Hooray Bristol!

I'm officially on a bender if yunz guys haven't figured it out by now.

Shamrock Brewery

Unfortunately, they don't have Yuengling here. The Irish Red is pretty tasty though.

Bingo Burger!

Raptor Resolution Run

32:35 for five miles. Windy as hell in Pueblo today.

Heart Attack Grill

Can't believe I forgot to mention the world famous Heart Attack Grill in all the Vegas posts. The burgers weren't quite on par with King's Chef, but pretty close.

Here's some pretty good food porn just for the CRUD guys:

Then, of course, there's the infamous nurse waitresses. Didn't get any good pics of the ones we had, but they were on par with what you would expect.

brownie/Murphy's/CSCO/PBR #0

branding

Here is the new brand/slogan/logo/whatever that was picked by the CS Indy for our fine town:

For all the uproar caused by this issue, I'm not sure how the above logo is any more or less retarded than the original slogan.

brownie, Triple Nickel Tavern, CSCO, PBR #0

new training partner

Me and Matt C at the recent Incline Club gift exchange on x-mas morning. If I look fast, it's because I'm actually wearing Matt's vest. If Matt looks drunk, it's because of all the gin fumes I was giving off at 8AM.

Be sure to check out the shitstorm of comments over here.

3000

7.5 miles to work this morning. Just over 3000 on the year. Looks like I got there a few hours ahead of Andy, obviously proving who the better runner is.

back at it

Nice morning run with the Sunrise Striders. Warm up over to BFNH (Big Fucking Nasty Hill) in Bear Creek Park, then 8 x 60 seconds up the hill. Could tell I hadn't done that kind of workout in a long time, by repeat #6 I was really struggling. 6.8 miles, 68 minutes.

2984.3 miles on the year. Cutting it a little close, but should comfortably get to 3000 by Thursday. Less than 100 miles in December, other than a good first half at Vegas it's been a super chill month.

Yellow Beer Challenge

The 2012 Challenge is getting ready to begin. Details here. If you want in, the beta is posted on that website.

Thanks to Wiley for putting that all together.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

$100 and I spent x-mas at the local zoo. Good times! The giraffes are in the Rift Valley section, always good to get back to my Kenyan roots.

Incline Beer Mile

At the CRUD run some of were talking about the recent FoCo Vertical Beer Mile. We then moved on to the possibility of having an Incline Beer Mile.

Beer #1 - the bottom

Beer #2 - the no trespassing sign

Beer #3 - Barr Trail bail point

Beer #4 - the false summit

Working on what the penalty lap would be. I suggested a "reversal of fortune" would require the runner to summit Rocky Mountain. Rick said the puker could possibly go back down the Incline, either to the bottom or to the last beer stop. Still some details to work out, which can be done while running and drinking.

Still can't believe CRUD has never hosted a beer mile, but look for it to happen sometime this spring.

CRUD run

Above pic from Paul D. Here's his comment: "Nice day for a snowy trail run! We are at mile 8 of what we'll be racing on Jan 14 at the Ponderous Posterior 50K. That is the incline in the background and we'll be running up that during the race. I expect there will be some tears on race day!"

9.2 miles, 1:49. Slow pace, but we were dealing with quite a bit of snow.

Rescue Run

Logo for the Jan 1st 10/5K. Hopefully it's not 20 below on race day.

victory!

Jeremy has raised the white flag. I ran the first four days of the week, took the bus today. He drove everyday. Come enjoy the growler he fills for me at the PPRR Winter Series race #2.

big apple

Just found out my NOLA run qualified me for the 2012 NYC Marathon. Think I'm gonna take the plunge.

The race is more expensive than Hardrock.

Thurs

8" of snow on the Westside, a solid 6" downtown. Was going to pull a Nick and say, "damn, shitty weather, I'll just bag this run" but I knew I'd get made fun of. Shoveled the sidewalks (unlike my crappy neighbor O'Day) and then ran 5.2 miles to work, 55:30. Weather channel, as well as the digital thermostat I run by halfway to work both said 19F, but either I'm getting used to Colorado weather or it was warmer than that. Probably helped that I had four layers of warm clothes on.

Driving tomorrow. But it's supposed to be a lot nicer out then.

new FKT

Inspired by Dakota's recent post, I rocked a new FKT from my office to my front porch tonight. 5.4 miles, 49:04. The long route, via the new hike-and-bike. Might never be broken, since I'm not going to let anyone know where I work.

I was going to drive to work tomorrow, but Happy Trails called me out. Think it's going to be -4000F at 6AM.

run to work (again)

AM - 5.1 miles, 52:30. A balmy 18F at the start, lots of ice on the sidewalks. Four layers to stay warm: a 2011 Jemez tech tee, a long sleeve cotton 1998 Chris's Run 5K shirt, the heavy tech 2007 Leadville long sleeve, and my cotton Old Chicago Beer Tour sweatshirt. Tomorrow looks like it'll be one of the coldest runs of the year. Not sure I'll have enough clothes to make it in without freezing.

Read that Salomon has an $80 pair of shorts on the market. That's probably more than I've spent on shorts in the past decade. In fact, I usually don't spend $80 on shoes.

CRUD run this Saturday is the first section of the upcoming Fat Ass. All are welcome. 7AM at the Red Rock Canyon parking lot.

run to work

Easy run to work. 16F at the start, three inches of fresh snow. 5.2 miles, 54 minutes.

Possible white flag from Jeremy in the commuter challenge.

Be sure to catch FIU in the Beef 'O Brady's bowl tonight. Their coach may be headed to Pitt tomorrow.

2012

Haven't run a step since Vegas. Two full weeks off. Going to get back at it today, then I'll spend the rest of the year running to and from work. Need 73 more miles to hit my 2011 resolution of 3000 miles. Cutting it kind of close but I should get there.

Updated the 2012 race schedule. Will have two "A" goals for the year. 32:54 at Hardrock and 2:49 at NYC.

The odd time for Hardrock represents a ten hour improvement from my first HR back in 2008. That's the year Skaggs edged me out at the finish by a scant 19 hours. My best there is 36:35, so trying to take 3.5 hours off may seem like a stretch. But definitely doable.

And the itch for a 2:49 is burning in me now. I'll have to live vicariously through JP for the time being, but after Hardrock I'll focus on the speed for NYC. That race is tentative, seeing as I'm not really sure I'm qualified yet. If I don't get in I'll find another late November race, maybe Route 66 again.

Lots of races. I go to a ton of races, but I rarely put forth an actual race effort. I don't have the self discipline to hit the long training runs, so I have to use races for that purpose. No time goals for anything other than the ones above. Will probably hit a lot more of the local shorter races as well. Winter Series. Summer Series. St. Pat's 5K. The short stuff will hopefully provide one element my training lacks: longer tempo stuff.

Maybe September-ish for the annual Grand Canyon trip? Looking at something new this year - exploring the Havasu falls area.

Should be another great year!

Murphy's

RunColo

My choice for the RunColo graph contest:

bus

Bus pass runs out today, convieniently timed since I'll be running to work every day next week. I'm one day up on Jeremy, though he can catch me on Monday since I have the day off.

new training partner

Free PBR to the first to identify this guy...

test

Sent from my brand spankin' new iPhone 4s!

ugh

Wanted. Head football coach. Must have an unwillingness to molest little boys.

Think, by my count, including interim coaches, Pitt has had five HC's since this time last year.

NYC?

One of the only disappointments about Vegas was that I thought I had blown my chance for an automatic qualifier for NYC (sub 2:55).

But when I actually checked the website today, it looks like my NOLA time actually gets me into NYC 2012! I won't know for sure until they update their website sometime this month, but it looks pretty promising.

Good lesson here. Work super hard to achieve your goals. Fail miserably. Then realize you already accomplished that goal nine months ago.

bus

Still at it on the commuting front. Rode the bus for the 7th day this month. Think I'm beating Jeremy even with the two days I was in Vegas. I can almost taste the free beer!

Quite frankly, the bus has become annoying and I can't wait until Monday when I start running to work.

fridge of the year

I need to step up my trips to the Purple Castle in 2012 so I can catch this guy.

happy holidays!

Red Rock Canyon

Hoover Dam

There were actually some points during Vegas weekend where we weren't drinking. $100 and I made the short drive down to Hoover Dam on Sunday morning. Pretty cool place. The bridge in the pic below is partly named for Pat Tillman.

big money!

Vegas

Finally...

Nick said he's gonna break my thumbs if I don't settle up on our bet soon, so this will end up in his fridge tomorrow. Lighten up dude, it's only been nine months since Salida!

The brew is called The Brits Are Back.

new brewery!

Dino's

high roller

Few hours after the Vegas marathon. Can't remember the name of the casino, but they had $1 Michelob.

more Vegas

I keep wanting to post a race report, but following the Vegas scandals are much more interesting.

It was originally reported that the Competitor Group CEO raced the half marathon in 1:26 and won his age group (he is 59). And he got married during the race (a 15 minute ceremony)! And he took almost a full hour off his PR! Of course, once it was noted that he didn't register a time at any of the timing mats from the course, the age group article was pulled. Now I know how Simon from RunColo posts such fast times!

Oh yeah, very nice of the CEO and his new wife to grab finisher medals. They ended up running out of medals shortly after this pic was taken.

Still lots of talk going on about how many folks got sick.

I can barely keep up with it all. The race was four days ago and the RnR Vegas facebook page is still blowing up.

From the end of the race until sometime on Wednesday, I threw up multiple times, experienced horrible headaches, was severely dehydrated, and had some balance issues. Of course, none of that was due to the race but to all the partying afterwards...

commute #4

Another day, another bus ride. Commute number four on the month, think I'm currently tied with Jeremy. Looking at dusting off the bike for a ride to work if the weather ever cooperates.

Vegas whining

Vegas news story about all the complaints can be seen here.

The chick whining on the interview ran a blazing 2:21:04 half marathon. It blows my mind that half marathoners are complaining about electrolytes.

You can tell the event took a horrible toll on the chick, judging by how traumatized she looks in her finish line photo:

Lots to catch up on. Try to get it all online by the weekend.

home

Finally back home. Could take a few weeks to recover from the previous 48 hours.

Guess the race was quite the debacle, judging from the RnR Vegas facebook page. The debacle at the merge of the two races, some crowded conditions at the finish, running out of medals, and the possibility of some bad liquid at aid stations making lots of people sick.

Funny, it was so crowded over the second half I didn't bother hitting the aid stations. All I had over the last 13 miles was beer. And I didn't get sick.

3:17:54

Went for it and blew up. 1:26 high at the halfway point. I then ran into the half marathoners, all 38,000 of 'em. Seems they started that race a few minutes early. They were supposed to leave a lane open specifically for marathoners, but that never happened. Not too pissed, I don't think I could have got that 2:49 on this day, and I had a blast running the strip under the neon.

Two week break, then we'll start some Hardrock training!

pre-race preparation

The Double Down Saloon kicks ass!

Focus on the Beet!