A good day in South Dakota

Finished Lean Horse 100 in 23:16:19 and placed 23rd overall. Lots of great running, a few rough spots including passing out at the aid station at mile 76, and a great finish.

Back to School

School started this week and is off to a good start. I'm teaching 7th grade this year which means I have many of the same students that I had last year which is nice since it means I don't have to start from zero in building relationships and teaching expectations and classroom procedures. Kids seem glad to be back at school and although I had a great summer of adventures, it is nice to get back to a routine.

I have not been running any significant miles for the last several weeks since I was tapering and recovering from Grand Mesa and then tapering again for Lean Horse. I ran the Eldora 11K trail race a week and a half ago and although I wasn't incredibly fast, I felt good and had funon the trails. I had a dissapointing run at the Mountain Ave. mile last Thursday with a very painful 5:40. It wasn't that long ago that I ran mile repeats faster than that, but I really have been doing no speed training for the last couple years so I shouldn't be too surprised. I had a couple of good runs this past weekend. Ean and I ran the Indian Summer loop on the Blue Sky trail on Saturday and I went out and ran a semi tepo run on the Bacon Strip 10 mile loop (1:16:54) on Sunday.

My plan is to just keep running easy for the next week and a half and hope that getting to the starting line at Lean Horse pays off. Last year I ran Pike Peak the weekend before Lean Horse and was part of a 6 x 6 ultra team at the Wild West relay the weekend before that. I think all the downhill running in those two events took a lot out of my legs and I paid for it in the last 17 miles of the 100.

My mom is coming out to be a part of my Lean Horse crew again and Ean is in great shape to pace me through the final miles. I'm looking forward to the trip to South Dakota with the family and the run through the Black Hills.

Maddie ran the Mini Muddy Buddy in Boulder on Saturday (that's her on the left flying over the wall in the front of the 9 year old wave in the picture above) and we all had a good time cheering her on. There was talk of all of us running the Muddy Buddy next year with me and Micah as one team and Ean and Maddie as another.

Cross Country starts next week and I'm excited to coach the Blevins team for the 3rd year. Fall is a wonderful time in Northern Colorado and I love the afternoon runs with the team.

DNF at Grand Mesa and another go at Lean Horse

After successfully completing over 200 running races including 20+ marathons and ultras, I dropped out after 17 hours at mile 60 in the Grand Mesa 100.

The day started well with a beautiful 12 mile loop on the Craggy Crest Trail above the Mesa even though I got off course for a quarter mile with a few other racers. As the day went on, it was clear that course finding was going to be a challenge and by the time I hit mile 26 with a couple of runners in the 50 mile race and Garry who was also in the 100 I knew I was terribly off course.

We struggled through following course markers for a part of the course that we shouldn't have been running until much later until we got to an aid station where volunteers contacted the race director who said Garry and I could complete the section we were on and continue the course and then run the same section later. I spent a of energy being worried and frustrated about being off course, but I tried to get over it and keep going. Losing the course meant missing an aid station at mile 37 where I was to meet Ean and eat and resupply, but I was able to send her a message with one of the 50 mile racers (thanks Jasmine) and I now wouldn't see her until the top of the big climb at mile 56.

The section leading to the 4000 foot drop was through rough cow pastures that weren't always marked and the descent was hot and painful on rough over grown trails. I reached the bottom of the descent (mile 50) at 6:00 pm feeling dehydrated and low on energy. I spent several minutes eating, drinking and refiling my hydration pack before heading up to the 5.5 mile, 4000 foot climb, determined to make the top before dark since my headlamp was with Ean and the next aid station.

I did make it, but the climb was brutal with the last 3 miles climbing more than 900 feet per mile. I had a lot of thoughts about dropping, but I tried to wait until I completed the climb before making any decisions. I got to the top at 9:00 pm and was very glad to see Ean who was waiting with food, a chair and warm clothes. It felt good to eat and rest, but I was feeling more and more like my race was done. After sitting and debating with myself for 30 minutes, I decided to run down the road to the Lands End aid station 3.5 miles away and make my decision there. I felt a little better once I got going, but I couldn't imagine trying to continue to route find the difficult trail in the dark. I also saw Paul Grimm who told us that Karla and Felix had dropped out at the bottom of the climb due to health concerns and course challenges.

I got to the Lands End aid station (mile 60) at 10:30 pm and told them I was done. It felt great to get off the trail and know that I could spend the night in a warm sleeping bag, but it was very hard to give up when I knew I probably could have gutted it out and finished. It is a choice I will have to live with.

After a few days at home, I decided I still want to finish a 100 mile race this year and so today, I registered to run the Lean Horse Hundred in South Dakota on August 28-29. I did a couple of night runs this week to work on getting over my struggles with continuing to run when the darkness tells me I should be in bed and I ran my fastest Colorado 5K (19:59) this morning at the Human Race in Old Town Fort Collins. I am feeling that a sub 24 hour race is well within my reach on Mikelson Trail in 4 weeks.

Colorado Trail Trip Report

I had a great trip on the Colorado Trail. I completed 11 sections of the trail for about 197 miles of backpacking, hiking and running. Here are a few pictures and I'll post a full report of my adventures in the next couple days.

Heading out on the Colorado Trail

Well, it looks like it is really going to happen and I am as nervous as I am excited. On Friday morning, Ean will drop me off in Waterton Canyon in Denver at the Northern end of the 470+ mile Colorado Trail that winds its way through some beautiful mountains all the way to Durango. My plan is to spend eight days on the trail to end up near Buena Vista on Friday the 9th.

I will hike/run/fast pack the first three days covering about 84 miles carrying my sleeping bag, tent, food, etc. On Sunday evening, I will meet up with Dan, a runner friend from Fort Collins, at Georgia Pass. On Monday, Dan and I will continue on the trail carrying only food and water for the day, while Dan's wife Carol will drive to meet us at the next stop with our gear.

Here is my daily plan:

July 2 segments 1, 2 Waterton Canyon to FS-550 28 miles

July 3 segments 3, 4 FS-550 to Long Gulch 29 miles

July 4 segments 5, 6 Long Gulch to Georgia Pass 27 miles

July 5 segment 6 cont. Georgia Pass to Goldhill 21 miles

July 6 segments 7, 8 Goldhill to Tennessee Pass 38 miles

July 7 segments 9, 10 Tennessee Pass to Halfmoon Creek 27 miles

July 8 sements 11, 12 Halfmoon Creek to N. Cottonwood Creek 40 miles

July 9 segment 13 N. Cottonwood Creek to Chalk Creek 23 miles

Total 234 miles

A week of recovery

A week after Big Horn, I am feeling fresh and strong. I took it real easy this week, running only 43 miles and doing some cycling. It was bike week in Fort Collins and on our drive home from Wyoming last Sunday, we decided as a family to leave the car in the driveway all week.

We stayed on track Mon-Friday which meant riding with Maddie the 5 miles each way to track practice, Ean and I rode to the Tuesday night run, then to the Trailhead Tavern and then home in the dark. We rode witht the trailer to do our shopping at Sam's Club and we rode to the Gadrens at Spring Creek for the Bike and Jazz Concert on Friday evening. Wednesday was Bike to Work Day and there were an amazing 57 breakfast stations set up throughout the city where cyclists could stop in between 6:30 and 9:30 for a free breakfast. Since Micah and I had no work to ride to on Wednesday morning, we decided to ride around and eat all the free breakfasts that we could. Micah drew out a plan that included 32 breakfasts, but a little math showed that we would have to ride and eat very fast to complete that route. We left the house at 6:15 to make the first spot by opening and continued through town eating pancakes, bagels, breakfast burritos, muffins, cinamon rolls, fruit and coffee (at one spot, I topped off my coffee with raw milk from a cow that stood a few feet away) for three hours. We ate 16 breakfasts (we took some to go) and had a great time. The paper reported record participation in the event this year with over 6000 people out riding to where they needed to go. I love Fort Collins.
More later.

Big Horn 50

I celebrated my 36th birthday yesterday by running the Big Horn 50 mile trail race. It was a tough run and a long day. I had hoped to cut half an hour off last year's time to finish in 11 hours, but I was not quite in the shape that I needed to be and I finished in 11:31:45. All in all it was a good day and I toughed out a few rough patches. The weather was nice and the course was beautiful even though the trail was a bit muddy.

The day began with a 3:15 am bus ride from Sheridan to the finish in Dayton and then up to the start at the Porcupine ranger station. I woke up feeling pretty good. Maddie sang me happy birthday, Micah wished me a good run and Ean drove to the bus. I got a little sleep on the way up to Porcupine and we got there with enough time for me to wait in the porta potty line right up until the 6:00 am start.

I ran with fellow Fort Collins trail runners, Terry, Tim and Adam for a while. This was Adam and Tim's first 50 and Terry a veteran of many ultras including Hard Rock was along to encourage Tim through. The first 5 miles were very marshy and muddy, but not nearly as snowy as I expected. We all laughed and had a good time mucking through the marshy parts of the course and enjoyed the beauty of the early morning sun.

I felt good through the early miles and kept right on my goal pace. I arrived at the Foot Bridge Aid Station at mile 18, the first drop bag location, in under 3 and half hours. It felt great to rinse off my feet and put on dry socks and shoes. I filled my water, ate a PB&J and headed across the bridge and up the first and biggest climb of the course fondly referred to as "the wall". I caught up with Adam after a few minutes and we walked and talked our way up the climb, admiring the fields of wild flowers. I pushed on ahead and made it to the top in just over an hour, but I was feeling pretty spent. From the top of the wall, the trail rolls along for a while though a wooded area and I took this whole section pretty slow.

I went through the next couple of aid stations pretty quickly and started feeling a bit better. I passed Marie who was running the 100 and her pacer Paul just before Kerns Cow Camp at mile 28. Marie seemed to be doing well and I had a chance to talk to Paul about his summer racing schedule which includes the Western States 100 next weekend, the Badwater 135 two weeks after that and the Furnace Creek 508 bike race in the beginning of October.

I had a short stop at Cow Camp and continued on to the second drop bag location at Dry Fork (mile 34.5) You can see the aid station from over 2 miles away across the valley and it is a long slow gradual climb to get there. I passed Kiwi Rob running the 100 with his wife Cecili pacing. He said he was having some ankle trouble and just hoping to make the cut offs. He still seemed in good spirits and encouraged me to "keep going mate". I found out later that he had made it to the turnaround in 12 hours and in 20th place then twisted his ankle in the mud just after 50 miles. Rather than drop, he walked all the way to the finish and made it just under the cut off in 33:36- very impressive.

I kept up my steady pace and walked the final hill into the aid station in just under 8 hours. The aid station volunteers were very helpful with getting my drop bag, filling my water and offering me a chair. It felt good to sit down and I checked my blood sugar with a test kit I had in my drop bag. It was a perfect 111 and I was feeling good. I stuffed my hydration pack into my drop bag, decided not to change socks and shoes, walked into the food tent for some pretzels and a tortilla roll up with turkey and avocado- it was great- and walked out on to the road glad to have less than 18 miles to go.

I continued on to Upper Sheep Creek feeling tired but still able to maintain a reasonable mix of walking and slow running. After the Upper Sheep aid station at mile 39, there is the last real climb of the day which is very steep but not nearly as long as the wall. I walked the whole climb and was very glad to get to the top of the ridge knowing that there was only about 11 miles to go and it was all down hill.

This is the part of the course that I felt great on last year and made really good time. The course travels down a green hillside and along a stretch that looks down the valley all the way back in to Dayton. I didn't have the legs left to run as hard as I would have liked here, but I kept on going glad to be getting closer to the finish.

Terry flew past me just before the Lower Sheep Creek aid station with about 8 miles to go. The trail smooths out here a bit and I hoped to stay with him, but my legs didn't quite have it. The lst section of trail runs along the Tongue River and is really nice and runnable. I enjoyed this section and smiled and waved and a kilted man playing bagpipes on the side of the trail. Before I knew it, I was at the cheery Tongue River Road aid station. I filled my bottle ate a little and checked the sign on the way out that said there was only 5 miles to the finish.

The last 5 miles run along a dirt camp ground access road that rolls through some farms and horse properties in to the small town (population 658) of Dayton, WY. I went through the first mile on the road in about 9 minutes, but couldn't keep up the pace all the way in.

I was glad again to see the home stretch aid station where a volunteer met me in the road with a grape otter pop and the news that it was only 1.7 miles to the finish. I walked just long enough to eat my otter pop which tasted really good and then ran the rest of the the road in to Dayton, crossed the bridge over the Tongue river and crossed the road in to Scott Park. I saw Ean and Maddie as I rounded the corner and Maddie ran out to meet me. Micah jumped out of the car and the three of us ran the last 100 yards in to the park while Ean snapped some pictures.

It felt good to finish and it was very nice to have my family there to greet me. I took off my shoes and stood in the river to wash off 52 miles and 11 and a half hours of mud from my legs. The cold water felt great and Shadow came in to join me.
We stayed at the park for a while and enjoyed the picnic and watched our friends finish their 50 and 100 mile adventures. It was a great day, I enjoyed the run and a the trail and the whole experience. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday.