#12

Melissa and I made it up Pikes Peak for my 12th ascent of the mountain. Took the Cog route but by my next attempt, in two weeks, Barr Trail should be good to go all the way up. Might have been the best weather for any of my hikes up there.

Now it's time to head out to BFE!

Law Day 10K

Totally bombed at the Law Day 10K yesterday. Went in with hopes of a sub-40 minute finish, but a horrible hangover (even at 6PM) let to a disappointing 42:45. Damn you Arctic milk stout! Not all of that was my fault, as the twisting and turning course was poorly marked and at one point I had to come to a stop to ask a volunteer which way to go. And he didn't know. Was running good early, and thought I finally had a chance to beat my buddy 1SG Sowers (good luck at Bighorn, top!), but I really faltered between miles 3 and 5 and wasn't able to hold the early lead. Good race to cherry pick, as even though I ran shitty I was still 4th overall.

Body is starting to feel really broken down, may hafta back off this next week. June is a big month for me with the San Juan Solstice and Leadville training camp looming...

it's gotta be the shoes...

Way back towards the end of January I blogged about trying out a new pair of shoes. Read the post here. I have spent the last four months pounding these shoes into the ground while training for Hardrock. On this Saturday's epic run with Melissa the shoes will surpass 700 miles. And this figure is only the miles I've logged with rw.com, it doesn't include the days I wore the shoes to work or hashed in them, which would probably bring the total close to, if not over, 1000 miles. And they're only $74 at the Colorado Running Company (works out to $0.11 per mile so far - probably get that number below a dime before I'm done).

Last year at San Juan I retired a beloved pair of Montrail Hardrocks at an aid station. The shoes had literally fallen apart over the first 20 miles of the race and I couldn't bring myself to throw them in the trash. So shortly after puking my guts out at the Carson aid station, I changed shoes and left my old Montrails sitting on an aid station table, almost in tears as I ran away from them. I could almost hear them crying as I left them behind for the nine mile stretch atop the continental divide. I think it will be a fitting tribute to retire the Imogenes in this same way (minus the puking part, hopefully)...

Imogene Pass!

Sign up is this weekend, bitches! More importantly, the actual race is only 100 days away!

Click here for more info on the race. I have a campsite picked out and there will be a Bandito hash in Ouray the evening after the race.

going away present

My good friend and future Hardrock pacer Melissa will be moving back to Austin next week. I think the standard protocol would call for a gift of somekind. I offered to take her on one last Colorado mountain run. Check out this route:

My house to the top of Red Mountain. Back down Red and over to Ute Pass. Ute Pass to Longs Ranch and then up, up, up Longs 'till it hits Barr Trail. Up Barr Trail to Barr Camp. Then over to the Cog Railway and up to the top of Pikes Peak for a beer and a cigar. Back down Pikes via the Cog until we cut back over to Barr Camp. Return to Manitou via Barr Trail. End the run at Kinfolk's.

Approximately 33 miles. Not much of that is flat. Good times! I'll hafta figure out the elevation gain and see how many Hill of Life repeats it would equal.

Melissa has been a great friend and we've run a lot of miles together, it'll be sad to see her go.

nash hash!

75.2

Really good week despite heading up to South Dakota for the long weekend. Highlight was finally getting up Pikes Peak again, followed a few hours later by the Incline Club hill climb. The total doesn't count the 20+ miles of hashing I did at Nash Hash.

Crazy Horse marathon

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time in South Dakota to do everything I wanted to do. Was hoping to bag Harney Peak as well as do some bouldering in the Needles. So I talked to some of the Big Heads wankers about making another trip back sometime. And they told me about the Crazy Horse marathon on October 4. Think I'm gonna go up for it, as any marathon named after a malt liquor is OK with me!

Due to PC issues, Crazy Horse malt liquor is not sold in South Dakota. Which means I'll hafta buy it in Colorado. But yeah, my goal will be to qualify for Boston and then down a 40oz of Crazy Horse at the finish. I may get scalped for this stunt in that part of the country, Crazy Horse is kinda a big deal up there.

So of any of the more athletic hashers out there are looking for a roadtrip in October, get in touch with me. Climbing, hiking, hashing, and of course the marathon, should be a good trip.

creating a newsense!

Figured I'd just chill at home last night to recover from the long weekend, but I found out that Manitou's very own Creating a Newsense was playing at the Mariner. About the only thing missing from the past few days was some good live music, so I caught the show. Good times!

good times!

Had a blast out at Nash Hash! Highlight was getting to co-hare a 12+ mile ballbuster live with Stevie Gay Gone, but the entire weekend rocked! Great trail, unlimited Pabst, old and new friends, a beautiful area, all added up for a great Memorial Day weekend. I'll post more later, gotta go sit in the shower for a few hours to get cleaned up.

FYI, the next Nash Hash is in Wisconsin!

Nash Hash!

Easy run to Rainbow Falls and back this morning, about to head over to Purple Castle for breakfast, then it's off to South Dakota for some debauchery with the Big Heads! Woohoo! Granny, Davey, all the other hashers stuck in far off lands serving in our military, I'll drink one in your honor this weekend!

Pikes Peak

I've been itchin' to get up a 14er for a few weeks now, especially with the great weather we've been having along the front range. Problem was, we had record snowfall here in Colorado and it's gonna take some time for it all to melt. But I kept hearing wispers of folks climbing Pikes via the Cog Railway route, so I figured I'd give it a go.

First, a little bit of personal history. My very first trip to the summit of Pikes Peak was via the train, with MeatGazer when I was in town on vacation. Kinda fell in love with the mountains that day, and I vowed I'd come back to hike up the hill. Never knew I'd make it my backyard. Oh yeah, my second time up the mountain was the 50th anniversary of the Pikes Peak Ascent. Ran 3:18, not too shabby for living in Austin at the time.

I left my front door at 5:45AM. By 6AM there was a Cog employee raising the Americal flag, so I had to continue all the way up Ruxton to the gate where I jumped a stream and hit the railroad tracks.

For the next few hours I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Damn, that track is steep in some places. It blows my mind how those trains can carry all those overweight tourists up that hill.

About halfway up, at the Mountain View station (just over 10,000 feet), two trains carrying workers came by. I hid in the woods and let them pass. Onward and upward.

Was working real hard in the thin air. But I kept to the ultra mantra "relentless forward motion" and things were going well. Around 11,000 feet the weather started to get finicky. Strong winds, snow, and dark clouds replaced the mild weather that had been the norm. Started to wonder if I'd make it.

Shortly after 12,000 feet (there's a shelter there - was it Whispering Winds?) I noticed the two trains that had passed me earlier had stopped, and the crew was out working on the tracks. I knew any of the passenger trains wouldn't stop to yell at me for trespassing, but I wasn't sure about the workers. So I bailed off the tracks for some good class four scrambling, then ran across a nice open field. Probably added a mile onto the route, but it was nice to get some good running in at such an altitude. Weather started getting real nasty here. Plus, the scramble back up to the tracks really took a lot out of me, probably because I was nearing 13,000 feet.

Back on the tracks I guestimated I had another 1.5 miles to go. Had to keep moving because the dark clouds were coming after me. After another half mile, the hail started getting real bad, and I stopped, telling myself, "teish, you need to turn around, you're not gonna make it to the mall before this storm hits." Then, I thought I heard the faintest voice. Went up about 50 meters around a bend, and lo and behold it's the summit house! Woulda sucked to have turned around, but I thought I had a lot longer to go. Slammed a can of Arctic while being pelted by hail and went inside for some coffee and a doughnut.

Had to sit in the summit house for an hour before the storm cleared. Hated to sit still for so long, but I told myself it was good altitude training. As soon as the storm cleared I was bolting back down the mountain. The hail returned for about 20 minutes and, using the strong winds, hurt like a bitch while it was constantly pelting my face, but soon it was smooth sailing and once I got below 12,000 feet it got quite nice again.

At mountain view I hooked a left and went over to Barr Camp to visit Teresa and Neil. Always great to see those two. Had a cup of joe while shooting the shit and then left to finish the rest of Barr Trail and get back to my house.

All in all, a great run. Nice to finally get some altitude in, not to mention the almost-7 hours of time on my feet. Add the Incline Club run I'd do later and it adds up to over an entire work day of mountain running. Good times! And it's only Thursday, the weekend hasn't even begun yet!

Final splits:

My house to Summit House (about 11+ miles with my added foray through the field): 4:15
Summit House to Barr Camp: 1:11
Barr Camp to Casa de brownie: 1:21
Total time: 6:47:32, not including the time spent at the summit house or Barr Camp. Roughly 25 miles. Yeah, it's slow going up the Cog.

I love it on top!

Made it to the top, barely. My 11th summit of America's mountain. Weird weather today, had to wait an hour at the top for a big storm to blow over. Almost turned around with about a hundred meters more to go, thought I had another mile. Anyone who thinks hiking up the Cog is cheating obviously hasn't taken this route. Better write up later, gotta go rest up for the Incline Club workout tonight.

By the way, I became the first person to drink a can of Arctic On-On ale on the Peak, and also became the first person wearing a Kimchi tab shirt to take a dookie above 14,000 feet! Just two more notches on my bedpost on the way to the CKH3 hall of fame...

Pikes Peak or bust!

Off for my first attempt of the year on the summit! Wish me luck! Have a can of on-on ale in my backpack for the top...

my first traverse!

Finally made it the entire route around the perimeter of the rock gym today! My arms were shot afterwards and the rest of the workout was worthless, but the chance for glory presented itself and I went after it. Hopefully I recover in time to rub one out before the Spurs game tonight, I hate having to call Net's mom since she always wants to talk afterwards...

the race is on...

...for me to get in my first 14er of the season. Might happen tomorrow!

sorry, Pete

Just got an e-mail from the Imogene Pass RD that included this paragraph:

"One more important change to the race is the cutoff times. The cutoff time for the upper camp bird aid station at 7.6 mile HAS BEEN REDUCED TO 2.5 HOURS. If you cannot maintain a pace of 3.04 miles per hour at elevations above 8000’ while climbing 3000+ feet please reconsider your registration."

Pete, just because you can't enter the race doesn't mean you don't still owe me that Tito's!

bad day

Sheesh, this guy was just trying to enjoy the outdoors! Bees! Your weapons are useless against them!

cold shower

Not sure what it is with me and broken pipes, but it happened again last night. And while a flooded basement doesn't have the same urgency when you live on the second floor, taking a freezing cold shower after my ten miler this morning was not the most pleasant thing I've ever done.

Hardrock update

Good news, looks like the race is on! Woohoo! Got the e-mail right after I got back from my first trip up to Barr Camp! Up in 1:45, down in time to watch the 4th quarter of the Spurs game. Good times!

"Hi Everybody,
Although there is still a lot of snow on the course (thanks Blake for those great pictures), we are putting all the pieces in place for this years run.I'd like to remind everyone that is on the entrants list that Sunday, June 1st is the deadline for receiving a full refund on your entry if you should decide to drop from this years run. I know there a a few people who will be willing to take your place!
Dale Garland,RD, HRH"

73.1

Got in a pretty good week considering I spent the weekend at a hash campout. Highlight was getting in 10.5 hours of hard trails on Thurs/Fri/Sat. Don't count the hash in my total mileage, but having to lay that trail on Saturday after a three hour run on sand was a killer workout.

Hardrock update

Been waiting on the edge of my seat since I got home yesterday for any word on Hardrock. Just got the following e-mail from the race director:

"I put up a few photos showing the snow cover yesterday around Silverton at http://www.run100s.com/HR/hardrocksnowpack.html

There's a lot of snow in the high country, but it's melting fast - it was T-shirt weather in Silverton and 85F in Durango.

More in a day or two on the official status of Hardrock. My personal opinion is that there is very little chance that the run won't go forward as planned, although there will probably be lots of snow on the course and what isn't snowy up high will be very marshy."

it's back!

The Pittsburgh Marathon is back! Start training, you have less than one year until May 3rd. Read about it here. Hopefully they have the old course, and it's looking like they will:

"The course is not yet final. But it is expected to start in front of the City-County Building, Downtown, pass through the North Side, South Side, Oakland, Shadyside, Point Breeze, Homewood, East Liberty, Bloomfield, Highland Park and the Strip District before finishing in the renovated Point State Park."

woo-muthafucking-hooo!

Lineup for Telluride Blues and Brews was just announced! Gov't Mule, G Love, John Butler Trio, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Blind Boys of Alabama, and a ton of others. Read about the show here, tix are still available. Sure gonna be one epic roadtrip!

sand dunes

Great times down at the Sand Dunes hash! Pics can be seen here. Visited the UFO watchtower, laid a killer trail with over 1000 feet of vertical gain, drank a ton of Pabst and bum wine, got an awesome three hour run in, tasted the Alamosa Amber from San Luis Valley brewing, took my first dip in hot springs, and even got to dine on Moonlight Pizza when we took the scenic way home. Woohoo! on-on to Nash Hash!

GO PENS!

Guess who's gonna win the Stanley Cup!

long run

Great way to kick off the weekend: Ute Pass, Waldo, Longs Ranch, Experimental Forest, Barr Trail, Intemann, my house. 4.5 hours of hard trail running! Woohoo!

on-on to Sand Dunes! Stopping by Purple Castle on the way, of course...

woohoo!

Great workout tonight! My house, then the Intemann trail over to the Incline Club workout. 30 minutes up Barr Trail alternating one minute hard, one minute easy. Back down Barr for 5 Hydro Street repeats. Then up and back down the Incline. Returning home via Ruxton/Manitou Ave. 11 miles, 2:55:45 of major climbing and decending. Sure earned those Arctic beers I'm about to go drink...

horse racing

Seriously, who the fuck cares? It's like NASCAR to me, get it out of the sports page.

Sprial Drive

Got mentioned in an article in The Mountain Mail. Not the kind of prestige I'm looking for, mentioning my crappy 4th place, but still pretty cool. Read the article here.

new hash blogger

Peace O'Chum is the latest wanker to start a blog! Hopefully she'll pick up the DC slack left behind when Late Nite got married and started living the boring life. Click here to tell her how much her blog sucks.

1000 miles

Yesterday I passed 1000 miles for the year. The current 2008 stats, which started at the Rescue Run 10K on new year's day and do not include hashing:

Miles - 1017.6
Time - 172:33:04 (7 days, 16 hours)
Pace - 10:10 per mile

Currently averaging just under 53 miles per week!

the pounder

My weight right after completing the Garden 10 miler course this morning: 164.0

My weight right after taking a huge dump after my morning run: 163.0

A full pound of shit! Pretty rare, at least for me, and that kind of peak effort requires a variation in my diet (last night's Sevelli's pizza was the culprit here). What's even more impressive is that I took a fairly big dump right before I went for my run. Didn't weigh myself then, but it might have been a good half pound. Doubt I would've been able to hold that in all run though, woulda ended up hangin' a deuce right under the Kissing Camels.

So it's barely 7:30AM and already today I've taken an impressive crap and put in a good ten miles. Plus I have the String Cheese show to look forward to. Gonna be a great day!

DIM hash

Good times at the DIM hash! For once, Z didn't totally fuck up a trail, and we had a good time covering about seven miles of good central Springs shiggy, including two beer checks. Good circle and awesome bullshitting 'till about 10:30PM. Not bad for a Monday night!

45.5

Down week due to recovering from Collegiate Peaks. It's never taken me this long to recover from a race before. Of course, of all the 50 milers I've done before, my goal was just to finish. Which I did with a lot of walking. CP was a race effort, easily my hardest effort in an ultra yet, and I paid the price this past week. Still had a decent speed workout on Tuesday, a good Incline Club hill climb on Thurs, and a decent effort up Tenderfoot Mountain in Salida. Next up is the challenge of putting in higher mileage with back-to-back hash weekends looming...

ssshhhhh...

I'm thinking of calling in sick later this week so I can bag Pikes Peak via the cog railway...

Pittsburgh marathon

Looks like the race may be making a comeback. Read about it here. Not the easiest marathon out there, but that's where I hold my current PR, 2:55:54 (which I hope to lower at Boston within the next two years). Been looking to travel for a big city marathon, I'd LOVE to be able to head back home with the promise of a cold Iron City at the finish line.

The current list of possible Beantown qualifying marathons for me: Tucson, San Antonio, Austin, and Steamtown (Scranton, PA).

Hardrock

The 2008 Hardrock runner's manual was just posted, you can view it here. Page 2 has the rules for the event, #1 and #10 are awesome! Believe it or not, the Jack Quinn's running club, which runs the same three mile loop every week, has more rules than the Hardrock 100. The main reason I don't go anymore.

109!

Power hour turned into a century club and then some. I woulda kept going but the rest of the Kimchi had bailed out and started circle. Puked twice, which is not a penalty in the century club unless you miss that one minute bell. Good turnout at the hash too, lots of new faces.

Spiral Drive

Very uninspiring effort down in Salida. I could tell during my warmup that I was still not recovered from Collegiate Peaks, and though I gave it the old college try I just didn't have it in me. Ran in second place most of the way up the hill, but two guys, 50+ year olds nonetheless, blew by me on the downhill. Did manage to hold off a hard charging tri-dork over the final mile to keep 4th place though, so I was happy about that. Good effort, and if I'm gonna have off races I hope they'll be during the short ones. Finished in 28:17 (last year's course was short, think I was probably a little faster this year). Won a nice coffee mug for my age group. Soothed my depression of a lousy race by feasting at Moonlight Pizza, the best pizza in Colorado.

weekend

Should be a pretty decent weekend. About to leave work for a quick jaunt to the Y, then it's off to do the Garden ten mile course. Tonight I'll probably head to the Townhouse to watch the Penguins whoop the flyers.

Tomorrow morning it's off to Salida for the Spiral Drive run. Four mile races aren't really my forte anymore, but I still have a feeling I'm gonna do pretty well. Took third place overall last year, but I'm in a lot better shape this time around. After the race it'll be time for my favorite pizza place in Colorado, Moonlight pizza! Woohoo!

Probably won't make it back in time for the Kimchi hash, so after the IC run on Sunday morning I'll hafta get my hash fix in up in Denver. Plus the DIM on Monday night. Good times!

Obama drinks Pabst...

That is a pint of Pabst Blue Ribbon he's drinking there, folks! Possible Kimchi material - I've extended an offer for him to come try 80oz to Freedom with us but he hasn't responded yet...

Sent not one but TWO new routes at the gym this afternoon! Woot woot! My body is still hurting from Saturday though, today's Incline Club workout is gonna put a beatin' on me.

FYI, I believe I am going to win the Salida Spiral drive 4 miler this Saturday.

classy!

Should I have gotten a DUI while in Colorado, I would have been prosecuted by District Attorney John Newsome. The same John Newsome who was just videotaped getting shitfaced, during work hours, and then driving a taxpayer owned vehicle...to another bar! One of his early excuses for his behavior was basically, "I drink a lot, so I can booze it up and not be impared." What a class act. Hipocracy at it's finest! Nice to see the lawyers fight back against the preachers for the title of biggest sleazeballs of Colorado Springs. See the article here.

And yeah, I'm sure there's absolutely no connection between recently reduced charges against Oscar's pub, and the fact that Newsome was drinking there.

cheeeeeeeeeesssssseeeeeeeeee!!!!!

This is next Wednesday, May 14, at Venue 515. Which is walking distance from my house! Pre-cheese party starts at 6PM at my place!

On my morning run today, in the pouring rain and heavy hail, I heard a song from one of my favorite bands that always reminds me of C-4, as it's kinda along the lines of the types of conversations we have while I'm waiting for her dirty mexican husband to come out drinking. Two lyrics really stick out to me:

-"Jesus saves, and gives the oppressed a better deal"*

-"Their left hand holds the bible, and the right hand holds the gun"

(*Upon further review, the actual lyric is "For your Jesus said you’re supposed to give the oppressed a better deal" though it doesn't sound like that on the recording I have)

Turns out the song I was listening to is a cover, originally done by a cat named Kev Carmody. Guy seems to be a helluva songwriter. Gonna try to find some of his stuff, though I'm fairly sure that'll be impossible to do in Colorado Springs, so I'll probably hafta order it online. And Smutt, it'll be OK to burn copies of his CD, since he's not even an American citizen. Humph, the nerve of some people!

Free pint of Icehouse at the Townhouse Lounge to the first person who correctly identifies the name of the band I was listening to this morning, and the name of the song...

climbing rocks!

They had a comp at the rock gym over the weekend. Wasn't able to make it, but there are now tons of new routes set up! Woohoo! Plus, free issues of Rock and Ice!

book 'em horns!

Roger Clemens. Cedric Benson. Why can't we get some good news coming out of the Texas Ex-es? Like Cat Osterman posing nude or something?

fucking yahoo!

Still can't crack my yahoo e-mail issues, may have to switch over to my gmail account. So for those of you with whom I exchange e-mails, please send a note to my gmail account since I don't have any e-mail addresses stored over there. It's the same as my yahoo address, except sub gmail.com for yahoo.com.

By the way, rego for the Barr Trail Mountain Race is halfway full if anyone is debating on running it.

brownie birthday bash!

Wanna send out a huge thanks to the guys at Soda Jerk records for setting up my birthday party this year.

That's right, bitches! On August 5th, Apocalyptica will be playing my birthday show at the Black Sheep!

a model of efficiency...

Slammed a PBR and a shot of jager and immediately drove back to work (ten minutes). Took a BAC test. Guessed I'd be at 0.05. I was at 0.000, bitches! Proof of my superior tolerance to alcohol!

time honored tradition!

Went down to Tony's over lunch. Had the very Mexican spread of cheese curds, pabst, and a shot of jager - good enough to get me my sombrero for the second year in a row! I plan on wearing it to the Townhouse Lounge tonight, possibly with my Pittsburgh poncho, to continue the celebration.

yahoo

Is anyone else having issues with their yahoo account? I've been locked out of my e-mail account, though I was still able to access yahoo messenger last night.

Leadville

97.9

Damn, so close to the triple digit mark! But I'll take the final tally. Wanted to do all twelve of the mineral belt this morning, but it took me two hours to do the first eight miles (due to the snow and my lead filled legs) so I called it quits. Still a fantastic week, with a good track workout on Tues, a nice jaunt up to the rock tunnel on Barr Trail on Wed, a new 50 mile PR, and a great workout above 10,000 feet this morning. Over 10.5 hours of running this weekend alone! Hardrock or bust!

The only news I could find on the runner is here. The article is very short and basically mentions nothing, but at least they put the cool graphic pictured above on their website. Buena Vista is a small town and Collegiate Peaks is a small race, so their won't be much more news to pop up.

collegiate peaks

"Every good soldier should be able to cover 50 miles in a single day."
-JFK

Not only do I stand ready should my country call upon my services, but, like a fine box of wine, I continue to get better with age!

Old PR: 8:47:24 (Sunmart, 2005)
New PR: 8:34:36 (Collegiate Peaks, 2008)

Hells yeah, bitches! Ran probably my finest ultra to date, all the hard work I've been doing is really starting to pay off. Hopefully I can keep this streak up.

I also won the "foot-in-mouth" award, no big deal for me though this was a classic. I saw Katie on my second loop and said, "what the fuck, you shoulda been finished over an hour ago, slacker." She replied, "Sorry, someone died at the 12 mile mark and I spent an hour doing CPR on him." She did go on to finish the 25 miler much faster than her Salida time.

No more news on the runner, I didn't know who he was but he was training for Leadville, so I kinda feel a little loss.

More later, right now it's time to go get shitty drunk above 10,000 feet.