SAR

Wasn't planning on a down week but I was crushed for a few days after Mace's and then SAR took up all my weekend time.

Good news: I was running up to Barr Camp on Saturday and a call came in for a hiker who was lost just off Barr Trail near Barr Camp.  He wasn't injured, so I got the go-ahead to go look for him.  I found him about 60 feet off Barr Trail, a little bit below the trail that heads over to the Cog Railway.  That incident is mentioned here.

Bad news:  A guy from New Hampshire came out here to hike Pikes Peak and it didn't end well.  I spent a good chunk of Saturday evening, most of Sunday, and a few hours on Monday looking for him.  All of that time was with a heavy pack above 13,000 feet.  That story is here.  

There was a little bit of running in there.  For the week:

run - 34 miles, eight hours

hike - 27 miles, 14 hours

Mace's Hideout

Tempest Adventures is now two for two in thoroughly kicking my ass.  I did their Mace's Hideout 50 miler down in Beulah and holy hell was it rough.  First four miles are on a dirt road but after that it's nothing but technical trails and lots of climbing and descending.  I ran pretty well, or at least I kept moving forward all day, but I found myself pushing the overall cutoff of 16 hours.  Rallied over the last three miles, which included climbing up a waterfall, and finished in 15:58:30.  Pic below is at the finish, those other two runners and I worked together to barely beat the cutoff.

I had planned on getting back home on Saturday after the race, maybe even early enough to hit WestFax for last call.  But I finished at midnight and was wrecked.  Ended up spending the night in the parking lot.  Good times.  I have some work to do before Rio Grande.

On Sunday after SAR training we headed up to Red Rocks for Big Head Todd's 40th anniversary show.  Saw Bill Murray and Warren Haynes open up.  Great time.

For the week:

run - 81 miles, 21.5 hours

hike - 19 miles, nine hours

South Dakota

4:27:30.  Gave up quickly and just jogged to get another state.  Over 90F during the race and I just wasn't ready to deal with that.  Live to fight another day.

Great van trip though.  Visited some Rapid City breweries, slept at Crow Peak Brewing in Spearfish, visited the Moonshine Gulch Saloon, and spent a quiet night in Sturgis.

Rough week as I got bogged down with a lot.

run - 35 miles, six hours

hike - 27 miles, ten hours

Pitt/PJ/Red Leg

A lot to catch up on.

The Pittsburgh trip was a blast.  Got to see some friends/family and Pearl Jam brought the heat.  I sure do miss that town.

Back from the 'burgh, quick week until Katie left to climb Mt. Shasta.  I was flying solo and spent my Friday night racing a trail 5K over in Ute Valley Park.  Saturday was some SAR dog training.  But on Sunday I went up to the new-ish Ford Amphitheater to see the Black Keys.

Monday was the annual Red Leg 10K.  I was a bit beat up from the concert but I still ran fairly decent.  Plus, I got to meet Miss Pikes Peak at the finish line.

Another short week and then it's off to South Dakota for state marathon number 31.

5:50.72

Tuesday night shenanigans as I went over to Cheyenne Mountain High School for their annual mile fest.  Mostly high school kids but they let some old farts join in.  Was hoping to go at least sub 5:45 but I never got into a rhythm and ran just under 5:51.  There were 24 runners in my heat so while that was fun to deal with it didn't make for running fast.

Not a great pic but Mookie and I saw our first bears of the season this morning, over in the Garden.  Momma and two cubs.  Luckily quite a distance away.

Off for a long overdue trip to the 'burgh.  Pearl Jam on Friday, then visiting some friends and familiar places.  Looking forward to it.

19:32

I was worried that my days of being able to throw down a sub 20 5k were gone, but as Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend!

On Sunday I went up to Niwot for the Frank Shorter track classic and ran the 5000 meters.  First time in my life I was the oldest guy in the field, seven years older than the next guy.  I was clearly in over my head and right from the gun I was in last place.  Spent five laps in the back but then did end up passing a female and holding her off.  Very painful and for a bit I wasn't sure I'd keep up the pace, but happy to have made the trip north.  Finished eighth out of nine runners.  Hoping to break 20 once I turn 50 in August, and this gives me hope.

Got to meet Edna Kiplagat after my race.  

Finished the week with 40 miles (seven hours) of running and 25 miles (ten hours) of hiking.  Biking is basically nothing but commuting nowadays, nine miles in just under an hour.

Denver Beer Company

I've always liked Denver Beer Company, specifically their Incredible Pedal IPA.  So when word came out about a 50k run that visited all five of their taprooms, I thought it was a great idea.

And it was a great time!  Marc made the trip up, and we saw Kircher and PG and even a rare appearance from BFish.

The run went 31+ miles to each DBC taprooms.  Pint of beer at each.  Plus I took a Colfax detour and was able to hit Velvet Banjo and Cerebral Brewing.  Needless to say I suffered pretty heavily the last five or so miles when the temps climbed above 80F.  But I made it with lots of time to spare.  Great event and I'll be back next year.

For the week:

run - 49 miles, eleven hours

hike - 29 miles, twelve hours

ride - 27 miles, 2.5 hours

Eugene

Eugene weekend in the books.

Started off terrible enough as our flight there got jacked up due to weather.  Was supposed to arrive at 3PM with plenty of time to grab a few beers before seeing the Warren Haynes Band.  Ended up arriving at 10PM and unfortunately no show.  At least the brewery next to our VRBO was open until midnight.

On Saturday we ran the Duck Dash 5k then headed up to Silver Falls State Park for a hike with some old Austin friends who now live in Portland.  Saw some cool waterfalls and grabbed a late lunch at the Silver Falls Brewery in Silverton, OR.

The marathon on Sunday went exactly how I thought it would go.  Sub eight minutes miles for the first 19 miles, (3:29 pace), then the legs blew up and I limped to a 3:48 finish.  You get the race you trained for.  Even with the struggles over the final miles, I managed to at least appreciate the awesomeness of finishing on historic Hayward Field, a highlight of a long running career.  State marathon number 30 in the books.

Went from the finish over to the Wild Duck for beers, then Track Town Pizza for pizza and more beers, then toured a bunch of dive bars and breweries.  Sunday was a good day.

Visited Pre's Rock on Sunday, then jumped a plane to come home.  Flight back to Colorado was much easier than the way out.

Legs are still sore AF as I write this on Tuesday.

For the week:

run - 58 miles, 9.5 hours

hike - 23 miles, nine hours

ride - 18 miles, two hours

For the month of April-

run - 166 miles, 32 hours

hike - 127 miles, 53 hours

ride - 124 miles, 12 hours

And hell, year to date since we're a third of the way through:

run - 743 miles, 141 hours

hike - 501 miles, 210 hours

ride - 372 miles, 35.5 hours

Currently up to 39 run commutes, 19 bike commutes, 37 CityRock trips, and 19 Iron Mountain summits.

54

Decent week.  Included a Sunday incline.  Also included what was hopefully the last snow of the year.

run - 45 miles, ten hours

hike - 30 miles, twelve hours

ride - 27 miles, 2.5 hours

A friend of mine is in a masters program over at UCCS (can't spell success without UCCS!) and she needed some lab rats for VO2 max testing.  I obliged.  Garmin had me at 51 but I scored a 54.

San Luis Valley

Finally got the van out again.  We took off Thursday evening for La Veta, then drove over to the San Luis Valley.  Finally got to visit Mountain Merman Brewing in La Veta.  Then hit all the usual places - Sand Dunes, Spare Keg Brewing, Monte Vista bird sanctuary, Del Norte, and Colorado Farm brewing.  And tried the new Dune Valley Distillery, definitely worth a stop if you're passing through Mosca.

 

We left for home pretty early Sunday morning and I was planning on a good run once we got back, but I ended up going straight over to the Incline to haul a guy off.

Super low week with all the SAR stuff and the road trip.

run - 14 miles, 2.5 hours

hike - 40 miles, 18 hours

ride - 24 miles, 2.5 hours

double secret probation no more!

For the week:

run - 55 miles, eleven hours

hike - 27 miles, eleven hours

ride - 37 miles, 3.5 hours

I passed my SAR support member test and will officially be off probation after the next board meeting on April 23, 2024.

I was recently reading about some current Everest stuff over on Alan Arnette's blog.  He's a fairly famous guy in the niche world of high altitude mountains.  Pretty surprised to see my pic on his blog.  Hint: I'm the guy with the traffic cone on his head.

the week

OK week.  Gonna need to figure out how to balance getting the miles in with SAR.  

Weather is typical crazy spring.  We've already had days in the mid 70s, but as I post this we're getting significant snow above 9k.

For the week:

run - 32 miles, six hours

hike - 32 miles, 13 hours

bike - 39 miles, three hours

SAR weekend

Big weekend on the SAR front.  Headed out on Saturday for an overnight training at Glen Cove, attempting to get four season certified for winter Peak missions and blizzard stuff out east.  My pack weighed in at a svelte 48 pounds.

On the drive up the highway, we received an actual call from a hiker who was lost around treeline.  So we headed up to the summit and started down to get him.  The caretaker at Barr Camp got to this guy first and started hiking down with him, so we were called back.  The weather at the summit was brutal, winds were probably gusting at 45 mph.  We headed back to 12,000 feet and set up camp.  This was my home for the night:

Got down into single digits and the wind was howling, but I managed to stay warm.

On Sunday we had a mock mission involving an injured skiier.  The snow up there is like sugar right now, really hard to move through.

Driving home from the mock mission on Sunday afternoon we got a call for an injured hiker at the incline bailout.  So I responded to that call.  I was pretty pooped after all that and once I got home I just sat at WestFax the rest of the day drinking beer.

For the week:

run - 42 miles, eight hours

ride - 23 miles, 2.5 hours

hike - 29 miles, eleven hours

spring?

Having a decent week, the weather is finally turning spring like.  Even got the single speed out on Thursday before the Fossil mug club party.

Currently up to 30 run commutes, ten bike commutes, and 27 trips to CityRock on the year.

Off to Glen Cove, located on the Pikes Peak Highway around 12,000 feet, all weekend for some winter SAR training.  Lot of snow up there.

the week

Little lower than I wanted but that Pikes all nighter really threw me off. 

run - 41 miles, nine hours

hike - 33 miles, 18 hours

ride - 29 miles, 3.5 hours

Spent quite a bit off time in Red Rock Canyon this week.  Mook and I usually hit a loop there once a week, but I don't run there much as it's a pain in the ass to get across 24.  But we had the SAR dogs over there on Saturday, I did a nice eleven miler there on Sunday, and then I took the Surly out for a hot lap before hitting Fossil on Sunday evening.  Been taking that park for granted due to the stupid highway, but I think I'll start heading back there more often.

Salida

Busy week.

Salida went alright.  I was in a good spot at the halfway point for a sub five, but I just couldn't get rolling on the downhill second half.  Felt like a damn newborn child trying to walk, could tell I haven't been running downhills much.  Crossed the line in 5:13.  Rest of the weekend was spent doing Salida things.

A while ago I read this article from Semi-Rad and it stuck in my brain.  I went and had a test, and my calcium score was zero!  No widowmaker heart attack for this guy!

On Wednesday I took part in a special Olympics fundraiser.  Local hoops team vs a SAR squad.  It did not go well for us.

On Thursday the SAR pager started chirping, and at 4pm the call went out.  Two stranded hikers up high on Pikes Peak.  I had to run home from work, grab my shit, and respond.  I got home at 5am.  Oof.  Did not get a lot done at work on Friday.

For the week:

run - 51 miles, 9.5 hours

ride - 40 miles, four hours

hike - 28 miles, 15.5 hours