Imagine the hours of hard training an athlete must go through to participate in a 200 mile race.  Then.. imagine the disappointment when that race is suddenly canceled.

A local trail runner experienced that disappointment two years in a row. However, he's not giving up. 

Dr. Dan Young is the trail running chiropractor from Erie. .  He has finished 26- 100 mile trail races, including events in Wyoming and Colorado.  Dr. Young set himself a loftier goal for the 2020 racing season.  He was going to participate in a 200 mile race for the first time. He was going to take on the challenging Tahoe 200 course at Lake Tahoe.  He told himself he was not only going to finish, he was going to set a record for participants age 60 and over.

"The biggest thing is the weather. It's the biggest factor,” says Young.  We could have snow.  We could have rain.  We could have 90 degree temperatures.  You just don't know."

Trail racing involves both running and power walking.  Participants use head lamps to run at night.  Dr. Young hoped to complete the 200 miles in a little less than 70 hours.    That includes time to stop and sleep.

In the height of his training, Young ran 84 miles a week, including hill repeats, with a weighted backpack.  He was in perfect shape for the September race in 2020, but it was canceled by COVID-19. He registered again for 2021. He repeated his grueling training regimen.  However, the race was again canceled. Not by COVID, but by raging wildfires that devastated the Lake Tahoe area.

All that training, but no opportunity to go for the record.

"I’m doing OK with it,” says Dr. Young.  “It's out of our control when something like that happens.  The attitude I took was 'If that's all that can happen in my life, that a race gets canceled, that's not too bad."

Doc Young's thoughts now are with the people of Lake Tahoe who lost everything. The race directors have already changed the date for the 2022 edition of the race. It will not be held in wildfire season in September.  It’s scheduled for the less threatening month of June.  Guess who plans to be there to try for the record.

"Still going to go for it,” says Young.  We'll see where the chips fall."