Nice Weather

Fri=13.3 miles
Sat=10.8 miles
Sun=10.7 miles
83.6 miles total for the log-week.

Friday, my left knee had improved.
The weather was great, but I had to work late and was in a rush. I forgot my gel and trailbar. But it didn't matter - I swallowed three bugs (taste just like chicken).

My knees each improved Sat. and Sun. in spite of the usual mileage. They seem to be virtually no-issue, but I'll make sure I do the requisite walking each day.

I had planned on running at Waterton Canyon over the weekend, but I had way too much work to do and errands to run. That happens when you have to work late every day, then rush home and run until bedtime. Stuff piles up. You need your weekend to catch up.
I made-do with Washington Park. Thursday, someone gasped at me that "running around Wash. Park so much" would be "SO BORING!" Well, I guess I'm doing okay with that. Wash. Park has tons of amazing and interesting people. There's lots of world-class (or at least Colorado-class) athletes. The average percentage-of-bodyfat must be lower than just about any place on Earth. Surely only Boulder and Venice Beach can compare. The women - hold on - this needs it's own paragraph!
The WOMEN! O-M-G! Guys from other parts of the country that visit Wash. Park think they've died and gone to heaven. If you can get cavities from eye-candy, my eyeballs are going to be rotted out of my head pretty soon. Several times each run, I see women that I have to wonder, "Is it really possible for the human body to look like that? Surely not."
Bored? I think I'll survive somehow!
Sunday was 82 degrees! Yow! I'm not used to the heat. But the women around Wash. Park were wearing bikinis in droves. So it was worth the discomfort. (I'm such a pig!) Guilty - sorrrrry.

Red Rocks (and Mud)

I missed so many photo ops!

Last night Denver Trail Runners met at Red Rocks. The 5:30 group quit early, for some reason, so I continued solo.
The sky threatened to rain, but all it did was sprinkle and blow. It never got cold.

There were quite a few water and mud puddles, and some sections of trail were running water, a small section was 3 foot deep post-holing snow, but nearly all of it was avoidable without damaging vegetation. Then I just trashed my Mizunos that I just got through washing. But I guess trail runners aren't supposed to whine about stuff like that, huh? (So forget I mentioned it.)

The lighting was often weird and amazing. Once, while it was dark and sprinkling, a hole opened in the clouds down the valley and one section of Dinosaur Ridge was lit up brilliantly.

Near the end of my run, I saw a herd of about a dozen young deer around the trail ahead. I slowed to a walk but kept coming without showing them much interest and without any sudden movements. I looked at them often, but never for more than a second. They just stood there. I walked through the herd as close as 20 feet from them and they just stared at me.

I also saw about 20 Mountain Bluebirds, which are elusive. The males are bright-blue and the females just a little blue, mostly gray.

I went for 9.4 miles, some of it on extremely rocky, muddy, watery trail. I loved dashing through the rocks at full speed. What a "high".

I've completed 49 of my required 80 miles this week.

My left knee still feels tweaked, but each day it recovers sufficiently so that it's never worse than the day before. Maybe it's even better than the day before. During my week off, it got worse, so I need to keep using it enough to get circulation. It's the lack of circulation that makes it swell and stop healing. So I need to walk and ride my bike more diligently on my off-weeks.

It seems impossible that my knee is healing so fast each day. The only thing I can think is my diet is really giving my body what it needs, and I'm getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. I stretch so often that I stop during training and even during races to stretch. I wonder if I over-stretched once to cause the tweak in my knee? I'm pretty careful not to, but knees are so finicky.

Sharing the Wealth

Here's a hero sharing the wealth...
Jane Tomlinson: Across the USA, by Martyn Hollingworth

"Risk" implies "possibility". We often speak of "risking our lives". Ultimately, there's no "risk" - we're all going to die. Many of us have one or several brushes with death. I'm not saying we should live recklessly. That would obviously hasten the end. But living without "living" is not "safe".
What we leave behind (and who we leave behind) are what we should consider when deciding how to live our lives.
Some people are informed that they're dieing. Is that a blessing or a curse? I guess that would depend. They each have their blessings. One way it's over with with minimal pain and agony for everyone. The other, well, the suddenness can be a source of agony too. At least with a warning you can say your goodbyes and maybe do one last thing.
________________

Last night I got to walk with a friend for several miles. I was lucky. Funny how such a simple thing can be the highlight of your day.

Did 15.8 miles last night @ 9:58 average pace, including the walking.
39.6 miles so far this week. I'm practically halfway to my 80-mile goal for the week.

My knees are tweaking, especially my left one. I'm concerned but not crippled.
The ankles and feet are good but not great.
Next week, no running allowed. Easy biking required Monday-Wednesday. Collegiate Peaks 50M on Saturday.

Tiny Slushballs

Today's photos were taken by Chris R at the Greenland 50K (with Brandy's camera?) Thanks, Chris!

Last night, I ran 10.6 miles in freezing, windy rain. Not a mere sprinkle, but a full-on rain. Each droplet was a tiny slushball.
Instead of wearing a rain jacket, I wore two long-sleeve tech shirts and a short-sleeve tech shirt. I had my GoreTex beaujest flap on one of my NorthFace caps, and I wore fleece gloves and fleece headband over my ears.
I wore my GoreTex Solomon shoes, and actually wimped-out by running around and gingerly through the water puddles. Let me tell ya, about half the terrain was water puddles.
Ever now-and-then, the wind would blow hard and the freezing rain would turn to tiny white snowballs. Then it was back to slushy rain droplets again.

I figure I have to train in anything. They aren't going to postpone or cancel the Leadville 100 if it rains. They may not cancel it if it snows, either. So I need to be used to it.
Part of getting used to it is learning what to wear. You go quite a few miles between aid stations, and some of the course is exposed with no trees. If you don't wear the right stuff, you could ruin your race.

When I train, and I stop for whatever reason, I never stop my watch. So my time, "average pace", and "average speed" suffer greatly. At Leadville, they aren't going to stop the clock when I stop at an aid station. If I decide to take a little nap on their cots, they aren't going to stop the clock. You get 30 hours, period.

I somehow got mixed-up about the awards. I thought everyone got medals and if you finished under 25 hours you got a belt buckle. Instead, there are no medals. If you finish under 30 hours, you get a small belt buckle that says "under 30 hours". If you finish under 25 you get a BIG buckle that says "under 25 hours".

Sometimes it seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to hold up your pants.

Meekness, Shmeekness!

Humility, calmness, quietness remove distractions. It allows connection with nature and your subconscious.
But you can take it too far. Many religions teach humility, but without properly quantifying it, or how far to take it.

If you have something to offer the world, don't hide it. It may seem humble to you, but it's actually selfish. It's like hording.
There are heroes who never tell their stories, so they fail to inspire.
There are people who've overcome disease, and they put it so thoroughly behind them that none of us benefit.
Be a star - don't be quiet. Stand up. Share the wealth.

Nelson Mandela stated it pretty good.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
(The above speech by Nelson Mandela was orignally written by Marianne Williamson who is the author of other similar material.)
_______

Last night, I met Nancy K. I haven't seen her since she broke her fibula last year. It was fantastic to see her again. It was one of those situations where you're on-the-run (for me, literally) and you start to talk for too long and you keep breaking off like you're parting, but then you start talking about another thing, and another... She's not running, and I'm not sure her new routine will include me or my other friends. It was just very nice to see her again.

Leadville Recon

I spent the day in Leadville.
First, my motel reservations are confirmed Aug. 17-20.
I also got the email address of Miles K. who will put out trail reports so we'll know how much snow is on the trail and which sections are runnable.
I had my son with me, so I didn't run it, but I checked out the route all the way to Turquoise Lake. It's runnable all the way to the lake, 5.75 miles. So that's an 11.5 mile training run, or 11.5% of the LT100. That's worth driving there for a training run whenever I can.
Also checked out the LT100 store to see what I might buy all my pacers. They had some decent shirts and jackets, but they were all either 100% cotton, or for bikers. I might have my own shirts made for my crew.

Mt. Falcon

Last night, the Denver Trail runners met at Mount Falcon. As usual, I couldn't make it in time for the early group at 5:30pm, and I didn't want to wait for the 6:15 group, so I went solo.
The trails on Mt. Falcon are pretty nice. Lots of up and down and nothing up or down for too long. It's spooky mtn lion terrain, but since it's a popular park sometimes mobbed with folks, I don't think there's any lions.
I wish I'd had my camera. The shot of Green mountain from Walker's Dream trail was the best. It was very "Green" for a change. A more accurate name for the hill would be "Really Big Hill That's Sometimes Green", but they simplified it.
It's my week off, but I felt really good and it was just 6.1 miles.

I got another massage today. I worship Luanne's magic touch. I feel GOOD!

Anita F roped me into a really crazy weekend in June. Hopefully Paul G will do it with us. We'll run the Mt. Evans Ascent on Saturday and then a marathon the next day.

Finally in One Piece

My feet feel fine, even after last weeks record mileage. In fact, everything feels better than ever. So I hope this easy week I'm into really seals the deal so that I can start upping the ante without being paranoid about injuries.
Next week: 80 miles. Followed by an easy week of biking and walking. Then the Collegiate Peaks 50 Miler.
The races I've done so far, I didn't really have any time-goals. I need to finish Collegiate in under 10 hours. I think I should be able to do it in 9h30m, give or take. So that's the year's first race goal.

Boston

Denise S. finished Boston in 3:58:10
Way to go, Denise!! Your 2nd Boston - and most of us will never qualify.

My weight shot up to 175lbs after the 50K. It had to have been from swelling. It stayed there until Monday morning. Now it's back down to 169lbs.
Wow, 6 pounds of swelling from an easy 50K. What's Leadville going to be like? And when they weigh me at Winfield, what will my weight be? Up or down?
At the half-way point at Winfield, they weigh you and compare it to your manditory pre-race weigh-in. If you weigh too much or too little, they hold you. If they have to hold you beyond the cutoff, you're DNF'd.

Greenland 50K

The Greenland 50K went okay. I arrived a bit later than I wanted. I didn't take any photos, I wasted what few extra minutes I had waiting in line to use the portapotty, and barely had time to pin my bib before the race. I didn't even have time for my grab-bag.
I met several freinds. Nearly all of them ran either the 8-mile or the 25K distances.
Anita F. and Elizabeth C. ran the 50K.
At the tail-end of a 70-mile week, I didn't have a lot of "oomph" in me. I still thought I could do it under 5 hours. Wrong - 5:21 and change. Not proud of that, but not ashamed either. From the start, I could feel the lactic acid that Wednesday's fast lactate run produced. I hadn't massaged my quads the way I had planned on Thrusday and Friday, so what could I expect? But I ran hard the last couple of miles. It was nice at the 29-mile mark to still have power in me. I new if I had to pass anyone, I could have sprinted if necessary (but it wasn't). I blew past two runners.

The race was basically 4 laps on rolling terrain. Everyone ran one lap. The 25K runners did 2 laps. The 50K did all 4.
Even though the terrain is simple and easy, bikes and horses had churned mud into a lumpy-bumpy trail which was mostly frozen. There were no rocks - none. The course thawed as time went on. There was a little ice the first lap. Everyone jammed into the right-hand trail. I passed about 10 people by running on the ice (pays to train on ice sometimes). But mostly there was mud. Lots of mud. About 1/3 of the course was difficult mud. you had to try to stay on the snow, but then that too often was slush. So you'd squash the slush, which would splatter, and your trailing foot would catch it coming forward. So we got soaked and muddy.

On my 3rd lap, at mile 20, I passed the 25K DFL (Dead F***ing Last). For a couple of minutes I felt like a stud - then the 50K leader zipped by ME! Okay, puts things back into perspective. The world is right and I suck.

Anita F. finished 11 minutes behind me and won her age-group. Me, I had probably half a dozen guys in my age-group ahead of me. Typical.
Elizabeth C., though, totally kicked BUTT!!! She's done a couple of marathons in the past, but this was her first 50K. She finished in 4:49! Considering the footing, this is astounding. And she wasn't even hobbling afterwards. She's a "studdette".

Co-race director, Derek Griffiths, gave me a certificate for some free LaSportiva shoes. This was partly because I worked so many of their races in the past 14 months. Finally - I actually ran one of their races!

Funny-bones:
I was pinning my bib on and Anita F. comes up. I had an openned safety-pin (unsafety-pin?) in my fingers and we hug and I say, "Watch it - I don't want to poke you." Which sounded like maybe I meant something different!
At about mile 27, at the aid station, I stopped long enough to ham-it-up. One aid-station guy says, "Well, you look okay." The other aid-station guy says, "I feel FINE - it hasn't affected me at all!" I said, "You look good." He quips, "I work out." I say, "I can tell."
Okay, you had to be there, but the funniest thing was the timing. None of us missed a beat - it was so fast, natural, and deadpan.

Catawampus

The weather is holding out so far! Could be decent for the 50K.

I've noticed a new problem with my right foot. I can't figure out how this could have gone so far without me noticing, but I've been stepping funny. I point my toe inward and tilt the ankle outward. This apparently is to keep from feeling the sprain.
A mystery is why I didn't do this with the left ankle, which has been sprained far worse for far longer. The right ankle twisted during the little 17.7-mile run in Salida a couple of weeks ago.
It doesn't feel like a two-week habit. It takes very conscious effort not to step wrong. Maybe this is left-over from my plantar pain which started last June or July, and probably led to the stress fracture?
However it happened, I'm now struggling to correct it. It seems that the only way to fix it is to walk with exaggerated effort. I must support all my weight on the big toe metatarsal and force the foot to point straight ahead. When I do that, the foot and ankle hurt from atrophy and sprain. I've been working on this for only a day.

The 50K Saturday will be interesting, with this problem. I should ignore competition and speed and concentrate on stepping straight with both feet. It's gonna hurt but I can't keep running/walking all catawompus.

Snow is Setting the Stage

It's snowing. The 50K might get postponed until the 28th. I hope the forecast is wrong (6-12" of snow by Friday afternoon). I'm counting on the 31-mile race to reach my 70 miles.
Currently accumulated 38.7 miles. If I run the 50K, that'll give me 69.7 miles. So I'd only have to run a mile Sunday.

Last night wasn't bad. I wasn't in pain at the start, and was warmed-up after three miles. Then I pushed at lactate speed for 3.5 miles. I finished the eight-mile run easy.
I stretched out after the lactate run and again after I got home.

I was going to take Thurs & Fri off to taper for the race. Since the race might get postponed, I'm wondering if I ought to run a few miles each day?

Lethargic

I didn't feel good yesterday, even though I got a fantastic massage from Lucy S. in the afternoon. (Lucy's hands are magic!) My legs felt like lead, my right foot hurt near or at the same spot as the fracture, and my left knee hurt.
I started running pathetically gimpy from the pain. I couldn't imagine running half a mile, so I tried not to imagine it.
I ran to the Tuesday runners' meeting place and still felt bad. I ran a lap around Wash. Park and still felt bad. No one was as slow as me. After two laps, I felt better but still not decent. After the 3rd lap, I ran back home.

10.7 miles. I felt like I was moving at 11min./mile pace, but my watch claims I was going 9:15/9:30 pace.

You'd think that maybe if I felt that bad, running would be a bad idea, but like I've said before, my body is a liar half the time.
Today I feel okay. Not great, but not bad. If yesterday's run was bad for me,
today would have me even worse. Who knows what causes those sorts of days? We all have them - sometimes for several days.

The weather forecast for Saturday's race is good weather, but anything can happen in three days. Even if the weather is great, the trail might be muddy.

20 mile again

Since my log-week begins on Monday, I started off with a long run. My goal is to break 70 miles this week.
Last night was an easy run, and I felt good. (Except that I ate something that made my intestines gurgle and I barely made it to the restrooms at mile 4!)
I got 5 hours of sleep Sunday night because I stayed up figuring out a checking account register problem. So I really needed sleep after the 20 miles. I ended up getting about 7 1/2 hours last night.
This morning, my left knee hurts and I'm sore. Hopefully that will all go away when I start running tonight. I need to have at least 30 miles, and preferably 40 miles by Wednesday. Since I have the Greenland 50K Saturday, I don't want to run Thursday or Friday.
Whatever miles are short of 70 after that, I have to slug them out Sunday. That would hurt, but I'll have the consolation that next week is an easy week.

Windy Adventure

I had an exciting Saturday. I drove up to Loveland Pass for another high-altitude day. Denver had light snow. As I drove into the foothills, rime-ice was coated on everything. As I drove further and higher, the weather actually got better, not worse.
It's always windy on Loveland Pass. Saturday was no different. I drove a couple of hitchhiking skiers to the top and then started off.

The temps were only barely below freezing. The clouds were thin and sometimes you could see blue through them. There were places where the wind couldn't reach, but the sun filtering through the clouds could, and those spots were thawed little patches. But there was more ice than I ever remember. I definitely had to wear my crampons.
There were cornices along most of the ridge. I tried to stay on the snow a couple of feet from the dirt and rocks. That kept me far from the dangerous overhangs.
After a couple of hours, I stopped and ate some and drank. The sun almost came out - I could see my shadow - but it was only a ruse.
I'm ususally ready for just about anything. "Anything" happened. The wind picked up. It was blowing about 50mph and then it started snowing. The temps dropped to about 26 degrees. That's not very cold. The wind, although blowing hard, didn't gust violently. It was pretty steady. That made it a lot easier to walk in. Then it got worse.

(The photos were obviously taken when the weather was nice.)

Visibility dropped to 20-30 feet at a bad time. There's one part of the ridge that is really broad and bumpy and it was nearly impossible to determine where the crest of the ridge was. The snow accumulated well here and the wind blew away any sign of a trail. I was using "dead reckoning". My little keychain thermometer has a tiny compass built-in. It's a piece of crap and took lots of coaxing to get it pointing north. I already knew which way was north but wanted confirmation.
It was a freakin', ragin' white-out. The storm was blowing from the west-northwest, so it was impossible to get totally turned around, but it took some figuring. I thought maybe I'd do a fail-safe thing and err on the side of west, which would keep me in the valley leading from Keystone to Loveland Pass. But then I chilled-out and thought, "Look - your 6th sense thinks it knows exactly where the trail is. Just go there. If it's not there, then err on the side of west." Well the trail was right there.
I never panicked, but I sure was concerned, and I had to do lots of really hard mental work to maximize all input and process with cold, methodical calculation.
Once I picked up the trail, all I had to do was keep going.

I needed goggles. I wear prescription glasses and my eyes are bad enough - and I have a stigmatism - that I don't wear contacts. Even with my neoprene Gatormask, the wind was blowing tiny shards of ice into some exposed skin - and sometimes my eyeballs, so I closed one eye and the other was barely open.
Several times, my eyelids partially froze shut. My tears are salty, but this was blowing snow that melted to my lashes, and then if the wind was just the right direction for several minutes, it would freeze them. So when I finally opened my eyes, it felt like tiny zippers. It was bizarre.
There was a moment when some temporary turbulence caused a short clearing on the ridge and I could see a couple hundred feet for several seconds. I shook my ice ax at the wind and screamed like the freakin' lunatic that I am, "I LOVE COLORADO! KANSAS CAN KISS MY ASS!" And when it closed up on me again and the wind gusted closer to 60mph I yelled, "Yeah! Kick my ass, motherf***er! I LOVE THIS SH!T"

In the movie, Never Cry Wolf, they're flying through high, frozen mountain passes and the engine quits. The pilot grabs a wrench and opens the door. The main character yells, "What's wrong?! What's wrong?!" The pilot shouts, "Boredom, Tyler—that's what's wrong! And how do you beat boredom, Tyler? Adventure!" So he climbs outside the plane - a plane gliding like a rock - fixes the engine, starts it and pulls out just before they would've crashed into a mountain.
That's how I felt. I kept thinking of that line and laughing out loud.

If it had been worse, I still had some Goretex over-mits in my pack, and a down vest, and the down jacket I was wearing was so hot I had to hike with it unzipped. There was a bag of beef jerky, a big trailbar, pretzels, still over a quart of EnduroxR4 and Gatorade, a few 8-hour hand warmers, 2 Accel gel-paks, and my cellphone. Also an emergency space blanket.
It was like a rollercoaster ride. A rollercoaster is dangerous, unless you follow instructions. It's fun because your senses tell you you're going to die, but all the safety precautions have been made. You're not actually in danger. The difference is that out there, I'm the design engineer, the maintenance staff, the ride marshal, and the rider. It's all up to me from start to finish.

The conditions didn't allow any speed. It wasn't much of a workout. It was "time-on-my-feet", though. And a really good time.

TGIF

I haven't done much this week. I ran lots of errands and did chores.
I hadn't had a massage since late 2005. That felt good, but I'm a very knotty man. Hey, that's "knotty", not naughty! (Well, okay, maybe a bit of both.)
Last night I ran 8.3 miles. Started very slow and ended very fast.
I need a 70+ mile week soon.
Then another massage.

It's been a very busy week at work. I haven't had to work late, though, and the stress hasn't been too great. Every emergency led to success. Can't ask for much more than that.

One week to the Greenland 50K. I sure hope I don't jack myself up in the coming week. I seem to be jinx'd when it comes to Derek & Jessica's races. Oh, and I always cause it to snow on everyone! Why do I keep doing that? They're gonna ask me to stay away if I keep doing that!

Very easy week

Really taking it easy this week. Haven't run since Sunday in Salida.
Yesterday evening I rode my bike several miles.
Today, I got a massage. I swear - no one can do it like Lucy S. She's pure magic. Actually it's Zen. She's got all sorts of certifications in Zen and spiritual healing, etc. You can tell.

62.3 Miles

Here's the way I deck-out my feet for a run. Injinji's underneath and some cheap, Target polypro sox over that. Yep, all my sox are stained with various trail colors.
I'm pretty sore all over, today. I ran over 62 miles last week. That might, maybe, be the most mileage I've ever run in a 7-day period of time in my life.
I ran over 177 miles in March.
The course of yesterday's race started out climbing up a sandy ravine. Then it crossed to the same jagged, washed-out road the Marathon had finished on. After seven miles, I finally was on new territory heading towards a feature called "The Crater".
I don't think it was an actual crater. If it was, it certainly wasn't a magma-spewing one. The crater was actually a flat spot surrounded 3/4 around by ridges. It makes me wonder if it was some sort of non-violent mud-flow cone (I majored in Geology at KansasU), but I've never heard of a mud-flow cone, so I'm grasping at straws here.
Then the race took off down a wild ravine following a wildlife trail. I loved that. We were bushwacking part of the way. I often had to run with both forarms held vertically in front of me to keep the branches out of my face.
I missed the rock arch that was along the ravine. My various injuries had my attention riveted to where each step was about to land. Maybe next year I'll see it.
I took one wrong turn that ended up not taking me off course. But I assumed that I was off course so I went up the side of a hill in pursuit of a wrong-guess as to where I ought to have been. I lost a few minutes while I figured out that I had been on-course before afterall.
It may not have been the funnest course, but it was close.
Since the last 10 miles were new trails for me, I had to run with the map in my hand. There were very few markers. It was almost an orientering adventure, since I was nearly always alone the last 10 miles.
We headed to Tom S's house for a potluck afterwards. It was a nice way to end the event, since I didn't know anyone particularly well.
____
I found out about Coconut water from Scott Dunlap's blog. If you Google "coconut water", you'll get all kinds of info. I'll have to check it out. Whole Foods should carry it.
____
For my training plans, I pretty much make it all up as I go along. Here's my latest...
Every-other-week will be a high-mileage week. Then I'll have a week of low-intensity workouts. "Intensity" refers more to pounding, jolting, and speed-strains. During these moderate weeks, I'll concentrate on biking and hiking. I'll probably still pound the sidewalks/trails, but only very low mileage (like 10 miles).
My high-mileage week totals need to climb up over 100 miles.
Even though Leadville doesn't require anything over 15:00 pace, speed and hills are still an important part of training. Even at Leadville, there will be occasional need for bursts of energy. I just needed to back off on the quantity of speed. All those marathons and 50K's last year had me into a speed-demon mentality that led to injuries.
I hope this varied-intensity plan allows rapid increases without disintegrating.

Salida Run

I almost didn't run Sunday's invitation-only race in Salida. We just got several inches of snow, and my ankle can't take running on crazy trails, especially in snow where I can't see what I'm stepping on.
I went to look at some webcams, but they all had snow except for the one right by the start of the race, which was clear.
So I loaded my optimism into the CR-V and headed for Salida.
There was lots of snow on the drive up.
I stopped at Kenosha Pass for a couple of high-altitude miles in the snow. I found two guys stuck in the snow. They sure were surprised to see a guy in running shorts! They had no winch, they had no come-along, they had no shovel. What they had was a Bronco and a Pathfinder that were both stuck in snow and ice. Hell, my CR-V could drive up that stuff!
They were spinning their tires, which defeats traction and just glazes the snow into more ice. I helped push them out and then ran back to my car and hit the road. Check out all the snow...
I drove across the front of a storm all the way through South Park. It seems that there's always a storm every time I drive through South Park. It's the most hellacious place on Earth to live, I swear!
Then I drove to a remote spot off the highway between Salida and Buena Vista to sleep the night. Check out my CR-V motel...
Sunday morning, the weather was awesome! There was no snow in Salida, and only occasional traces in the hills around. It was a fantastic race.
Tom S. put it on. He did a great job of making a map with typed directions on the back. I still managed to get off-course shortly and lost maybe 3-5 minutes. It made no difference. So many people got temporarily lost, or stopped for photos, or just plain got lazy and started hiking. It was basically a fun run. It totally was lots of fun.