Between The Miles - A Daughter's Perspective

The Great Sit Down of 2018

Interview with: Dana Gard, Chris Gard, and Wayne Miles

Coffee Republic, Folsom, Ca. 2018

     It was a bitter-sweet moment to be sitting at a table with my dad and Dana Gard for an interview of sorts. Sweet because my dad and Dana hadn't seen each other for quite a while, but bitter because the other piece to this puzzle couldn't join us. For as long as I can remember, Bill Finkbeiner (not present), Dana Gard, and Wayne Miles have been the Tres-Trail-Amigos! They are each accomplished trail ultra-runners in their own rites, but as a trio, they simply amaze! All three have worked together to train groups of people, passing on their racing knowledge to other runners who sought it. When they aren't racing, they consistently volunteer to mark trails, work aid stations, manage finish lines, and complete any number of jobs at the races they love so much. These three runners have done, and continue to do, so much to help the sport of Ultra-Running. Sitting in the coffee shop with us was Dana's son, Chris. I probably only saw him two or three times a year, at a race somewhere, but there always felt like a familiarity between us kids. It wasn't planned, but the group of us started talking almost immediately about friendship.

     "When there were times that one of us couldn't run, we always knew that there would still be a place for us with each other. That bond between us can't be broken," my father said. 

     When these guys get together, you can see that there is a deep friendship between these men, marked by each mile on the trails; through broken bones, broken bodies, and sometimes broken spirits. They each have the super-human ability to push their bodies past the pain that comes with this sport of ultra-running. And though the three of them have a tremendous competitive spirit, they always have put the experiences, the simple joys of the trails and the friendships, ahead of the race. 

     I had researched interviews that Dana had given in the past and came across a wonderful interview that he gave alongside Steve Harrold on the "Trail Runner Nation" podcast in 2013. Scott War and Don Freeman interviewed the two men in the podcast and Dana was recalling the early years of ultra-trail running and what meager resources and products they had to use. In fact, Dana said he started running with a mustard bottle (of water) to keep himself hydrated.

     I took out and showed them a photo of my dad, Dana and Bill, in which all three runners were completely airborne, mid-strike, all at the same time. It was taken in the early 1990's at the Gibson Ranch race, sponsored by the Buffalo Chips running group. The photo launched the guys into the subject of the Buffalo Chips running organization. In 1979 or 1980, Dana would go to Tuesday night runs with the Buffalo Chips because Tuesday night were "lady's nights," and of course, all the guys showed up. 

     My father remembered a particular Tuesday night workout when it had been raining, and no one else showed up except him. Across the parking lot, he noticed there was a group of runners working on speed drills; running two loops of the campus as a warm-up and then running intervals on the track. They saw him and invited him over to join them. Apparently, it was all my father could do to keep up with the slowest of them. After only a couple of loops, while stopped at the water fountain, one of the runners kindly suggested my father head back to The Graduate, buy a pitcher of beer and wait for them. He was so embarrassed, that he got in his car and left. But fate would soon bring him back to the speed-racers.

     Dana remembered those times and his first impressions of my father. Dana said, "First, he was fast! I remember Wayne was easygoing so we could all talk, have good time and a smile, which is what it's all about. None of us were out to leave our races on Tuesday night workouts. It wasn't a race for us as it was for other people." 

     And the good thing about this group was that there were all different levels of ability and speed. Whatever your pace was, if you were maintaining fitness or training for a marathon, you could find people there to run with. I asked Dana to tell me about the transition to longer distances and Ultra Running. He said that he basically stumbled across it. He had qualified for the Boston Marathon in 1981, and in preparation he headed out to Folsom Lake to train on the trails that meandered around the water. A group of runners were there; Nancy March and Sally Edwards (who started Fleet Feet with Elizabeth Jansen), and they invited Dana to run with them. In that chance meeting, conversation came up about the upcoming American River 50-mile Endurance Run, and when Dana got home he had a talk with his wife.