Race Report: 24 Hours Of Palmer Lake Fun Run (Death Race)

This past Saturday the time had finally come: 24 Hours Of Palmer Lake Fun Run. The recent emails and Facebook posts from the race director had used the term "Death Race" instead of "Fun Run." I was understandably concerned that the tone of this event may have taken a not-so-subtle turn towards the sadistic! As it turned out, both phrases would be pretty accurate definitions of portions of my race.

But first off, my training. I had really begun training for this event back in the fall by trying to get out every day if possible for at least two or three miles. I have never been an every day runner but I felt this was a big step if I really decided to do this race. I had a couple of pretty decent streaks over the fall and winter, one just over 40 days in a row around October and November and one well over 60 closer to the race date. In my typical fashion, I didn't have a real detailed training plan. With about two months out I set weekly mileage goals and that was about it. I also tried to mimic the race by running mostly flat-ish. Some trails in the foothills with minimal elevation gains and a LOT of miles on the grass and dirt trails alongside the Ralston Creek bike trail. Let me tell ya, I got pretty damned sick of that trail by the time race day rolled around.

I had a couple rough weeks in there where I was supposed to be running 55-60 miles and only got in around 40-45 but all in all it went well. Got a couple good training runs of about 20 miles and some nice weekends with 30 miles or more. The last two weeks went particularly well so I had some good confidence going into the "Death Race" that I could pull off my goal of 50 miles in less than 12 hours. As an added bonus, my wife Gina had decided to not only crew me but to enter and run a half marathon distance since she had planned on doing three of those this year anyway. So I would have some company for at least a little while.

A generous 8 o'clock start time meant we had plenty of time to get up and make the hour drive to Palmer Lake without having to stay overnight anywhere. We pulled in around around seven and got set up. Tents were going up all over the place by people planning on running/crewing/hanging out for the whole 24. I expected a cool, laid back vibe and that's exactly what we got. Most of the runners milled around casually, setting up their areas and exuding confidence.

Gina and I got our little spot right by the trail set up and at we were soon off and running. My general plan was to try to cover at least 20 laps of the .82 mile trail every four hours since I would need 61 laps to top the 50 mile mark. Gina was already altering her plan after I informed her that anything over 26.2 would make her an official ultra runner. She was planning on taking the occasional lap off wile I was planning on doing some walking every once in a while to try to save and much energy as possible. And boy, would I do some walking brothers and sisters.

The first sign of trouble was about four miles in when I could feel my quads were already a little sore. This made absolutely zero freaking sense since the loop is about and flat as it could be and I had no problems with my quads during training. I checked with Gina a few times to make sure we weren't going a lot faster than I thought (since I dislike the GPS she was wearing it). Nope, just a shade under 12 minute per mile pace, perfect. Logically there was no reason for the steadily worsening ache in the front of my thighs. But there it was.

By around mile twelve or fifteen (hard to remember when one is trotting around in circles) I was inexplicably in as much pain as I have ever been in while running. I had an especially worrisome pain running from my left hip all the way down to the inside of my knee.  I was soon reduced to an ugly shuffle/walk, and even that was difficult. It got bad enough at one point I was sitting in the dirt on the side of the trail trying in vain to stretch out. I could not understand what was happening. This was looking to be an embarrassingly short ass day! I was very close to what would amount in my mind as a DNF. A total flame-out. A ridiculous friggin' farce!

I will easily admit I was in a bit of a panic and the "Pauley" in me was starting to come out, which is a cute was of saying I was getting super pissed. I may not like following real detailed training plans and I imagine I do a pretty good job of making it appear like I have this totally laid back approach to my running, but make no mistake: I do not like to fail and I hate to lose. However, I was losing a mental battle with myself, already envisioning wasting months of training by slinking home humiliated from a 24 hour race with a measly twenty sad, pitiful miles or so.  The prospect of that looking more and more to be the likely result literally brought tears to my eyes.

Gina to the rescue! Even though she was surely tired of listening to me slowly work myself up into a tantrum of defeat she kept making suggestions until my negative, idiot mind could fend them off no longer. She also left me alone for a couple laps, which helped in two ways. For one, it forced me to quit audibly bitching to her and try to focus and relax. And secondly, I fell into conversation with an experienced ultra runner named Jamie that listened to the short version of my tale of woe and shrugged it off with a "shit happens during ultras!" type thing and gave me some kind words of encouragement. Soon after I just sat down for a good while, put some Hot Pepper Sha-Bang muscle rub on my traitorous quads and chilled out.

Somehow through this all I had found myself with about 24 laps (just short of 20 miles) in at the four hour mark, when we had to reverse our direction to clockwise. This was four laps more than the bare minimum I had planned on completing during that time. It was a nice buffer to have since I was now doing very little in the way of actual running, but I WAS feeling a bit better. Gina was in pursuit of her first ultra distance which she would need 34 laps to complete. She reached that mark right at the time I finished my 40th lap, about 2/3 of the way to my goal. I was so incredibly proud of her. Not only had she covered an ultra distance with not even close to proper training (one tough cookie!) but she had helped me salvage my wreckage of a race at the same time. She truly is the best!

Now I was on my own. I can't recall where I was time-wise at this point but I had lost my buffer and then some. I still had hope to cover 50 miles but it was not looking that good to be honest. I would be there until midnight walking the rest of this at 3 1/2 mph! I was not going to make Gina sit shivering in a lawn chair until then, waiting for my hobbling ass to stroll my way to my goal. But hey, as I stated in my last blog post, what would Gary Robbins do? So I got to business and started running. And holy Hell, wouldn't you know it? I actually felt pretty good! I could achieve a fairly comfortable shuffle.

I chatted with a few great people the rest of the way, sympathized internally when I saw others that were struggling like I had earlier, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I probably ran about 60% of the distance the rest of the way. Things got pretty rough with a few laps to go, I was getting a bit loopy and, excruciatingly, kept thinking I had fewer left than I had. Weirdly, I often thought I could hear somebody running up behind me when there was nobody there. I don't know if this was a crazy echo effect or an auditory hallucination and I never had the guts to ask any other runners if they were experiencing the same thing! I also saw the most beautiful star filled sky since I lived in the Midwest!. But I made it, sucking it up and running most of that final lap. I finished my 50 miles in about 13 hours and 15 minutes or so I guess, at that point I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the time at that point. I was just happy and sore and glad to be done.

Because it was run around one short loop and everybody's camp was right by the trail, this race was a great opportunity to observe and learn from other runner since you saw everybody over and over and over. I was surprised how often the top runners, those clearly gunning for 100 miles, took breaks. I assumed they would just make super quick pit stops and keep moving. But most seemed to be smartly pacing themselves, taking time to sit down (except Jaime, who incredibly had not yet sat down when I left!), cook something, change shoes, etc. Some also did a fair amount of walking as a way to try to recover a bit while on the move.

I do believe this is the most impressive bunch of athletes I've ever been around. Persistence and perseverance personified! Eleven of them completed 100 miles. Eleven! I did 50 miles, to some a unfathomable number to run in a day, but 48 people did more, including an 11-year-old girl that did 50.8 miles! Two siblings, one eleven and the other ten, completed 42.2 and 29.5 miles respectively. Two runners over sixty ran their age or over and a 71-year-old woman covered 53.3. It's absolutely incredible and inspiring what those people did that day and night. Gina and I are already penciling ourselves in next year if Claire's track schedule doesn't conflict with it.

Until next time...

More trail Magic at the Barkley Marathons

Those that know me know of my deep respect for and fascination with Gary Cantrell's trail racing masterpiece, The Barkley Marathons, This years version did nothing but enhance my love affair with this race. The leaders pretty much from the get-go were local guy John Kelly and Canadian  ultra-runner Gary Robbins. Both men had made it into the fifth loop in 2016 (along with eventual finisher Jared Campbell) but could not complete the race. Kelly memorably took a nap (passing out basically) on the ground just up the trail after starting the final loop before continuing on but eventually being defeated by The Barkley. Robbins ended up hitching a ride back to camp to face the bugler.

Both were favorites, if there is such a thing in a race that has known only fourteen finishers, to defeat the trail in the 2017 version this past weekend. They stuck together for the most part through the first four loops until race rules forced them to go in opposite directions for the fifth and final loop, a good amount of which was going to be run in the dark and in rainy, foggy conditions. It was going to take a hell of an effort for either or both to finish.

Kelly did prevail with about 30 minutes to spare under the 60 hour cutoff, conquering the Barkley beast on his third attempt. The dude who used to hike with his family as a kid on the trails of Frozen Head had become just the fifteenth finisher of the famed Barkley marathons. An even better story was the non-finish of Robbins, however. The bearded Canadian's race ended in heartbreaking fashion when he touched the yellow gate six seconds too late and from the wrong direction. He had gotten his pages from all the books on the loop but then lost his bearings and took the wrong route back to the finish, disqualifying him even if he had made it back under 60 hours.

Watching the video of Robbins' finish and the immediate aftermath is something so simultaneously gut-wrenching and wonderful, it's difficult to process. Robbins is so clearly, utterly physically and emotionally wrecked you just want to reach into the computer somehow and hug the guy. Also, despite outwardly taking a gleeful satisfaction in watching runners fail miserably at his event, director Laz (Gary) is visibly moved by Robbins effort and his coming up just short of an official finish. The embrace the two share over the famed gate says everything without anyone having to say a thing.

Robbins' herculean effort at the 2017 Barkley is simply one of the most inspirational things I've ever heard of or seen. That guy laid everything on the line in a way that almost none of us ever will, for anything, ever. And to come that close to doing something that is bordering on impossible and have it ripped away because of one costly mistake, and then to handle it with so much class and dignity... well let's just say it's incredibly emotional to witness on video, I can't imagine what it was like for those that were there in person. In my opinion Gary Robbins did something amazingly heroic for 60 hours and 6 seconds and it doesn't matter that he is listed as a DNF on the results. He struck a chord with a lot of people on April Fools weekend 2017 and he's got a fan for life in me.

I am about a week and a half out from the 24 Hours of Palmer Lake Fun Run, and frankly I've been pretty burned out with the training lately. I haven't gotten the planned mileage in the last couple of weeks and mentally I haven't been too strong lately. I am still going for my planned 50 miles and hoping to get that in within twelve hours. And when things get rough on that Saturday and I want to quit, I am going to ask myself, "What would Gary Robbins do?"

And then I'll just keep going.

Training, this years races, and other random stuff...

Haven't really posted much goings on since the fall, so here goes!

Cooper had a successful XC season for Monmouth, capped off by finishing fourth at his conference meet. The team shocked the conference with a second place finish. Considering in 2015 they didn't even have enough healthy runners to SCORE at conference this is an amazing turnaround. Out of the top 7 Coop in the only Junior, the rest being Freshman and Sophomores. Coop also set a Pr in the 5k last week with a 15:39, nabbing a third place finish at the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships. He also scored in the DMR and 3k, heping the Monmouth men to a mind-boggling 18th straight Indoor crown!

Claire and the rest of the Arvada West Wildcats had a great finish to their XC campaign, also. Both the girls and boys teams won the Jeffco Conference 5A Championship and followed that up with first place finishes the next weekend at Regionals. Colorado State saw the boys finish 4th in 5A and the girls 5th. Those state finished were good enough to get an invite to the Nike Cross Regionals in Casa Grande, Arizona. Times were on the slow side because of an unfortunately hot and windy day, but it was a great experience. Gina, Marc (Claire's teammate Katie's dad, and I ran in the "citizens" race early that morning. It was quite a kick to run the course that Casey Clinger and Brie Oakley, both the eventual Nike national champs, would run (much, much faster than we did of course) later in the day. Also got a look at 8th grade phenom Grace Ping, who advanced to nationals and finished 6th there.

Actually, that trip to Arizona ended a running streak at 41 days of running at least three miles. I've never actually tracked that sort of thing before but with the possible exception of my marathon training I doubt I have ever run more than 10-14 days in a row before. I made up my mind to try to run every day this winter and I gotta say, it's made me a bit of a believer. I've always been on the side of a couple rest or cross training days a week but I felt like really putting together a super solid base of training this winter.

I have a tentative plan for racing this year. In April I am planning on running 24 Hours of Palmer Lake Fun Run in Monument, Colorado. The race name is pretty self explanatory: a 24 hour race around Palmer Lake. You run the .8 mile loop as many times as you can for 24 hours at an elevation over 7.000 feet. For some reason this sounds fun to me. Gina, on the other hand, is not quite as overjoyed about the prospect of crewing me for this event! After that I am leaning toward doing my second Tommyknocker 12 Hour in May (last year it was a Fall race, so I am hoping for cooler weather this time around) or perhaps a trail marathon up near South Park. It all depends on what scheduling conflicts I may have or not have with track and Coop coming home from school.

After that I am thinking I am going to ease back on the running during the hotter summer months and tackle some 14ers. Coop, Brandon, and I have tentative plans to take on Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado, sometime this summer. I also want to do Grays and/or Torreys again, this time during a day when I can actually see some of the views! There is a 14er route near Leadville where you can bag four peaks in one shot that is also calling my name.

I might take on some sort of 50k trail race or a road (eewwww) half or marathon late in the Fall. I have some vague notions about running (more like power hiking) the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon in 2018 but I need a qualifier race to enter. We'll see. I also have notions about trying to get into The Barkley Fall Classic in '18. That is pretty much my big dream race at this point. It's the one I have got to try before I quit running. Hoping to avoid the big DNF at that one and get a finisher medal draped over my neck by Laz himself! I've definitely got access to enough vertical close to home to get trained for the Fall Classic.

Here is a super impressive feat: Ultra-marathoner Micheal Wardian won the World Marathon Challenge recently, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. and averaged just a shead of 2:45 doing it. Read more about this miraculous achievement here. Retired elite marathoner Ryan Hall also completed it, the last marathons he will ever run.

Identity As A Runner

Today Facebook, thoughtful as ever, brought up my memories, which as most of you know is a regurgitation of your old posts, friends made, etc. on that day in years past. Yeah, I'm being a bit of a smart aleck about it but it is actually pretty interesting many times and this is one of those times.

Anyway, according to the sluggish media giant allI posted five years ago this day that while on a walk I had jogged up a few hills. If you don't know me well or were not aware, on the day before thanksgiving of 2011 I suffered a neck injury, a bulging disk that pinched a nerve. It was a freakish thing, starting that day with a sharp pain while bending over to pick up a paper I had dropped on the floor and yawning at the same time. By the end of that evening I was in severe pain at an ER and I spent two weeks on my back doped to the gills. It wasn't until this day five years ago that I began cautiously returning to running.

The reason I bring this up is that was the first time I had ever been totally out of commission running-wise since I began hitting the roads a few years earlier. I remember being pretty sure I was done running for a long time, maybe for good. I had pain every time I walked, hit a bump while driving, anything that caused the least little bouncing of my body. Particularly scary was when I tried to put a gallon of milk in the fridge with my left arm only to find I could not lift it high enough to get it onto the shelf. Hard to imagine doing much physically when you cannot arm curl a gallon of liquid a few inches!

Worse than the physical toll of that injury, though, was the mental part of having running suddenly ripped away from my life. I won't lie. I was seriously depressed for a few weeks there. I felt a real loss, almost as if a loved one had passed away. My drug cocktail probably wasn't helping things in that regard either, but I was shocked how much it was effecting me mentally. I felt similarly later on when I had to resign my coaching positions to move to Colorado. In both cases I really couldn't believe how difficult it was for me to rally and get through it emotionally.

As time goes on however I am coming to realize that it really only not being able to run (or coach) that was truly bothering me, though that was definitely part of it. Mostly it was because my identity as a runner (and later as as running coach) wad gone or in jeopardy of being gone. At the time of my neck injury I was living in tiny Lanark, Illinois, a town the size of which meant that everybody knows everybody else. Me and my family were a big part of the running community in the town. My wife and I had both run a marathon, I had started running some longer trail races and my son was making a name for himself in the area as a distance runner.

Suddenly I was questioning myself big time. If I could not run, if i wasn't that dude everybody in town always saw running around all the time, then who was I? I had a run of the mill, ordinary job. I didn't really "do" much, at least in my mind, except run. I was a runner. And the worst part was until i couldn't do it anymore, I hadn't even been introspective enough to realize how much of my identity was tied up with running. I was completely blindsided by the entire experience.

Eventually and gradually, with a lot of help from my chiropractor, traction, and time, my neck got better and I did return to running as before. And I think I learned quite a lot from the entire ordeal. When I had to give up coaching a few years later, and also had my running seriously curtailed by a bout of ulcerative colitis just before that, I like to think I handled it better. Maybe I did. Maybe not. What would happen right now if I faced another long stretch of time when I couldn't run? Or worse yet, couldn't run at all anymore? I can't say for sure.

Right now I am running more than ever. I recently had a streak of 41 days straight broken only because of a travel day to the Nike Cross Regionals to watch my daughter and her team. Last fall I ran my first ultra. From the outside it would appear that I am loving running more than ever and it's true. I am. It's kind of hard not to when you live fifteen minutes from their Rocky Mountains foothills! But I know that in part it's also because I am a small fish in a small pond and just trotting out some miles a few times a week just doesn't feel like it cuts it.

And that's ok.

Whew! Well that's enough off that!

"Running should be free, man."
Caballo Blanco

Tommyknocker 12 Hour, Double 14er, Cross Country Fun

I am going to cram a lot of great stuff into this single blog post!

Last weekend I took part in the coolest race I have ever done, the Tommyknocker 12 Hour Run. Part of the races put on by the Human Potential Running Series, I heard about his race a while back on a Facebook page and it immediately got me interested A) because it was being held about fifteen minutes from my apartment at a park I was very familiar with and B) it had a random draw course.

What? Random Draw course? Yep. Fast forward to race day. Me and about twenty other crazies (a few of which were running a half marathon course) gathered at the bottom parking area of White Ranch Park for a six a.m. start. The first section of the race took all the runners up the "Purgatory" route to the upper parking lot of White Ranch, a distance of 5.5 miles and about 2,300 feet of elevation gain. Once up top we all were required to do the Green loop, a 2.2 mile loop with a (relatively) easy 500' of elevation gain. At this point the half marathoners headed back down Purgatory to finish their run. For the rest of us, things had not even really begun.

After finishing the Green loop the fun began. In a bucket there were a bunch of ping pong balls marked with the first letter of all the four loop possibilities, Green, Yellow, Red, or Orange. All of varying lengths and elevation gains. I plunged my hand in and picked: Green. the one I had already done just after the Purgatory climb. I knocked that out pretty easily. Another pick: Green. Finished that up. Picked Again: Green again. It was getting pretty comical and slightly frustrating. I wanted to do some other loops, see what they were all about. Be careful what you wish for kids.

At this point I was up to a little over fourteen miles and it was only about 9:30 or so. I was eager for a different loop. I finally picked a different color, Orange. This loop was 3.8 miles long with a hair over 1000 feet of elevation gain. It was nice to run something other that the Green loop but I knew from training at White Ranch that this loop was going to put a bit of a hurt on me, plus the day was quickly warming up to an eventual high in the low eighties. I'd been walking and hiking most everything that was not flat or downhill up to this point in the ultra runner style trying to conserve my legs as much as possible. With the amount of miles under my belt and the steepness of some of the orange loop sections, I was going to be power hiking and going a bit slower from now on.

Heading out for an Orange Loop

After the Orange loop I picked..... another Orange. Though my energy level was good and my fueling/hydration had been going pretty flawlessly, I was getting really tired toward the end of the second Orange and I was running less and less. And I was getting a real feeling of dread because I was hearing rumblings and whisperings from other runners all day about a lurking beast on the course: The Yellow Loop. Being a White ranch veteran I knew from the race course map that this would be the toughest test of the race if I was unlucky enough to select it. Six miles long. A shade under 2,000 tortuous feet of elevation gain, almost every foot of that in the last two soul-crushing miles. I was tired. I was getting hot. I DID NOT WANT THIS LOOP!

I picked the yellow loop.

At his point my quads were so shot I could only run flat-ish trail sections, and those are few and far between in Colorado let me tell ya. So I was down to speed walking and power hiking for the most part. I was exposed  to the sun more on Yellow loop than any other time during the day and it was now early afternoon. The heat was on. I was moving fairly well the first four miles then I began the long climb up. About 1,500 feet up. In two miles. If hands on knees power hiking with a hot Colorado sun beating on you is your idea of a great time Yellow is for you. You would also be a sick human being. I won't lie, there was some not-for-kids language being spoken at fairly loud volumes during that relentless climb.

I eventually made it back to the upper lot and the aid station and told our race director John that the Yellow loop should be reserved only for a person's worst enemies! I knew from a previous hike that I could make it down Purgatory without running in a little over two hours (if you did not make it down to the lower lot where we started by 6 p.m. you got zero miles for the day!). With roughly four hours left I debated whether to pick another ping pong ball. I was sitting at almost 28 miles for the day so I knew if I headed down I would more than top my goal of 30 miles for the day. But John had taken the two longer loops out of the bucket, leaving just Green and Orange. I decided if I picked Green I would do it, if not I was heading back down. I got Green and headed out after a pretty long stay at the aid station fueling up, hydrating, and contemplating the meaning of it all. I probably ran the first couple hundred yards of the loop. The rest was walking. I was really, really done.

After finishing Green I thanked John for putting on the most fun race I had ever done and headed back down Purgatory with about 2:30 left in the race. I was pretty much dragging my right leg at this point though I was able to speed-shuffle some of the flatter portions toward the bottom. Also had some good company on the way down from a couple other runners, making time go a bit faster thank goodness!

I hit the finish with about twenty minutes to spare. Final tally: 35.4 miles with 9,944 feet of elevation gain and loss. The best race experience of my life, hands down. I blew away my best expectation for the race and gave myself confidence that I can do an ultra distance. I was super happy with my fueling and hydration. I never bonked. I felt sharp and mentally into it the whole day. I would say a spring or early season 50 k or trail marathon is definitely going to happen. And you can pencil me in for next years Tommyknocker 12 Hour. Although my quads hurt so much I could barely sleep for two days afterwards I wouldn't miss it!

In the XC world, my son Cooper is healthy and running well for the Monmouth Scots, finishing first on the team in their first two races of the season. The team has come a long way since his freshman year and he is looking good to go for an All Conference spot later on this fall.

That's Coop second from the left

 Claire has become a leader on her Arvada West team, which is one of the top ranked girls teams in Colorado. She recently won and set a meet record and The Standley Lake Gator Invite!

The only decent running pic Claire has ever taken lol

Since I don't really like to run high mileage weeks a huge part of my training for Tommyknocker was tough hiking including a couple 14er trips. The most recent was a double 14er of Grays and Torreys. I won't go into a bunch of detail since it was a while ago and there isn't much in the way of pictures since it was a foggy, cloudy, rainy trip with no views from the peaks. It was a great day in the mountains despite the conditions and I was happy I was able to push through to do both peaks like I had planned. I can thank those nasty Midwestern winters for giving me a thick skin, I don't think the windy, mid-thirties weather above 13,000' affected me like it did a lot of other people up there. Many were turning back or abandoning the double and heading down after only one peak.

First 14er!!! Day hike to the summit of Mt.Evans!

Well, I have finally hiked my first 14er! For those not in the know, a 14er is any peak that is over 14,000 feet above sea level but less than 15,000. There are fifty-three 14ers in Colorado, zero that are 15,000 or more. So it's way, way high in the air basically. Coop, his friend Brandon, and I decided that Mount Evans would be a good choice for our first time. The routes are mostly class 2 (basic hiking with some occasional scrambles) with no real scary exposure.

We decided that the Guanella pass would be the route we took. While not as much vertical or mileage as some of the other routes, it was intriguing because a good amount of it had faint, or nonexistent, trails. I have always been a sucker for going off trail. After an early wakeup and about a 90 minute drive through Georgetown and up to the trailhead we got moving around 6;45.

Coop and Brandon finding a way through the maze of animal trails 

We followed the trail that eventually goes to nearby 14er Mt. Bierstad for a short time then had to begin forging our own path along a creek surrounded by dense bushes. There were trails... many, many trails. Animal trails that went this way and that or went nowhere at all. And a good amount of the trails were also soggy, wet messes. After a couple miles of that or so we reached the bottom of the gully that would lead us up in a hurry.

The gully was a super steep climb that probably included at least half of the overall altitude gain in about a mile and required some scrambling. Towards the top things settled into a more reasonable pitch. We were well above tree line at this point and some pretty amazing views were there for the taking.

After the climb up the gully and back on a clear trail towards Evans

We had to climb around the right side of the large rocks (false summit) you can see in the picture above. That got a little dicey as far as footing was concerned, you basically were walking over a very long boulder field. I took a rather embarrassing spill while standing taking a rest, but that happens to us older fellas on occasion! No damage done, we continued to the summit.

Rock cairn marking your trail among the boulder
fields with Mt. Bierstad in the background

Another view of Mt. Bierstad

View of Summit Lake from top of Evans

The summit was perhaps the least exciting part of the hike up. I felt the views away from the summit were better and because Evans is one of two 14ers that you can drive up to the top, it was crowded with sightseers. But it was still plenty cool to be that high and I was pleasantly surprised how my body was handling the altitude. I had a pretty good headache but considering I was probably 3,000 feet higher than I had ever been before I felt pretty good. You can feel the body fighting  it though. It wants you to go back down!

Brandon and Coop on the summit of Mt. Evans

After a good half hour or so on the summit we all headed back down uneventfully. Navigating the gully going down was not quite as sketchy as we thought it might be, though we turned the marshy valley into an extended adventure in an entirely unsuccessful quest to keep our feet dry. But hey, nothings perfect.

Coop and I on the summit of Evans

The only thought once it was over was something like "what the Hell took me so long to do that?" The views and feeling of being above treeline with the whole world seemingly below you is undeniably intoxicating. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life, and much tougher than I expected it to be (though my choice of route had a lot to do with that). I am already making plans to climb at least one more this year.

Overall it was somewhere around 9-10 miles (we all were gps watchless for the hike) with over 3000-3500 feet in elevation gain. Took I think about seven hours or so. 14,264 feet above sea level. All in all another awesome day in the Rocky Mountains!!!

Bear and South Boulder Peak Run

Today I parked at the South Mesa lot near Boulder to run up to Bear Peak. I hadn't planned on running there but as I often do, I changed my mind in the car while driving to one of my usual weekend run spots. I had run up to Boulder Peak a couple times last summer, once from South Mesa and once from NCAR. Since I had never been to the top of South Boulder Peak and it is on the other side of a saddle from Bear, I decided to bag a double and hit that one also.

I parked and stretched out a bit and hit the trail. I was even more conservative in pace than usual, wanting to save a lot for the latter part of the 2500 or so feet climb.

Cool little cabin about a mile from the start of my run, only accessible by trail. I want to live in it!

The first couple of miles is steady climbing up double track, nothing too dramatic until I hit Shadow Canyon. The trail becomes mostly a power hike up steep trail littered with large boulders for about a mile. (you will have to forgive my estimates, I almost never wear a GPS watch anymore.)

Example of  what Shadow Canyon trail
looks like

 When I got near the saddle the trail levels out to the point that it becomes mostly runnable for a bit.

Burned out forest near the saddle

I headed right at the top of the saddle to head to Bear Peak then after a brief stay at the top headed back down the saddle to South Boulder Peak. Both peaks require some fairly exposed scrambling to reach the true summits. The views to the west are absolutely beautiful and fantastic.

View of the big mountains to the west from Bear Peak

Survey marker near the top of Bear
 Peak. I love coming across these

After hanging out for a bit I headed back down the canyon. Downhill may be harder than going up for me, I don't have the quads to pound down steep grades with boulders!

I got in about eight miles or so with a good amount of elevation gain. Guess it would probably be about 60% running, the rest power hiking. A nice change of pace and good fourteener training. Planning on hiking up Mt. Evans sometime in the middle of July.

One of my little friends. These chipmunks
were all over both peaks.

This fellow is my personal hero. Ran into him three times during the morning.
He hiked up from NCAR and bagged both peaks. I was not rude enough to ask
but he had to be at least seventy years old. Amazing dude!

Special mention goes out to the fine folks that make the Flip Belt. We bought one a couple weeks ago and I wore it today, Packed keys, phone, two gels and some energy chews into it with no problem. Never even knew it was there.