Long Run: Doubling up on Falcon

Here's the Cliffs Notes report - Craig tried to run me to death.

If you want to know more about the run, keep reading. 

 From the Falcon Trail, looking southwest to Blodgett Peak

I met up with Craig over at the US Air Force Academy Saturday morning for his long run leading up to Pikes Peak Marathon.  Quite a few weeks back he showed me his top-secret training plan for shaking things up at PPM.  When I saw the Long Run - 2 laps at Falcon for time on feet, I was intrigued to say the least.  While I have no interest per se in marathons, or for a large part racing in general, I have often thought about a double loop of Falcon.  Number 1, I really like the loop - great terrain, lots of variety, good climbs, etc.  Second, it is one of few places locally where you can do a long, continuous loop - 13 miles to be exact.  The only problem I saw was doing it solo.  I guess now I had that part checked off the list also.  So I told Craig I would at least hang for the first loop and see where everything shook out for a second.

 The Knuckledragging Runner himself - still sporting "battle bandages" from the last time we ran

Now there was a secondary issue, which I did not share until we were already running.  I had only run up to 21 miles previous, and my longest run this calendar year was 19.  It did not seem to phase my running comrade, so we were off and running - clockwise on lap 1.  While it was warming quickly, there was a strong breeze that really saved our bacon throughout the day.  It was, however, a bit of a Catch-22 - when we were in the trees and shaded from the sun, there was no breeze.  When we were in the breeze, we were fully exposed to the overhead sun.  We managed pretty well though and the first lap rolled very well.  OK, maybe too well.  We were hitting some time checks a fair amount earlier than Craig's goal pace.  Now that is good in one sense if it was a "one and done" event, but there was that whole second lap conundrum looming on the horizon. I let Craig lead out, so it was his fault...

 The Chapel overlook - beautiful day to be on the trails

We didn't get too concerned about making decent time, figuring it never hurts to bank some time for the next lap.  It was a great day to be chatting about trails, races, family stuff, life in general, etc., although we never got around to solving the problems of the world.  Maybe next run.  We did get in a great first lap - I logged 2:13 moving time for lap 1, about 45 seconds per mile under goal splits.  With the loop nature of the trail, finishing the lap put us back at our vehicles for an unmanned aid station, which is quite convenient.   We got a bit of solid food, loaded up some more water in the packs, and started lap 2 counter-clockwise for a fresh look at the trail.  I am not certain Craig really knew if I was "all in" for a second loop, but I took the look of relief on his face as a sign that he was happy to not head out for #2 alone.  The guy has business to get done on the mountain in three weeks - gotta "man up" and show some support, right? :)

 Top of the last big climb - looking due south at Blodgett and the AFA water treatment plant

Where do I start with lap 2??  About a mile and a half in, after some gradual up around the golf course and through some forest, there is a grunt of a climb on a spine above the northern part of the Academy.  It is not that it is steep, rather it is long and very very very exposed.  It was already in the 80's by now and the sun was directly overhead.  Conversation waned, to say the least, and for about 3 miles was reduced to two or three word sentences.  Several times the guy who tricked me into this death march Craig asked if this ever ended.  While it did eventually crest, the slog took its toll.  I had gone quite a ways without a glimpse at the Garmin, and I think we were so anxious to get that sucker done, we had climbed it a little fast for what was already in the legs.  Oops.  On the descent off the ridgeline, it was apparent I had put a dent in my reserves as Craig quickly put a gap on me, although I think some of that is his overall descending edge on me.  We had to regroup quickly though as the next climb was soon upon us.

We put our heads down and ground out the next climb, first through the deep sand along Interior Drive below the Chapel, then up the long switchbacks to the Chapel Overlook.  From there, it was a nice reprieve winding through the forest, before crossing Academy Drive and pushing the tough little climb up to Stanley Canyon trailhead.  We took a breather in the shade, knowing we were 75% of the way done.  Now it was time for the steepest descent off the backside of the canyon - on tired legs no less. 

 Unfamiliar Territory

I was reminded to get a photo of the display once we were past the longest-run-ever point.  Too bad my running glasses don't have my bifocal rx in them - I totally blew the focal point on that shot!!!  

So near the bottom of the long hill, before crossing the Monument Creek Trail, Craig sounds the first alarm - he got his first draw of "air" from the hydration pack.  With 4.5 miles to go.  "So, Steve, how far off the trail is it to that Burger King you showed us?"  "Oh, just across the road, through the BX parking lot, after the grunt hill past the fire station."  "Ok, maybe we better check the fire station."   About 5 minutes later, I had my first bubbles.  We hadn't totally realized how warm it was getting but both of us had burned through some H2O - and we had a long stretch of exposed meadow to run through between us and the vehicles.

You can imagine the relief when we rolled up out of the creek drainage and saw people swarming around the fire station.  There was some sort of community event going on, with barbecue - OK, that part was rude having to smell bbq 22.5 miles in to a run - they even had a Big-Air Jumper for the kids shaped like a fire truck.  Frankly, we didn't care about any of that.  When the fireman said past the kitchen and refrigerator, cold drinking fountain, blah blah blah, we were all over it.  Plus it was air conditioned inside the fire station.  So we lingered a bit, filled the packs, drank a little more from the fountain, then eventually had to get out before we decided to climb into the fridge and take a nap....

Not too far to the finish - luckily most of the rest of the trail was not too technical

Coming out of the fire station, there is a steep trail that climbs up to the community center/BX area.  Not sure, but I have a feeling we I looked less than amazing climbing that. It was hot, and I was getting pretty tired.  I think the stop at the fire station had given Craig a fifth wind, as he was starting to push me a bit.  We hit the descent from the BX with a "rabbit" out in front - a lanky guy had hopped on the trail and was pushing a decent pace out ahead of us.  I was struggling a bit for the first time to hold an even gap and I think the lure of finishing off strong was taking hold of Craig.  Somewhere in that foggy zone of tiredness, I am on my face.  It is weird how when you are tired, you hit the dirt before you are even aware that you hooked your toe and are falling.  There is none of that slow motion business where it takes 5 seconds to hit the ground - that only happens when you are alert!  Luckily, I was in the deep sand so there wasn't much in the way of damage assessment.  It did wake me up a bit, though, which was apparent by my first thought - "Crap, I never restarted the Garmin at the fire station..." - like that mattered at this point!  So, I dusted myself off, got my senses, and took off.  Craig had enough gap that he didn't hear me hit the ground, so I was a ways back now.  At the bottom of the meadow, he yelled that he was taking a shot at sub-4:30 and I was all for it.  

I reeled it in a bit, knowing that I could easily faceplant again if I tried to push the pace with my feet barely leaving terra firma with each step.  I was already well into the bonus round and had been fueling off reserves for a bit of time so that strategy was just fine.  I finally rolled in for 26 miles at 4:32:45 moving time, for a second lap split of 2:19:45 - not too shabby to drop only 1/2 minute per mile pace on the second go round.  The gain for the double loop is about 3100', which is by no means huge but does add up.  Oh yeah, and the whole longest run ever thing comes in to play as well.  I thought about running out to the golf course and back, just to say I was an ultrarunner and so forth -  however, I didn't really care.  I was more interested in having a seat in the shade and "not running" for a while...  BTW, five gels, 2 S-Caps, 130 oz. water and one Strawberry Yogurt granola bar fueled the effort if you wonder about such things.

I have to say, in all seriousness, this was a great run.  I was glad Craig threw it out there because it was on the list for a while.  I think, although he will have to confirm, that this was a good confidence boost  for some overall pre-race fitness.  But all that fitness, goal oriented jazz aside, it was just a fun day on the trails.  Definitely good times.

Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit

On a side note, you may be asking where Mrs HT has been.  Good question, and you'll soon be seeing more photo evidence of her on these pages.  As has been the case (too often to count) in the past 18 months, we had a couple setbacks related to the Graves Disease recovery.  Things that were unpredictable but happen and are common issues related to fall-out from the disease.  I am biased, but I am also in control of the keyboard, so I have to say Kathleen has been absolutely rock-star at dealing with all these crazy roadblocks - her grit and determination are astounding to me.  That being said, we are rolling with it all, and are most thankful that we still have biking legs as she (we) has had to do more biking this summer than we really wanted to have on the schedule.  However, good progress is being made on the running front and along with it, we have a couple scenic long rides on tap, and maybe a few runs, to report on in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned...

                                                             happy trails

Where's the Flat Part?

 Tour guide for the climb suffering

Yesterday, I did something most sane, sedentary folks would find unreasonable: I set the alarm for 5 am on a Saturday - what?  I was meeting Craig over at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs to run up Barr Trail as part of his Pikes Peak Marathon training.  The plan for the day was A-Frame and back from the PPM start line, about a 20 mile round trip.  Craig invited me along for all or any part of the trip so I figured why not?  (BTW, I was the sherpa as Craig decided to travel light for race simulation reasons, therefore, the only photos of human suffering were taken by, not "of", the guy who carried his camera - ha!)

Early morning sun on the infamous "W's"

I would like to wax eloquent about how effortlessly we breezed up Ruxton Ave, sailing smoothly onto the lower sections of the Barr Trail with the cool morning air invigorating our running efforts.  Of course, many of you have been on or heard of Barr Trail and you would know I was lying like a politician in an election year.  The fact is, this run eats at your soul from the first steps onto Ruxton, bringing to life things like "barking calves", "flaming lungs", and all other manner of exercise induced suffering.  And we call this recreation.  Fun even.  Aside from one measly effort long since pushed to the dusty corners of my memory bank, all other trips up Barr have included an entrance via The Incline.  So when people warn about ruining your run on the W's, I don't always relate.  I have a better appreciation for it now.  In order to keep myself from blowing up, I let Craig set the pace.  

The W's are indeed hard, but the issue is more the accumulated effect of constant climb and lowering oxygen.  At lower elevations, you can "redline", realize the trouble you are in and cut back your effort.  Generally speaking, at that point, you can recover within a run and carry on to finish your workout.  However, at altitude, it seems that when you blow up, there is too much stacked against you to recover "during" your exercise.  We have seen it time and again, whether on the bike or running, and that is why people like Matt Carpenter try to warn newbies on Pikes Peak to notch it back at the start...  Anyway, back to the run.

Majesty

Barking calves aside, we settled in to a nice run.  There was a LOT of traffic on Barr already, which we expected as Ruxton was packed with cars as we ran up.  We chatted about PPM, the recent fires, life in general and pretty much settled into a nice flow up the mountain.  It was funny as several folks commented about things such as "Look, they are running and can still talk", or "Why hurry, it will still be there when you get there?" - normal trail chatter.  One thing is for sure, it was good to see folks out enjoying the trails and happy to be alive.  The city was in a bit of a fire-induced coma for a few weeks, but in general life is getting back to a "new normal".  Above about 9000' feet or so, my recent nemesis breathing issues started howling at me and my ribcage suddenly felt like it had the capacity of an infant.  Not sure what's up with that, but have been bending some ears to help me get it figured out.  I will need the big-boy lungs for some outings I would like to squeeze in before summer's end :)

Barr Camp is Hoppin'!

We hit Barr Camp (7.5 miles in and 10,200 feet above sea level) in about 1:54, which is good for me since I really haven't ever done this exact route.  I guess it is a PR - woohoo....  And Barr Camp was jamming with folks - I had to wait for about a dozen people to clear out to get the photo above.  This at 8 am.  We hung out for a while, did some stretching, and then I decided to head back down.  I felt bad to leave Craig on his own to A-Frame, but at the same time, I knew my lungs were stressing pretty good and another 1800' up wasn't going to help them out.  So Craig headed up, and I started the descent back to Manitou - all 4300' of it!

Great Views

I paused at a couple favorite spots on the way down to look at the beauty of all that surrounds Pikes Peak.  Given that three weeks ago the harsh reality was that all this could burn if the fire jumped Highway 24, it was all the more reason to pause for the awe of where we live and what we get to do on any given Saturday.  We are quite thankful for that and not a day passes that we take it for granted.  Return trip down was 1:14, certainly not speedy but I felt good the whole way down.  The round trip ended up just over 15 miles for me on the day, with 4300' accumulated gain.  Oh, and by the way, there is NO flat part, just in case you were wondering.  And I got in some "weight training" at the end of the run.  I needed to stop at Coquette's in Manitou for gluten-free flour, so I finished the last .3 miles of the run carrying a 4lb bag of flour under each arm ;-)

Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit

Snyder Quarry and Cave of the Winds

There is not really an overlook to the north where you can see Waldo Canyon, so this was about as close as I could photograph, looking a little northeast.  The visible scar on the far hillside is Snyder Quarry, and right below it is the Cave of the Winds.  The burn area to the west is Williams Canyon, which is being rated extreme on the burn severity index, along with Waldo Canyon just a bit further west.  Waldo will most likely re-open eventually, but will look totally different than what we have ever seen, which is sad but is also the cycle of life and nature.

Back a few weeks...

June 26: Pre-Evacuation notice went out about 2:15pm - this is at 3:15pm from our driveway

June 26: At 3:30pm, it became mandatory for good reason

June 26: 6:15pm - From the eastern edges of Colorado Springs -
We stood in my sister's driveway and cried for our neighborhood

We have thought quite a few times over the last weeks about a post to gather all our thoughts concerning the Waldo Canyon Fire but still not sure at this point we have totally wrapped our minds around that.  We are extremely grateful to all our friends and running peeps who were so supportive during that time.  It is a bizarre and surreal occurrence to go through, and one we hope to never repeat in our lifetimes.  Kathleen was at home when the firestorm broke containment over the Front Range and down into Mountain Shadows.  The images she saw leaving home will forever be etched into her memory.  The wall of fire was so large and moving so fast, she could only describe it as being special effects from a movie, yet it was not.  The fact is, we are fortunate and blessed that we are not sitting in a strange environment today planning to rebuild our lives from scratch.  We know people who are, and it is a dark spot to be in, yet those we have had contact with are handling it with such grace ... and that is inspiring.  Sometimes the depths of tragedy exposes the  strength of human character. 

We have a lot of photos we took on our first visit through the "war zone" - those handful of areas where it seems entire streets and blocks vaporized.  It takes your breath away to see it, and the images on TV had done nothing to prepare us for the gut punch that it is to stand in front of an ash pile that is the memories of several hundred families.  We took the pictures more as a reminder of our blessings, rather than something to post on the blog.  But processing through those images has helped us a lot with processing what has happened to our community in this corner of town.  We have lived in this neighborhood nearly 20 years, and can picture in our mind's eye many if not most of those homes and streets as they were before June 26.  Yet every day now we drive out of our neighborhood with the new reality of charred sticks dotting the Front Range, and chimneys left as the sole reminder of the memories of many families.  They say routine has a centering or healing effect after trauma - starting to get back to normal has been good in a cleansing sort of way.  

Might not ever get around to that "thought gathering" post but getting back to normal, even if it is the "new normal", feels good for now...

                                            Happy Trails

Hangin' with the Pinkcorker

Almost four years ago, during a snowy, frigid, blizzard-y weekend, Steve and I 'discovered'  the world of running blogs, more specifically trail running blogs.  The absolutely first blog on the radar was Renee's "Pinkcorker". She and I seemed to be kindred spirits.  We have been blessed to have met and become friends with some amazing blog friends but Renee was the first.  We have cultivated a friendship via email over the past years.  Six months ago, she emailed and said she would be traveling to Colorado to visit a friend who had lived near her in Tuscon and asked if she could stop and finally meet and visit with us for a few days on the way.  You can probably figure out what we said - "Of course!  Come on up!"

Renee jumped into the world of ultra running a few years back and our original plan, six months ago, was to take her on a few of our fabulous local trail runs.  Those plans changed when she unexpectedly decided to do the splits on a trail run in the Tuscon mountains and tore a ligament near the upper area of her femor earlier this summer.  Her 'splits injury' combined with my current inability to run long caused by the Graves, required a creative change of plans.  Renee's injury rehab has progressed well and, although she is unable to run, she is able to fast hike and bicycle.  She is learning to ride and is becoming best friends with her bike.  I was a cyclist WAY before becoming a runner so a bike ride always rates high on the desirability scale.


After getting our house guest settled in at Happy Trails Central on Saturday evening, we began plotting our plan of attack over the next two days.  Sunday morning, after renting a mountain bike for Renee at a local bike shop, we headed north on our ride on the crushed granite Santa Fe Trail.  With the combo of a long drive from Tuscon and altitude adjustment, a more mellow ride was on the docket for her and the Santa Fe Trail fit the bill.  We squeaked out 25 miles that consisted of constant girl chatter, beautiful weather, and our lovely mountain scenery.  Steve escaped our non-stop chatter by slipping away earlier in the morning for a nice, peaceful 17 mile trail run at Red Rock Canyon/Section 16/Intemann Trail area.

Renee is all smiles riding through the U.S. Air Force Academy on a gorgeous day.

I love my bikes!  Despite not spending as much time on them the last few years, riding still feels so natural and a part of me.

The Santa Fe Trail is a beautiful multi-use trail.

After our ride and Steve's run, we got cleaned up and headed over to Manitou Springs for some post ride/run grub at one of the best local eateries - Adam's Mountain Cafe.

Then, after the grub, we hit up The Mate' Factor for an iced peach yerba mate' tea.

Played tourists and wandered Manitou for a bit, then drove through Garden of the Gods on the way back to the house.  Renee commented that it felt like deja vu - everything seemed so familiar because of reading about and seeing pictures of everything on our blog!  She even recognized our house before she saw the address because of seeing pictures of our xeriscape garden out in front!

**************************************************************************************************************

Most out-of-towners seem to be intrigued by the Manitou Incline and Renee was no different.  Way-back-when, the Incline was on her list of 'must-dos'.  Although running is not an option for her right now, hiking is so we headed out for a grand hike up the Incline this morning.  We took it slow and although she questioned her sanity in undertaking such an arduous effort with her current fitness level several times during the climb, she's a tenacious ultra runner and perservered.

Finishing with a smile despite low-lander oxygen depletion

Connecting to Barr Trail.  I was thrilled to see that the Aspens on the left were NOT changing...... yet........

We fast hiked down Barr Trail.  Renee was excited to see part of Barr as she and her hubby and a group from their Tuscon trail running group are thinking about coming up next August and doing the Pikes Peak Ascent/Marathon.  If I can get completely back on track, the Ascent has been on my list of 'things to do someday'.  Hmmm, combined with a quite a few local friends who are doing the Ascent/Marathon next year, the Tuscon group coming up might provide the extra motivation to really train for it.  We'll have to see..........

We wrapped up a whirlwind day with lunch at Coquette Creperie, a repeat visit for Mate', a stop at a Chef's Catalog (kitchen store), the Dutch bakery (I needed to get a treat for Steve since he had to work and couldn't come out and play), Title Nine, The Colorado Running Company, and Criterium Bike Shop (Renee needed a jersey she had spied there yesterday).  Whew!  We had to blaze home, get her packed up and out the door so she could drive to her next destination near Denver and arrive before it was completely dark.

After hugs all around and waving good-bye, we realized again, that our interest in trail running has afforded us the opportunity to meet extraordinary people - Friends - over the past few years.

Happy Trails to everyone this week!

Team Footfeathers: Crewing the Leadville 100

Back up the calendar several pages to February 15, and this email from Tim pops up in the wee hours of the morning:

-----Original Message-----
From: tim@xxxxxxx [mailto:tim@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 6:33 AM
To: HappyTrails
Subject: crew

 

Hi,

Would you guys be interested in crewing me at Leadville 100?

Since we were (and probably still are) clueless about anything to do with ultrarunning or what this duty would entail, we said "Sure."  So began the months of tidbits here and there talking to Tim, finding out what he needed, worrying that we would suck, and so on.  (Who knew that a trail run and a Thanksgiving dinner three years ago would lead us to this juncture!)  Then, within the past week, it ramped up - Game Time - now we would be crewing and trying to keep up with the leaders of the race for InsideTrail via Tweets during the day.  Cool.  We were getting to Leadville late Friday night after work, sleeping in command central, aka the Pilot, and being out at the ungodly hour of 4 am to get rolling on this adventure.  Let's go!

We made what ended up being a very good decision (rookie luck) and skipped the start, driving straight to Mayqueen AS #1, and were the 6th car there.  The lead pack of guys went through like they were running a 10k - are you kidding me?  Holy Cow!  Tim rolled in before 6 am, right on his splits.  It was just starting to get light as we drove around Turquoise Lake on the way out.  Everything went as planned - aid #1 down, no issues - we're rolling on to the Fish Hatchery AS #2!  We realized how fortunate the plan was at the start, as there were cars parked for miles out the road - whew!

 For whatever reason, the Fish Hatchery was our favorite aid station - very cool vibe here

The next aid was at the Leadville National Fish Hatchery which was a very cool setting.  There was a lot of room to spectate, great crewing access, and just a really neat vibe to this place.  The runners come in off of Powerline, run up the road into the aid area, then right back down and out onto the road toward Halfmoon.  The fog from early on was burning off and it was opening up into a really nice sunrise.  It was great to be able to see, as we did not recognize many of the top ultrarunners since we aren't ever around them.  The lead pack went through, and we started to piece together names and faces we would see for the rest of the day.  Mike Arnstein was in front, followed by Dylan Bowman, Timmy Parr, Ryan Burch, Ryan Sandes, Duncan Callahan, Jeff Browning, Dan Vega, etc.  Guys we have read about are now right beside us - sweet!  Snap out of it, we have a racer to tend to - and he came through 2 minutes up on his splits again, so we grabbed his necessities at the aid while Kathleen filled his pack, all the while he is quizzing me on who is running up front, what are the splits, etc. - Tim is quite easy going, even while he is racing - amazing!  He was running in the top 20, right where he wanted to be.  Out of AS #2 - moving on to Twin Lakes AS #3.

 Stopped at HalfMoon Road to get a photo  - looking good

 Spectacular views along HalfMoon Road

 Arriving at Twin Lakes - the day was shaping up quite nicely

 Prime real estate - set up crew station in the main lot!

Twin Lakes is where it started to dawn on us that it was really, really nice to have a fast runner!  We arrived to a very quiet, pristine scene, got prime real estate parking, and set up next to some fantastic people that we would see through the rest of the day.  Twin Lakes is pivotal, as it is the entrance to the Big Climb - Hope Pass at 12,600' looms above the runners - standing between them and the halfway turn at Winfield, 10.5 miles away.  Once again Arnstein was through first, and we thought going too fast - but what do we know, we're just newbie crew folks :)  Parr, Burch, Bowman, Sandes - all through closely - and with some good separation to the next groups - the race was shaping up at the front.  Tim came through at Twin about 4 minutes up on splits -  this is working out great.  We loaded him up for the big climb, broke out the poles for the nasty descent off of Hope, and he was rolling out toward the halfway point.  We negotiated a sweet deal with the "neighbors" to cart their son's pacer to Winfield AS #4, and in turn, they would hold us a spot in the prime parking lot for the return trip - right on!

 Leaving Twin Lakes - the trail leading to the monster climb up Hope Pass

 Winfield AS - great views, the calm before the swarm

If (and that is a big IF) we ever crew this race again, Winfield AS #4 is off the agenda.  This is a drop bag aid station for sure!!!  The drive out to Winfield is fairly sucky.  It is basically at the end of a long, rutted, dusty dirt road, the last three miles of which you share with the runners.  There were no runners yet when we arrived, but those coming later would really pay for this section of drive.  Did we mention that it was really, really, really great to have a fast runner??? (Thanks TIM!!!)  The other issue is that there is very limited parking.  Once the lot filled, and the road started to have consistent racer traffic, cars could only come in as vehicles left.  Ouch!  Ryan Sandes made a huge move on Hope Pass - one that proved the decisive move of the race.  He went from 5th to first in the course of that 10.5 miles and would not relinquish the position for the remaining 50 miles.  Bold.

 Feeling pretty good after trip #1 over Hope

Tim did great on his first passing of Hope and was just a few minutes down on the splits, no big deal.  It was also hot - he was ahead of pace on salt consumption because of the intense overhead sun.  We took a little extra time making sure he was ready to head right back up Hope.  Some extra food, extra liquids, etc.  He was looking a little tired, but overall was just running smart and doing a great job.  He got quite a spark seeing a young lady friend pacer from Hardrock  CORRECTION, a very young lady he raced with at Ice Age 50 mile - standing there by the aid tent at Winfield - we practically had to drag him, kicking and screaming,  out to get back to his run (and you thought we wouldn't rat you out......)  So AS#4 was good to go and we were out of Winfield.  We were horrified at the scene heading out:  after the point on the road where the runners left to head up the trail, inbound traffic was parked.  For over a mile.  One car leaves, one gets to go in - back to that whole fast runner theme.....  Regardless, we were out of Dodge and headed back to Twin Lakes.

 Parting words - heading back over the monster

Twin Lakes AS #5 - round 2 at Twin Lakes, and much more of a zoo this time.  However, we had an ace up our sleeve as the fine folks we spent our morning with there had us lined out with parking in the prime lot.  Nice.  This was a longer crew spot - fresh shoes, extra food, encouragement after twice crossing Hope.  For the first time, we missed the leaders.  But that was OK.  We were tiring and needed to recharge so we could be focused on our racer.  Tim bonked hard on Hope.  I could read it on him from across the meadow coming in.  We got him in a chair and JT, who would be pacing him for the next 26 miles, helped us get him refueled and ready to get moving again.  Pretty amazing that he was charged up to get Tim running, as he had just driven up from the Springs after racing the Pikes Peak Ascent.  The aid stop was long, but we were not forceful in pulling the chair, as he really needed a little rest.  After 15 or 20 minutes, these two were charging up the hill out of Twin Lakes.  Back to the Fish Hatchery AS #6.

 Enjoyed a nice rain shower at FH - very peaceful

 Calorie fest starts before the aid station - JT gets some pep from Katie and Holly

Tim came back to life on the leg in to Fish Hatchery, running almost the entire section and regaining his competitive juice.  Man that was nice to see, and it kind of gave us a second wind.  A great pacer, a bunch of calories, and getting passed by some guys he didn't want passing him rekindled some fire in the belly.  Sweet!  The guys donned headlamps as darkness was approaching and they were off toward Mayqueen - the final aid stop.

Lucho was waiting for us as we rolled into Mayqueen.  He would be pacing the final leg of 13.5 miles, where just last year Tim had paced him through a very rough patch.  The boys rolled in looking pretty spent at about 10:50 pm, 18:50 into the race.  We got Tim into a thermal long sleeve, filled him up with hot soup, and they were on their way to the finish.  Someone had passed in the aid stop, and the focus was back to reel people in.  We loaded up the last of the gear for the day and headed into town to park at the finish line.  Ryan Sandes had rolled in before we arrived, winning in an impressive time of 16:46, followed by Dylan Bowman in 2nd, and Neal Gorman moving up to 3rd after a conservative middle of the race.

 The boys in the finishing tent - JT, Tim, and Lucho

We snuck in a couple short naps, all the while listening to the announcer calling out names as finishers approached the home stretch.  Tim left Mayqueen 18th and managed to take three spots on the run in, finishing 15th at 1:04 am, 21:04 into the race (official chip time 20:59:52 !)  We were so proud - what an amazing accomplishment!  We threw a blanket over him, and got him into the med check in and in front of a heater as the chill of the night caught up with him after movement ceased.  What a day!  Would we do it again?  Maybe, but it would take a special person like Tim to get us back out for it....

Headed home - saying goodbye for a while at least

After catching a small amount of sleep, we got some breakfast in town and watched some runners still coming in.  Then it was time to head out, which was a little bittersweet as Tim is moving away this week.  Road trip, I guess....

Happy Trails

Quick Leadville Crew recap

The sun burns through the morning fog at Fish Hatchery aid station

Just a quick note - we had a great weekend crewing our good friend Tim at the Leadville 100 Trail Run. Tim finished in 21:04, good for 15th overall, and 3rd in the 40-49 age group. He did great all day, we met lots of awesome people, and were able to watch a good portion of the front end of the race play out all day.  It was a memorable experience for certain and when we have had time for sleep deprivation to run its course, we will probably be able to process a little better just how cool this weekend was.  For now, all the keys on the keyboard are running together - watch for a more coherent report soon!

Happy Trails

Another One Bagged: Bear Peak, Boulder, CO

Following a week of unstable weather with hot temperatures and evening storms, some quite violent, the weekend was calling for HOT and no rain - ugh!  Saturday morning we were out really early for a good tempo run on Santa Fe Trail - had to beat the heat, so we were off the trail by 9 am.  No time for pics, either :)

Sunday, we had an "appointment" in Boulder to meet up with Tim for a run, then have lunch to chat about crewing him during the Leadville 100.  The original plan was to run some nice trails in Flatirons Vista and Doudy Draw trail areas south of Boulder.  However, with the forecast high of 96 in Boulder, that plan got scrapped in favor of a less exposed, more forested route.  There is a trade-off:  The less exposed route is also quite steep....

 Starting into the Bear Canyon Trail

We started up the Shanahan Trail, climbing at a good rate but just seasoning the legs for the GOOD stuff to come.  Even with the 7:45ish start (yes, that meant rising at 5:15 on a weekend morning to drive to Boulder!!!), it was warming rapidly down on the southwest side of Boulder.  Fortunately, we were soon into the trees which provided a nice canopy for a large portion of the run.  From Shanahan, we caught the Mesa Trail and took that over to the start of the Bear Canyon Trail.  This is a very nice trail that ascends the canyon between Green and Bear peaks.  As seen above, it was a beautiful day.  We made our way up the Bear Canyon trail and then decided to see some new terrain and headed over toward Bear Peak.  The Bear Peak West Ridge trail starts to get a little more aggressive and it is apparent that it is traveled less frequently than the neighboring Green Mountain trails.  BTW, the trails are all shown on this map.

 Tim running the West Ridge trail - did you know this guy did Hardrock last week??
He even let us hold the buckle.....

 Kathleen on a nice section of the West Ridge trail - she went rockstar today!!

 South Boulder Peak - the highest of the Boulder Skyline peaks

 Views are constant - The Continental Divide from one of the lower flanks of Bear Peak

After several runnable sections on the West Ridge trail, the ascent of Bear Peak becomes predominantly a struggle for survival good power hike.  The back side from which we would summit is all rock, so there is a lot of natural stair climbing.  Topping out at 8461', the summit of Bear provides stellar views:  Longs Peak to the northwest, the Continental Divide to the west, and Boulder and beyond to the east.  Spectacular - once you catch your breath.  At only a bit over 5 miles into our "run", we had already gained a whopping 3075' elevation - yowsa!

 Behind the tree and below the Flatirons, NCAR is perched on the open hilltop

 Longs Peak framed nicely by the trees

Time of day and rising temps caused another change of plans here.  The original route would have called for us to drop off Bear into Shadow Canyon and run it out to the bottom end of Mesa, then take Mesa back up to our trailhead.  This would have left a pretty good clip down low to run exposed to the sun.  So we were duped into followed Tim and dropped off the summit on the Fern Canyon Trail.  We have done a steep trail or two in our day.  But this thing is ridiculously steep.  We clipped off the first 1000' of descent in about three quarters of a mile - commence quad mashing session!  We followed Fern all the way down through the shaded canyon until we dumped out onto Shanahan again.  When we first came out of the trees in the last mile or so, the heat hit you in the face right now.  We were glad that the alternate route was chosen because that roll across Mesa would have been ROASTING!   The route ended up at 8 miles - a poor indicator of the work that it was!  A very scenic route nonetheless and did a nice job of prepping us for our next stop:

I was remiss in getting a group photo, so I had to dig deep in the HT photo

archives for some mug shots - a perfect collage with our favorite Boulder eatery!!!

No better way to refuel beat up legs than to head over to Beaujo's for some fine PIZZA and salad bar!  We sat around stuffing our faces and chatting up crew duties at the Leadville 100, now a quick 5 weeks away.  After his experience at Hardrock, this could be a great course for Tim to roll really well.  We're looking forward to it.  It was 91 when we left town, don't know if Boulder hit the upper 90's but it had a good start!  We had a great day and Tim delivered the goods on the trail tour as always!  Happy Trails!!

Shoes - K Columbia Ravenous

S - Montrail Masochist

T - Hoka BondiB

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Just a quick update - if you recall, Kathleen had mentioned a while back that CU Boulder grad Michaela Cui was doing a charity ride from Alaska to San Francisco to raise awareness and funds for The Graves Disease Foundation.  A local television station in California did a news segment highlighting the ride - it can be seen here.  Michaela and Chris will be finishing the ride on Wednesday and celebrating in Crissy Park after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - Congratulations after 3200 miles on the bike!!!

If you are So Inclined!

Our initial plan for the weekend was to head to the mountains.  We nixed that idea when the weather forecast for the area we had planned looked sketchy.  We'd rather save the drive time and money for a pristine weather weekend.  We were twiddling our thumbs with no definite weekend running or riding plans when we received an email from our friend Jill late last night wondering whether we would like to join them for a climb up the Incline this morning.  I responded a very enthusiastic YES (I LOVE the Incline - it is a great, quick, intense workout that is a nice change of pace.  Steve isn't as enthusiastic about the Incline as I am - he usually goes along mostly to humor me, I think.  LOL!)  One of Jill's sons, B, and a friend of Jill's, are training for a climb up Mt. Whitney later this summer.  Jill's other son, R, and another friend rounded out the Incline group today (as well as hundreds of our 'closest' friends - the place was swarming with people!).

 The Cog Railway Depot

 The object of our desire - the start looking up to the false summit

 Graph from Incline Club website

 Pre-carnage group photo

 Almost to the false summit - about 2/3 of the way up

 Obligatory Happy Trails group photo, of course - at the top

It was kind of neat hanging out on top for a bit, watching and listening to all the people cresting the last step.  There were many locals but probably lots more out-of-towners, no doubt 'duped' into climbing this critter by their dearest friends and family.  Seeing and hearing their excited expressions at completing such a challenging climb was a lot of fun for us.

Saw lots of Vibram Five Fingers going up but heard quite a few comment that there was no way they were running down Barr Trail in them.  Some ended up hiking back down the Incline (no thank you), some hiked down Barr, and we did see a few run down.  Looks too painful to me.  Steve, Jill, and I concentrated on a mid-foot strike in our nice springy shoes on the 4 mile-ish descent and think we did a pretty good job!

 Majestic Pikes Peak as seen from the connector to Barr Trail

Purple Mountain majesty

Today's route

After we all re-convened at the bottom of Barr Trail, we waded through the masses and ended up at Coquette Creperie in Manitou for some quality post run grazing.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals as all the plates were licked clean.  We ended a fun, satisfying day with friends with smiles on our faces.  Good times, indeed!

I wasn't sure what to expect up the climb today and was willing to take whatever came (ie, slow).  One of the things Graves Disease causes is muscle wasting and it has affected not only the strength of my legs and arms but also the heart and lungs.  I have been working diligently to rebuild and regain all that has been lost and today was a good indicator that things are heading in the right direction.  Steve and I crested the last step together in 34:56 - TOGETHER!

We have not been running together in months.  He mostly has been a very distant figure way out in front of me - a moving target of sorts, for me to aim toward.  It was a nice feeling to keep up with him today.   He is in really good shape and the Incline is NOT his favorite.  The fastest I have ever climbed the Incline is 32 minutes.  The fastest I did it last year was 33.  Those times seem to be within sight.  I was encouraged earlier this week when I rode 30 miles on the road bike last Monday and saw some hill climbing repeatability - about 3000 feet-ish.  Not fast, but strength seems to be lurking beneath the surface.  I felt GREAT.  Then, on my couple of before-work morning runs, I was able to notch it up a gear a few times (not much of a bigger gear but it was there and it hasn't been).  So combined with today, I am cautiously excited.  Steve says I should throw the 'caution' part out the window, celebrate, put on my dancing shoes (if I owned dancing shoes) but that's just how I roll -  a cautious realist.  It might get thrown out the window if I can get a few more consistently good weeks under the belt.  The 'magic' number I seem to be hearing from the docs and a couple of people is 6 months on the anti-thyroid med = feeling close to 'normal'.  I am at 15 weeks and keeping my fingers crossed.

Let's see what tomorrow brings!  Happy Trails All!