David Tosch

Mesquite High School

Class of 1968

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David Tosch - Class of 1968 - Mesquite High School

First Name	David
Last Name	Tosch
Graduation Year	Class of 1968
Gender	Male
Current Location	Bermingham, AL
Hometown	Mesquite, Texas
Relationship Status	Married
About Me	It only took me 10 years to graduate from the University of Texas at Dallas, 1978. I worked for a CPA firm in Mobile, Alabama for the next 3 years. In 1981 I moved back to Dallas and stared Tosch Laboratory, Inc. in Preston Forest area. In ’84 I moved the lab and family back to Alabama (Not my idea) where I have been ever sense. My daughter Mallory was born in 1980 and my son Will, in 1983. I continued to operate the lab until 2014 when I retired from real work and turned the business over to my Will. Mallory is an attorney with one of New York’s larges international law firms and ran her first marathon, the New York City Marathon in 2016. Will in more into sailing and has a Catalina sailboat he keeps on Lake Marin, near where he grew up in Tallassee. After HS I continued to run just because I enjoyed it until 1978 after moving to Mobile. I entered the 2 annual Azalea Trail Run 10K that year and loved it. I ran my first marathon 1979, the Barq’s “Rood Beer” Miracle Strip Marathon in Panama City, Florida and just never stopped! I never kept count of any races (except 100 milers) and have absolutely no idea how many I have run. I would guess 60 – 70 marathon and marathon length races (50Ks are 31 -32 or more miles) and probably as many or more 5 & 10Ks. I qualified for Boston in just about every marathon I have run but never went. In the beginning I couldn’t afford to go, then I didn’t have time to go, now, I have become so spoiled by trail races where 500 runners is a HUGE race, I just can’t face dealing with a race with 30,000 to 40,000 runners. I am married to the most amazing person in the world, Marye Jo Tosch, who actually tolerates all my insanities, including running ultras and putting on trail races. In fact, being a runner herself, she actually loves it. I have been a runner and skier all my life, running the mile in high school and starting skiing in about 1972. When I met Marye Jo, she was already a runner, in fact, we met at a race. The next summer I took her to Colorado and we have been back ever summer since. (Well, with the exception of 2016 when we went to the California Wine Country and Yosemite instead.) We also go skiing in Telluride, CO and/or Park City, Utah every winter. We always stayed in the San Sophia Inn, a B&B one block from the gondola in Telluride. The owner, also a runner, convinced us to come back in September of 2006 and run the Imogene Pass Run, to this day, my favorite run ever. It starts in Ouray at 7500 ft. elevation, climbs 10 miles to the top of Imogene Pass at 13,100 ft. and back down to Telluride, 7 miles, at 8,500 ft. That was it. I was totally hooked on trail running. In 2007 I ran my first ultra, a 50K, and in 2008 I ran my first 100, The Pinhoti 100 right here in Alabama. Since then I have run eight 100 mile endurance runs including two in 2012 and two in 2016. Some of those races were the Leadville 100 in Colorado, Wasatch 100 in Utah, Tahoe Rim Trail 100 in Nevada, Grindstone 100 in the Shenandoah mountain of Virginia, and “most” of the Hardrock 100 that starts in Silverton Colorado. Hardrock was considered the most difficult 100 mile race on earth with 33,000 ft. of elevation gain at an average elevation of 11,200 ft. over the 100 miles. Actually, I have not finished several, but it’s always an amazing adventure. (The Barkley Marathons is actually much harder 100 but it really is not a race. The course is not marked, in fact it doesn’t even follow trails in many areas. It starts in Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee and has 64,000 ft. of elevation gain. The 100 mil course has only been completed 18 times by 16 people. That’s out of almost 900 that have tried.) I have run a bunch of 50Ks, 50 mile races and an occasional 3 day stage race. (And still do.) In 2011 we held our first race called “Run for Kids Challenge” which is a fund raiser for Camp Smile-A-Mile, Alabama’s camp for kids with cancer. They help young cancer patients deal with life after cancer. The next spring, after running the 2012 Chattanooga Stage Race, Marye Jo said we should put on a stage race in Birmingham. After all, B’ham does have three mountains and it would be fun. In the next 4 months we managed to put together the first Birmingham Stage Race. Since we were already doing the Run for Kids and now the stage race, in 2013 we decided it would be fun to create a series of races to help roadrunners and non-runners to become trail runners and eventually “Ultrarunners.” We created Southeastern Trail Runs and established a series has 7 races over 7 months, starting in April with the Tranquility Lake Trail Race, a 3 and 6 mile, relatively easy race at Oak Mountain State Park. Oak Mtn State Park is Alabama’s largest state park with 10,000 acres and almost 60 miles of trails. It also has a very rugger 600 mountain called Double Oak Mountain running the length of the park. It is an incredible venue for trial races and its right out my front door. Then, as if this wasn’t enough, also in 2012 we found a place to put on a 100 mile race, the Russell Forest Trail System on Lake Martin in Alexander City, Alabama near Auburn. The trial system consists of over 20,000 privately owned acres belonging to the Russell Family, as in Russell Athletics. We were able to get permission thanks to a few contacts and held a 50 mile in March of 2013 to sort out the course. Then in 2014 we held the first Lake Martin 100. We are gluttons for punishment I guess so in Sept. 2016 we added another insane race, The Endless Mile a 12 hour, 24 hour and 48 hour race run on a 1.004 mile loop in a Birmingham area park. In November of 2016, we changed our final race of the trail series from the Tranquility Lake 50K to the Blood Rock 50K and 50 Mile and changed the course from a fairly easy 50K to probably the most difficult 50K and 50mile in the southeast. In 2017 we are adding a 100 mile to the Blood Rock Race. Putting on these races is an incredible experience an absolute blast. We have gotten to know some of the most amazing people you will ever meet. You get to watch runners push themselves to levels few could imagen. We have also found the putting on the longer races, 100 miles, 48 hour races, etc. is quite an endurance challenge for the race directors. It takes a week to get the Lake Martin Course ready, that’s dawn till dark trail work and marking. We have a prerace meeting Friday night, get to bed about 11 PM, get up at 3 AM to set up the timing equipment and have runner check-in. I am so psyched I don’t sleep again until Sunday night. The Endless Mile is even worse. The race starts Friday morning at 9:00 AM. I was at the park by 5:00 AM for final setup. The race ends at 9:00 AM Sunday. After the race I have to clean up everything, tents, popups, electrical, trash, trail marking and who know what else and haul it back home. I did take a nap when I got home. I also slept 45 minutes Friday night and an hour Saturday afternoon when I was awakened by chimes playing Christmas music. I was a bit confused. The race takes place in mid-September. I wasn’t sure if I had died or just overslept three month. Turned out to be an ice cream truck. If we had any sense we ...(read more)