|
|
 Nice work, Christy. If you do this stuff long enough, at some point you’re going to make a wrong turn.
That said, I’m sure some watching thought it was cute that Christy and I finished together at the San Juan Solstice 50 miler last Saturday. If they only knew what different days we had out there.
Due to excessive snow, an alternate course had to be put together for the race this year. The creek crossings through Alpine Gulch were dangerously high (more-so than the high water year of 2008), and the middle section of course that runs along the Continental Divide hadn’t melted enough and would have been miles of tedious post-holing, with the potential for some pretty serious sliding falls.
While the organizers did a great job putting a different course together with little time– one that seemed at least as difficult, if not more, than the original– some deficient trail marking in one particular spot sent whole packs of runners off course. read more>>>
Spring snows and June skiing aside, the summer running season is here.
Jumping right into things, Christy and I ran the Dirty 30 last Saturday, a 50K course run along the trails of Golden Gate State Park, located northeast of Blackhawk, CO. Now in its 3rd year, the event hosts three races– a 7, 12, and 31 miler (50K)– and in addition to being really scenic, very hilly and just a whole lot of fun, it was a perfect way to log miles early in the season. That is, early, for a couple of people who usually don’t get going until around Memorial Day.
 The course elevation profile. Click to enlarge but disregard the heart rate/ pace stuff. read more>>>
 Christy, Lisa Fichman, Larry Siu and me before the race. The oldest ultra run in the country, the JFK 50 miler, took place last Saturday.
Its start dates back to 1963, eleven years before Gordy Ansleigh first ran alongside the horses at the 1974 Tevis Cup, which later evolved into the Western States 100, a race which many people incorrectly believe to be the country’s first ultra. For comparisons sake, that same year that Ansleigh ran by himself with the horses, a staggering 1,355 people lined up for the JFK 50, which is a record number even by today’s standards.
And the 1963 race isn’t really where the story began, it’s merely the year the JFK 50 miler became an official event. Its origins actually go back much farther.
As the story goes, sometime back in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt issued an executive order from the White House that “all Marines should be able to cover 50 miles in three days,” requiring the last half mile to be done in military double time– an early twentieth century sprint finish. read more>>>
 Here's a look at the first leg of the trip, the Rim to Rim from south to north. It might not look that far but remember, it's not called the Grand Canyon because it's small. Click to enlarge. Here’s a good one if you’re a fan of the long day– start at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, run nine-plus miles down to the Colorado River and ascend some 14 miles up the other side to the North Rim, and then come back.
What’s it all about? Well, it depends on your perspective. A seasoned mountain runner might say it’s no big deal, that it’s really just two big hills. True, I suppose. At its most basic level that may be an accurate description, but that’s really a bit oversimplified. Put in a different, slightly more sensational tone, it’s running a double traverse of the Grand Canyon, which to the uninitiated might sound downright crazy. read more>>>
It’s been a few years since Christy and I ran a major city marathon. I think we forgot how much fun they are.
Usually planned as a fall event because it’s just too hard to log miles during ski season, our last run on a paved city course was in New York in 2007. The combination of an overbooked calendar (our wedding last year and a Himalayan expedition the one prior), and a focus on more ultra-distance events just hasn’t allowed for it recently, so with a more open schedule this year we looked around for a fun fall race. Having heard favorable reports about the 26.2 mile course from Minneapolis to St. Paul, and after learning that Christy’s sister Jen and her friend Tristan Scott would be coming in from Missoula to give it a go, we decided it was time to check out the Twin Cities Marathon.
The course itself is pretty flat, and with a field in excess of 8,000 runners, it’s a good size– not so big it feels crowded, but with enough people around you that it never gets lonely. And despite connecting two metropolitan areas, it follows a surprisingly scenic route, winding its way around lakes and through parks or park-like neighborhoods almost the whole time.
read more>>>
 The overview, click to enlarge. It was another good one, and not just due to the fact that we had perfect weather, but that we put together a loop of trails and passes we had all seen individually many times before, but had never linked up in this fashion.
It came together after Christy, Neal and I were planning a long run together, but being a Saturday in August with a good weather forecast we realized our standard “go-to”, the Four Pass Loop, would be pretty busy. So we opted for a different linkup– slightly shorter, with a bit less elevation gain and one pass fewer yet still in the same neighborhood and hitting some trails that don’t see as many people.
read more>>>
|
|
Recent Comments