I am the victim!

Blatently stole this cartoon from Bad Ben's Brewing Blog, a fellow trail runner who also recharges his batteries through booze. His tastes are a bit more sophisticated than mine, but his blog and the links there can provide a twelve pack worth of reading for fans of beer.

Great blog, but not worth skipping the late night happy hour at the Knob Hill Lounge! $3 pitchers from 9 'till 11PM! Woohoo! Time to go celebrate the Buccos current winning streak!

feel the love!

Overheard this exchange at work today:

CM: "So when is your baby due?"

Parolee: "Hell if I know, that bitch don't call me no more."

goals

The Squatting Chicken, which I had been to years ago but hadn't included it on my pub list, was the 35th bar I've visited since I moved to Colorado in late January. I'd like to get that list up to 50 by the time July ends. Which won't be hard, since I can think of at least ten bars within three miles of my house that I haven't been to, and I have virtually not begun to explore the Nevada Ave area or the area up by where I work. It may seem like I've been slacking, but I've been to most of the bars on my list at least twice, and I'm becoming a major regular at the Knob Hill Lounge and the Black Sheep and a frequent visitor to shady joints such as the Red Rock Lounge, Benny's, and the Triple Nickel.

Also have a birthday coming up, and I'd like to have the front range 14ers climbed by then. In fact, I'd like to attempt Longs Peak to finish up the front range on my b-day weekend. Four 14ers remain, but two (Greys and Torreys) can be done in one hike, Bierstadt is an easy climb that I can run if I'm pushed for time, and then Longs. I'd also like to start doing some overnight trips, camping at high altitude and then bagging summits early in the morning.

Shaping up to be a fun July!

what it is, jive turkey?

Haven't posted much of anything for a while, thought I'd take a moment to update my loyal readers on what's going on here in my world.

Saturday morning I volunteered as a course marshall for the Panoramic 4 mile road race over in Bear Creek park. Once again, found about about zillions of acres of cool trails I need to explore. Been having a lot of fun working these shorter races and doing trail clean ups with the Pikes Peak Road Runners, all you runners reading this should try volunteering sometime.

Woke up Sunday with the ambition to run up Pikes Peak with the Incline Club, but that idea was dashed pretty quickly by ominous looking clouds that hung below treeline. I was kind of happy though, haven't felt at the top of my game since San Juan, and running all the way up that hill would have set my recovery back a ways. Still made it to Barr Camp, as you could see from the pic with Slut's shirt. And I can honestly say it's the first time I've run up the Barr Trail with the Incline Club and beat Matt Carpenter (he didn't run). After the run it was over for the usual bacon cheeseburger at the Purple Castle. I've eaten here basically every Sunday since I moved to Colorado, and I never tire of the joint.

Sunday evening I met MeatGazer and some of her wonderful friends downtown at the Tejon Street Bike Festival. Good time, finally got to see Distant Warning, and they were everything I expected them to be. Walked downtown from my house, and was gonna stop at the post office to use their automatic stamp machine, but the lobby was closed. So some of you will be getting mean looks from the mailman soon. TAF's Clark's CD was returned for postage, but all the postcards should be delivered. On the walk home, it started pouring, so I ducked into the Knob Hill Lounge for shelter.

Monday after work it was off to the DIM hash. Great trail! About a dozen of us showed and we had a blast. Trail went from the Squatting Chicken under Nevada Ave and up Pulpit Rock. Sure wish there would have been a beer check up there but Keeps It Up was a wanker.

Tuesday it was the usual debauchery at Jack Quinn's Running Club. 126 people showed up. The club even has a beer sponsor now, local Bristol Brewing. A great run along Fountain Creek followed by $2 pints of Laughing Lab! Woohoo! Nice to see someone besides me supporting local brewers!

This morning I left early for Pueblo, about 45 minutes south of Colorado Springs. Peer Assistance has an office down there and most of the folks who work there were on vacation, so me and another guy from my office went down there to help staff the joint. Easy day, he's a retired 1SG so we just told Army stories and ate the police force's doughnuts all day.

And that's it. The excitement never ends.

it's official

Losers of our last eleven games, my beloved Buccos have plummetted to 30th in the most recent CNN/SI MLB power poll. For those a bit behind the times, there are 30 teams in major league baseball.

Invihash rego

Just a reminder that regos for Colorado Invihash go up another $20 after June 30th.

If you're planning on spending time at the casa de brownie anytime before or after Invihash, shoot me an e-mail and let me know. Pleanty of room, just wanna know what I gotta prepare for.

look what I found!

Sorry BATT! By the way, along with the KDH3 shirt, I'm wearing my special edition Ben Rothlesberger motorcycle helmet that Gaylord got me.

Western States vs Leadville

Sitting here at the computer keeping track of two of my buddies running in the Western States 100 miler today. Fellow CRUDer Paul Dewitt (who is currently in 5th place!) and my personal dietician, Meredith Terranova (if she DNF's, which now looks unlikely, I'm going to tell her she needs more junk food and alcohol in her diet).

Anyways, I've always wanted to run Western States. I don't know much about the race, except it's the most famous of all the ultras, sort of the Boston Marathon of the super long distance crowd.

But lately I've been having second thoughts, and I'm thinking of making next year's Leadville Trail Race my first 100 miler.

First off, the logistics of getting to WS seem like a pain in the ass. You have to qualify (which I have) and then get picked in the lottery. Then you have to fly to California, rent a car, get a hotel, and deal with people from California. Ugh. Just seems like a lot of money and a lot of headaches, on top of the small task of running 100 miles.

Leadville, on the other hand, is barely 2.5 hours from my house. Beautiful country out there, including the promise of some great mountain pubs that would keep me going through the rough times.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of the folks I train with here only do two races a year: San Juan and Leadville. A lot of 'em are obsessed with Leadville. And I think they may be rubbing off on me.

Either race would get me into the Hardrock lottery, which is my ultimate goal.

Trying to decide on what to do next. Plate is kind of empty as far as races go. Probably start working on my speed a bit, as well as bag some more 14ers now that the warm weather is here. The Pikes Peak Double is in Aug, but I'm not too worried about that. Also looking at the Durango Double (a 50K on Sat and a marathon on Sun) in October, the RD is none other than Heinous Anus of the Tenacious D H3. Maybe try to run fast down there, do a month or two of longer stuff, and see what kind of noise I can make at Bandera in January. We'll see.

Jack Quinn's Racing Team

An insight into the super tough training/weight loss program I've started, most of which revolves around Jack Quinn's pub. The gatorade sure the hell ain't mine, FYI.

bike to work!

Last week, Colorado celebrated "Bike to Work Week." The actual national celebration was a month or two ago, but CO still had snow so they had to postpone it. Wussies.

They had events all week. Like bike safety courses, free breakfast tacos at Acacia Park for folks on two wheeles, a midnight ride, and stuff like that.

I didn't take part in any of that! But I have been riding my bike to work. And I love it! It's about seven miles each way. My ride skirts along the U.S. Olympic Training Center, cuts through the campus of Colorado College, hops onto the front range trail along Fountain Creek, goes through Goose Gossage park, and drops me off right at my office building. So I now kick off every day with a cup of coffee and a nice bike ride, and I can't think of many better ways to get things started.

Besides actually feeling good about getting up in the morning, my bike allows me to pursue other goals. I figure I'm saving a gallon of gas each time I ride, or about $3. So for every second time I ride instead of drive, I reward myself with a six pack of Fat Tire. This not only keeps my money in Colorado (remember, Fat Tire is a local brew here!), but it also keeps my money out of the middle east. Might not be on the front lines anymore, but I'm still comitted to fighting the war on terror!

I quit my job today...

OK, I'm just kidding. Not only did I quit not quit my job, but I'm actually enjoying the present one I have. Maybe I'll be here for more than a month.

And yet I'm not even sure who I'm employed with.

Overall, I work for a non-profit company called Peer Assistance Services. PA does all kinds of addiction counseling. If your company has some kind of employee assistance program, and you called it because you thought you drank too much, a company like PA would would be on the other side of that phone call.

Peer Assistance also runs the Colorado TASC program. TASC (Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities) is a program that is contracted out by the Colorado Department of Corrections to help parolees with recovery. I work at the SouthEast (i.e., Colorado Springs) TASC office, which we share with all the local parole officers.

Following me so far?

Anyways, so while technically I'm not an employee of the Colorado Department of Corrections, I'm required to go through all the basic DOC employee training, and I'm paid by funds provided by the DOC. I'll spend the month of August in Canon City, at the same intro course that the prison guards and parole officers go through. After this I'll be issued some kind of special badge that allows me entry into the zillions of prisons in Colorado. Yes, I'm hoping to get a picture with the Unibomber, but I'm not holding my breath.

Colorado has major issues with it's prison system. Years and years ago, some politicians decided to get tough on crime, and thought that super rough prison sentences would deter folks from breaking the law. Sounds like a great idea, right? So they started throwing everyone in jail. So they had to build more prisons to make room for all these folks. And then they got tougher on parolees, often throwing them back into the brig, on top of all the new lawbreakers who were being jailed. Through the years this has snowballed, and the prison system became something of a monster that grows by feeding off itself. They keep throwing parolees back into prison, and they keep adding new people to the jail population. This year's budget for prisons in Colorado was over $591 million, and it's expected to grow $100 million more each year for at least the next five years.

So, from somewhere deep within these hundreds of millions of dollars, comes my measly paycheck. I'll try and get some parolees to say no to drugs. They won't do that, and they'll go back to jail. And then I'll try to get a new group of parolees to say no to drugs, and they won't...and on and on the cycle goes. And the prison population keeps growing, and they'll hire more folks like me, which will just serve to send more parolees back to prison. It's actually quite funny how everyone knows how bad the system is broke, but nobody can really do much about it.

But, if nothing else, the job is exciting. Get to work with all kinds of addicts and criminals. AH3 crack whore jokes aside, some of these folks are in a world that, luckily, I'll never get to know. I have a LONG way to go before I can even be considered as the minor leagues to some of these hard core boozers.

So my blog should get a lot more interesting now that I'll be posting stories from the world of alcoholism and drug addiction (not that it wasn't already the coolest blog on the internet).

San Juan pics

A whopping three pics over 50 miles from the race photography team. If any of yunz ladies are interested in getting a life size photo for the roof over your bed I think you can get there from the race website. Autographs will cost you extra, of course.

from the desk of brownie's liver...

During the day, I drink a lot of coffee. During the night, I drink a lot of alcohol. And I often have people harping on me for both habits. My liver would like to tell all those people to fuck off!

Woohoo!

I'd rather be a good liver than have one! But hey, looks like I get both...

HAIL TO PITT

It's early yet, so we have pleanty of time to move up from our ESPN #4 preseason ranking! Maybe DNA will learn who Aaron Gray is this season! And Gagger, you can go back to rooting for A&M now, since they're ranked above UT.

new blog

Thought I'd throw this out there for all my newby multi-sport readers. And you veteran pub runners will certainly know Panther (named for his love of the Pitt Panthers, of course!).

http://team-punishment.blogspot.com

Other than the whole road biking thing, the Austin Duathletes are a pretty good bunch. Some of yunz should join 'em for their monthly pub run sometime.

SJS notes

Some thoughts about yesterday's SJS 50 miler, which I finished in 13:30:47:

-The first challenges of the course are the river crossings, over a dozen of them. Most of them are at least thigh deep, and the water was so cold I didn't have any feeling below my knees for the first 15 miles of the race.

-The first aid station, at the seven mile mark, had cans of Budweiser. It wasn't even 6:30AM when I arrived.

-Not too far out of the second aid station, there was a camper who had made espresso and he gave me a quadruple shot. It was the first time I've ever had espresso.

-The second major climb (there are three) is about nine miles long and took me almost four hours to cover. The final climb is basically on a trail walking up a ski slope. For those of you who have ever gone up a ski slope without using the lift (invihash ballbuster at Winter Park!), you know how much it sucks, but to do it after already covering 40 miles along the continental divide makes it oh-so-much more fun. Still, it's that second climb that will live on in my nightmares.

-There were some pretty hairy snow crossings. I was crossing one and wondered how I could self-arrest with a water bottle. A fall would have sent you screaming down the mountain and probably would have required a helicopter extract.

-The first aid station didn't have any salt pills, so I took a banana and covered it in a huge pile of table salt. It tasted awful. The crap I eat at these races...

-I had to pick up the pace around 29 miles, because I wanted to get to the 50K aid station quicker than I had finished the Sunmart 50 miler. I made it with less than a minute to spare. I rewarded myself with two ham sandwhiches, a bag of chips, a big handful of M&Ms, and a can of pepsi. I also accidentally filled up my water bottles with Mountain Dew instead of Cytomax.

-Coming out of the 50K aid station, I saw a deer running down one of the nearby hills. It reminded me of a bullet, how smooth and fast it was. Had a Pepe Le'pew type gait, all four legs moving together. I thought to myself, "I bet he looks a lot more graceful than I look right now."

-Paul DeWitt, a fellow CRUD member, is the former course record holder at the Leadville 100 and is one of the favorites at Western States this year. I came into the first major aid station and he waited on me hand and foot, filling up my water bottles, giving me food, and the like. He also gave me a Blue Moon at the 40 mile aid station (which was damn good!). Funny to see a MOPer like myself getting such aid from one of the country's top ultrarunners. Don't think that happens in any other sport.

-Yesterday was awfully painful, but the pain was different than I'd felt in past ultras. I think my body has finally accepted the fact that I'm going to put it through that kind of hell on a regular basis.

-In honor of my "support local breweries" call for help, I wore my Lovejoy's shirt. There were several Austinites and one guy from San Marcos in the race, all of whom said they would visit LJ's when they returned. From a thousand miles away I still support the Austin hash bar!

-Just after the finish line I collapsed into a chair and popped open a PBR. Having a cold beer after ruining your body over the course of such an endurance event is unexplainable to anyone who hasn't done it, but it's unbelievable how good that beer tastes.

-I am not going to be able to run again for a long time.

13:30:47

Thank god that's over with. Was quite the adventure, more tomorrow once I finally get some sleep.

good luck...

...to all the wankers running The Belt this weekend! And make sure you pay attention. I marked the course last year, then got lost during the race. I still kicked Melissa's ass though!

Jack Quinn's Racing Team

Good times at the first weekly Jack Quinn's Running Club. Keep Austin Weird 5K training has officially begun! By the way, fried mac & cheese friggin' ROCKS!

woohoo!

please donate!

One day back in Austin I realized that I was spending almost as much money on other people's racing as I was my own. Through team in training and other spinoffs, I was getting hit up about once a week for loot.

I'm not a big fan of these fundraising tactics, for many reasons. I started to delete all requests for donations from groups like these. But today one slipped through on the Colorado hash list so I was tricked into reading it.

A nameless CO hasher is trying to raise money for leukemia through TNT by running a marathon. Sounds good, right, after all there are tons of marathons in Colorado and if you can help some sick kid in the process then what the hey.

What the e-mail didn't really point out was that the marathon was not in Colorado but in Anchorage, Alaska.

I gave to my sister for this organization once, and while there are tons of marathons within driving distance of Allentown (NYC, Marine Corps, Philly, Harrisburg, B-more, lots of others) she of course had to travel halfway across the country to do the Disney marathon. Ditto with all the Austin harriettes and their triathlon groups...there are several triathlons in the Austin area but they always have to go to an exotic race thousands of miles away. I'm not a scientist by any means but I fail to see how traveling to a far off race will help anybody get better.

So basically folks in TNT are able to use fundraising as a means to exotic races. There are tons of cool things I want to do in the future. Western States, Bandera, Machu Picchu, the Guinness Brewery.... But I'm gonna work hard and pay for it myself, not piggyback on some poor group of diseased people.

This on top of the fact that the TNT organization encouraged their slower participants to cut over six miles off the last Marine Corps marathon to beat the cutoff time, and allowed the shortcutters to accept the finishers medal.

Anyways, I could rant on and on about this, it's quite the pet peeve of mine.

I'm doing a pretty serious race this Sat, the San Juan Solstice 50 miler. I shouldn't be doing it with what limited altitude experience I have, but I'm not the brightest guy in the world and I'm gonna give it a shot.

And I'm gonna ask all my loyal readers to donate some money to one of my favorite causes. I will literally be running all day on Saturday, and sometime during that time I ask everyone to head down to their local brewpub and enjoy a good pint.

Austinites, head down to the Draft Ho(u)rse, or over to Lovejoy's and support the hash sponsor! DNA or suzy, call my bro and take him to Church Brewworks! Mom, take dad over to Selin's Brew or even up to the Bullfrog.

And I'm not talking about heading to Hooters or Outback or Lil Woodrow's for a coors light. Find a great local bar and find the most local beer you can. You will not be disappointed! And you will be supporting a great cause...local brewers!

happy birthday!

231 years young and still kickin' ass! Happy birthday to the U.S. Army!

Take some time today to appreciate the sacrifices the men and women in the armed forces are making for us.

So I walked over and quit my job at the Griffith Center today. The chick in charge of HR wasn't there, and that's who I wanted to talk to because she's been the biggest bitch to me since I was hired, but the guy who was in charge today hadn't been much better to me. He didn't say a whole lot.

The final straw was on Saturday. I received a message from the chick, saying that even though I had scheduled next weekend off before I was hired, they now needed me to work. That would have caused me to miss the San Juan Solstice 50 miler, which I put up $90 and hundreds of painful hours of training for since I moved here. That, along with some other issues I had (like working Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights every week), just didn't make me excited to go to work anymore.

Of course, it's much easier to quit a job when you start a new one the next day. I'll now be working for a company called Peer Assistance Services. It's a non-profit outfit that provides drug abuse services to local businesses (insert Chlamydia-inspired crack whore joke here) , but they are also contracted out by the State of Colorado to work with and monitor folks on parole. I've been up to the office in the Springs a few times, and it's a pretty rough looking crowd that shows up there for treatment.

Seems like a pretty cool gig. My new boss is a retired 1SG who helped run the hospital where autopsies were performed during the first gulf war. I'm fairly certain I got this job because he wanted more military folks working in the office. I'll also get to attend the five week correctional officers course down in Canon City. Which means there's a whitewater rafting trip through the Royal Gorge in my future!

They're even gonna make me go get my CO certified addictions counselor certification. More importantly, they're gonna pay for it. So it'll carry a lot more weight when I tell hashers they have a drinking problem, right before I throw up on myself from drinking too much Tuaca.

And for those worried about my ability to hold down a job for more than a month up here, fear not. Each job (this is my 4th since moving to CO in late January) has brought a pretty decent pay increase, kept the same level of medical coverage (I don't really care about other benefits - sorry jes, no more life insurance posibilities), and most important to me, just seemed like a cooler job. I'd like to say I thought I'd be at this job for a while (at least long enough for direct deposit to kick in, which hasn't happened yet), but if someone called tomorrow and said they'd double my salary to guide flatlanders up and down Pikes Peak, I'd take it in a second.

Woohoo!

I've accepted a new job working with drug addicts/parolees! Normal hours! I'm off to quit my shitty Griffith Center job right now!

Evans trip report

Up at 3AM and on the road by 3:30AM, felt like I was back in the Army! Anyways, arrived at the Summit Lake trailhead (via the USA's highest paved road) around 6:30AM and was greeted by a constant high wind and near freezing temps. Thought about just driving up all the way to the top of Evans but wouldn't allow myself to be such a wus. Still, I was glad I brought a lot of extra clothes.

Had planned on bagging Evans and then cutting across the Sawtooth Ridge to hit Mt. Bierstadt. But I was having major second thoughts about that Ridge, both from the lousy conditions that had recently been reported and the fact that I'm a fairly inexperienced mountaineer.

After about an hour of very steep but otherwise easy hiking, I arrived at the top of Mount Evans. There was a crowd about 100 feet below where the parking lot is, but none of those lazy wankers were gonna walk the extra quarter mile up to the actual peak, so for a while I sat alone at 14,264 feet with a Philly blunt and cold PBR! At that height, and with the weather conditions, I was able to actually watch clouds forming.

Not long after I had finished my cigar, a park ranger came up to the peak and I talked to him for a while about crossing the Sawtooth. He STRONGLY recommended that I not do it, due to the weather report (possible T-storms) and the snow on the ridge. He made it pretty clear that he would be pissed if he had to come save my ass. But he did suggest a great alternate route, that would get me in some great bouldering above 14000 feet and allow me to bag Mt. Spalding (one of the Centennial Peaks, aka Colorado's top 100 peaks). While talking to the ranger, I heard a weather report come over the radio, and at the peak it was 38 degrees, which was significantly warmer than at Summit Lake where I had started.

Anyways, I decided to take his advice. The pic above was taken by the ranger, and that's me at the peak of Mt. Evans. In my immediate background, you can see the route I took over to Mt. Spalding. Most of that route was well above the elevation of Pikes Peak, then you drop quickly before a short climb back up to Spalding. Still a very tough trek, but a mistake here probably wouldn't end fatally like it would on the Sawtooth Ridge. Turned out to be a fantastic hike, though I did have to stop frequently to catch my breath.

On top of Spalding I ran into two hikers who were on their way to Evans. It was gonna be the 29th 14er that one of 'em had climbed, and he told me he still wouldn't do the Sawtooth Ridge. So I'm kinda glad I decided to bail on that.

From Spalding it's an easy, well carined hike back down to Summit Lake. Total time for the climb was 4:54, but that included the long break I took at the top of Evans.

Chilled at the lake for a bit, then made the white-knuckle drive back down Evans Road and into Idaho Springs, where I enjoyed a couple 'o brews and some killer garlic fries from the Tommyknocker Brewery.

Took some pics from the journey, and they're available here.

Evans/Spalding; but no beers on Bierstadt...

Just got back and I'll post some tales later, but I ended up doing the Evans/Spalding loop from Summit Lake. I talked to a forest ranger at the top of Evans and he highly suggested not going over the Sawtooth Ridge today, so I took his advice. Still had a great hike though!

Ended up being about a four mile hump, with almost two miles of that being class 2 bouldering over 14,000 feet! Woohoo! Total time for the loop, including a long break on top of Evans, was just under five hours.

Evans/Bierstadt

So in an effort to salvage a broken weekend, I've decided to make an attempt on two 14ers tomorrow, Mt. Evans and Mt. Bierstadt. Bring me just a bit closer to my PBR/cigar quest, and get me halfway through the front range mountains.

Mt. Evans, at 14,264 feet, is the 14th highest peak in Colorado and will be the highest I've climbed so far. Seems like a somewhat easy hike, and I anticipate no problems with this peak. The issue will be crossing the Sawtooth Ridge to bag Bierstadt. A fall here and I'm gonna keep going for a long time, and probably not get back up.

If the ridge proves too dangerous, I'll retreat and bag Mt. Spalding, at 13,842 feet it's the third highest 13er in Colorado. If the day goes unbelievably great I'll nab all three peaks.

To do all this I'll be getting up at 3AM, which gets me started before sunrise. Hope to hit the Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs for celebratory/disappointment pints afterward, and then high tail it over for the Denver hash.

Good luck!

Good luck to team OTR at the Danskin triathlon this weekend. Social Retard, Easy Access, She Wanker Bitch, Heaven' Semen, Dirt Diggler, and anyone else I may be missing!

NO NOODLES!!!

hash article

Good hashing article about some of the Carolina hashers here.

Roadtrip cancelled

Damn, of all the days to have mechanical issues with my jeep! Had to bag the trip to New Mexico. Hope to find something around the Springs to salvage the weekend.

Woohoo!

We finally got him! Congrats to the military folk working their asses off over in Iraq!

Roadtrip!

Off on a long roadtrip this weekend! Gonna head down to Ruidoso for the CoTex festivities. Plus I'm gonna get in some climbing, have a Sierra Blanca/Lookout Mountain double and a hike up White Horse Hill planned, all peaks over 10,000 feet.

Also debating adding a few extra hours to go check out the town of Truth or Consequences. Not sure what's there, it just sounds cool. Could also hit Roswell to look for more aliens (and drink more Roswell Alien Amber beer!).

Was planning on leaving Thursday, but now it looks like an early Friday departure. Might even have a passenger, Melissa (from Austin) is in town and might tag along.

new blog

Great new blog from the Austin Gay and Lesbian alliance!

Smut Mutt

Bush quote

I have a lot of issues with the current administration and the leadership they're providing our country with, but I thought this was a pretty good quote from GW:

"[Cowher] is a -- he's an amazing coach. He's got the most unusual expressions on the sideline. So I told the vice president I was going to be able to congratulate coach Cowher in person, and he said, 'Well, get him to give me some tips on his scowl.'"

KBCO

The drive to Denver rocks, partly because of the amazing scenery of the front range and partly because once you get over the Monument hump you can get 97.3FM KBCO on the radio. Based out of Boulder, it's one of the coolest radio stations I've ever listened to.

For the Austin folks, I always thought KLBJ/KROX was a bit too much, and thought KGSR was too little. Radio Boulder sits right between those two options.

Anyways, if yunz care to check 'em out you can click on KBCO and then hit the "listen live" icon at the top. Last few artists: Jack Johnson, Zeppelin, Neil Young, 3 Doors Down, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, John Mellencamp, Gnarls Barkley, and Sonia Dade. Enjoy.

Happy National Trails Day

Ok, so it's not the biggest holiday of the year, but hopefully everyone got outside to enjoy a trail today.

I took two hours to clean up trails along Fountain Creek in downtown Colorado Springs with the Pikes Peak Road Runners. Only two of us showed up (there was a pretty big 5K this morning which kept the numbers way down). But the other guy was Snow Queen of the P2H4, so at least the Pikes Peak hash was well represented. And between the two of us we filled up four large garbage bags, so it was time well spent.

Mount Herman

Turns out my interview went long and my plans of climbing in Denver went out the window as a result, but had a fun climb on the way home.

Herman is located in Monument, a little bit north of the Springs. Yes, Dirty Woman Creek Park really exists, and it sits near Pike National Forest so it might be a great place to start a hash.

Anyways, the climb up to Herman wasn't anything too bad, most of it is on a nice trail. Did have to do some bouldering at the very top, nothing too bad though. From the top one is treated to amazing views of Pikes Peak, Pike National Forest, and even some of the Rockies up above Denver.

The most fun was driving to the trailhead. A very rugged one lane dirt road, with a drop of several hunderd feet on the one side and a rock wall on the other side. Typical Colorado driving, but I'm sure glad nobody came the other way while I was out there.

Took a few pics, you can go see 'em here.

my kind of place...

This is a park in Monument I was at earlier today. Combines my two favorite things: the outdoors, and dirty women!

Pikes

Made it to the top of Pikes Peak again today, though I'm paying for it right now.

Took it out hard and was well under 3:30 pace at treeline, but after that things got ugly. Guess I'm not quite as used to the altitude as I thought! Had some serious bouts with dizziness and at times I had to find a good rock to sit on to just breathe and regroup. Pace slowed considerably here and I ended up hitting the top in 4:09.

I did get to pass through cloud cover though, that was cool. One minute I'm looking up at clouds right over my head. Then it got all foggy. Then suddenly I'm looking down at clouds. Pretty cool.

After a few summit donuts and a cup of joe I started back down the hill. Felt a lot better on the descent. Even added an extra five miles onto the run to go check out the Bottomless Pit, well worth the effort.

So a 30+ mile run, last long run before San Juan. The altitude sickness worries me, as much of the SJ50 is pretty high up. Might try to make it up to treeline to camp a night or two, but that's about all I can do between now and then.