24 (12) hours of Gnar

Headed up to Fort Collins over the weekend for the Colorado 24 hour run hosted by the Gnar Runners.  Good run for me, sort of.  For about 12 hours anyways.  Hit 50 miles in 9.5 hours but then the wheels came off and I ended up pulling the plug at 63 miles.  I have not been running that kind of distance lately so it was nice to get a good 50 in.  Had hopes of a longer distance though, but I just didn't want to walk the same one mile loop for another twelve hours.  Solid event though, can't rule out returning next year to see if I can get a few more laps in.

the week

Big week on the SAR front.  On Thursday we headed down south to help the sheriff look for a missing 80 year old dementia patient.  Got to do some work with the dogs for a few hours and then helped out with a drone search.  The woman remains missing.

A bit lighter hearted on Saturday as I got to push a SAR coffin at the annual Manitou Coffin Races.  Probably had 20,000 people over in Manitou watching.  Good times.

Not much on the workout front this week.  Was pretty sore from the road 'thon through Wednesday and started back slowly after that.  

halfway to 50

Had a blast on the Detroit trip.  Heard nothing but bad things about the town but I thought the places we visited were awesome and the people were a blast.  Not to mention a ton of solid Michigan IPAs.  

The race went much better than expected considering a brewery crawl and beer festival the day before.  Thought I was in 3:45 shape if everything went perfect.  Was on 3:40 pace through mile 21ish, then things went to shit.  Somehow managed to rally back around mile 24 with the increasing crowds cheering me on and the hash beer check, ended up finishing in 3:43:39.  Highly recommend this race.

Detroit

Excited for the Detroit trip.  Especially because we get to go to the Detroit Fall Beer Festival.

Probably won't help my marathon time on Sunday but whatever.  State number 26 coming up!

still going

Decent week even if not much on the weekend due to SAR and the Pikes Peak 1000th hash.

run - 41 miles, eight hours

ride - 44 miles, four hours

hike - 26 miles, 10.5 hours

trudging along

Not a whole lot going on since Pikes.  Some of that was SAR, some of that was me being lazy.  Detroit is going to be a slog just to grab another state.  

For the week:

run - 24 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 54 miles, five hours

hike - 23 miles, 9.5 hours

My beloved Pitt Panthers are 5-0 and are now ranked in the top 25!  Ahead of Michigan, FYI.

Pikes

Meh.

The exciting part of the weekend was Fri/Sat, when I went on a SAR call to help some hikers get off the mountain.  Got to the summit around midnight, had to hike down about half a mile and escort them out, very slowly.  Two of the eight hikers got put on oxygen, the others just went real slow.  Like an hour from the top of the golden stairs slow.  Oof.

No excuses, I signed up for SAR and I knew what I was getting into.  But I had nothing to give on Saturday and luckily ended up just under four hours.  I had guessed I'd run close to that, but I didn't think I'd feel so awful doing so.  At least the kazoo band at the Cirque played Pearl Jam for me.

I got a good nights sleep after the Ascent and woke up thinking I'd do a lot better, and then I got word that the Marathon had been shortened.  I ran a lot better, getting to Barr Camp ten minutes faster and feeling good, but it was all for naught.  Couldn't even go to the Royal after the race as the place closed down a few weeks ago.

My tenth double.  14 Ascents and 12 Marathons (including this ultra half marathon finish).

Time to change things up as I have a bunch of road marathons coming up.  Not expecting much at Detroit in mid October, but I'd like to take a crack at a sub 3:30 in Eugene next April.

Andy Frasco & The U.N.

Took off for Chaffee County this weekend.  Friday night was one of our favorite bands, Andy Frasco & The UN at the Lariat.  While pre-gaming for the show we ran into Andy Frasco himself.  So cool to see him just hanging out in BV.

Incredible show, $100 and I both agreed it was the best show we've seen of his.  Such a good live band.

After a good dog hike on Saturday morning we headed over to Salida.  Hit all the usual places over the day - Elevation, Soul Craft, Salida Distillery, Tres Litros, Benson's.  And it was my first visit back to The Vic, open again after closing it's doors years ago.  Love the new place, so glad it's back.

Another long dog hike on Sunday, then it was back home.  We got a new cadet and we got to meet him Sunday evening.  He is slightly faster than me at the 5k right now so I have some work to do.

For the week:

run - 43 miles, nine hours

ride - 14 miles, 80 minutes

hike - 27 miles, eleven hours

Panthers are 3-0.  Steelers are 2-0.  Good time to be a Pittsburgh football fan!

staying busy

Been super busy with SAR since we got back.  

On Friday we had a mission out on Vigil Peak.  I've lived here 15 years, a lot of team members have been here for much longer, and nobody had ever heard of the peak.  Out off Old Stage Road.  The first truly fucked up person I've seen on SAR as he took quite a fall and was dealing with some serious head injuries.  Luckily the Army came to help out.

On Saturday I helped with the Brain Injury Alliance Pikes Peak Challenge.  They have SAR folks along the course just like the Ascent/Marathon.  I was at A Frame most of the day, then hiked up from there with my pack and a hikers pack.  Oof.  Counting it as my 40th Pikes summit as I went down significantly below A Frame at times.

Tuesday night we got a late call to head to Palmer Lake and find a potentially suicidal girl who was lost in the woods.  Could have been bad but it turned out alright.

All that time is definitely giving weight to my guess that I'll be pretty close to four hours for the Ascent and 6:30 for the Marathon next weekend.  Little slower than I'd like but the training just hasn't been there since Creede.

let's play two!

Back from the road trip only to catch a flight to Chicago for two more nights of Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field!  It was my first time to Wrigley and I didn't even have to watch the shitty Cubs.

Explored Wrigleyville, did some running and rucking on the lakefront, drank too much Malort, and checked out a few breweries.  Great trip.  The liver is begging for mercy and now it's time to return to a much more healthy PJ habit - listening to their shows during long runs.

road trip

Awesome trip.  Lander, Jackson, Alpine, Borah, Missoula, Three Forks, Ten Sleep, COS.

Wasn't quite all drinking.  Had a solid push up Borah Peak in Idaho.  Great, though steep, hike with lots of scrambling.  Took me almost six hours, only taking a break to chug a Red Leg Hazy IPA on top.  Borah was my 27th state highpoint.  I thought Idaho only had potatoes but they have some good looking mountains too.

Then it was off to Missoula.  They have a fantastic dog park with a river running through it, and that was our first stop.

And then it was time for the greatest and best band in the world.  An incredible show in an incredible place, so glad we were able to pull this one off.

The boys still have it, that's for sure.

We spend the next day in Missoula, hiking the dog all over and visiting some dive bars and breweries.  Then we started the long drive home, staying a few hours away at Bridger Brewing in Three Forks, MT, and then heading down to Ten Sleep Brewing for the next night.

$100 and I represented.

The last day was a bit of a bummer as we got word that our good friend Moose was not doing well and we had to push the eight hour drive home to see him one last time.  Lots of good times over the years with that pup.  Rest in peace buddy!

lazy

Not the most productive week.  Couple of visitors and we dogsat Moose and Millie.  Time to get my ass back in gear for Pikes.

Got in some good SAR training on Sunday over on Iron Mountain.

For the week:

run - 24 miles, four hours

ride - 22 miles, two hours

hike - 18 miles, 8.5 hours

BroCos and Foos

Making the most of a recovery week.  On Friday we were joined by the Garcia's for the Brothers Comatose over at Lulu's.  Great show.  Even got a Scout (the song our current van is named after) down in the crowd.

Hung with the SAR dogs on Saturday and then it was off to the big city to catch the Foo Fighters.  Our seats were so high up we had to watch out for the airplanes heading out to DIA but it was a fantastic show and we had a blast.  

Somehow we managed to get up early on Sunday for a Colfax ruck.

$100 gave me the green light to take a chunk out of my 50 states goal and I'm now signed up for the Detroit, Rocket City (Huntsville, AL), Mississippi Blues (Jackson), and Eugene marathons.  Plus Pikes, Salida, and Colfax.