Ute Pass/Waldo Canyon

Another early morning run with the Incline Club today. Started at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs and headed out Ruxton to the Cog Railway Station. Instead of hopping onto the Barr Trail at this point, we headed out the Ute Pass. The pass runs along the base of Pikes Peak. Lots and lots of hills, both up and down. Long hills. Steep hills. Long and steep hills. As slow as I was going, I was quickly sent into oxygen debt. Climbing to almost 7500 feet and covered with snow, a lot of this section was more hiking than running.

After hopping a fence with several "No Trespassing" signs, Ute Pass brings you out at the trailhead of Waldo Canyon. I had heard several runners talking about this trail, and I was pretty psyched to finally run it. It was tough, you climb to over 8000 feet, but the scenery was beautiful. It's not the most technical trail, so you can keep one eye on the trail and use the other one to check out your surroundings. It was a nice day out, at least for January in Colorado, but we were able to watch a pretty rough storm pounding the top of Pikes Peak. Seven mile loop at Waldo and it was back to the Ute Pass for the return trip back to Manitou.

Total time was just over three and a half hours. My first real long run since Bandera. I seem to be recovered completely from my 100K, though it's a tough call since I'm not used to the altitude or hills up here. I'm sore, but I don't think it's anything from Bandera, so I'll probably go ahead and start training for the San Juan Solstice 50 miler.

Off to Durango this weekend, so I'll miss the IC run on Sunday. The week after I'm planning on going the entire way up to Barr Camp and back with those crazies.