So JT left telluride, 72.8miles, about 700 a little behind his i want to go to the brewery and have a beer after the race time. and here i sit at baked in telluride enjoying a chorizo burrito and coffee...it's a hard life crewing. he was still awake but barely. i think paul has his work cut out for him these last 30miles.

karl meltzer finished at 6:38 this morning. The first woman, Diana Finkel, is currently in third. and if you're wondering on the pbr race....scott jaime is winning. even after suffering or still suffering from a bad stomach. i don't know first hand b/c jt's too slow for me to be at the aid station when scott gets there. he could very well beat him by 12 hrs. that means i better drink the pbr in the cooler before jtgets in so he can't steal mine to give to him.

so i was going to do 1 beer for every ten miles jt runs. there are just 3 little words that prevented me from doing that thus far. MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY! (scariest paved highway in the world...i came close to hitting 6 deer, a moose, and 2 skunks last night) but i have 3 down and will resume my goal once i'm safely in silverton waiting for brownie to finish...which will be at approx 8 tonight.

While JT ran I drank, slept, and picked up some shit for him....guess he's taking full advantage of my crew title. He sent me out for caffeine pills, salt capsules, and his own personal maid. i came back with red bull, snickers, and shad. At 15:30 I decided to drink one with the locals....Pablo and Cindy...at the rum distillary. I had a Tai boxer....which proved to be a great way to start a drive up a "two-way" rocky path with only enough room for one vehicle. that had a sheer drop off on the one side and a cliff on the other. saw JT at grouse gulch at 18:40ish. he's feeling well...looking as good as one can after 42 crucial miles. He said he is officially the michael Johnson or maybe it was michael vick of marmot racing...either way party at his house next saturday...he said to bring your money. He had his first bacon cheeseburger and beer at grouse. pretty sure he had about a dozen awe-strucken volunteers and crew staring at him. his next one is scheduled for, ouray, hopefully a little after midnight with 8 yellow snow, if he can stay awake that late.

Moogy dropped at Sherman which is the aid station right before heading up Handies Peak. Heard he was an hour ahead of Joe but not sure the exact reason. Hell of an attempt anyways.

on-out....more in the morning.

the hardrock website is keeping very good tabs on race thus far. JT got to cunningham gulch at 8:30....a whole 30minutes behind scott jaime and only 9 miles in. way too early to tell but with that kind of split his sponsorship money will be going to scott and not his crew/pacers. but on the bright side that 9miles took him approx 5hrs last year. JT is currently getting chicked by 4 awesome women...he excuse to that, "he got behind some slow people." we'll see about that tonight. everyone looked good out there this morning...it's a beautiful day here in silverton. blues skies, sun is shining, and i get to take a nap. next aid station we'll be running into the wanker will be about 6pm tonight.

and they're off!!! with a full cooler of pbr i'm off to chase them around the san juan's:) first stop...cunningham gulch. brownie's predicted time of arrival 8:00. so hopefully i'll have an update on the pbr race...him vs scott jaime+6hrs around 9:00.

no wait listers made it in this morning which, i gather, is quite unusual. but with almost perfect conditions no one second guessed themselves.

updates

Gave Katie access to my blog for the weekend, so check back for some updates.

Feel good and ready to go. So serious about this I only had five beers and some rum before bed.

it's time!

Off to Silverton. Wish me luck! You can track me here. Should give you something to do all day Friday and most of Saturday.

full moon run

Good times at the Pikes Peak Roadrunners full moon run last night! 4.5 miles through beautiful Red Rock Canyon Open Space, followed by a few PBR's. My last run before Hardrock...

fluid replacement

Thanks to the doc for this one. If you're a fan of bars, you should definitely check out his blog.

Hardrock taper

Taken by BLOS at the Blues Traveler Red Rocks show.

35:59:59

Been keeping this goal under wraps for a while now. It's what I thought I could run last year, but I was more interested in sight seeing and not embarrassing myself for the front page than actually running for time.

Not so this year. It may seem like a stretch to want to run seven hours faster, but I feel I'm in much better shape this time around, and I wasted A LOT of time at the aid stations last year.

After spending the past few days coming up with splits to each aid station, someone posted basically the same numbers to the HR list. Here's what I got. On race day, you'll be able to track me here and see how I'm holding up.

Cunningham Gulch - Friday 8:10AM
Maggie Gulch - Friday 10:15AM
Pole Creek - Friday 11:15AM
Sherman - Friday 1:20PM
Grouse Gulch - Friday 6:00PM*
Engineer - Friday 8:45PM
Ouray - Friday 11:25PM**
Governor Basin - Saturday 2:10AM
Kroger's Canteen - Saturday 3:45AM***
Telluride - Saturday 5:10AM
Chapman Gulch - Saturday 9:30AM
Kamm Traverse - Saturday 1:00PM
Putnam Basin - Saturday 4:00PM
Silverton - Saturday 5:59:59PM

* - pick up Shad
** - pick up Paul S
*** - catch Fast Eddy, who will pass out after drinking a shot of tequila (Paul S is bringing a sharpie for the occasion...)

PBR and King's Chef bacon cheeseburger at Grouse Gulch and Ouray.

Of course, my main goal is still just to finish the thing. I'd be happy with a 47:59:59.

DeWalt - guaranteed tough

Be sure to watch the progress of John DeWalt this weekend. While I hope I live to be 72 - 72! -, this guy keeps on keepin' on and will be going for his 14th Hardrock finish. Think they just make people a little tougher in Pennsylvania!

Also keep your fingers crossed for Neil, he's currently 19th on the wait list...

training

Been a long time since I've been so nervous over a race, so I took a look back at last year's training vs. this year's. I start training for the Hardrock/Leadville double the final weekend of October at the CRUD run. On paper, it looks like I'm much more prepared for this round.

running superfans - ultramarathon

Denver red dress

Group shot from yesterday's Denver red dress hash. Awesome trail, had a great time even though it was my turn to play DD.

Leadville 5K

Another good time out at the Leadville 5K. Of course Katie and I started the day at the Golden Burro with a bloody mary. Saw Tony right before the race and got to talk with him, he seems to be working himself into pretty decent shape. When the race began there were four runners who bolted away from everyone. I held on to the back of that lead pack for about half a mile. After that, I didn't want to tip my hand to Tony that I'm coming for him at Leadville, so I backed off. I think I ran my first mile in about 5:50 or so, which isn't too big a deal for me at 6,400 feet in Manitou but above 10,000 feet it's a whole 'nother thing. Ended up running the next two miles very easy and finished in 19:18 for 5th place, including 1st in the 30-39 age group (for which I got a very cool wrestling medal). I gave much less of an effort than last year when I ran 19:58, so hopefully that bodes well for this weekend.

Tony ended up winning in 16:54, despite running two hours before the race. The next three guys were all under 17. No other finishers until me, and then it was another 30+ seconds until someone else came in. BLOS finished 10th in 21:01. Think they had about 120 runners.

Katie was the true star of the day. She had been trying to break thirty minutes in the 5K for quite some time, but never got close in Colorado Springs. But put some booze in her and take her to Leadville and she was gold. Despite hiking Massive the day before, she finished in 28:44. Probably the only person to ever get their 5K PR in America's highest city.

Afterwards we got to watch the Leadville 4th of July parade, always a treat. Great way to kick off the holiday weekend.

hooray purple castle!

Once again I hafta give a big shout out to the King's Chef Diner, aka the Purple Castle, for their support. Gary and crew are hooking me up with two vacuum packed bacon cheeseburgers and $100 for my Hardrock trip. I promised him that all the money would be spent in Silverton pubs getting myself and my crew drunk.

Massive

Katie, BLOS, and myself atop Mt. Massive, the second tallest peak in Colorado. Spent about six hours hiking, and several more drinking and smoking and fucking with the marmots above 14,000 feet. Good times!

Summer Roundup

Couple 'o pics from the Summer Roundup 12K on Sunday. Kudos to Katie, who set her 5K PR in Leadville on Saturday and followed it with a good effort on Sunday. All that after a six plus hour hike up Mt. Massive on Friday.

I had bigger things on my mind and ran the race for fun. And by "fun," I mean I had a blast kicking Yeti's ass! Started way in the back of the pack to ensure I wouldn't go out fast and ended up finishing in 1:04:58.

weekend

Another killer weekend looming. Katie and I are taking off right after work for the Halfmoon campground near Leadville. Stopping at Eddyline Brewing on the way, of course.

Friday morning it's an early start to bag Mt. Massive, at 14,421 feet above sea level it's the second tallest peak in Colorado. After that we're gonna relax with a round of golf at the Mt. Massive golf course, North America's highest golf course. Neither Katie nor I have ever golfed before, and I reckon that neither of us ever will again, but it seems like a cool thing to do.

We'll do supper at one of the fine and fancy establishments in Leadville. The rest of Friday evening will be spent drinking around a huge campfire, thanks to stealing a ton of wood from the Sand Dunes campout!

Saturday morning it's the Leadville 5K. I almost won this last year with a blazing 19:55. Very low key event with a lot of Hardrockers who are staying at the Leadville hostel to get used to the altitude. It's a good time, cheap, and the door prizes rock.

Probably do lunch at Rosie's, America's highest brewpub, before heading over to Red Rocks for the annual July 4th Blues Traveler show! Woohoo! Comedian Lewis Black is opening, should be interesting.

Sunday morning is the Summer Roundup 12K at Bear Creek Park. Last year I got so drunk on Saturday night I missed the race! I can't do that this year though, or they'll pull my rego to the Pikes Peak Marathon. Don't expect a blazing performance, as this race is less than a week before Hardrock.

Sunday afternoon a bunch of us are headed up to the Denver Red Dress Run, always a blast. Plus, we're hitting the Cherry Cricket first, second best burgers in Colorado!

All that and, of course, ending the weekend at the acid jazz jam at the Mariner.

Good times!

Zapata Lake

Had a great hike on Sunday out to Zapata Lake. Roughly a ten mile hike, but the going was slow due to the rugged nature of the trail and the fact that I wasn't in a big hurry. Zapata Lake sits around 12,000 feet, and I chilled there with the marmots for over an hour with a PBR and a stogie for some excruciating altitude training. Afterwards we paid a visit to Zapata Falls to cool off, my first shower since Thursday morning.