Congrats on 2011 & good luck in 2012! Nice finish in the race (I’m a little late to the party :)).
Great year Dave! I had the pleasure of watching him win Dick Collins this year.
Congrats on Ultra Runner of the Year! You are an inspiration to all of us. This is an exciting time to be an ultra running fan. Race coverage is getting better and better and irunfar is leading the way.
Congrats on UROY Dave!! Been a big fan for a while now and I’m always rooting for Mackey… humble and recognized, I love it.
Great 2011 Dave! Good luck in 2012… Looks to be a great race schedule.
Dave – Great year of running, but equally impressive was listening to your podcast interview and the humility you possess about ultrarunning and the love you have for your family. Best wishes as you soon complete your educational pursuit.
What a great season Dave!!!
Great work Dave Your consistency as a runner and longevity in the sport are inspiring!
Dave – you rock. I’m still trying to figure out how to Oreinteer and run like you! See you at Leadville??
Congrats on great year Dave. Great interview,Bryon