It's been seven years...

...and I decided to do it again.  In the interim, I moved to Leadville, moved to Colorado Springs, remarried, took up road biking.  I decided this time that my principal training for the Ascent would be...road biking!  All directions from my house in Colorado Springs (really close to the fire area) involve a lot of climbing, and often you have to fight wind, too.  So I don't do big distances, but my Garmin Edge 200 frequently shows 1000' and more of climbing per ride.  Also, for a relatively brief period before the race (August 18th) I was walking/running the daily two mile route with my dogs, trying to run all the hills.  Who knows how well this might have worked if I had not come up with the (flawed) strategy of running the first two miles in 26 minutes to "beat the crowds" that form at the series of switchbacks known as the Ws.  I did not beat the crowds, to say the least, and, as the pundits predicted, really beat myself up.  I beat the Barr Camp cutoff time at 7.6 miles by 21 minutes, but made the cutoff at A-frame at 10.2 miles by a scant 6 minutes.  For the last two miles, I was taking frequent sitting breaks to take the weight off my legs and stretch my lower back.  By the clock, I finished around 20 minutes before the cutoff (21 by chip timing.)

"Everyone Get in Line"

Nothing can come between us...extra points for getting both feet off the ground at the same time.

Post Mortem

Well, I know I haven't communicated much process for a long time. I can tell you that I've: worried some; taken a few more "long runs;" used the treadmill relatively briefly, at speeds up to five mph (briefly) in the tropical rec center environment. Also, as a result, I think, of unwise computer posture/environment--sitting on a soft couch and reaching forward to type on a low coffee table--in the last week before the race I developed pain in the lower back, which would affect me sharply on bending forward or reaching to the right. It had been many years since I'd seen a chiro, but his--eventual--diagnosis was a quadratus lumborous muscle that was not pulling its weight. The exercise, if you're interested, involves assuming a classic pin-up pose on your side and using your forearm on the floor to raise, and hold, your body in a straight line off the floor.

On to the payoff: 4:47:48. Third quartile of all men and men in my age group. Fairly close to getting into the second quartile in the 56-59 group: 49/91. I had estimated a 5 hour finish, and had hoped to beat it. I finished feeling that I still had something left in the tank. I know that the infamous "16 Golden Steps" near the finish, that had many complaining, were no problem for me. I don't know how many minutes I left out there, but I think 17--to get down to 4 1/2 hours--is not unreasonable. I had been warned against the complacency of getting into a pack and falling into the pace of the slowest runner ahead of you--it's classic theory of constraints. It can be difficult, but possible, to get out of such a pack and get some clear trail ahead of you, or even move ahead to join a faster pack, etc. The difficulty in passing is the obliviousness of some people as to what a simple, quiet, polite "On your left" means. The other side of the equation is people who are literally breathing down your neck, stepping on your feet, or otherwise touching/pushing/"embracing" you before you have any inkling they are passing you. My back got plenty tight; I found that assuming a fetal position balanced on my toes seemed to provide temporary relief. I was drinking at every aid station--Gatorade when available--and carrying a partially-filled Nalgene bottle of Gatorade on my belt in back. I had taken two aspirin around 5:00a, and took a couple more around 10:00. It's probably more info than you feel you need, but despite all this drinking I felt no urge to pee throughout the race and even after several hours at the summit.

The weather started nice at the 7:30a start of the second wave, but the starter said that rain was expected around 10:30. What an understatement. I don't know exactly when it all started, but there was light rain, light grauppel, heavier rain, hail big enough to hurt, fog, thunder...and LIGHTNING. The line of runners continued stoically, fatalistically, up the trail. Indeed, what else is there to do? I know that certain runners talked of hitting the deck when a boom and a flash went off near them. The weather got really intense at, and near, the summit. The road was closed, no vans in or out, so that hundreds of runners were stranded in the Summit House, a space too small for so many. There was no room to stretch or lie down, and for most, no chair to sit in. Many, like me, sat on the floor, and looked for postures that would alleviate the pains and cramping of people who had just run 13.32 miles and climbed 7,815 feet. Food ran out, and a number of people were treated for hypothermia. The line to take the vans, when they resumed, was long. After several hours, an extra train on the cog railway was sent to take me and several hundred other runners down, a slow trip in the same cattle car atmosphere as the summit. Amazingly, I didn't hear any runners who were signed up to "double"--do the marathon the next day--say they were considering not doing it.

Summary: my "training" was plenty. I beat my goal, achieved respectability, and felt ok both at the end and the next day (as I write.) My feeling is that a fairly fast round trip on a fourteener--such as the one Miranda and I took last month up Gray's/Torrey's--with its downhill section, takes a much greater physical toll, at least on 56 year old legs.

Tread Mill

Well, my insouciant aura must be fading. I did what I have never done before for more than a minute or two: I ran on a tread mill at Ashland. Set it for 12% grade (PP averages 11%) and ran for 15 minutes at a 15 min./mile pace. Suffice it to say that currently a finish time of around 3:30 is not realistic. Tomorrow I may see if a 20 minute/mile pace is more benign.

Slide Lake Topo

Took Iris, Murdoch, Happy, and Sugar on a run up to Slide Lake.

Slide Lake Topo

It looks like about 3.2 miles from the trailhead as the crow flies, but the crow doesn't fly exactly straight. Let's say it's a bit more. It appears the trailhead is at 10,384' and the lake at 11,700'. That's 1,316' of vertical. Not to put too fine a point upon it, let's say the distance is 17,840'. So--and you heard it here first--I'm saying the run has an average grade of around 7.4%. Not Pikes Peak standard, but not Kansas either. Up in 70 minutes, down in 61.



Took my first fall of the training season. I'm thinking an exposed root--and down I went, hard, on my right side. Amazingly, no broken skin--we'll see about the size and color of bruises--even the heel of my right hand is ok, and the brain pan was unscathed.

I need to go on record about something. The treatment of Sugar and Happy by their owner leaves something to be desired, in my opinion. They are seldom let out of their yard, never walked (except by me), and their food and water situation seems to be catch-as-catch-can. Their owner left this July 4th weekend, to return who knows when. They seemed to want to go back to their yard after the run, so I let Happy in, who kind of prodded with her muzzle at a plastic container, on its side, with an insert that impeded access to a limited amount of dry food of uncertain vintage and quality. I took them back to my place, where Happy ate 5 cups of dry food and Sugar somewhat less. I put them back in their yard, and first Sugar escaped, over the fence in the northwest corner, and then Happy, after a period of insane high-pitched howling, also got out somehow. My neighbor has left no word where she can be reached, and her residence has no answering machine. Sugar and Happy are at my place.

Two Hour Run Redux

I have been an unfaithful blogger: not only has it been a long time since I've posted, but I have run for two hours--not run, really, not all the time, but for much longer than two hours--not once, but twice. The distance, as I reckon, may be nearly twelve miles round-trip. The run involves heading downhill, as usual, toward the Platte and then heading south past, in order, REI, the aquarium, the Children's Museum, the diaphragm stadium, the projects, the waving street guy at Mississippi, and--this could be out of order, but not made up--the Power Invasion Ministries. I couldn't have missed that the first time, could I? I think not: there was a renovation refuse chute coming down on one side.

The first time I got peckish on the return trip at Alameda and stopped for a Snickers--one decided advantage to running in shorts with a wallet in them. Second time no stopping as such but a more deliberate method toward running and walking: ten minutes running with three walking on the way out. This reasonably modulated into something more like ten running with five walking, or some 2:1 variant on the way back. First run: 2:39; second 2:29. There is something very fine about the feel of two aspirin and a 22 oz. Steel Reserve High Gravity beer kicking in upon the return.

Bard Creek/Watrous Gulch

Finally something new to post. On a grey Memorial Day, I took Iris and Murdoch to Watrous Gulch (trailhead at Exit 218 off I-70). There was rain, fog, and graupel on the way, but it was really clearer in the mountains than in Denver. The deep hole golf put in my right ankle has not yet healed completely, but a few days with no water on it helped. The run up Watrous Gulch to the Bard Creek trail is posted as 1 1/4 miles and I'm going to make a guess that it rises 937.5 feet--not to put too fine a point upon it--for an incline of about 14.25% (Pike's Peak is around 11%). Up in 24 minutes, down in 19. There was quite a bit of thunder as we approached the bottom, and quite a bit of both rain and graupel as we began the drive down.