Mt Massive and Manitou Incline

The day after my rather eventful traverse from Frisco to Breckenridge I had a pretty easy day up in Leadville with Kim doing a little section of the 100 course. We just parked at the bottom of the Powerline climb and hiked up it and ran back down doing a total of about 6 miles. Nice and easy and just what I needed.

The following day we went to do another 14'er. This time Mt Massive. It's a pretty long trip up this peak being 22km's total for the out and back with 1400m of climbing. The approach trail is a brilliant smooth track all the way through the tree line and begins to get rocky when you pop out into the meadows. From then on its up , up and up until the final summit ridge which can be made pretty interesting with a little scramble here and there or there is a trail to the side for those without a head for heights. I made it to summit in 2hrs 30mins dead on , and admit I did start to slow once I got above 14'000ft. I hung around waiting for Kim grabbed a quick summit pic then down we went. The downhill was amazing and once off the rocky outcrops I flew down through the trees really opening up my stride and blasting out a descent of under an hour back to the car. I loved this peak. Probably the best 14'er I have done so far. The views from the summit were incredible out all over the Rockies. There is just so much to be done here and from the summit of Massive all I could see was high ridge lines connecting nearly all the peaks in view. A lifetimes worth of high level running.

Summit Mt Massive. 14.421ft

The following day(Saturday) was rest day and I enjoyed some more fine Colorado Ales in Golden and just wandered the streets there doing the tourist thing. I had been having an issue with my left Achilles and my left foot so the rest was good. I did plan to have today off as well but getting a late message from a friend last night with the offer to go to Manitou Springs and have a go at the famous Incline climb I could not say no.

I have been wanting to have a bash at a speed attempt on the incline for a while now. It used to be an old cog railway believe it or not but now the rails are gone it is around 2000+ steps all the way to the top. It rises 2000ft(600+m) in just under a mile and near the top it really does get pretty steep , sometimes requiring hands to aid hauling over some of the steps.

Incline is pretty obvious

Myself and Geoff arrived at the bottom about 8am and to my amazement it was already packed with hoards of people out hiking up it. At first I kept saying I would go easy as my foot was still a bit sore but as soon as I started my watch I just took off. It starts off at a reasonable angle but just builds up and up getting steeper and steeper. I kept a good jogging pace going for around the first 10-12 minutes but then slowed down to a fast hike and skip kind of motion. There was a bit of congestion in the middle but I wouldn't say it affected my time that much. Maybe a minute at most. About ¾ of the way up I glanced at my watch and seen I was on 25 mins. I had no time in mind but from then on I wanted under 30. It was head down , hands on knees and go go go. It was so bloody tough. By this point I was at nearly 8500ft so I was breathing like crazy , heart felt like it was bursting out of my chest and the sweat was pouring off of me as I got closer to the last step. Finally I got there and noticed I had made it in 29 mins. I was super happy but exhausted. I have not pushed at that intensity for a long long time and the taste of blood in my mouth(apparently from the dry air is what people think) was pretty horrible. The record for this climb is 17 minutes! I reckon I could hit 25 if I had another go but looking at records of attempts 29 is actually a very very reasonable time., especially for first attempt. Average hiking time is an hour and average fit runner time is meant to be 40ish. Elites are under 22 so I guess I am somewhere between that.

Pushing hard. Not using camera could have saved a few seconds I reckon!

The descent was also something I was super excited about doing. Due to the amount of traffic coming up the Incline it is normal practice to descend the Barr Trail. Now the Barr Trail is epically famous for runners. It starts down in Manitou Springs and climbs to the summit of Pikes Peak in 13 miles. The super famous Pikes Peak Marathon is this trail up and down. I have always wanted to go on this trail and with bad weather coming in there was no way we could get up and down so I made do with descending it for a couple miles back to the car. It was incredible. The trail is perfect packed dirt with the odd rocky section to negotiate and I loved it. I must go back and do the full up and down if I have time to squeeze it in long enough before the 100 in September. I managed the Incline round trip in 49 mins. Admittedly my legs were actually a bit like jelly at the bottom after going so hard on the up and not slowing down at all on the descent but for some strange reason and I ain't complaining about this but my pain in my left leg has gone completely.

Long way down/up

The top. Picture really doesn't do it justice

So tomorrow I am going to Boulder for an easy 10 miler and maybe a bit of climbing then I will probably rest for a day or two before we head to Leadville on Thursday to prep for the LT100 on Saturday. I can't wait for it. I still need to rest well before this. I won't be going at a fast pace on the course but I am still pacing for over 30 miles so need to just be sensible about it as this is not the time for me to get injured.

I have attached a little vid at the bottom here. I took it straight after I finished the incline so I do apologise for the language and spitting. I wasn't really in any frame of mind to know what I was doing or saying.

Heading down the glorious Barr Trail

Frisco to Breckenridge sans voiture

The plan was to set off at 4am but waking up at 3.30 there was an almighty thunderstorm going on outside so I waited and waited until 6am when it finally all stopped. I was out the door by 6.30 but did think it may be a little late to get the full traverse in but thought I would see how it all panned out.

On Peak 1 looking back down to where it all began

So it all starts with a pretty steep plod up to Peak 1 at just over 12'000ft. The trail was nice and passing the abandoned Masontown mining district was a pretty cool sight. I arrived at the summit in around an hour and 15mins and out in front of me I could see the rest of a long day ahead. The views all round were amazing. Back down to Lake Dillon and ahead to the final peak along the ridge. Peak 10.

Looking at Peak 2

Peak 1 to 2 was a mix of very easy scrambling and trails. Once at Peak 2 I could see the crux of the route. Peak 2 to Peak 4. Peak 4 was still far away but in between is a long ridge with some very interesting scrambling and some full on climbing moves. It gradually got a bit trickier and trickier until I hit a section called the Dragons Back. Now on other peoples blogs I had read how exposed this was but I was a bit of a prat and thought this was people exaggerating. I was wrong. Some of it was horrendously exposed. Okay the actual climbing never went higher than French 5a but in running shoes on some wet rock and with shear drops on each side I admit it was a bit intimidating. I was full on concentrating here , one slip and your gone for sure. I really don't want to make it sound too epic as I said the moves were not that difficult but in this situation with the massive drops each side it did require 100% concentration. Sometimes it was proper Au Cheval across the spine for a good few minutes. Once off the Dragons Back it was still a lot of scrambling to Peak 4 , nothing quite like the start of it but still enough to be fun and require care. Finally on the summit of Peak 4 it was time for a breather.

On Peak 2 looking at 3 and 4. Dragons Back starts
from the first lowest point along the ridgeline

From peak 4 onwards the whole route completely changes from scrambling to big wide meadows and the climbing over. I was excited to run this. However the ground was absolute rubbish for running. The rocks were super slick and the grass was wet. Normally I can descend pretty well but here I took one bad fall and cut my leg and then 2 minutes after that came very very close to smacking my face off of a rock if it were not for my hip hitting the ground first and slowing me so I could put a hand out. It would have been nasty. Anyway I made my way onwards constantly checking the skies. It was pretty windy when I was hitting the other summits and pretty cold but then dropping off of them it became warm again.

Somewhere on the Dragons back

Starting to get interesting

I wasn't that tired by this point but I wasn't exactly fresh. I like to try and go on as little food as possible sometimes (not all the time) in prep for a race. Today I only had two cereal bars at 7am and a gel halfway along the ridge. I just kept getting over the summits and making my way forwards. I reached Peak 8 after a pretty hellish slog up to it and sat there for a rest. Clouds were still building over Peaks 9 and 10 but after a good rest I continued to Peak 9 as escaping from here down to Breckenridge is pretty easily done but long. So after plodding along , up and up I finally got to the last summit. I didn't hang around long as it was looking a bit ropey in the skies so it was time to descend.

After Peak 4 it was all kinda like this

The descent was pretty horrible. It's a piste/dirt road that winds it way down forever! It has massive long switchbacks all the way down. From about halfway I decided the best option was a straight line and just flew down the fields towards town. It was a 1300m descent and felt like it! By the time I hit the road in Breckenridge my legs were pretty done. It was straight into the nearest shop for a bottle of Mtn Dew.

I think this was from Peak 8 looking back.
Peak 1 is the furthest one along the ridge in the shade.

The route ended up being just under 3000m of climbing and a total of 30km. From Peak 1 to Peak 10 the route never drops below 12'000ft with the last two summits over 13,000ft. I completed it in 5hrs 56mins. Guidebook time to hike it is 10-15hrs but it is usually done by runners from anything between 4hrs 18mins(Anton Krupricka) to 8hrs. I was chuffed too bits with my time but to be totally honest I didn't think the whole route was that amazing , I still think my favourite ridge run is the A'Chir ridge on Arran in Scotland but it is a lot shorter and not as technical. Anyway the views here cannot be beaten and THE climbing section was great if a little terrifying for the odd second or two but after the fun parts I found the terrain a little boring and repetitive. Especially the final hike and descent on the dirt road. I did see some trails during my descent but was a bit reluctant to take any of them as I had no idea where they were going and didn't really fancy a 10 mile detour plus I couldn't be arsed getting my map out of my bag so I stuck to the road.

Bloody roads

It is definitely worth doing once for sure. It was great to have the whole thing to myself. I just love to be up in the Mountains. I just felt some of the terrain was quite hard to run on. I don't mean the scrambling sections obviously but the wide open meadows were not just simple grass slopes. There was rocks hidden everywhere and time and time again I came close to going over my ankle if I started to push. This all probably sounds pathetic I know.

Breckenridge. Peak 10 is up high slightly left with the snow patch

Even if you just do the fun section to Peak 4 then you can head straight down from there with a pretty long forest run to the road but it would still be worth it. It is still an awesome training day though. I say it time and time again for Ultras speed is not vital for people like me but long Mountain days on rough terrain is. Throw in the altitude of today’s trip and it goes down as one of my best training run/hike/climbs of this trip so far. Yeah it really wasn't that far if I am being honest. 30km on the road is done in around 3hrs or less but add in the technical terrain and constant climbs and descents and it is a great work out for Ultras. Even if it is done in 10hrs.

On my way to the fun part. I wasn't smiling this much
at a lot of it.

It's now time to go grab a lovely Colorado ale and then I head back to Leadville for a few days to do some more sections of the course with Kim and I think we are going to get another 14'er done. Then it will be an easy week as next weekend is pacing and crewing time on the LT100.

Steamboat Springs

I just spent the past three days in Steamboat Springs to have a little look at as much of the Run Rabbit Run 100 course as possible. It is going to be an incredible race and one that is going to be way harder than I had expected.

Quite a pretty place

To be totally honest I don't think the skiing will be up too much in the winter months however the trails in summer are absolutely brilliant. The landscape is amazing but not quite Alpine epic however the quality and diversity of the running trails beats Europe hands down for sure. Granted nothing I have seen here so far with maybe the exception of the San Juans has anything like the steepness or ruggedness of the Alps but that's not to say the trails here are easy. There is still big big climbs. The first 4.4 miles of Steamboat 100 climbs almost 1400m. There is also some proper technical stuff to be found but they just do not have the same kind of elevation differences. Steep technical down hills might only last 300-400m whereas back in France you can get it for 1000m. The one thing they have here is lots and lots of rolling single track over amazing terrain and most of the time it is at 10'000ft or higher. The altitude does have an effect on you for sure. Luckily though for me Run Rabbit Run doesn't go nearly as high as the Leadville 100 but it still hits close to 11'000ft on a few occasions. Do I think this course will be harder than Leadville? Yes. For sure it will be. Leadville was hard , very hard in fact and I am so happy to have finished it but I do feel RRR just has a little bit more. Leadville has the altitude and the two crossings of Hope Pass which yes are brutal but other than that it is nice single track and a lot of dirt roads which even at a walking pace can be covered a bit faster than walking a single track.

Mountain View Trail at the start and end of race

RRR has three climbs of over 1000m plus some other 500m ones thrown in as well and they are right through the course from start to finish. Yeah there is really only 1000m more climbing overall in RRR than on the LT100 but the terrain is going to make it slower. RRR has way more single track than Leadville and that is the main reason for me doing this course , I love single track and hate dirt roads however there is one dirt road section on this course I am dreading already but will explain later. From looking at previous finishers times and their Leadville times most people are 2 , 3 or 4 hours slower at RRR.

The final downhill

Anyway we arrived on Thursday morning and went straight to check out Kims pacing section. Miles 63.5-73.5. An out and back section from Dry lake – Spring Creek Ponds – Dry Lake. The 5 mile run down to Spring Creek is brilliant trail through a forest of Aspens and I am pretty sure I will be able to run this section pretty well. The turnaround and then the 5 mile hike back up this will take a long time.

Checking Kims section. Miles 63-73.

I never ran the 73.5-81 mile section but we did drive up it to go Bear spotting(no luck) and this section will be hard. Woody takes over for this section until the end and she has been pre warned how slow this will be. It is never that steep but it just climbs on and on and on for what seems like ages and that was driving in the Jeep! It really is going to take hours to do this but once we get that out of the way it looks to be single track heaven to the finish line.

The name says it all. Miles 21 and 41.

We also managed to check out miles 21-41. Olympian Hall back to Olympian Hall via Cow Creek. This section is brilliant with a mix of steep up hill , rolling down hills and only a 2 mile section of flat dirt road. I do still expect this to take me a while , especially the 7 mile hike back up and over to Olympian hall where I hopefully pick up my first pacer. I say hopefully as at the moment I don't actually have a pacer for this bit. I can make do without until mile 63 when Kim takes over then Woody from 73 but it would be nice to have someone before that but if not then I am sure I can manage without.

Going to be hard from here. Mile 73.

Getting a chance to go and recce a part of the course was great. I will have a couple of days before the race as well to have a look at some other smaller sections but overall I am happy to have looked at a good chunk of it. To be honest I am more excited about it having seen just how good the trails are but also a bit nervous as usual. I really don't know what to expect. If my knee gives up on me again like last year then it will be a long long painful race on the other hand if my knee stays in good shape and I run a sensible race then I am pretty optimistic that I have it in me to run a good race. When I say good I mean pain free(to an extent) and maybe between 30-32hrs but who knows. I could feel great and run 28hrs or terrible and scrape the cut off or DNF. That's one of the things I do love about these distances , you just never know.

Interesting!

I went with Kim today to check the Hope Pass climb from Twin Lakes(17km) as the LT100 is next week and she wanted to see it before the race. Pacing this for more than 30 miles is going to be great and I cannot wait for it to happen.

The first climb is tough

I am currently sitting in the town of Frisco and staying here tonight and tomorrow morning early doors I am setting of on a pretty long run/hike/climb. The Tenmile Ridge Traverse (named after Tenmile peak not the distance) goes from Frisco over 10 peaks(none below 12'000ft) and ends up in Breckenridge. A total of 16 miles over some amazing ridge lines and a section between peaks 2 and 3 of 4th-5th class extremely exposed climbing which I am stoked about doing. Next post will be up pretty soon after I get this done. Fingers crossed the storms stay away as it's gona be a long long day.

Crested Butte another 14'er and more racing

Well the travelling around hasn't stopped at all and on Thursday we headed down to Crested Butte for a few days to check out the trails there. It's a pretty long drive(5hrs) from Denver but totally worth it.As we left Gunnison and were only 30 minutes from CB I was wondering when the Mountains would start. The Gunnison area is pretty flat but eventually Mount Crested Butte came into site and what a site it is and from then on more and more Mountains just appear like out of nowhere.

Looking down at Copper Lake on
way up to East Maroon Pass

Crested Butte is a pretty small and old cowboy town and I thought it was great. A few miles up the road is the ski area called Mount Crested Butte which sits just below the Mountain of the same name just to confuse matters. We arrived around midday and went straight for a run up to East Maroon Pass. It ended up being a 20km round trip with about 800m of ascent and it was great. Great little trails that just climbed most of the way up to Copper Lake. Like every other Mountain Lake in this state it was an awesome place. From there it was a little hike further up to the pass which had an epic view out towards the Maroon Bell mountains and all the way down to Aspen on the other side. The clouds were building up by this point so it was time to head down and as usual I didn't hang around on the descent and was back at the car pretty quickly.

East Maroon Pass 11'800ft

So on Friday I decided to get up at 5.30am and go for a run up to the summit of Mount Crested Butte via the guides ridge. I was recommended this little route by a friend from Chamonix. The climbing really is not difficult at all but it was very alpine like albeit way too short. The morning started at 2708m in Crested Butte with a 5km up hill run to the bottom of the Mountain and from there it was a long long zig zag up the pistes to the top of the Silver Queen Chairlift at 3600m. I could have taken the chairlift up but that would really have been cheating and way too Chamonix of me and leaving so early meant I had the whole morning to myself. From the top of the chairlift I cut out right through some trees to be brought out on a massive boulder field.

Out on the boulder field with the route pretty
obvious to see running up the the skyline from right to left

It looked like a much longer traverse over to the start than it turned out to be. I was there in no time and started on up the ridge. I am always a bit hesitant on new easy climbs as in Chamonix it is very easy to get caught out with people saying things are easy when they ain't for an average climber like me so here I was still a bit unsure how it was going to be but I did trust Jeff who had recommended it to me as an easy wee solo. I could go on and on about how good it turned out to be. It really was not hard at all with some moves of maybe french 4c/5a dependent on the way I went. It was just super super fun with some great exposure and amazing grippy rock.

So much fun

I was on the summit in no time at all and was greeted with a pretty impressive view of the town below and I had the whole place to myself. I had made it to the top from town in 2hrs 10mins. I soaked in the view and peace and quiet for about 20 minutes then decided it was so good that I would do it again so I ran down the normal summit trail to the top of the chairlift again and traversed over the boulders and climbed the ridge once more having even more fun as I now knew the moves and that I could run a lot of the exposed stuff.

I ran up from the town below

End of the Guide Ridge

The final section of the ridge to the summit

It was then time to head down and I blast down the dirt road then I took a turn off along a little single track which ended up being heaven. It was a super narrow trail weaving it's was through a forest of Aspen trees and it was total bliss for ages.

There is something amazing about running through Aspens
weird I know but it is amazing.

I arrived back at the hostel having done 28km in just under 4 hours. The whole morning is right up there as one of my  favourite runs of the whole trip so far. I could spend a lifetime in Crested Butte. The following day (Saturday) I was feeling a little sluggish but before we left for Denver I managed to get out for a little 7km run on the other side of town through yet more Aspens. I must admit I was pretty slow and didn't feel very fresh after the previous days run but I just had to get out and make the most of the time I had.  I headed off to pick up a rental car when we got back to Denver and on Sunday morning headed off to do another race.

The Arapahoe Basin Summit Challenge is a very very small local race in the A-Basin Ski resort. I had originally wanted to do the Copper Mountain Vertical KM on the same day but they wanted 70 bucks to enter whereas A-Basin was only 20 so kind of a no-brainer. This was the 3rd year of the race and it is pretty small. It is only 7.5km and climbs 600m(roughly) to the top of the resort but it was just amazing. There was a decent turnout of around 50 for my race(Summit Division) and around 30 for the smaller Mountain Division which goes halfway up. I just love little local races and find the atmosphere just so friendly and everyone is out for a laugh and everyone is just so happy and chatty to each other. Anyway the race starts at just under 11'000ft and rises up to just over 12'500ft. I really did not know what to expect of a fast uphill race as i have never ran anything this short on trails and pretty much all climbing. I chose to start from the back of the pack and kind of regret that decision now.

A-Basin - The race starts from below the chairlift on the right
and heads way over left then back right to the high point on the
right hand side then follows a ridge to the top between the snow patches then descends
for a KM to the top of the chair where the finish line was.

So off we went and I started off pretty slowly with the front guys especially one of them sprinting off up (the previous 2yrs winner) at a frightening pace. I just put my head down and kept my heart rate low and plodded on up feeling good. Before I knew it I had passed a fair few people and could only see 6 more in front of me. We hit the top of the chairlift after coming up some truly great single track and then had a very steep climb up onto the ridge which was pathless. I passed another 2 people here and just kept plodding on up by this point breathing very very heavily. Now I had decided that I would not let anyone pass me and I had my eye on the guy in 3rd but by the time I had decided this it was too late. 1st place was way too far ahead but if I had thought earlier and actually went full gas from the start I am sure I would have snatched 2nd. Anyway once at the very top it was a km of descent and I knew nobody would catch up with me on that and I flew down here always gaining on 3rd and 2nd but I had just left it too late and finished in 47mins with 3rd 30 seconds in front and 2nd another 40 seconds ahead of that and 1st was a total of 3 mins ahead. I had such a fun time on this short race. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did but it was all on brilliant trails and sometimes no trails and the view running along the summit ridge was amazing. A totally brilliant morning but I should have just went out full steam ahead. Next time.

I spent the night up in that area and had big plans for the next day. I wanted to another 14er but didn't want to do a normal crowded route so I choose to do Torrey Peak from Loveland Pass. Torreys Peak sits at 14'327ft. The route from Loveland Pass is an out and back of 10 miles on some trails , scree and pathless terrain. It never drops below 12'000ft and has about 1600m of total ascent so a good workout. Sorry for the mix of Ft , Mtrs etc...... can't decide what to use.

Torreys is the peak in the distance on the left

I left the car just before 6am and even as I started running I could feel the altitude. I ran a short way of the first climb and then resorted to power walking all the up hills. The flats and downs I ran. There was so many little climbs and descents and then eventually got to the bottom of the first climb up Grizzly Peak. This peak lies at 13'000ft and I felt pretty good going up here.The next ridge section was a dream to run and then it was a pathless descent to an amazing high meadow which I ran across to the bottom of the final climb up Torreys.

The pathless terrain before the climb up Torreys

Now the climb up Torreys is not actually that long in terms of metres but my god it was tough. It is around 700m up but it is all on scree or very very loose trails with rotten loose rocks everywhere. I never actually stopped on the way up but it was slow going all the way to the summit.

Struggling to breath on the way up Scree hell

Leaving so early meant I had the summit to myself and I sat here a while enjoying the views. I had made it out in 2hrs and my plan was to try bet back in 2hrs or less but it was still a long tough way back. I descended the scree field in no time and the climb back up Grizzly went pretty sweet as well. The top ridge being a highlight.

Heading back over Grizzly Peak

It was then a steep descent off Grizzly and loads of rolling terrain all the way back. I was pretty tired at the end but had managed to do the return in 1hr 30mins which I was pretty damn surprised at. All in all a brilliant morning out running at a constantly high altitude but it wasn't easy.

Torreys 14'327ft

There was no time to rest and the next morning(Tuesday) I went with Kim to run the local Bergen Peak. It's a great little loop close to Denver and I smashed out the 15km with 500m of ascent in 1hr 35mins and was super happy with that given what I had done the past few days. Today was a rest day and actually the only day in my 4 weeks of being here that it has rained all day so I have been quite content with doing nothing. I am now all set to head off to Steamboat Springs in the morning for 3 days to go and check out as much of the Run Rabbit Run course as I can.

No time to stop

It has been 10 days since the Leadville 50 and I have somehow managed to cram in an absolute ton of amazing days. I have been to Boulder twice , Independence Pass , Aspen , Bergen Peak and also managed to get in another 14er. Today I am resting before another busy week ahead.

I rested the day after the Silver Rush 50 so the following day(Tuesday) myself and Kim went to boulder for a little 12km run to Green Mountain. This was my first time in Boulder and I was pretty surprised how technical some of the trails were. The trail up was good fun but pretty smooth so we took a different descent which was way more fun with roots and rocks everywhere for the whole descent back to the town. There are a ton of trails all over the place in the Flatirons area and they do all have names but I am afraid I was just following signs and cannot remember for the life of me what ones we were on. My legs were feeling good all day although my hamstring was a little tight so 12km was enough for a little cool down run after the 50.

Overlooking Boulder from Green Mountain

I rested my hamstring the following day and then on Thursday morning before it got too hot I went for a bit of speed work to the local Washington Park for 12kms. This is all new to my running. It's pretty common knowledge that I hate flat road running but last year I realised it is really something I need to improve if I want to stay strong in ultras when I get onto the flat sections. Washington park is ideal for this and it is not too far from where I am staying here so once a week I will be getting out to do this 12km loop.

The amazing Independence Pass

Friday we headed off to Aspen as we were racing the Aspen Half marathon(21km) on the Saturday. We stopped off to see the Maroon Bells mountain range on the way and squeezed in a very easy 8km just enjoying the awesome area around Aspen. Saturday was race day and yup a road race! Again this was more flat surface training and it went a hell of a lot better than I expected. The course is all on tarmac but it is a cycle route that is actually pretty scenic so it wasn't too much of a bore for me. I was going into this to just plod along and make sure my hamstring was okay but for some stupid reason when the race started I picked up a fast pace and just wanted to see how I got on. At the 10km mark I looked at my watch and I actually hit a PB for my 10km time of 37mins. I was pretty shocked by this although my legs were telling me that I was going a bit too fast and then my hamstring decided it was better if I slowed a little so I did. I wouldn't say I slowed down too much but a few people passed me from about 15km's in but I stayed content with my pace and just kept going. Now there is no way I was finding it easy. This pace was miles from my usual ultra pace but I was managing to keep going. I manged to finish spot on 1hr 30mins in 11th place overall and 2nd in my age category which I was pretty happy about considering I had ran the 50 a week before and my hamstring was giving me a little bit of bother. I did enjoy being out racing like that but can't say I will be rushing back to do a road half anytime soon but it does go down an an excellent training day. On the drive home over Indepenance Pass(3687m) I was feeling good so asked Kim to stop the car so I could go out and run again! I could not drive over past these views without going up something so I went for a 7km out and back. The weather was turning and the thunder was not too far away but if the skies had been clear then I could have kept going. The area is amazing and my legs felt great running up to nearly 4000m.

Under the Maroon Bells

On Sunday I joined a local running group to go and do a little peak just outside of Evergreen called Bergen Peak. The summit lies just short of 3000m and it was a cracking little morning out. It was a 17km loop car to car. My legs started to get tired on the long uphill section but on the down they loosened up and I was pretty happy with how I was feeling considering how fast I had run the day previous. I am sure I will be joining the group again whenever I am free to do so.

So feeling strong on Monday it was off to Boulder again. I met up with Angie. A girl who I had met at Leadville last year who is back again to attempt the 100 miler in August as she missed the cut off at Fish Hatch last year. We didn't really have a plan in mind other than just go and run somewhere. We first headed up the side of the 1st Flatiron for some awesome views out over Boulder. We descended and resupplied with more water and went for a run along the famous Mesa Trail. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with the Mesa. Yeah it's in a lovely setting but it made me realise just how good the Balcon Sud trail is in Chamonix. The Balcon Sud is way way better than the Mesa in my opinion. I have just taken it for granted the past few years and forgot just how good it is. We were both feeling good so left Mesa and headed up Bear Canyon Trail to Green Mountain and it all started going wrong. We were both low on water as we made our way up the trail but instead of turning around we both had summit fever and just wanted to get to the top. It was skortchin' hot by this point and my water was nearly out so it really was a tough tough climb to the summit. We finally arrived to the top and had to get down. It was 98f and we needed liquids. We made a rapid descent back down to Boulder and ran directly into a local store to purchase a ridiculous amount of Coke and Water. Yeah it was a bit silly to not have turned around and it was not a a particularly fun hike up to be honest but it was excellent training in that heat and running your body out of gas. I don't like to do it too often but a couple of training runs like that I think help a lot in the run up to an Ultra.

The Flatirons of Boulder

There wasn't anytime for a rest and the following day myself and Kim went to do another 14er to keep the high altitude fitness up. Mt Quandary lies near Breckenridge and sits at 14,270ft(4350m). Due to the previous days antics I was just treating this as a hike. The car park was jammed packed and we found out there was some group from Texas doing the peak also and to be honest once we reached halfway and looked ahead it seemed as though half of Texas had come along. It was ridiculous the amount of people plodding up. Now I won't be one of these people who moan about wanting Mountains to themselves as I have had plenty of amazing days to myself in the hills but this was unreal. We kept hiking up passing people left right and centre hunched over or sitting down breathing like crazy and moaning they would not make it to the top. I actually felt great. both my legs and lungs had not a problem at all and I was on the summit in a little under an hour and a half. From what I have seen doing a 14er is just like doing a Munro back home. The altitude for sure slows you down a little but the total elevation gain is about the same as doing a Munro. You start off here at anything from 3000m-3400m and go up to 4000-4400m so really most are climbs of 1000m give or take. The altitude must destroy a lot of people who come here from sea level for a weekend to do a peak as they will not be acclimatised at all but I have been lucky and up high a lot in the past three weeks I have been here so I have been doing okay. Since I have been here I can't really say if the Alps or Rockies are harder peaks to run. For sure the Alps is way steeper climbs and sometimes way more elevation but what the Rockies miss out on in elevation and steepness they make up for with the thin air so I think it all kind of balances out. The view from the crowded summit of Quandary was worth the hike but it was time to descend. The descent was pretty rocky and techy and I scared the hell out many hikers flying past them but loved the descent and I was down at the car 35 mins later and needing a rest.

View from top of Quandary

Wednesday(today) and I am finally having a rest day.The past week has been a brilliant mix of flat fast running and hiking at altitude so I am recharging the batteries and tomorrow we head to Crested Butte for the weekend to explore from Thurs-Sat and then I run a little local 7km summit race at Arapahoe Basin Ski area on Sunday and it looks like more 14ers Mon and Tuesday then possibly a rest day and I head to Steamboat for the first time to have a little look at what it has in store for me in September.

Rapid descent time from 4350m