Walden Ponds

What? Another blog? Why?

Work drives me insane. Still not smoking thus less drinking

So I run and run and take photos and blog - it's a good time

Anyways - a mellow 30-minute run at a new place called Walden Ponds that was pretty but was home to many mosquitoes. They may have meant "Walden Ponds / Swamps"



A helpful sign identifying the mountains











Nice sunset on drive home

Bergen Peak

Sunday was my final tough run before Breckenridge. 9.7-miles (9.4-miles + 0.3-miles going the wrong way) with 1,780' of gain to 9,700'



Views from the top:

Looking east



Looking south at Pike's Peak



Looking west - Grays & Torreys is at the far right behind the clouds per some guy



Looking north - I think towards Indian Peaks and the Continental Divide



The storms held off

Sugarloaf Mountain

Saturday night went up to Sugarloaf Mountain, a short 2-miler with 475' of gain - but valuable time at higher elevation as it peaks at 8,900'

It is also where we almost lived. It was a beautiful evening

Driving towards Sugarloaf Mountain up - of course - Sugarloaf Road



The trail is rocky



Views are shockingly (being less than 500' up) stunning





Here is the house that was almost ours (dead center)



The "ghost" trees are from 1989's Black Tiger fire

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/forum/fireBT.html



Here is a view of where last year's Fourmile Fire started (I think the far left is Emerson Gulch)



You can see how close it came to the Sugaloaf community, which lost 17 homes mostly on Left Fork and Mountain King. If you don't know the area it came about a mile from the main road



The shadow of Sugarloaf and Boulder in the distance



Google Maps seems to be in the process of updating the mountains west of Boulder - looks odd with one half pre-fire and one post-fire



This is our neighbourhood - which we visited this week (with the people who helped rescue Hudson)

Eldorado Springs & Evergreen Runs

Thursday we went a few miles west to Eldorado Springs Resort for an evening 4-mile race

http://www.eldoradosprings.com/index.php?action=resort



It was hot - 91. Despite the storm clouds it was simply a breezy humid night



The race was fast and fun. I actually came in 15th overall and 2nd in my age group with a 30:06 - good for a $25 gift certificate. We stayed for a few free Avery microbeers and met some good people

Friday evening we drove around looking at homes. We saw this guy



We also went to a small park overlooking the Xcel power company (a few blocks from our house) at dusk. You can see these two stacks from everywhere





Hud wanted to get back to his couch as we had "forced" him on a few short hikes



Today we went to the Evergreen area, a very-nice-but-not-quite-convenient-to-anywhere town 40-50 minutes west of both Denver and Boulder. We first went on a great run at Reynolds Park

This is the final weekend before the Breckenridge Half Marathon so it was nice to be at a little higher elevation (8,000') gaining 1,485' over 5.9-miles



There was even a quiz at the trailhead

Leadville 100

Saturday I drove 2+ hours west to Leadville - a historic mining town at 10,000' - to "pace" my buddy Chuck who was running the legendary Leadville 100

The drive from I-70 to Leadville:



I was going to meet up with Chuck at mile 50 - which was an hour away from Leadville - at about 4pm (the race began at 4am). I arrived in Leadville before noon to look around the "The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum " as well as a few antique and book shops





After an excellent lunch I drove out to the ghost town of Winfield (including 11-miles on this horrible road):

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/winfield.html



Winfield is the half-way point in the race when racers are allowed to have a "pacer" run with them. Here is the aid station where "crews" (family & friends) took care of their runners (change of clothes, water, food) and where runners checked in with medical staff



This is how I envisioned pacing (the bearded guy has won Leadville twice - the other guy is his pacer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL1KvL7QtvQ

This is how it actually was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1vNAALu1Ww

The longest I had ever run was 14 miles. The longest Chuck had ever run was something less than 30 miles. He looked great when he came in but told me after we left the aid station that he was hurting. We ended up walking the 2-miles up this relatively flat road to a trailhead





The next 3-4 miles was up - 2,700' up - to Hope Pass. Here are some shots of the trail







Views were spectacular at the top of the pass







Shortly after crossing over there was an aid station - being remote and at just under 12,000' they had used llamas to trek in all the supplies







The next few miles were pleasant and gradually downhill before a river crossing. The river (or whatever - much more than a seasonal stream) was about 40' wide but no more than 2' deep. In a way it was refreshing as it was cool - but wet shoes & socks are not good for blisters. Chuck mocked this concern and felt the river crossing added to the challenge, although he later conceded the point (given his dozen blisters)

The final picture I took was at the Twin Lakes aid & crewing station, since it was now dark. The aid & crewing stations were pretty festive (at least the ones I went through - even when I finished pacing at 12:30am)



My next 11.5-miles with Chuck included a 1,300' climb followed by several pleasant miles through the woods and then several more along a forest service road before hitting an aid station. Then it was a few final miserable miles to the crewing area as my right leg and a toe were hurting. I was pretty happy to be passing the pacing torch to Melissa (his wife)

I got home at 3am and was asleep at 4am. I woke up at 7:30am and decided to check out how Chuck was doing - it was close. He had 4 hours left to do the final 13.5-miles (if you do not finish in 30 hours you are disqualified) - after 26 hours & 86.5-miles it felt like a 17.8-minute/mile pace was iffy

We went to breakfast (my meals from noon yesterday on were Gu gels, protein bars and string cheese) and came back to see if he would make it. He did - 29h41m. Melissa took this pic during his final mile:



My day/night was 22-miles with 4,050' elevation gain (topping out at 12,600') in 8h03m. We ran/shuffled maybe 1.5-miles at most. I ended up sleeping about 14 hours over a 24-hour span, with the rest of the day spent either eating or watching "Man versus Food Nation" on the couch (with that sore leg and toe)

Chuck did 100-miles with 10,000' gain in 29h41m. He's dead (kidding)

http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0020/6737/LT100_Run_Overall_30_Plus.pdf

Here is a map of the course (the section I ran is from Winfield to Treeline)

http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0018/0741/Leadville_Run_Course_2011.pdf

Here is a cool aerial video of the course (the section I ran is from 7:00 - 10:00)

http://vimeo.com/6166105

Will I ever run an ultra? No

Was it fun? Not really (except before and after were awesome - plus meeting some cool people on the course)

Was I glad I did it? Absolutely! I will buy Chuck a few celebratory beers for asking me to pace - I was able to experience an ultra without running one...