North Loop - Indian Peaks Wilderness Area

It's 4 hours, 55 minutes as the Garmin strikes 20 miles. Based on what I recall of the route, I have between 6 and 7 miles to get back to the car. I start thinking how I'm on track to log in a solid time for this bear of a loop. All that remains is getting my ass up and over Pawnee Pass.

(Pawnee Pass tucked behind the pointy pinnicle)

The Indian Peaks Wilderness Area is a spot I've logged in many miles over the years. My National Geographic Topo is marked up with notes and highlights of all the trails I've covered during my training runs. Till this morning, the only pass I have yet to cross within the area was Buchanan Pass.

I arrived to the Long Lakes parking lot before 6am Saturday morning. A few bathroom brakes, some last minute food/liquid and I was off heading towards the Mitchell Lake parking lot at about the time the sun was lighting up the eastern peaks of the divide. I hit start as I left my car but walked the first 0.6 miles of paved road. Once on the trail, my slow trot began.

My pace is slow as I'm carrying 70 ounces in my Nathan pack along with 22 ounces in my handheld. Today's run was all about being on my feet, not logging in a fast time. A quick climb up the Mt. Audubon trail and before long I merge with Beaver Creek Trail and start my decent to Coney Flats. The weather early on consists of cool wind and solid cloud cover. A nice decent leads me thru the Coney Flats parking lot and I begin the tame ascent up to Buchanan Pass. The scenes up to this point are a bit lacking. Yeah the wind swept landscape along the eastern divide is very cool, but honestly nothing to write home about. But this is the Indian Peaks and it's all about the passes, numerous creek crossings and surrounding rugged peaks.

I'm power hiking the last mile up to Buchanan Pass. From the east side, the pass is pretty tame visually. As you head west, the real views come into play as far as I was concerned. The next hour leads down the beautiful valley as it mergers with Cascade Creek.

(Buchanan from the East side)

(Buchanan looking West. Note Fall in the high country)

The running is feeling easier but still slow and I'm staying on top of hydration and calories. At just under 9,000 feet I meet the Cascade Creek trail and from here I have 6 plus miles and a 3,600 feet of climbing ahead of me to reach the top of Pawnee Pass. The Cascade Trail is easily my favorite trail in all of the Indian Peaks. It was 9 years ago that I first hiked this trail. A few friends and I made it all the way to Crater Lake beneath Lone Eagle Peak for an overnight camping trip. It was my first overnight outing and laid the foundation for my love affair with the mountains.

A few miles later I merged onto the Pawnee Pass trail feeling good. I ran when I wanted to, power hiked when I wanted to. Rarely did the terrain dictate my pace. I just went with however I was feeling at the moment in time.

As mile 20 hit on the Garmin, I was honestly feeling pretty good. I had 1.5 miles to go to the top and was feeling pretty damn good about completing the route in 6 hours and 15 minutes.

For those who have never seen Pawnee Pass with their own eyes, any pics I contemplated posted would not do it justice. Specifically the western side of the pass. Some 20 or so technical switchbacks along the face of a 1,600 foot cliff is what one encounters on this bitch of a pass. The pass itself is easily my favorite in the state.

As my climbing starts, something decided not to click. My power hike became a drunk shuffle. I some how continued my climb without stopping but once at top I took a long 10 minute brake right at the divide itself. It had taken me almost 50 minutes to cover 1.5 miles. It was at this point I was pretty much done with my run. The remainder 4 plus miles to the car can get extremely technical with loose scree and I didn't want to risk a rolled ankle or anything worse with 3 weeks till Steamboat. But a quick look at the surround weather forced me to get going quickly.

(At 12, 541', darks clouds like this scar me)

So reluctantly, I started my run back to the car. Before long I was at treeline, then Lake Isabelle (why does that lake look so beat up now???) and then finally merging onto the west side of Long Lake. From here I mixed in some running with walking. 6 hours and 42 minutes later, I was back at my car. Rain was now falling and the thunder rumbling high above.

Exhausted mentally and physically, the first thing I thought about upon completing the run was what if I ran the route the other way. Knocking out Pawnee Pass first. Where would I be at mile 20? Would running the route this way be easier? A minute or so of contemplating this topic led to no quick answer. And it didn't matter. As the minutes ticked by after completing my run, my breathing started to come under control. My muscles started to relax and a nice stroll around the parking lot to stretch out relaxed me a bit.

It was at this time that I realized that it didn't matter what direction I went. I just spent damn near 7 wonderful hours running around the high country. During this time frame, I experienced sun and wind, wild flowers and wild mushrooms. I saw fall conditions up high and summer down low. Crossed paths with numerous hikers and a few runners. I had just completed the freaking North Loop in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. And right then and there it occurred to me. How fucking cool was that!!!!

Leadville 100 - Pacing Duties

Let me begin by congratulating Scott Kuhn of Durango with his 26 hour, 44 minute and 47 second finish time at this years Leadville 100 Trail Run. Simply awesome!

As I've noted in previous posts, I had the honor to crew and pace Scott during this years Leadville 100 race. This was Scott's first attempt at the 100 mile distance.

It was just before 9am as I pulled into the Twin Lakes. The temps were slowly warming up to a day that turned out just perfect weather wise. 20 minutes past 9 Anton flew thru. 30 or so minutes later Duncan followed.

(2010 Winner Duncan Callahan Leaving TL Aidstation)

Over the next few hours many more folks cruised on thru the 38 mile marker of the race. Some looked great. Others looked horrible. Sharron, Scott's wife, and I waited patiently.

Shortly before noon Scott came rolling thru. A bit behind his goal time, he looked great and showed no signs of falling apart. Got Scott what he needed and off he went to Winfield. The drive to Winfield sucks and it was a fucking zoo. Dusty, hot, crowded, washboarded roads is what greets the runners as they approach mile 47. Amazingly, things only got worse as they approached the turn around. Sharron and I waited over an hour for Scott. During that time, I just made sure I was 100% ready to pace Scott over to Fish.

(Winfield hot and busy)

3:30pm was about the time Scott rolled into Winfield. Still a bit behind his goals but knowing he's always been a strong second half runner, there was still hope that he'd get that 25 hour goal of his.

Scott and I were out of Winfield as quickly as he got in. There just wasn't any need or desire to stick around any longer. He had weighted in, gotten the food and liquid he needed and was out. Our pace to the base of Hope Pass was purely aided by gravity as the road is pretty much downhill over the 2+ mile stretch. Scott was in awesome spirits but obviously starting to get a bit tired and the heat for the first time was starting to be felt by many folks out.

Hope Pass from Winfield is a bitch. On fresh legs, completely runnable. On 50 mile legs, I'm guessing it humbled most folks that day. And how were we greeted as we made the turn onto the ascent of Hope you ask? With some female runner giving us a full beaver shot as she prepared to go number 1 maybe 12 inches away from the trail itself. Absolutely unavoidable to view this as she was right there!

The ascent started out great with conversation light and many runners descending giving out positive vibes. Fellow runners and pacers on the ascent were even more supportive. As the elevation of 12,526 (Hope Pass) approached, the mood and pace of many slowed drastically. Right at treeline, I saw Brandon and his pacer JP. Never had meet either one before but have followed both their blogs for some time now. I introduced myself to the both of them, offered up some encourage as it was obvious Brandon was bonking, and refocused on getting Scott up and over this beast of a climb. Scott to his credit never stopped till there was one switchback left before the pass. Scott, the man with an iron stomach, was about to yak. He spent a good minute hunched over but nothing happened. He just looked at me confused and all I could do was offer up a Tums and told him the quicker we get off the pass, the better he'll feel.

(Big Ass Llamas)

We quickly rolled into Hopeless where Scott took his first real sit down break of the race. I got him some crackers with PB and got him going as quickly as possible. What started out as a walk down hill turned into a shuffle then a run that lead us to passing many folks. Whatever stomach issues Scott was having were pretty much gone and he was feeling it. We cruised the flats west of Twin Lakes and enjoyed the numerous refreshing creek crossings of Lake Creek.

Entering Twin Lakes was awesome. Crowds compared to early were huge. Everyone just cheering all the runners along. I ran ahead to alert Sharron we had arrived, reloaded Scott's hydration pack and got him some food. A change of shoes and socks and we were quickly on our way. About 1/4 of a mile away from Twin Lakes, it dawned on me to ask Scott if he had his headlamp. SHIT!!!! Sharron forgot to put it into his bag. What resulted was a mad dash back to TL and to Hwy 82 where I luckily found Sharron walking back to her car. Now back to retracing my steps were I caught up to Scott a good 10+ minutes later. Guess pacers are good to have around.

The stretch between TL to Half Moon has some moderate climbs and stunning single track. We ran when Scott could and walked when he couldn't. The speed of sunset was exaggerated with the already dark forest of pines we were in.

(Just before sunset looking over
Twin Lakes)

As darkness set in, the headlamps came on for all. Never had I run in the dark like this before. Yeah there were midnight runs around Wash Park but that doesn't count. This was full on darkness in the wilderness. The pace slows down but a sense of ones surroundings shoots thru the roof. I loved every second of this. Conversation between Scott and I was fantastic. He was moving at such a solid pace. Before we knew it we were heading into HM. I got way amped for this as I knew it was one aid station closer to Scott's finish. I made sure Scott sat here for a few minutes as I reloaded his water and got him more food to take in.

We spent 5 minutes here at most and were off to Fish. Looking at the clock and knowing how many miles were left, I honestly thought Scott still had a great shot at finishing under 25. What I failed to consider was ones pace at night slows down. Ones pace after 70 miles of running slows down. Ones pace after not taking in enough calories slows down. I made every effort to alert him of the 15 minutes had gone by since his last water intake. His hydration intake for the most part was stealer. His calorie intake since Winfield wasn't. I made sure he ate something at the aid stations. I didn't make sure he ate something as were were running. Big mistake on my part.

The next couple of miles to Treeline were slow and steady. Never getting passed but just not moving fast. Arriving to Treeline was weird. I felt like I had stumbled upon some college kegger party in the woods. No aid station here. Just a place for crew to meet up with the runners for the first time since TL. We had no plans of meeting Sharron here and Scott was fine with actually running as quick as possible thru this 1/3 of mile stretch as the loud music and huge crowds were completely unmotivating.

Shortly after Treeline we hit Halfmoon Rd. A hardpacked dusty road that slowly descends the Arkansas valley. This road was straight and long. Oh and boring. Scott was still moving good but the walking brakes were starting to increase. Running in the dark on single track is fun. On a wide open road is boring. And it seemed like everyone felt like this. It's like the road just sucked the energy out of everyone here.

A quick left hand turn took us onto a paved road. Another left hand turn led to another paved road shooting us straight to Fish. Next aid station was about 2 miles away and the whole stretch was uphill. Also in view were Mt. Elbert and Mt Massive just glowing in the moonlight. The views were honestly stunning and this got me amped. I did my best to relay this energy to Scott and started a cheesy running game to get him to pick up the pace to at least Fish. Running along the side of the road was a power line and every 400 meters or so was the powerline pole. I got Scott to run each section and then walk a section. Then I'd ask him to step it up and run two sections and walk one. This went on for the next two miles and I probably talked non-stop this whole time. Reminding him to drink, to soak in the views and to tell him how awesome he was doing.

Before we knew it we were heading up the steep road into Fish at 11:20pm. Sharron was waiting to take over pacing duties. Scott got inside the aid station and took a seat and right then and there I knew his chance at 25 hours was over with. 25 minutes later Scott and Sharron were off to Mayqueen.

I stuck around Fish for a good 15 minutes just to unwind from the 28 miles, 8 hours and 5,000 plus feet of running I just finished. I felt great the whole time and if needed, I could have easily completed the whole 50 miles. Thankfully there was no need to do that as Sharron was there and that is exactly what Scott needed to cross the finish line. Those two make an amazing couple.

I drank a few beers at Fish provided to me by some friendly folks and then it hit me. It was freaking cold. I had spent the past 8 hours running in shorts and a short sleeved shirt and the temps over the past few hours were around the 40 degrees. I quickly bundled up and headed over to Mayqueen.

2:30am and the two rolled in. Not much was needed by either. Just some soup and an extra layer and off they went some 20 minutes later. Just before 6:44am I could see Sharron and Scott walking up the last few blocks to the finish line. The sun rays still hadn't hit town yet but had been warming up Massive for a good hour. Stunning mountain morning. With maybe 20 yards to go, Scott and Sharron decided the only way to finish was to run it in ending his epic journey together. The smile on Sharron's face said it all for the both of them as Scott himself was to tired to show much emotion. We all embraced each other shortly after the finish line crossing, snapped a few pics and I was off to Denver shortly after.

Scott had asked that I stick around for the awards ceremony at noon. While tempting, I opted out and told him that I'd attend the ceremonies only after I completed the race myself. He fully understood and said he'd be more then happy to return the favor of pacing and crewing. Scott, there's a solid chance I'll be taking you up on that offer soon. Unless of course you decide to make another attempt at that 25 hour marker.

Leadville

August 21st and 22nd are big dates for many running folks here in Colorado. On the 21st, there will be some 700 plus runners lining up for the Leadville 100. A few hours later in Manitou Springs, there will be another 1,500 runners make the trip up Pikes. Over the next 24 hours, many runners will fail and succeed in crossing the finish line.

Before the cut off time of 30 hours hits many folks in Leadville on the 22nd, yet another race will have already started. The Pikes Peak Marathon.

Early in the year, I had desires of doing either PPM or Leadville. As the early months ticked away, my focus went directly towards Leadville. Shortly after Lake City, I just realized I wasn't physically ready for the challenge.

So with so many folks lining up this weekend, I will not be one of them. However, I get the opportunity of doing the next best thing. Pacing my friend at Leadville.

While at Lake City, I bumped into an old running friend from my days in Durango. Scott and his wife Sharron were both running the SJS50 for the second year straight. The day after the race, I got the chance to catch up with Scott a bit and quickly realized he was running Leadville this year. His first 100 mile race. Within minutes his invite to pace and crew was accepted. No way I was going to pass up this opportunity.

Fast forward to less then 2 days before Leadville. Numerous phone calls and emails have been exchanged between Scott and I with the following plan in place (assumption being all goes to plan with Scotts goals):

Saturday - 9:30am: I will be driving over to Twin Lakes (from Denver) to meet his wife Sharron. From here we'll get Scott whatever he needs and get a much better feel for how his race is going. This will be the first time Sharon has seen Scott since the 4am start.

Saturday - 2:00pm: Meeting Scott at Winfield with the goal of pacing him back to Fish Hatchery some 26/27 miles later. My goals are simple. Not to slow down Scott. To make sure he's eating and drinking on a consistent basis. To offer up as much encouragement as possible. To make sure he gets back to Fish within a 7 to 8 hour time frame.

Saturday - 9:00pm: Sharron will be pacing Scott to the finish line. From here I'll rest up a bit and make my way to Mayqueen.

Sunday - 12:00am: Take over crewing duties and make sure both Sharron and Scott have all they need. Food, liquids but most likely correctly clothing as I'm sure temps will start to dip by now.

Sunday - 2:00am: Finish line at Leadville.

Scott's goals for Leadville are like everyone else. 1) Finish. 2) Finish within 25 hours. 3) Finish within 22 hours. I feel Scott get that 22 hour goal time. He's finished under 5 hrs at PPM. He's paced numerous times at Hardrock. He's gone under 12 without killing himself at the SJS50. Most importantly, this guy loves to run trails.

Looking forward to exciting weekend and reading all the race reports that will for sure follow.

Gold Hill to Miners Creek to Wheeler to 7-11

Or at least that was the goal.

Over a month ago we received an invite to stay the weekend at our friends house up in Breckenridge. Spending a weekend in the mountains with some close friends made the decision of accepting the invite easy.

Going into the weekend I had the goal of running easy as I thought my pacing at Leadville was next weekend, not in 2 weekends. On Thursday I realized my error and scrambled to put together one more last long run before my mini taper.

After much research, I decided to start at the Gold Hill trail head, run up Miners Creek Trail along the 10 Mile range and before dropping into Copper Mountain merge onto Wheeler past Peak 9 and down the Breck Ski area. From there I would run along the Blue River to the 7-11 just north of downtown where my friends house was located just 1/3 of mile up the street.

I had Michele drop me off at the trail head just before 7am and off I went. Temps were cool, 38, and while the sun was lighting up the 10 mile ridge, it felt like it would be hours before it finally crest over the divide to the east. 2 miles into the run I was cruising over Gold Hill and already stripping off my sleeves and gloves. 3 miles in I came across my first intersection, the Peaks trail and was shortly ascending the steeps of Miners Creek which would take me to the ridge along the 10 Mile range.

Mentally and physically I simply wasn't into it. I honestly would have rather slept in and spent the morning hiking with Michele. I had also logged in a lot of miles over the past 3 weeks and was feeling it. But I unfortunately needed this run and gave it all I had. While last weekend I was running everything thrown at me, this weekend I spent a lot of time power hiking sections.

Thankfully the beautiful day made being out there much easier. Especially as I got above treeline along the ridge where I decided to snap off a few pics and take in some carbs.

(Looking south towards Peaks 7, 8 and 9)

(Copper Mt where I was just 7 days earlier)

The trail all above treeline was pretty tame and while slow I was able to run a majority of it. Yet I was constantly getting distracted by the surrounding views. As the trail was descending, I thought it was only a matter of time before I met up with the Wheeler trail. But there were no signs of the trail. Then the trail took a sharp right and headed downhill towards Copper Mtn.


It was at this point that I freaked out and decided to head off trail, cross back over to the eastern flanks of the 10 Mile range and look for Wheeler. A stupid move for many reasons. 1) The next 1.5 miles took me an hour to cover as the terrain was steep, technical and straight tough. 2) The merger as it turned out was maybe 2 minutes further down the hill from where I hopped off the trail.


By the time I finally made it to the ski resort below the Imperial Lift, I was cashed. My cross country adventure just drained me. It didn't help that Peak 9 while only a mile away involved a huge drop and climb over vegetation with no trails.

(Type of terrain I traversed during my lost way)

At this pointed I opted to run up to Imperial and back down the 4 O'clock ski run, into town and over to 7-11. The run down was fun and I was able to keep up a decent clip considering the increasing temps and sometimes steep descent. Once in town, the paved route along the Blue was slow as my Crosslites do not enjoy this type of landing.

(View of the mornings journey from the finish line)

Hard to be mad with another day spent in the high country with such fantastic weather and views but I am disappointed on missing out on an additional 5 to 6 miles of running. Final stats for the day were just over 17 miles, 4,500 feet of climbing in 3 hours 45 minutes.

July Summary

Runs - 23
Workouts - 5
Injured - 0

The Bad: Work got busy because of last minute changes yet again resulting in lost training. Could I have planned better for this? To an extent, yes, but 13 hour work days take their toll after only a few days.

The number of times I visited the gym was much less then I wanted it to be. Some of this has to do with sleeping in on intended workout days from the long prior work day. My focus has also been on running and if I only have time for one work out a day, it's going to be spent on my feet, not pushing weights.

The heat! Makes running in the afternoon extremely difficult. Makes sleeping at night (with no central air) down right miserable and easily explains the lack of consistent sleep I've gotten. Should follow the dogs lead and sleep in the spare bedroom in the basement.

The Good: My recovery from the SJS50 has gone really good which has made shifting into my current training cycle extremely smooth. With that said, I'm even more glad in hindsight that I did not sign up for the PPM. While completing the distance wouldn't be an issue, I just don't think I would have been sharp enough, mentally and physically, for the demands of that race.

For the first time all year, I also like each of my runs has a purpose or goal. Early in the year, my runs were simply a long run and a bunch of shorter runs. Pretty much a lack luster base build up. Now there's the long run with a focus on distance and pace and Shorter runs with a focus on speed, tempo or recovery. Even though the number of miles or runs I'm getting in per week hasn't change, the focus on specific workouts has been extremely refreshing. This always seems to be the case for me and hopefully bolds well in Steamboat.

Bottom Line: With 6 weeks left till Steamboat, I have a 3 more weeks of hard running followed by 3 weeks of taper. Which fits in perfectly as those 3 weeks of taper fall right in the heart of our forecasting period. A brief 2+ week period that will no doubt burn me out mentally. So as August begins, my main concern is not staying healthy or running my needed miles, but rather staying mentally sharp going into my last race of the year.