2025

2025 started off as usual - at the Rescue Run.  But this year I was on the other side of the show, getting there three hours early to help set up the course and then serving as a course marshall at the bottom of the final hill, cheering on every last runner out there.  The Rescue Run is the single biggest fundraiser for SAR, and this year we had our biggest number of entrants and finishers ever.  Pikes is bigger.  Super Half might be bigger.  But I think that's it for local races.

Kept up the SAR theme as I hung out with the dogs on Saturday and then did some snow training at Glen Cove just off the Pikes Peak Highway.  Cold, probably 10F or so, but no wind so it wasn't too awful.  Here are the newest members who showed up (I'm the old guy on the right):

Super busy this week but I still got outside.

run - 31 miles, six hours

hike - 21 miles, 8.5 hours

2024 numbers

Another year in the books.

run - 2071 miles, 436 hours

ride - 1744 miles, 173.5 hours

hike - 1636 miles, 769.5 hours

72 run commutes.  92 bike commutes.  50 Iron Mountain summits, most if not all with Mookie.

Pretty decent year for me, dominated by my foray into the Search and Rescue world.  Takes up a ton of time but I love it.  

A trip to Milwaukee to close down Wolski's.  Two more highpoints (Oregon and Idaho).  Two more state marathons (Detroit and Rocket City).  Another San Juan Solstice finish and a solid run at the Creede 100.  Three more Pearl Jam shows, including my first trip to Wrigley Field.  Countless local hikes with Mookie and $100.  Can't complain.

Cracker

 Cracker came through town last night and put on one helluva show.  Had the fiddle player along so we heard quite a bit of the old Camper Van Beethoven stuff as well.

Low week on the exercise front, been busy with SAR stuff, mostly helping out with Rescue Run stuff.  Over 1000 runners signed up so far.

Pikes Descent

Busy SAR weekend.  Saturday afternoon the pager started buzzing with reports of an injured hiker high on Pikes.  Around 5PM the team got the call out.  Drove up to the summit and started heading down to find a deaf climber and his dog.  The Barr Camp caretaker was also dispatched to help search, and he ended up finding the guy above A Frame and pretty far off Barr Trail.  We met up with them near A Frame and began the slog down the hill.  Luckily the climber was not seriously injured and he was able to hike on his own, but he was exhausted so it was slow going.  4.5 hours from the summit to Barr Camp.  Then another 80 minutes to get down to Bob's Road, where we had a vehicle waiting.  My pack weighed about 60 pounds and needless to say when I finally got home just after 5AM I was worked.  The climber and his dog are both OK.

My buddy Josh took this pic, I'm the guy in front.

Not long after I got home we got a request to help Teller County SAR with an injured snowboarder on Little Italy, sort of close to Glen Cove on the Pikes Peak Highway.  I was in no shape to respond to that but luckily we got a good number of folks to help out.  Seems the snowboarder fucked himself up pretty good, quite a few broken bones.  

Later on Sunday the call went out for a lost hiker up on the Academy.  Again, I was in no shape to pull a second all nighter, so I had to pass.  The team located the hiker, but it was awful terrain and they were unable to reach the guy in the dark.  We had contact via phone with the hiker, and he settled in until first light.  Getting myself a good night of sleep, I was on the team that went in to get the guy early Monday morning.  He is fine and he promised he would work on his navigation skills.

This was the first weekend of winter.  The weather was quite mild, especially up high on Pikes.  Had it been colder, things could have been much worse for both rescues I was involved in.

On top of all that I passed my General class HAM exam, got in a 7.5 miler on the Garden trails just before I started hearing about the Pikes mission, and we are dogsitting an 18 month old lab.  Good times.

Low mileage week, though that was due more to recovery from Rocket City than the SAR excuses.

run - 20 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 19 miles, two hours

hike - 27 miles, 15 hours

recovery

I was hurting the last five or so miles at Huntsville and worked hard to hold it all together, and I can tell.  Can still feel some soreness as I type this on Friday.  Couple of dog hikes, couple of dog jogs, and a few bike commutes this week.  

Couple 'o pics from the 'thon:

And this one from the 5k on Saturday:

Rocket City

Decent trip down to Huntsville, AL, to get in my 28th state marathon.  Rainy weekend, including the entire time I was running the marathon on Sunday.  

Jogged the 10k and 5k on Saturday, then the 'thon on Sunday.  Not sure why I was expecting a bigger event, but the whole thing was pretty low key.  Good race for me, I finished in 3:37:45.  Solid second half too, at 13.1 I was running slightly behind the 3:40 pace group and was in 325th place.  Ended up in 224th place about two minutes ahead of that pace group.  1462 finishers.  Fastest miles of the race were all after mile 21.  Completely different than my run in Detroit.  Hoping for a sub 3:30 at Eugene and I'm definitely trending in that direction.

Drank some mediocre beers while trying to stay dry the rest of the trip.

3:37

Huntsville or bust!

Headed down to Alabama this weekend for the Rocket City marathon.  We had a terrible cold spell blow through (it was 10F Monday morning for the dog hike) and also got a fair amount of snow early this week.  Other than that my training has been decent for this time of year.  I'll go out with the 3:40 group and hope to hang on to beat my Detroit time.

PIttsburgh or bust!

'25 is shaping up to be a busy travel year but it will include a trip to the 'burgh to see Pearl Jam!  Only got tix for night one, so I guess I'll have to spend the extra night hanging out at Pitt or dahn on the southside.

PJ?

Busy SAR week with a lot of training and the Parade of Lights on Saturday. 

I put in for Pittsburgh.  I'll find out this week if we're going.

For the week:

run - 41 miles, 7.5 hours

ride - 29 miles, three hours

hike - 24.6 miles, 10.5 hours

turkey week

Decent week despite a bit too much alcohol over the holiday.  On Sunday I made it over to the first Incline Club run of the season for a good ten miler which included the incline.

run - 41 miles, just shy of nine hours

hike - 25 miles, eleven hours

bike - zilch; any riding is basically non-existent at the moment

gobble gobble

Another year, another turkey trot.  Keep getting slower and slower.  Finished in 21:39.  I present the following list of excuses:

-it was very cold, which made breathing difficult

-it's a terrible course that makes correct pacing difficult

-I was wearing an incorrect version of the latest supershoes

In reality I am getting older and I never race 5k's anymore, so this is about what I should expect.  If I want to reach my goal of a sub 20 after I turn 50 I have some work to do.  Which I probably won't do as most of my goals for the upcoming year involve longer distances. 

In better news, Mookie finished his first race, even finding an old tennis ball on the course.

the week

Decent week, got my ass outside quite a bit.

Mon - wanted to hit the track but conditions sucked.  AM five miler in the Garden, PM four miler in the Garden.

Tues - bike commute 83.  Straight there and straight back.  Iron 45 with Mookie in the evening.  

Wed - run commute 66.  Six there, four back.  CityRock 116 for lunch.

Thurs - run commute 67.  Five there, four back.  

Fri - Iron 46 with Mook and $100, then bike commute 84.

Sat - hung out with the SAR dogs in the morning, then picked up our Cadet and introduced him to the Incline.  He crushed me.  This has been a slow year for me on the incline, this was my 15th time.  Need to get over there more even though it's generally not dog friendly.

Sun - big SAR day.  Training block in the AM, then just before I was about to head to Fossil we got a call for a broken ankle on Barr Trail.  Luckily she was pretty far down the mountain, the carry out didn't last too long and I was able to get to Fossil afterwards.

For the week:

run - 43 miles, nine hours

ride - 22 miles, 2.5 hours

hike - 22 miles, nine hours

A friend shared this oldie with me.  Two of these pups are gone (but not forgotten!), two are still going strong.