Colorado Trail 26.4M

Saturday, I ran errands all day. I thought I'd get in a nice 8 miles at Wash Park, but it never happened.
Instead, I went to a party at an art gallery with free munchies, wine, and beer. So I had several glasses of wine. I left feeling quite steady and not at all inebriated, but wow that was a lot of wine (no I didn't drive).
There were no tables, so it was a four-handed job to hold a cup, a plate, while eating, and shaking hands constantly. Hate to go Howard-Hughes on you, but I'll probably get sick now because with two hands, I had to balance my plate on my cup while shaking and eating - and it's flu season.
About 5 the next morning, I had to wake up and get a drink of water. Oh, the hang-over.
Then I finally got out of bed for good at - holy shit! - 9:20! That was a nice 10-11 hours of slumber! I need to drink wine more often!
The hang-over was diminishing, but I had no milk, so I started my morning driving to the grocery store.

By the time I got to Waterton Canyon, I left my car at 11:55am. That's the way I tend to do things. No early rise training runs for me! Screw that. I need to unwind and rest on my weekends.


About three miles into my run, a herd of rams in the road had attracted several people. I'm sure they were hoping for hand-outs (the rams - not the people), but I just ran through.



Colorado Trail doesn't have any winter treachery on it yet. The most hazardous things are the hunters and poachers. A couple of weeks ago, a friend was running in the area and came to a 3-way intersection. A hunter came from the way he had planned to go, but the hunter told my friend that he met a couple of creepy hunters. The usual banter elicited evasive answers and the hunter became kind of spooked. So the hunter advised my friend to take the other trail, which he did. Poachers are not rare in Colorado.


I was wearing my new blaze-orange cap and had my bear bell in my hand. The bell was not just for bears or lions, but for bikers and hunters.


One of the things I bought during my errands Saturday was a pile of DryMax socks. I've kept my eyes peeled for these socks all year and only now found them at Runners Roost.
Initially, they were no more comfortable than my Balugas. Just how comfy can socks get? They're just socks, right? But testing them dry is no test at all.
I didn't plan to get them wet. If I got them wet, it would mean I got my nice, burnt-orange Salomon XT Wings wet. I can't do THAT! They're too purty to get wet! But they did. I was too distracted by scenery and didn't notice until too late at a stream crossing. I tried to walk on water, but I must've sinned this week because I didn't stay on top (like I usually do - wink-wink). The weird thing was I could feel the water seep in on top, but as soon as the water ran down to the bottom layer, the water felt like it vanished. The bottoms of my feet couldn't tell there was any water in my shoe.
Nice test, but the ultimate test is hot, sweaty feet. That's not something I'll have until July 2009.

I ran outbound for 13.2 miles. 27.4 total for the entire day, with some side-trips.
There was a great overlook for the Buffalo Creek burn area. That fire had scalded everything! It practically sterilized the soil, it was so hot. So the area isn't "bouncing back", but it is coming back slowly-but-surely.


The weather forcast was fairly okay, but it wasn't quite right. The weather ended up being very nice, especially for mid-November. So I'm still pummeling my body, my feet hurt all the time, and my body is begging for a break.