new brewery in town...

$100 and I went up to the brand new Colordo Mountain Brewery last night. It's never good to judge a place based on the first night they're open - they're working out lots of kinks with just about everything, which is good for them since I thought the joint was average at best.

The food was good (awesome fries, possibly the best in the city), better than the beer. But I don't go to breweries to eat. That, added to the fact that the place caters to the yuppies, church-goers, and Air Force officers on the north side of town, means I probably won't make too many trips to the place. I had pints of the 7258 Pale Ale, the Ole 59er Amber Ale, and the Roller Coaster Red Ale, and none of them are gonna make me forget my two favorite local breweries: Trinity and Bristol. I also have a growler of the Monumental Stout to try after tomorrow's run up Pikes Peak.

We will be back at least once, though. Everyone who showed up yesterday got a wooden coin good for one brew. Since the opening day special was $2 pints all day, $100 and I just paid for all our beers so we could return on a normal priced day ($4) for the freebee.

Skipped desert and insteaded headed to the Rocky Mountain Brewery for a nightcap. It's 12 miles from CMB to Rock Bottom, then another three to RMB. Important stats, since that route will be part of the upcoming brewery marathon...

weekend

Weekend is here and I'm still up in the air about what to do. Will be kinda nice to be around the house for a change though.

Drinking at the The Legion tonight. And the Lounge. Gotta get my carbs for all the running this weekend.

Debating on what to run tomorrow morning. Pikes Peak? Falcon trail at the Air Force Academy? The Garden/Rampart/Williams/Waldo/Ute/Intemann/Sec 16 loop I've been wanting to do? Guess I'll decide tomorrow morning. Saturday night should be fun, I'll be over at Kinfolk's jammin' to Grant Sabin.

Sunday some of us are heading up the Pikes Peak Highway to do the Elk Park/Summit run. And back, of course. Elk Park is one of my favorite local trails so I'm pretty psyched. Meeting at my place at 6:30AM if anyone wants to carpool up there. Can't wait to chow down on my first summit donut of the year!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! After this one, there's only one training weekend left before the big showdown in Leadville...

Huron

Good shot of $100's family and I on the way down from Huron Peak. I see her family more than I see my own.

save the date!

October 30th. New race in town. Yes, it's a marathon. Yes, there will be lots of breweries. You'll want to be there, even though you won't remember it. Details TBA...

The Bear

Just signed up for The Bear, the last race in the Rocky Mountain Slam and my last hundred miler for a long time (until next July, anyways).

Going to take a long vacation in conjunction with the trip, visit Moab, Arches, and the Western Slope on the way home. So many breweries, so little time...

Pretty excited, as my old ultra crush is rego'd. Haven't seen her in a long time, figured she'd quit the sport.

>$1

Total for running related expenses currently sits at $2,148. Total mileage for the year is 2,146.7 miles. So tonight's CRC happy hour will be a celebration of me finally dipping under the goal of less than a buck a mile.

It'll be short lived though, as this Friday I'm dropping $185 on the Bear and another $30 on the new 10 miler in town. But with five months left in the year, and pretty much everything already paid for, I'm pretty confident I'll end up way under. No, the hookers that Josh, BLOS, and I will be getting in Tucson does not count as a running related expense...

Smut, where is my beer???

Jesus is coming! Look busy!

If anyone wants to go on a ten month drinking binge, let me know. It's also a good reason to skip on buying C-4 a birthday present, as her b-day is on May 22nd.

These are popping up around the village, the closest one to me that I've seen is in front of Amanda's Fonda (teetotalers who try to sound hip will tell you they have the best margaritas in town, but true drinkers know that honor belongs to The Loop). The Springs will allow this crap, but heaven forbid we put a good looking chick on a garbage can...

commute #18

Easy seven miles to work this morning, just over an hour. Should get some decent miles in this evening as I'll run a few laps around Prospect Lake before joining the CRC peeps for their happy hour run.

Hit the Manitou track last night to see the old Tuesday crew. 8 x 400m, averaging around 79 seconds, then 4 x 200m in 35 or so. Might take me a few weeks to get Usain Bolt to notice.

I need to step it up...

My new hero.

Leadville

Here's the rough splits I'm shooting for at Leadville, hoping to finish in 23:56:01. I swear, that time has nothing to do whatsoever with someone who finished WS in 23:56:02.

Mayqueen 2:10 (6:10AM)
Fish Hatchery 4:00 (8AM)
Halfmoon 5:00 (9AM)
Twin Lakes 7:00 (11AM)
Winfield 10:00 (2PM)
Twin Lakes 13:10 (5:10PM)
Halfmoon 15:40 (7:40PM)
Fish Hatchery 17:10 (9:50PM)
Mayqueen 20:30 (1:10AM)
Finish 23:56:01 (3:56:01AM)

Gonna hafta roll with the punches for the first 20 miles or so, due to the high number of runners expected, and not panic if I get behind. Just like I'm gonna have to be careful not to get caught up in all the excitement and go out too fast.

Of course, I am prepared to crawl to a 29:59:59 finish if I have to. Leadville has fed me a harsh dose of reality in the past, and I don't plan on repeating those mistakes again.

Huron

$100 and I on top of Huron Peak. My 27th 14er, her 12th. Huron is the second smallest 14er in Colorado at 14,003 feet.

DIM hash

Here's the beta for the next DIM hash in case anyone wants to do a little running and drinking. BLOS and I have done this one for three years now.

Wankers,

Time once again for the highlight of the DIM hashing season! Bust out the tie-dye to celebrate the birthday of Jerry Garcia!

Monday, August 2nd. 6PM-ish. Hash starts at Mo's Diner, 108 Manitou Ave, kinda sorta near HWY 24 and Manitou Ave. Bring $5 hash cash, ID, a few extra bones for a bar stop, and a flashlight.

Won't be too much of a long, strange trip - trail is roughly four miles and easy to follow. Nothing like those buzzkill east side hashes...

Rumor has it that the man himself, Jerry Garcia, will once again be performing at the beer check.

GZ workin' that ass!

commute #17

Nice ten miler before work today, including a swift 10 minutes on the Colorado College track. Going for speed on the way home today, off to the Mt. Princeton hot springs tonight, Mt. Huron tomorrow, and rafting Brown's Canyon on Sunday. And who knows, maybe I'll end up scalping tickets to the Burro Racing World Championships on Sunday as well.

Nice article on Austin's Hill of Life. Can't begin to imagine how many times I ran up and down that thing during my seven years in central Texas.

commute #16

Easy 45 minutes to work this morning.

About to head home via Santa Fe, Bear Creek Park, Section 16, Intemann, and Red Rock Canyon. In a heavy rain. Good times!

Pirates have sunk to #30 in the power rankings. Nowhere to go but up!

bad news Thursday

Rumors of the whole incident being more than a DUI accident had been around for a while, but this was in the paper today. Here's to the guy being real popular with the prison population. I'm still stunned that somebody I know could meet an end like this.

Then I read that Spencer Swanger, the first guy to bag all the Colorado centennial peaks, died on a climb. Didn't know him very well, but when I used to work out at the Y he was always there and was always willing to talk about the mountains to waste time at the boring gym.

Raise a pint tonight for two great members of the local outdoor community.

post BTMR @ Kinfolk's

The gang at Kinfolk's after the BTMR. Nick owed so many beers to people he didn't even show up...

quote of the day

"I had great difficulty in not putting his head through the nearest window. If John Gadret is found dead in his hotel room in the morning, I will probably be the primary suspect.''

-TdF rider Nicolas Roche

See the story here.

Two scrawny dudes in spandex talking major trash, musta been quite the scene! Can GZ and JMock top this in the run up to the Burro Racing World Championships this weekend? Hell, I think Brandon and I may have to ratchet up the smack talk after this story.

$1.04

Spent a total of $2148 in running expenses so far this year: race entry fees, shoes, gas, food, and who knows what else. After this morning's Garden run, I'm sitting at 2074.6 miles for the year (an average of 10.27 miles per day, FYI). Comes out to a buck oh four (very nearly the cost of Freedom) per mile. Sometime next week I should drop below a buck a mile, but I'm also staring at the $185 entry fee for the Bear by the end of the month.

quote of the day

"Take a primitive organism, any weak pitiful organism. Say a freshman. Make it lift, or jump or run. Let it rest. What happens? A little miracle. It gets a little better. It gets a little stronger or faster or more enduring. That's all training is. Stress. Recover. Improve. You'd think any damn fool could do it."

- Bill Bowerman

Leadville vs Western

Been wondering about both courses lately, maybe some of yunz can chime in on this.

Is one any harder than the other? Is it a general rule that you will run slower at Leadville than Western?

What's more impressive, Matt's 15:42:19 or Geoff's 15:07:04?

Ann Trason holds both women's records, 18:06 at Pb and 17:37 at Western.

Looking at those times, is it fair to say that Leadville is about half an hour slower than Western?

What would get one more ultra groupies, the sub 24 buckle at Western or the big buckle at Leadville?

Can Western compete at all with the Leadville finish line - which boasts at least five dive bars within half a mile? I mean, Tony got yelled at for drinking a PBR at the Western finish. I can't imagine any scenario where you would get in trouble for drinking beer in Leadville...

weekend

Great, great weekend. I volunteered at two races (riding my bike to both of 'em), the Women's Distance Festival 5K on Saturday and the Barr Trail Mountain Race on Sunday. Very inspiring to watch so many runners have great races: Katie PR'd for 5K, BLOS took seven minutes off his best BTMR, Jillian ran 2:31 and took home some hardware, Amanda was top five for the ladies, Shad ran a great race despite refusing a pacer for the final half mile, Nick was solid, GZ proved to be slightly better than 2 flat, and Nell McCaffery, who had an epic wipe out in front of Katie, GZ, and I at the spur and still got up to finish in 3:29:59 - beating the cutoff for the race by one second. Really awesome seeing all this. And of course, deserved or not, the 2:12 Kenyan marathoner who had his ass handed to him by the mountain will probably become part of BTMR lore.

Lots of other people doing great stuff, including AJW's win at Vermont and Tim's toughing it out at North Fork, but here's about all I did all weekend long:

book #9

$100 and I are gonna take some time to explore Arches National Park and Moab on our way home from the Bear, so I've been doing a lot of reading on those places to get ready. Should be a pretty decent trip.

post Hardrock

Slowly getting back after Hardrock. Took Sunday through Wednesday off. 25 minutes with the CRC crew on Wednesday. An hour last night, though that was interrupted by a stop at Castaway's for a quick brew. They're closed on Mondays, so chances are that the Jerry Garcia DIM hash on August 2nd will start at Mo's. Not much running this weekend, but after that I'll get back at it for three weeks to stay ready for Leadville.

Recommitted to my new year's resolution of doing a ton of push ups. John O made a call on the Colorado Running Company facebook page to do 50 push ups and 50 sit ups a day until the end of the year. Started this afternoon at the rock gym.

Also been doing a ton of yoga lately. They're having a challenge at corepower, you have to do 20 sessions of yoga in 45 days. After each session you do you get a sticker to put on a board, like they did back in 2nd grade with gold stars. For some reason these kind of rewards motivate me. I'm up to 51 times for the year now, and four times in the challenge, which has been going on for 5 days now.

Grabbing lots of volunteer hours this weekend. Woman's Distance Festival on Saturday, Barr Trail Mountain Race on Sunday. Debating on which shirt to wear for the chick's race - the "I Love Fast Chicks" that the CRC gets for the volunteers, or my brand new Smokey the Bear shirt that says, "I Put Out."

Thinking of jumping in this as a b-day present to myself. It would be a much better workout than the Run for Rwanda, though that is a race I could possibly win (it's the same people who put on the Turkey Trot that I won, by a lot, last Thanksgiving). Either way, I have to race that day, since I'll be running from Fish Hatchery to Leadville that night with Brandon. I'll be using one of two lines that night: "Dude, I raced today and still kicked your ass," or "Dude, of course you beat me, I raced today."

another report

Brooks has posted his Hardrock report. Everyone go make fun of him for his DNF.

quote of the day

"In the first six months of 2010--a relevant training block punctuated with the coda of Western States--I ran:

3405 miles,
in 502h 03min,
with 596,500' of vertical climbing.

And some other dude still beat me by six minutes. That's how it goes some times."

-Tony


I blasted past 2000 miles for the year early in Hardrock. Think it took me longer than Tony's 502 hours to get there though.

Intemann

As much as I love the Intemann trail, I hate the section where you have to cut through the cemetery and head on the road up Crystal Park to get back on the trail. But it looks like, finally, the actual trail might get completed. Read the Gazette article here. It's been a very weird soap opera-ish story, with physical violence and foul language and who knows what else, and it's good to see it may be ending.

Future long run from my house, over 99% on dirt: Garden of the Gods, Rampart Range Road, Williams Canyon, Waldo Canyon, Ute Pass, Intemann, Section 16, White Acres, Red Rock Canyon. Ending at the Red Rock Lounge, of course.

25

Easy 25 minutes with the CRC happy hour crew. Sore, but it shouldn't take too much longer to recover. Hit the Bristol Brewery afterwards for some extra carbs.

Special happy hour this Sunday following the BTMR awards. Meet at Kinfolk's following the ceremony. I have a bet with Nick on whether or not he will finish top 10. I'm certainly not rooting against him, but I said I'd buy him a pint if he finishes up towards the front.

I'm also throwing this out there - I'm challenging GZ to a beer bet. Pint of his choice on me if he can beat my BTMR PR (2:01)...

more HR pics...

Couple of cool shots by Fred Marmsater. I do plan on buying these, so Fred, if you come across this blog, please don't get too pissed about me ripping off your pics.

The middle one is of me wishing I had a stiff drink for some courage to tackle a super steep downhill...

Greg

Good shot of Greg Hartman, whose race I possibly saved with the simple act of a snickers bar, doing his best "brownie at night" impression...

Hardrock 2010

The past two years I've done Hardrock I posted VERY long race reports detailing the course, so I'll keep this one a bit shorter, maybe one beer long...

In a nutshell, I ran strong until Grouse Gulch, bombed up and over Handies, and recovered well until the finish. I had run smart into Telluride (mile 27.8), then pushed the pace a bit over to Governor (mile 36), then crushed the downhill into Ouray (mile 43.9). The competitive juices were really flowing here, as I was running to beat my good friend Brooks, who had been struggling over some of the early climbs.

I picked up my pacer, Shad, at Ouray just after chowing down my first King's Chef bacon cheeseburger and downing a PBR. Shad worked me like a rented mule up and over Engineer Pass and down to Grouse (mile 58.4). It was shortly before midnight at Grouse when I arrived, and though I was very tired I still had visions of running my dream time at Hardrock, somewhere in the 33 hour range.

Katie was waiting at Grouse and gave me the update on my friends in the race. Unfortunately, this was the end of my "race" and the beginning of my hike/run. When she told me Brooks had dropped at Ouray, it sorta took the wind out of my sail. Instead of fueling up and heading up and over Handies, I decided I needed to rest for a while in the back of my truck. Ended up spending an hour at the Grouse aid station.

Time-wise I was still good after leaving Grouse, but a horrendous stretch between Grouse and Sherman ended any hopes of an impressive time for me. The Z monster had jumped on my back, and I just couldn't shake him off. Shad was trying his best to keep me moving, but I just couldn't summon any energy. Took several breaks along this stretch, one of them a full hour, and was passed by dozens of runners.

Finally rolled into Sherman (mile 71.8) at 7:40AM, after a period of nine hours had passed. Ouch. Now in "just finish" mode, I once again bedded down, spending half an hour in a tent before hitting the aid station. Spent a total of 50 minutes at the Sherman aid station. But right before I left, a volunteer gave me a handful of bacon, which definitely improved things.

Gotta give a huge thanks to Shad here. I believe Shad thought he was going to be finished at Sherman. He was kind of surprised when he found out my crew wasn't going to be there to pick him up. He ended up dragging my ass all the way to Cunningham Gulch (mile 91.3), a stretch of almost 24 hours for him. He wanted to kick my ass over this SNAFU, but I kept telling him it was good Leadville training, which shamed him into biting his tongue and continuing on.

Shortly after leaving Sherman I started to get my second wind. The stretch from Sherman to Pole Creek (mile 80.9), to Maggie Gulch (mile 85.2), to Cunningham went very well and I was able to keep a decent pace, passing lots of runners who had crushed me up and over Handies.

I finally dropped Shad off at Cunningham. Had another Pabst here to the amazement of some of the aid station workers. Had a great climb up and over the final section, running the last nine miles to the finish line in 3:06, which included passing a bunch of runners up the final hill and passing another two or three over the last two miles of the course.

Ended up kissing the rock at 7:31PM, for a time of 37:31. For as lousy a stretch between Grouse and Sherman I had, I was somewhat happy with the time and really glad to keep the Rocky Mountain Slam attempt alive. I smoked my victory cigar and immediately headed over to the Silverton Brewery to celebrate.

Feeling pretty good as I write this. I got a cut on my right foot from a rock that hurts, and a nice scrape on my forehead from a Pete Rose impression I did coming down a steep hill, but other than that I think recovery will be quick. I feel not only like I'll be able to recover for Leadville, but should be able to get in some quality workouts before then. I'm amazed at just how bad I felt during my Boston/Jemez meltdowns versus how good I've felt during Bighorn/Hardrock.

Two down, two to go...

Some other observations:

-What a weird start. Karl, who I think of as the King of Hardrock, made a wrong turn about 50 meters into the race. The beginning pace was very slow, allowing Brooks to take the lead up the first climb (about 200 meters into the race). I was in 10th place at the top of the first hill, the Shrine of the Miners, right behind Karl. I knew this was no good for me, so I walked the following downhill until another 20 or so people had passed me. I could tell that Karl wasn't having a good day, and would later tell Brooks that I thought he would DNF.

-There was lots of excitement back in the middle of the pack over Diana Finkel's run and the possibility of her winning outright. We were told at Pole Creek that she had indeed taken the overall title, to which I responded, "this is a bad day for us male chauvinist pigs." Luckily, this was bad info and Jared Campbell was saving the day for us guys. Wonder if it was tough on Jared's pacer over the final section (I believe it was his wife) to lead him back to the win over another woman? Big kudos to both, however, and I loved both their speeches at the awards ceremony. Well deserving champions, both of 'em.

-Kudos to my buddy Greg Hartman for a strong finish. Shad and I passed him on the way up to Engineer Pass and he was among the walking dead. He told me he hadn't been able to keep any food down and was basically trying to make it to the next aid station to drop. I gave him a snickers bar and moved past him, thinking I wouldn't see him again. He would suffer for a bit more, but would recover to finish in a strong 33:22.

-Strong finish by my pacer last year, Paul Smith. He was one of the many who passed me on the way up Handies. I would close on him over the final third of the race, but he was able to hold me off and finish in 36:50. This puts the pressure on Shad to run strong when he strikes it rich in the Hardrock lottery.

-Big kudos to the rest of my crew, Nacheaux and Katie. I'm always astounded at how they will put up with me, especially during some of the rough moments a hundred miler can bring out in me. I'm also jealous of how much more they get to drink than I do during the race.

HR article

Denver Post article on Hardrock can be seen here.

HR pics

Nacheaux's Hardrock pics can be seen here.

impossible?

Used to think there was no way in the world I could ever finish a Hardrock!

so close, and so far...

Great shot of Jennifer Roach (wife of the guy who wrote the Colorado 14ers book), exhausted after getting the most bang for her $250 Hardrock entry fee, finishing in 47:57.

Just a few minutes later but a world away in terms of results. Leonard Martin of Tennessee finished in 48:02:20. At the pace he was going I'd guess he was about 200 meters from the finish line when the 48 hour cutoff came. He was mentioned at the post-race awards ceremony but is not credited with an official finish.

Thanks to Gazette photographer Christian Murdock for letting me post these pics. Christian was all over the Hardrock course and took some amazing shots.

home

Back home, a bit sore but nothing too bad for my second mountain hundred miler in three weeks. Coming into Grouse (slightly over halfway) I thought this might be the year where I run 33 hours, but a horrid stretch up and over Handies to Sherman ended those thoughts. Still, very happy with the entire weekend.

Will continue to post pics and a report this week. A few days to recover, and then it's time to get ready for Leadville...

37:31!

sleep

We saw JT at Grouse 11:30pm, took an hour nap and then we sent him on his way so we could go back to the hostel and get our beauty rest. While there Scott Jaime and Meltzer were resting in the sick tent. Scott put on his big girl panties and got back out there but not so for Meltzer. So far 3 people have finished Jared campbell 27:18, Diana Finkel 28:32, and Michael Foote 29:35 and rumor is it Darcy Africa will be here in the next 10 minutes. We are headed to the distillary and then going out to Cunningham to wait.

AMAZING CREW

Neal is showing the young guns how it's done. He came into Ouray about 30min ahead of JT and Brooks. JT was in good spirits, only pooped twice:) Brooks has the second best crew out there today, they massaged his feet, covered them in new skin, vaseline, put a tampon in his vajay-jay and sent him on his way in the rain, lightning and thunder. Good work entourage! But better work Team PBR!!!

RUN LIKE A GIRL!

It's turning out to be a great race between the top runners but not the runners most people were thinking it might be. Diana Finkel is kicking ass and taking names!! She went through Ouray at about 4pm tonight right on Scott Jaime's heels looking like she was taking a nature hike. She's in second but I wouldn't be suprised to see her in first at Grouse Gulch. RUN LIKE A GIRL!!

The live update isn't working for me so to keep you updated, Brooks, Neal and JT all came into KT within minutes of eachother from 8:58-9:02. John Sharp went through at 10:00. Scott Jaime went through Telluride at 12:15ish and Nick P just went through at 12:30. Will update again when the Springs trio gets in and out and we are headed to Ouray for margaritas:)

And they're off!!

Through the river and up the trails...

TO-HELL-U-RIDE they go:) We will post as soon as someone comes through. Expecting JT around 14:30.

Crew

As JT sits at Silverton Brewery drinking his nerves under the table his amazing crew are carpooling down to Silverton in hopes of making the 6am start time:) Now I know you are all wondering are we ready for this epic weekend? Have no fear, Nacheux and I have been equally as diligent at training for this weekend as JT has. We've practiced drinking PBR in the car...

at the bar...

and on the mountains...

Most importantly, we know how big of an ass he can be ;)

On out and much more to follow tomorrow.

Let's get it on!

almost time!

About to begin another epic roadtrip.

Leaving after work to head down to Curecanti National Recreation Area just outside Gunnison to do what all the great ultrarunners do: sleep in the back of a truck. Waking up early Thursday to finish the drive to Silverton.

Will keep this blog and my FB page updated as much as possible. I've given access to Katie as well, so there should be updates during the race. She'll try to keep tabs on all the friends-of-brownie runners as well.

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words over the past day or two. Even those who reminded me to be sure to pack the tampons.

Missouri Mountain

Self portrait on top of Missouri Mountain from the weekend. I was kinda worried about the weather, which looked like this at 8:30AM:

Wheeler Peak

Enjoyin' life at 13,161 feet above sea level, the state highpoint of New Mexico.

ultras in the news

Article from my former daily rag, the Austin American-Statesman, on Meredith and her recent Western States run can be seen over here. Local gal Jamie is mentioned.

And everybody's favorite female underdog, Brooks, made the front page of the Gazette today. See the article here.

Sounds like the Gazette might be out covering Hardrock once again this year.

book #8

Just finished this one. Pretty good read, it's definitely had a positive effect on my diet. Have gone over six months without fast food, and now I'm trying to give up high fructose corn syrup. Of course, having said that, I'm getting a box of 48 snickers after work, fuel to get me through Hardrock...

quote of the day

"Do not believe in miracles. Rely on them!"
-Bob from Pug Ryan's

commute #15

Working today to get an extra day off for Hardrock. Easy bike to work. Streets were empty, very nice way to start the week.

weekend

Awesome weekend.

Bagged Missouri Mountain on Saturday, then just about killed myself trying to make the traverse over to Elkhead Pass. I ended up turning around about halfway, but not before a few stressful moments with some good Hardrock practice dealing with exposure. Missouri was my 26th 14er.

Drank my face off Saturday night, then did the Firecracker 5K on Sunday morning. After hitting the Golden Burro for a bloody mary, of course. Didn't have a good race, but ended up third overall in 19:17. My body just doesn't deal with oxygen debt anymore. Still, a day after a six hour hike and sporting a serious hangover, I think that's my fastest time at that race.

After the race we hit the Manhattan to watch the hot dog eating contest. Some Leadville cops came in for a "courtesy check," and as they were leaving one of the locals threw a small firecracker at the fuzz. He quickly exited the bar head first and parallel to the ground, and was in handcuffs shortly after. All the bartender could say was, "damnit, not again!"

Katie and I then hit three breweries on the way to Red Rocks - Backcountry Brewing, Dillon Dam Brewing, and Pug Ryan's. Great beer. Would have been a perfect opportunity to knock off the Dostal Alley Brewpub, but all bets are off for Blackhawk until they sort out their bike mess.

Then, as usual, the Blues Traveller show rocked! To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their first album, they played it in it's entirety. Great stuff! Also saw one of the best concert fights ever! Multiple rounds, it was a battle royal involving both sexes. For whatever reason, security just didn't show up, so the brawl went on and on and on. Damn stinkin' hippies!

Pictures to come, but I gotta get my ass to work.

life is good!

Switchback Amber @ Backcountry Brewery!

Don't tell Head Eunuch I was using his mug...

High Mountain Pie!

HR odds

Karl's Hardrock odds are up over here. He knows what he's talking about, so you can take this to the bank - Brooks will be one of the top female finishers!

Definitely the quote of the day, if not of all time:

"Brooks Williams 7-1. A Hardrock rookie, but she asked me for some advice on how to break 30 hours….so I assume she’s pretty quick. Hardrock is no picnic and can sometimes be underestimated."

Killian's race report

Despite everyone saying this guy is pretty cool, I'm going to stick with my pre-WS notion that he's a douchebag (which is totally different than a douche rocket, FYI) from France. Plus, the google translation of his race report makes him sound like an idiot.

Kudos to him for not dropping out of the race when Tony and Roes dropped him. At the very least he stayed off AJW's shit list!

extra credit

Took a few days off after Hardrock. My buddy Sean, who just did fairly well at Mt. Washington, and I are gonna do this.

Almost time...

post Western PBR

I apologize to the photographer whom I stole this pic from, but I feel it had to get posted on this blog. Even in defeat, Tony showed that CO trail runners are the coolest in the land. Tony's race report is over here.

early Hardrock plan

Going to be tweaking this over the next week. Basing this off of my original Hardrock trip back in '08. Very conservative, and Katie is on alert that these times may move up. This is very doable for me, and fares pretty well compared to RM slammers not named Karl. The times are when I would leave the aid station.

Silverton - mile 0 - 0600 Friday
KT - 11.5 miles - 0845
Chapman - 18.9 miles - 1100
Telluride - 27.8 miles - 1400
Kroger's Canteen - 32.8 miles - 1616 (one extra minute to do a shot of tequila)
Governer - 36 miles - 1700
Ouray - 43.9 miles - 1840 (ten bonus minutes to eat a bacon cheeseburger and down a PBR)
Engineer Pass - 51.5 miles - 22:30
Grouse Gulch - 58.4 miles - 0100 Saturday (bacon cheeseburger #2)
Sherman - 71.8 miles - 0700 (PBR on top of Handies)
Pole Creek - 80.9 miles - 1100
Maggie - 85.2 miles - 1230
Cunningham - 91.2 miles - 1445
Silverton - 100.5 miles - 1845 - finish time of 36:45
Silverton Brewery - 100.6 miles - 1900

quote of the day

Courtesy of the doc.

"What I was trying to say was that the Catholic Church is a political organization masquerading as a religion. What I actually said was, 'Fuck the Pope!' You know how it is when you've been drinking..."
-Reginald D. Hunter

Larry & His Flask

I've seen a lot of shows over the years, but I'm not sure anyone out there can compete with a Larry & His Flask live gig. I think the best description I've heard of the music is "hillbilly punk." Definitely check the guys out if they roll through your town. A few of the pics I took that night: