Fall Colors and 100k Routes

Oct 17th, 10 / 0 Comments

I headed out to Box Prairie with Nick today to run the loop around Monument Gulch, Old Flowers Rd, and West White Pine mountain. As many times as I’ve run up in this area, I’ve never made it around this particular route. This loop is a possible segment for a 100k route that Nick is cooking up so we figured we’d take advantage of some gorgeous fall weather and dry ground while we still can.

The entire area is literally a maze of jeep roads, atv trails, and some single track – all of which change depending on what map you’re looking at. Fortunately, the route we took turned out to be fairly straight forward and well marked. We only passed a few side roads that weren’t identified on any map and only stopped to guess at one fork in the road which turned out to be just a split that reconnected back together a few hundred yards later.

The total round trip turned came out to be 16.3 miles by my GPS with 3,800ft of climbing between 7,800ft and 10,300ft. For a possible 100k route, I think this loop is ideal. Almost all of it is accessible by ATV or a 4WD vehicle so it won’t be difficult to set up regular aid stations and if anything goes wrong, it won’t take long to get help to anyone out on the course. But the route is still challenging and scenic with some great views of Lookout, Signal, Stormy Peaks and Comanche.

And the fall colors today were spectacular. It would be great to run an event here during the peak foliage but it would be fairly risky to organize. Last year, this area was already buried in snow by mid-October.

Click here for the detailed map, elevation profile, and route info.

Here are a few photos from the run today:

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Wasatch Front 100 – 2010

Sep 26th, 10 / 6 Comments

It’s taken me a while to sit down and write about this one. I’m still not quite sure how to describe this experience. This was probably the most physically and mentally exhausting experience I’ve had so far. 33 hours is a long time to spend on the trail and my hat is off to anyone who has the determination to stay out until the very last cut off to make it to the finish line. By comparison, this made my 19 hour finish at Western States seem like a 5k fun run.

The day started off well enough. The 5am start is pretty early but made a world of difference from the 4am starts at Leadville and Vermont. I at least started off the day feeling somewhat rested and normal. But I already new that I was going to have a difficult day. In the three weeks after Leadville I cut back on my running mileage significantly and started taking more rest days. But the more I tried to rest and recover, the worse I felt. My last easy social jog with the Fort Collins Trail Runners the previous Tuesday felt like a chore. I was getting winded on easy climbs and my legs were aching and sore. I was in no condition to race …let alone finish a difficult mountain 100 miler. But I had set out to finish the Grand Slam series 9 months ago and couldn’t quit after finishing the first 3 events.

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Leadville 100 Trail Run – 2010

Aug 22nd, 10 / 3 Comments

Well, this one really sucked. Going into the race, I have to admit that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the event. The only reason that I committed to run Leadville was because it was part of the Grand Slam. And even that is a minor point of irritation since I don’t think it’s right for someone to sell entries into a series of events that they don’t direct, sponsor, or donate to. But that’s an entirely different issue.

Leadville is really an over-priced, over-hyped, over-crowded event on a mediocre course. I will say that the event has a lot of potential. It could really be a world class race if it were organized with the same level of support and competition as Western States. After running events like Western States, Vermont, and Bighorn, paying $300 for Leadville is quite a let down.

If they can’t run the entire race on decent trails, they could at least make use of the miles and miles of perfectly accessible road to set up decent aid stations. I had a miserable time covering the final 10 mile stretch over Sugarloaf and the last 13.5 miles from May Queen and I can’t comprehend how anyone at the back of the pack pushing to make the cut offs could manage that. The race would have a much better finish rate with just a few more aid stations along the way. But I guess that’s part of the money making system. Bring in as many entries as possible from anyone and everyone and bank on a high DNS and DNF rate to pocket the profits. The volunteer aid station crews that were out there were fantastic. Especially the team that packed in gear on Llamas and camped on Hope pass. I just wish the race organizers would set up more aid station crews on the course.

And the sheer volume of trash on the trails really put me in a bad mood. On the way outbound, there weren’t more than 30-40 runners ahead of me but I still saw more dropped gel packets and other trash than I’d seen at every ultra I’ve run in the past two years. The runners who dropped that trash weren’t the brain dead zombies who couldn’t manage to hold onto a gel tab with swollen fingers. That’s just unacceptable behavior. On the way inbound, Eric filled his pockets with trash several times between Twin Lakes and Fish Hatchery. But even that was a losing battle and a token effort at best.

So I guess I can’t be surprised at my final performance at the race. You just can’t run a 100 miles well without being fulling mentally committed. I started out thinking that I might be able to run sub-20 if I had an exceptionally good day. At the very least I thought I could run under 24 hours comfortably. Well, I didn’t have an exceptionally good day and I think I’ve finally realized that if I continue to run races back to back each month like this, I probably won’t. I didn’t run under 24 hours either and it wasn’t comfortable.

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RMNP Flattop to Haynach Lake

Jul 25th, 10 / 0 Comments

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
LongsLongs
Longs
David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.
David and Lou. Halfway up Flattop.
LongsLongs
Longs
Actually running across Flattop at 11-12,000ft. Awesome!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.
Charles contemplating a shortcut down.
Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.
Heading down the western slope towards Haynach.
Haynach LakeHaynach Lake
Haynach Lake
David, Charles, LouDavid, 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.
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 MikeLou, David, Me, and Mike
Lou, David, Me, and Mike

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Vermont 100 – 2010

Jul 19th, 10 / 2 Comments

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.

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