Lake City

Things went fairly well for me at the San Juan Solstice.  Ran strong for the first 30 miles and thought I might be able to sneak in under twelve hours.  Unfortunately, everything started hurting after that and I bet I lost a good 45 minutes due to my failure to attack the downhill portions of the last 20 miles.  The last four-ish downhill miles were particularly ugly.  But I fought hard to keep moving forward, and I can't be too disappointed with my 12:33 as I predicted something a lot closer to 14 hours.  

Yuengling at mile 40, Ska Brewing Rue B. Soho Grapefruit Lager (not a normal pick for me but it tasted wonderful in the heat) at Vickers (mile 46ish) and a tallboy of PBR at the Packer Saloon (mile 49.9).  Good times.

Came back home and passed my SAR emergency medical responder exam.  Classes are finally over for me.

pics

About to head down to Lake City.  Been a long time since I've gone that far and I'm both nervous and excited.  Course seems to be in good shape and the weather looks good.

Made the SAR social media rounds the other day.

A few more pics of Hood I came across:

the week

Solid week.  Lots of SAR stuff - worked the annual golf tournament, did some dog training up at the Academy on Saturday, and did my first ever incline rescue.  

Decent long run on Sunday in the heat, 17 miles up Longs Ranch Road to Barr Camp and back down.

run - 52 miles, 10.5 hours

ride - 23 miles, 2.5 hours

hike -  23 miles, 9.5 hours

Throwing my hat back into the ultra world on Saturday at the San Juan Solstice.  Feel pretty good about my chances of a finish there but it's been a long time and you never know.  Hoping for a sub 14 hour finish.

Bob Schneider

Solid week, including a trip to Lulu's to see Austin favorite Bob Schnneider.  The next day, though fairly hungover, I got up to Barr Camp via the incline.  Then a two hour road run on Saturday.  No Garden ten miler for me this year, SAR did a mock missing person mission up on the Pikes Peak Highway so I was up there all morning.

Another highlight for the week: $100 and I are signed up for this in December '25.

For the week:

run - 61 miles, 13 hours

ride - 41 miles, four hours

hike - 28 miles, 11.5 hours

Two weeks until Lake City!

Hood

Incredible trip out to Oregon.  The mountain was waiting for us even before we landed.

Hood is quite the grind but it's nothing we weren't ready for.  On Thursday we woke up at midnight and started hiking at 2AM.  Just under six hours later I was drinking a beer on the summit.

It's mostly a steep slog up snow and ice, but the crux is the final quarter mile or so which is a ~50% grade snow climb.  Doesn't sound so steep if you've never done this but a fall could be pretty bad.  

Pretty long day, 11.5 hours total for the climb, plus the early wake up.  We headed to Hood River for pizza and beers before finishing up in Portland for the day.  Stayed in a great neighborhood there, Ladd's Addition, which had quite a few quality drinking establishments within walking distance.

Took a trip to Eugene on Friday to visit Pre's Rock, Hayward Field, and Track Town Pizza.  Got in a nice five mile run on Pre's trail.

Got in a few early morning coffee hikes to explore Mt Tabor Park and the downtown riverwalk in Portland, but most of our two days there was spent exploring all the breweries and dive bars we could.  

Landed in COS at 3:30PM on Sunday, and the SAR alarm went out at 4:30PM.  Back to the grind.