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 The usual trail races are coming up (Lake City, Hardrock) so Christy and I are trying to make the annual rapid transition from skiing to running. It always feels kind of last minute– a recent sprained ankle didn’t help– but while I often complain to myself about the lack of time to get properly prepared, I know deep down I really like it this way.
That said, it can be hard to motivate to head out sometimes. Christy left our place the other morning with a headlamp in order to log a long run in the only time available to her, early before work. When you consider how long the days are right now, the fact that she needed a headlamp should be a clue as to how early it actually was. But be it an early start or mid-day battle with the heat, no matter how our enthusiasm measures beforehand, once we’re out the door, everything changes for the better. Sure, the exercise part of the run feels great, but the lesser known and often better reason for running is that by the time we get home we’ve usually sorted out all kinds of things in our heads. read more>>>
 Front runners at he start of the Dirty 30. Colleen and I started a bit further back. [Christy here]
With pretty incredible spring snow conditions continuing in Colorado, it has actually been hard to wrap up the skiing. However, this past weekend we finally started to transition into summer, splitting our weekend 50 – 50 between running and the Centennials project. read more>>>
 Through some of the narrows on the descent from the East Rim to Weeping Rock. We ran the Zion Traverse last week– a linkup of existing trails across Zion National Park that measures about 48 miles and reportedly gains around 10,000 vertical feet. Christy and I are big fans of established courses such as the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim (or roundtrip) and the Four Pass Loop, so it was time to check out this increasingly popular route. read more>>>
 Mary’s Loop Like a couple of elk forced down to lower elevations by snowfall, Christy and I headed to Fruita to go for a run.
Most people associate Fruita with mountain biking. While the biking is nothing short of awesome there, many of the trails work equally well for a run.
The rolling, semi-technical Kokopelli trails are the best, since the bikers aren’t moving as fast and as a runner you don’t feel in the way. Plus, the layout of the trails– allowing for added distance by stacking up extra side loops like Horsethief Bench, Steve’s Loop and Rustler– allows for all sorts of mileages and variations to the central Mary’s and Lion’s loops. See the map below.
So for our day, we started at the Kokopelli Trailhead and ran Rustler’s, then Mary’s, Horsethief, Steve’s, a short bit on Lion’ s, then Mack Ridge (out-and-back) and Moore Fun back to the trailhead. We stashed water at the Lions Trailhead in the morning. It came to 26 miles.
If you’re looking for a long day on the trails and everything around you is covered in snow– be it late fall, winter, or spring– Fruita’s well worth the trip. read more>>>
 The coveted finishers buckle. It was about as smooth as they get for me. That’s my take as I reflect on last weekend’s Bear 100 run.
Considering how many different ways one can come up short in these things, and that I ran the race without any crew or pacers, smooth is good. And to finish near the front with a sense of things being somewhat routine made it even better. In fact, read more>>>
 Christy, cruising into the mile 37 aid station at Cow Creek. Christy ran the inaugural Run Rabbit Run 100 miler in Steamboat last weekend. It’s been a few years since she covered that distance– three to be exact– and when it was all done, she said she had forgotten just how hard 100 milers can be.
Obviously 100 milers are tough, but when you consider that only 47% of the overall field and only 34% of the elite division finished on this course, it’s pretty clear that this one was quite a bit harder than many of the 135 starters expected.
You can lump Christy in that group, she really had to “dig deep” out there. Kathy Fry and I crewed and paced for her, and we were excited to see the day start out great– she definitely has the fifty mile distance figured out. However, somewhere around the halfway point her stomach started causing problems. Unable to keep food and fluids down, she was soon exhausted physically and mentally, and never really recovered. When I started my pacing leg with her around mile 72, she was still unable to eat or drink. She had been going for 21 hours and was running on empty, literally, and the thought of having to go an additional 30 miles seemed almost impossible. read more>>>
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