JourneyQuest 5K and a muddy trail run

Ean, Maddie and I ran the JourneyQuest 5K this morning at the Fort Collins Club/Edora Park. We all ran our fastest Colorado 5K times. I ran steady but controlled and finished in 20:10. It was a bright sunny spring morning and a gently rolling course on the bike path and through the neighborhood around the park. I finished 4th in my age group, but 12th overall. My daughter Maddie ran her fastest 5K ever (30:45) and won her age group. She was very pleased.
After lunch, I ran an easy 10 miles from the house. Pineridge is still closed due to mud, but Maxwell was open and very muddy. I ran up to the resevoir overlook and back home through the park. It was our warmest day so far this year and the weather for the week looks good--highs in the 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday! I'm so glad it is spring. Happy running.

1st Day of Spring Long Run

I had a great run today with Pete, Nick and Mike. We ran The Horsetooth Half Marathon Course along the resevoir and over Bingham Hill to the Poudre Trail and then all the way out to the Spring Creek Trail and back to Pete's for an even 27 miles. It was cold ~10 degrees when we started, but the sun came up and the day was perfect. We kept up a pretty steady pace of 7:30-9:00 min per mile and I felt a lot better than I expected too for the distance.

I sent off my entry for the Big Horn 50 mile race on June 19 - my birthday - and I'm thinking about an end of summer or early fall 100 and maybe an attemt on the whole Colorado Trail this summer. Spring is here and the running is good.

Pineridge is open

The natural area down the street from my house where I do most of my regular runs reopened today after more than a week of being gated and fenced off due to muddy trail conditions. I convinced my wife to take a detour on our bike ride home from work so I could check to see if the fences were down and was thrilled to see that they were. I quickly got home, changed and took Shadow to go for a quick run at the ridge. I started out thinking we'd just go out to the end of the first hogback and then come back for an easy 3 miles, but the trails were so great, that we continued around the resevoir for a nice 5+ miles. Only three more days until daylight savings and the promise of warm weather ahead. It looks like our long cold, snowy winter might finally be waning.