Karl Meltzer Ponies up for the Red Bull Human Express

On September 15^th, endurance athlete and Suunto user Karl Meltzer embarked on an approximately 2000 mile journey attempting to retrace the steps of the famous Pony Express Trail by foot. Official sponsor Red Bull is calling it the Red Bull Human Express. He will be crossing the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains from Sacramento, California to St. Joseph, Missouri.

Meltzer and his support team (including Suunto friend Matt Hart) are all wearing a Suunto td6 watches to track his progress. You can also follow him along the trail on online on the offical sponsor’s (Red Bull) event website www.redbullusa.com/humanexpress. Matt has also been posting plenty of pictures of Karl’s trek on his Twitter page so you can keep updated.

From the Red Bull Human Express Website:

The Pony Express served as the premier mail service from east to west for 18 months in the 1860s and became the West’s best form of communication prior to the telegraph. While historically, the prairies, plains, deserts and mountains were crossed on horseback, Meltzer will attempt to navigate the more than 2,000 miles on foot through challenging terrain and unpredictable weather. He will rely solely on his wits, athleticism and endurance to push the boundaries of human potential.

Karl writes from his website before he began the journey:

Let the games begin! I’ll be headed out to run approximately 2000ish miles retracing the steps of the Pony Express Trail. This run commemorates the 150^th anniversary of those crazy mailmen on horses, running mail and messages from Sacramento, California to St. Joseph, Missouri. It’ll be a long trek, a true adventure, and a mindboggling expedition. It’s about mental power, dealing with adversity, and simply running all day long. This is a huge challenge for me… and I’m accepting it with open arms. So bring it on!

This is going to be quite the feat! Good luck Karl, we'll be following you!

Endurance Runner Matt Hart Blasts the Colorado Trail

Our good friend and big Suunto fan, Adventure Racer Matt Hart just finished running the historic Colorado Trail. He regularly trains with his Suunto t6d and we were excited to hear how his ambitious journey went.

Matt says, "Hey gang! Well two days ago I finished an epic journey… an attempt at the Colorado Trail speed record. Although I did not break the record, which is insanely tight. I did run the 3^rd fastest time for the 484 miles with 75,000 feet of elevation gain. I wore my Suunto t6d and foot pod each and every day. The foot pod was awesome and gave me a very close approximation of my pace and how close to being done with each section I was. The altimeter as always was spot on, and with the massive amounts of vert each day it was great to see it tick off as I climbed, and climbed and climbed. There were extended sections above 13,000 feet!! I was also on the trail for 15-24 hours at a time, and we all know the 7 hour battery life of a forerunner just wouldn’t have cut it out there. So with all that said – THANK YOU."

Also from Matt’s website –

484 miles and 75,000 ft of vertical gain later.. and somehow life really is that much sweeter. I finished the Colorado Trail on July 23^rd at 12:18pm. I ran the 484 miles as fast as I could, which was 9 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. I believe this is the 3^rd fastest time anyone has ever covered this beautiful and awe inspiring piece of trail. I knew from speaking iwht very fast ultrarunners who do this sort of thing that the record was super tight. I found that out. After 3days I had run 180 miles and was 10 miles ahead of the record pace. But I paid for it the following day where I only logged 38 miles and couldn’t stay awake. And so it goes, I made a lot of mistakes, didn’t plan well enough for some sections, was stranded a few times and hypothermic once. None of that matters or tarnishes the experience because that is the experience. All of these things are expected when the goal is something this huge ~ the crap that happens becomes the deepest burned memories. It’s how you respond to that crap that really matters. All things considered the adventure went amazingly well on 3 days of planning.

Way to go Matt--that is an awesome accomplishment!

To see video segments of the run visit Matt’s website here.

Matt Hart Sets Trans-Zion Trek Record

Endurance athlete and good friend of Suunto, Matt Hart, recently reminded us that records are made to be broken. He ran across Zion National Park at a record-setting pace on May 14th, 2010. The Trans-Zion Trek was a sure test of endurance and took Hart just under eight hours to complete. He shattered the previous record by more than an hour! He wore a Suunto t6d, heart rate belt and Foot POD to help calibrate and pace his efforts.
The Trans-Zion Trek is a 48-mile route across Zion National Park in Southwestern Utah. This route winds through some stunning sections of the park and typically is done as a five-day backpacking trip.

Matt wrote a blog about his experience. Here are a few excerpts:

From Matt Hart: The last 3 miles felt like 20. I pushed my pace even though i was out of water and fuel. My mouth was dry and I was cramping. The wheels had come off and I was dragging axles at this point. I pushed the last two steep sections hard and when I saw Linda [support]. I just put my head down and ran the stairs (above photo), fully embracing the pain. I touched the sign and hit the stop on the Suunto before quickly laying down and begging for Nuun.
I ran the 48 miles with 10,400ft of gain across Zion National Park in 7 hours 58 minutes 07 seconds. With Jared and Christian's previous record time of 9hours 8 minutes I had managed to take 1hour 10minutes off the record. I'm happy with that.

And it's not over for Matt--he's still going full-steam doing media interviews (including one with Runner's World!)
What an impressive accomplishment, Matt--thanks for letting us be part of it.