Thursday, November 14, 2013

still here

Good times up in Boulder over the weekend.  The IPA Fest was every bit as awesome as I hoped.  Also hit three new breweries while in town, and hit the ground about a dozen times trying to bike back to Timko's house.


Training is going.  Basically I run hard on Tuesday and Thursday with the Sunrise Striders, and I've been racing quite a bit on the weekends.  The other days I either don't run, or just goof off with the dog.  Also been spending a lot of time at the rock gym and the YMCA.

I'll be in Denver (City Park) this Saturday running the Pumpkin Pie 5 & 10K.  Races start at 9AM.  Any of yunz Denverites feel free to drop by to say hello.  Or just meet me at Sancho's around noon.

Would like to address the idea of "mainstream" for a bit.  It's a big word nowadays in the ultrarunning world, mostly used in the same sentence as "Leadville" and "Born To Run."  If you assume that every runner who started Leadville had an average of a four person crew, there were 4,000 people around the LT100 this past year.  That's a little higher than your average Tuesday night Colorado Springs Sky Sox game.  The Sky Sox are our minor league baseball team, FYI.  Not exactly mainstream.

During the last Olympics I remember there was a big scandal over badminton.  I wonder if the die-hard badminton players are complaining about how mainstream their sport is nowadays.  And I'd guess there are millions more Americans who have heard of badminton than ultrarunning.  Remember how badly everyone made fun of badminton over that debacle?  That's what everyone would be doing to ultrarunning right now, if anyone outside of the sport had ever heard of it.


Ultrarunning is nowhere near mainstream.  Is it on ESPN every day?  Are weekly rankings published in USA Today?  Maybe the Bolder Boulder here in Colorado could be considered mainstream.  Maybe the Rock and Roll Marathons (including the half, which gets big numbers) could be considered mainstream.  If you think there's a huge national audience since Born to Run sold 130,000 copies, you need to get a friend or two who doesn't care to run hundred milers and come back to the real world.

My thoughts on Leadville: I love the race, even though I don't do it anymore.  But I also love the Rock and Roll Marathons, and Leadville is definitely the RnR of the ultra world.  It is what it is.

My thoughts on Leadville being removed from run100s.com: it's like me saying I don't like people who drink beer.  Dude tried to sue Sir Nick over 80 bucks, now he's crying about Lifetime Fitness trying to make money.

Of course, Wooten threw down a stout time this year, and rumor has it Amanda might be signing up next year.  Maybe there's a little pull for me to get back out there.

Ran really well at the Rattlesnake Ramble at Eldorado Canyon State Park (even though I lost to the guy running backwards):


Did not run so well the next day (post-IPA fest) at the Canya Canon 7K, though I did rock the official Brooks shirt:


This is the last weekend before the Incline Club starts back up.  Think I'm going to finish the Fall Series on Sunday and take the week off.

9 comments:

GZ said...

That could make a guy take up badminton.

Was thinking of you because I am going to try to get a east BoCo brewery Fatass going ... maybe the weekend after Thanksgiving. Figured it would be up your alley.

Anyway, as much as I have enjoyed watching folks hate or love on Leadville, I think you just show what you support with your wallet. Don't like that Bolder Boulder has 49000 people? Don't do the race. Don't like how expensive or exclusive your favorite ultra is? Go somewhere else.



brownie said...

I have noticed a bunch of breweries popping up around Broomstock.

We're running a half marathon on Black Friday that goes from Red Leg to Bristol.

Gangels said...

Did Kircher pass out 30 seconds after that picture was taken?

trudginalong said...

Todd and I are hiring someone to keep track of what we should be mad at on an ongoing basis. I don't want to be left out of the loop.

Chris Boyack said...

Time to switch to gravel grinding.

Anton said...

Most reasonable comments I've seen anywhere about the Leadville b.s.--I completely agree with what you said. It's ONE race inside of this TINY, fringe sport...people on both sides need to calm down.

brownie said...

Sure, easy for the guy with the A-Rod-esque 200 million dollar shoe contract to say!

mtnrunner2 said...

I am bummed that I forgot about the IPA fest.

"Mainstream" is when my mom starts running it. Or when people in Vans and Converse Chuck Taylors start asking me "is this is a good trail?".

Wyatt Hornsby said...

Beautifully said, JT.

Wyatt