Steamboat 100

Last night Rachel and I made an executive decision to change our plans a bit for the latter half of the year.  This means a warm weather vacation and just a few extra miles in September...

Language is a bit salty, but this was in my head when I submitted my change from 50 to 100:

Greenland Weekend

I went into Greenland knowing that I wasn't going to set any records, but had thought that there was a chance to set a PR if I could just hold my training pace together given the flat nature of this course.  The Roost had set me up with a comp entry so I thought it was a good way to get another long run in at a place I typically wouldn't run.  My buddy Keith showed up to hang around the start and we caught up with Shad, Lucho, and Rob before the start.

First Turnaround (Photo: Rob Timko)

 Once we got going, I knew that I was going to be solid all day, but I haven't been doing ANY speedwork so my diesel engine just took its time to fire up and settle in.  I was a bit confused with the course as I hadn't really paid attention prior to the start, but the first and last laps are actually a good bit longer than the middle two laps.  I essentially just zoned out and ran for the next few hours with the occasional break to say hi to friends on the course.

Starting the 4th lap (Photo: Rob Timko)

 The only mistake I made was forgetting to grab gels at the start of the 4th lap.  I had eaten all mine and about 100 yards out of the aid I realized I really needed some calories.  That dragged my pace a bit until the last aid station and cost me a few minutes but nothing much to speak of.  I grabbed and downed 2 gels at the last aid station and went to work on the last rolling climbs back to the finish.

The view towards the first aid and Pikes (Photo: Rob Timko)

Backside of the loop (Photo: Ben Reeves)

I caught and passed 3 guys over the final 3-4 miles or so and held a fairly steady if unimpressive pace back to the finish.  I crossed in 4:10:45 (Full results) and went to go find my beer.  At the finish, I caught up with Matt, Scott, and Bryan for a while before collecting a tile I got for 2nd 20-29 and heading down to meet up with Keith.

Finishing (Photo: Rob Timko)

That afternoon I spent down at Fort Carson at the Spartan Race where my buddy Keith placed 3rd in the open out of over 2,500 people.  All that time in the Marines paid for itself there, eh?  Then we circled the wagons and loaded up the back of his '91 Tacoma and headed up to the Missouri Gulch Trailhead.  I overlooked that it is off the same road that goes to Winfield, so some nostalgia hit as we pulled in.  A quick dinner of gnocci and pesto followed by some apple crisp and we were off to bed.

The NW view from Belford

We slept in before grabbing some breakfast and headed up the gulch towards the summit.  Quickly we passed a few girls hiking in their snowboard boots with boards strapped on.  I admire the motivation, but their work was in vain unless they had plans to ride packed ice for a few hundred feet at a time or scree fields.  The route to Belford is actually pretty steep, gaining over 4500' in a touch over 3 miles.  Near 13,700' we crested the ridge and were hit with a strong freezing wind and began to move more quickly in our running shorts to gain the summit.

Keith, freezing on the summit

After warming up out of the wind, we began to run down the saddle.  However, as we approached the turn to begin the real work towards Oxford, a big group of nasty looking clouds began to form just off the peak and we decided to play it safe and bail as we were not prepared to deal with any moisture and we were already freezing.  I quickly stopped to slam a PBR on Belford for the 100 beers challenge (which I am way behind on) and then we headed back down to the truck.  After snacks, lunch, naps, and coffee we headed back to Colorado Springs.  That night I decided to bail on Pikes with more weather moving in, and instead head back home and bag some Boulder peaks.  

Monday morning I woke up late and gathered my things before heading up and began my run in the wet snow.  My route was Green via Gregory/Ranger/West Ridge, then on the saddle to Bear, SoBo, Bear, tagged Green again, down Bear Canyon, and Mesa back to the car.  Initially I had just planned on hiking the whole thing as my legs were barking from the vert the day before, but I felt better as I went and ended up running most of everything after Green the first time.  With all respect to Green, Bear and South Boulder are much more fun summits, Bear in particular.  So I'll vote Bear as best Boulder Peak, and Bear Canyon as the best trail in the Boulder Open Space.  There was a good amount of wet snow and I was in the thick of the clouds during the whole run which was awesome.  Gotta love the Spring storms in CO.  

Fruita DNF

Not a whole lot to go on here, but heading down the final hill towards the end of the first loop I tweaked something in my groin.  With Greenland next weekend and Bighorn looming I shut it down and decided to call it a day.  Thanks to Runner's Roost mate Ryan for lugging me to the start and the post DNF beer and fellow mate Bryan for a 3rd place finish..  Rachel had a great run in the half marathon the next day, going a full 15 minutes under her goal time.  Pretty funny though, she called the climbs (same as the opener for the 25/50) weak shit.  Fair enough, bigger and better next time.  Overall, a great weekend though.  Oliver's first camping experience was a success despite the heat and lack of shade.  I think the fact that he camps well should open up some more family run outings in the future.  In any case, it's almost nice to have the DNF out of the way, and now I need to just focus on Bighorn and make sure I get there alive and in one piece.  More pictures coming, lots of bighorn sheep on the rock cliffs of the monument.

Balanced Rock - Colorado National Monument

Photos: Northside 50K+ and Olli

This list of the "12 hardest races in the world" is circulating.  Not sure who makes this crap up, but there is no way this list is close to accurate.  Leadville and HURT are on the list as running events, but no Hardrock.  That's just dumb.

Madness

Sports Illustrated is awesome. Online/Radio coverage is as seen below:



In the top right corner there is a "boss button". Hit the button and the audio cuts off and the screen becomes this:



While I don't have to hide this in my office, I think it's great. Would have been nice for those years I was stuck at my cube at OppenheimerFunds.

Salida

Two real things about Salida. First, the weather, scene, and camaraderie were top notch. Second, I ran a crappy race. That's pretty much all you need to know about it! With the first real warm weekend on the books for spring, it seemed that everyone and their mother came out to Salida for the marathon.

I brought the whole gang and we plopped down at the Thomas House. While pricey, it was close to the start/finish, and gave us plenty of room to spread out. We grabbed a quick dinner at Fritz, caught up with Nick and his fam before catching some sleep.

As for the race, well it just was not a good one for me. Probably a combination of things, but I definitely hit the mark with my slow start to the year as last year I felt I tried to race too hard for too long. So, under trained and perhaps a bit unprepared, I found myself working too hard for what was really a pedestrian pace. See below...



Once we hit the dirt road and the second aid station, I essentially knew my day was over, and did my best to just grind it out. I'm not in shape to run climbs hard right now, and I was dropped repeatedly by my encouraging friends :) When I hit the turn around, the leaders were long gone, not having seen any of them on the way out.

The middle part of this course is truly spectacular, heading back at the divide with massive views and some rolling jeep track. While a bit muddy and snowy, there was no ice or other crap to deal with so it wasn't really bad. I had a nice little stretch here on the downhills catching a few runners and finally meeting up with Todd. We ran a few miles together commenting on how Leila was murdering the entire women's field (along with most of the men). At the penultimate aid station Todd gapped me when I stopped for water and then just buried me on the final climb. In no man's land with nobody in sight I cruised around some delicious single track and plopped my way down into Salida in 3:52 (Results).

We hung around the finish for a short time, but some fussy children made a long morning for Rachel so we decided to grab some quick grub at Moonlight Pizza before heading home. Never fear though, I managed to stick around to watch JT finish and lose his bet. Leaving Salida was tough though, as returning to the city always leaves me a bit deflated. I think it's time to start enjoying the fresh air of the deeper mountains even if it means crusty post-holing and some ice capades...

So, lots of work to be done. The next 11 weeks are critical for me, and I hope to make a decent run of it out in Fruita and then at Greenland before heading up to Bighorn.