Second Annual 24 Hours of Towers

Saturday 08 September 2012  7:00 AM

North End of Horsetooth Campground (across the street from the Soderberg Lot)
Fort Collins, CO
More detailed schedule to follow

You can see them from almost anywhere in town, don't you want to go up and touch them?

Can it really only be  weeks until we get to spend a Saturday together?  An entire Saturday?  For those new to this, 24 Hours of Towers is a fun, low key, cooperative, 24 hour group run on our Hill.  The Hill that helps hone the edge of a group of very successful runners who call Fort Collins home. Everyone is invited, come run what you can, every lap counts towards our only goal, the big group totals.

Horsetooth Rock as viewed  from Towers Road

As runners we're always trying to best our current PRs.  Well, the 24 Hours of Towers PRs are:

• 78 different runners
• 210 laps completed
• 1502 miles
• 367,500 feet of ascent (69.6 miles)
• Average per runner:
• 2.69 laps
• 19.25 miles!
• 4712 ft. vert. 
• 25 runners with an "ultradistance" day, 4+ laps

What comes first, 100 runners or 100 miles of vert?  Come be part of it and find out.

Bring your (well behaved and leashed) dogs.  They love Towers too, and can be of help on the way up.

To help people set their own goals we've come up with some ideas to help you out.

• The Birthday - Run your age in miles, however many laps that is.
• The Starry Night- Run laps all night, starting Saturday night at dusk.  Slap on some glow bracelets and have fun.
• The Solo- Run one lap up and down.  7 miles and 1700 vertical feet. 
• The FCTR Twelve Pack - If a Baker's Dozen is 13 then a FCTR 12'er has 14 beers.  2 Laps is 14 miles and 3400 vertical feet.  That's a run worthy of a beer or two.
• The Cool Dude - One a lap Sat morning, another Saturday evening when it's cool, and a third Sunday morning, timed to finish at breakfast time (7 AM).  Three laps is 21 miles and 5100 feet of vert, nearly a mile, all in cool weather.  
• The Ultra - 4 laps will give you 28 miles (6800 feet of vert), that's an ultramarathon, and tougher than some 50Ks.  Bonus, we have a generous 24 hour cut off. 
• The Pikes Peak Plus - 5 laps 35 miles with 8500 feet of vertical gain.  Pike's Peak marathon is only (Oops, there is no Only) 26.2 miles and less than 8000 feet of vert.  
• The Meaning of Life - Run 6 laps and you'll have traveled 42 miles (and 10,200 feet of vertical gain).  If you don't find the meaning of life in your 42nd mile you're free to keep running.  
• The Nearly Jemez - 7 laps will leave your GPS reading 49 miles and 11,900 feet of vertical gain.  We know you couldn't sleep at night being so close to the 50 miles and 12,000 feet of vert at the Jemez 50 so we won't judge you when you run out a half mile and back to get the Garmin to turn over to 50.
• The Vermont - 9 laps is 15,300 feet of vertical gain, that's what you get in the Vermont 100.  
• The Leadville - 10 laps will give you 17,000 feet of vert (70 miles), roughly the vert in the Leadville Trail 100.  It saves you 30 miles though!
• The Western - 11 laps is 18700 feet of vert (77 miles), a touch more than the Western States 100 has.
• The Wasatch - 16 laps will give you a respectable 112 miles and 27,200 feet of vert which is just a bit over the 26,900 ft of vert found in the Wastach 100.  With 12 extra miles take solace in the overall grade being less here.
• Mr. October - Nick says he thinks 19 laps is possible.  That's 133 miles and over 32,000 vertical feet.
• The Hardrock - 20 laps would be 140 miles and 34000 feet of vert, basically the vert in the Hardrock 100.  
• The Honey Badger - New this year, running the Honey Badger's age in LAPS.  25 Laps to the towers and back.  If you undertake this one we'll wave the 24 hour time limit.

Even the flat boring parts are pretty

 24 Hours of Towers FAQ

Can I run as part of a team?

  Of course you can.  If you each do 4 laps you can even call it an Ultra Team.

Toughest hill on the hill, doesn't look that bad, eh?

Do I have to run for 24 hours straight?

  Of course not.  Run when you want.  Stop when you want.  Eat when you want.  Drink beer when you want.  You don't even need to start at 7:00 AM if you don't want to.  

Should I be done by 7:00 AM on Sunday?

  If you want to join us for a fun campstove breakfast you should.

Do I need to sign up or register?

  No.  This is not a race, just a bunch of trail runners getting together.  We'll have a log at the start/finish campsite, I53, where you can record what you ran.

Don't take in this view too deeply or you'll trip on that rebar sticking out of the trail just over there to the left!

Will there be other things to do besides run?
  Of course.  We anticipate a crowd at the campground during the day and hopefully into the night.  Last year there was even a boat or two being around for the day.  If the usual FCTR shenanigans aren't occuring at basecamp I'll be disappointed. 

The views get even better once you get up high

Where should I park?
  The best place to park will be the Soderberg Trailhead.  There's a $7 daily fee to park there if you don't have a Larimer county park pass.  The gate to the trailhead does close sometime in the late evening though the park remains open all night.  You can also park 1/2 mile down the trail at the Marina parking lot for the same $7 Larimer county fee.