I had an awesome day out in Rocky Mountain National Park today. Mike, David, Charles, Lou and I started at Bear lake and headed up over Flattop to Haynach Lake and back. We had perfect weather and there were tons of wildflowers out on the western slope.
RMNP Flattop to Haynach Lake
Longs
Longs
David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.
David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.
Longs
Longs
Actually running across Flattop at 11-12,000ft. Awesome!
Actually running across Flattop at 11-12,000ft. Awesome!
Charles contemplating a shortcut down.
Charles contemplating a shortcut down.
Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.
Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.
Haynach Lake
Haynach Lake
David, Charles, Lou
David, Charles, Lou
Took a short side trip on the way back to scramble up to the top of something. …it didn’t have a name on the map.
Took a short side trip on the way back to scramble up to the top of something. …it didn’t have a name on the map.
After running Western States just 3 weeks ago I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into the Vermont 100. I felt OK but knew I wasn’t 100% recovered from Western States. Based on past runner’s results, I knew that it was possible to run Western and Vermont back to back and not only run both well but run Vermont even faster. So I was curious to see just how far I could push myself to find out if I would hold up or not.
The start of the race was much better than I expected. Despite the 4am start time, I felt well rested and ready to run. We had a nice cool, clear morning which felt pretty comfortable. I was surprised to find myself running in the lead pack with Andy Jones-Wilkins, Neal Gorman, Andy Henshaw, David Larsen, and a couple others. Andy Henshaw pulled out into the lead after a few miles but for the most part, we had a nice brisk social run for the first 17 miles before everyone settled into their own pace and spread out. I dropped back and let a few more runners pass me but still managed to make it to the Pretty House aid station at mile 21 on target for a 17 hour finish.
Since this was my first time running Western States, I went into the race with a broad set of goals. I was fairly confident that I could finish in one piece under 24 hours for the silver buckle. But over the past few months my training had gone well enough that I though finishing under 20 hours would be a pretty good target to aim for. My stretch goal was to beat 19 hours but I figured that I would need to have a perfect day to pull this off. Well, it turned out to be a nearly perfect day and nothing went wrong until I crossed the finish line in 18:58:42 in 18th place.
I showed up at the start at Squaw Valley feeling better than ever. I was fully rested and all the nagging aches and pains from months of hard training were gone. It was hard not to get too caught up in the excitement at the start of the race. Everyone was amped up and ready to go and the energy in the crowd was pretty intense.
So it’s been 2 years since I made a feeble attempt at starting my own running blog. As you can probably tell, I’m not very good at keeping this up to date. Honestly, when I have free time after working I would much rather be out running than typing on a computer. But I think I should try to make more of an effort to post more information online. I’m planning on running the Grand Slam this summer and some family and friends would like to hear more about it. And there are a lot of runners who might appreciate some info about the training runs and racing I’ve done.
I’m still amazed at how incredible this course was. The scenery completely made the challenge worthwhile.
Given the circumstances of the day, I had a great run. From the start I was feeling like my effort level was unusually high even at a very slow pace. I should have at least been able to breeze through the first 15 miles of the day. It seemed pretty clear that I was starting out over trained which didn’t really surprise me after what I did to myself in May. May was a separate personal challenge in itself so I really don’t have any regrets in hindsight. And since I wasn’t challenging Karl for the course record, running a bit short of optimal performance wasn’t much of a big deal. Read More
Longs
David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.
Longs
Actually running across Flattop at 11-12,000ft. Awesome!
Charles contemplating a shortcut down.
Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.
Haynach Lake
David, Charles, Lou
Took a short side trip on the way back to scramble up to the top of something. …it didn’t have a name on the map.
Lou, David, Me, and Mike
