Spring again

  Last Sunday Ean and Alex hosted the second FCTR March Madness Horsetooth circumnavigation series.  Like the year prior the weather was nice, spring was definitely in the air.  Fun was had both running and back at the Mays' afterward grilling, eating, drinking beer, walking the slackline, telling tall tales, and of course giving The Nick Clark shit. Also like the year prior I shared in a running first with Stella, this year it was her first 5K at the Sharin' O' the Green 5K on St. Patrick's Day (last year her first trail run, up Towers to Stout and back). 

The 8:00 Gang

  For March Madness I started with the 8:00 crew.  I planned on at least the 23 mile route with them but hoped to summit either Arthur's or Horsetooth along the way.  As we took off things stratified rather quickly and by the top of the first climb, about a mile or two down the road, I was running with Marie and Ean and we spend the rest of the day together.  We ran around the south end of the reservoir and through Soderberg to the Arthur's trailhead where it was decision time.  I was willing to forgo Arthur's to stick together as though I enjoy Arthur's I enjoy company even more.   Marie, of course, was all for going up and it it didn't take much to convince Ean to do the same.  The views from the top were great as always.  We hung up top a bit, ate some food, chatted, and rested from the 1200 ft climb before we started down Timber.  All reports from a week prior were that Timber was an awful mess but we were treated to mostly dry trail with a bit of slush here and there, but not much.  The run down Timber was a blast, easily my favorite part of the day.  Rather than take the swing to the west at the bottom of Timber we cut down the Wells Gulch trail where we saw our first wildflowers of the spring.  

Marie on the way out of Soderberg

  As we hit the north end of Lory we opted again for a course detour and took the trail from Satanka Cove to the boat landing by the north damn.  Trail is a generous word in some spots.  Some was trail, some a faint game trail, and some was just plain bushwhacking or scrambling up rocks.  We made our way across though, more successful than some of our other trail running buddies were at finding the route.  The run/climb/bushwack is about a mile shorter, but probably takes longer.  It was surely more fun though, and it earned us some bragging rights.

Ean coming down from the top of Arthur's

  Marie and I ran MM together last year too, and we both commented on how we felt much better leaving Lory this year than we did last.  We turned south for the last 7-8 miles and turned straight into a wind that for most of the day was light or non-existent for most of the day.  It wasn't my first choice, but what can you do.  I've done versions of this run a half dozen times, ranging from 23-30 miles, and I always have a tough time at some point along the Foothills trail, sometimes barely out of Lory, sometimes not until we're approaching the top of Centennial, but always before Maxwell.  Maxwell and Pineridge then turn into a slog back to the Mays', complete with some 14 minute miles on what really is some easy trail.  To my surprise that didn't happen this time.  Though I didn't have the same pop in my step as I did leaving the driveway that morning I did manage to keep up a reasonable pace all the way back as we pulled back into the driveway at just about 25 miles.  I was tired but not really pushing the wall like I typically am.  We did take it slower on the climbs in the park and spent a good amount of time on Arthur's and lost time in our adventure from Satanka to the boat landing, so maybe that was it.  Maybe it was conditioning, maybe it was hitting the food and drink and electrolytes just right.  Maybe it was my new batch of energy bars.  Or the PB&J on Irish Soda bread - my newest trail food of the gods.  Maybe it was just the good company.  Rating how you feel at the end of a 25+ mile run from 1-10 this was a solid 8, hard to complain about that.

Spoiling the best view of Fort Collins you can find

So back as we left Lory I commented that we were going to finish right around 25 miles and knowing Marie she would egg us on to do a bit more to get a marathon in.  As we neared the finish we all said we were OK with just 25 though.  And then 5 minutes after stopping Marie and Ean told me they were going after the last bit.  So off we went.

I went back and read my post about the 2011 MM run because I remembered it also being a lot of fun.  Everything I said then still applies, the FCTRs are still a great group of runners and friends and they more than anything are the reason I train.  I train so I can be in good enough shape to run and have fun with them. 

March Madness, Spring, Friends

  I had a great weekend, 2 days with some fun times running, good friends, fun family time and beautiful weather.  It seems there's always a weekend like this, around this time of year, where everything just seems perfect.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.

 My FCTR buds for the March Madness run

  Saturday was the March Madness collection of Horsetooth circumnavigational routes hosted by Alex.  I intended to do 25-26 that day, but ended up doing 30, bagging Horsetooth Rock, the Towers, and Arthur's Rock in a nice scenic route that had a little over 5000 ft of vertical gain in it.  There were thoughts of trimming something from the route to reduce mileage but in the end I didn't want to trim any of the peaks out.  It's great to have the fitness to be able to add on to your mileage like that and great to have a group of friends to push you a little bit further than you had planned on pushing yourself.  Between the beautiful, sunny, not too hot, no wind day and the companionship and camaraderie of my fellow Fort Collins Trail Runners it was one of my best days on the trails in recent months.  It only got better coming down the street to the cheers of 30 fellow runners and families for beer, food on the grill, a table full of potluck food.  Sitting around the deck listening to tales of others' runs, exchanging training tips, and picking the brains of more experienced ultrarunners was a great end to the day.

  The Fort Collins Trail Runners really are an awesome group of runners, supportive, welcoming, sometimes enabling ;-) and fun!  I have had so many experiences with this group where more experienced, stronger, and faster runners have been willing to share a run with me, share advice with me, and show sincere interest in how my training and races have been going.  Never have I felt looked down upon or left out as a slower and newer runner in this community.  A friend of mine expressed in his blog how the company and the camaraderie that this wonderful running community fosters and attracts, the shared community experience, makes all the pain/work/effort of long distance running worthwhile.  To me that is so true.  Some think running is a solo sport, I think they might not be doing it right.

 Ross and I with the fast guys on top of Horsetooth Rock

  On Sunday, continuing the more experienced runner theme, I ran up Towers Trail with a fast runner I work with.  He's never been up the route and wanted to see the lay of the land.  I showed him the trail, he gave me some pointers, and we overall enjoyed a bit over an hour of good conversation and great weather.

  Sunday afternoon I enjoyed a day at the zoo with my wife and our girls.  The weather again was near perfect, the girls (and my wife) loved all the animals, and it was just a fun afternoon.  Even the animals themselves seemed to be enjoying the spring weather as it seemed many were out and active.

  The end of my weekend had me taking Stella out on her first trail run.  She had been asking me to take her running but it was always phrased in a "some day when ..." form so I wasn't sure how serious she was.  This morning I left my hat (a hat my wife knit for me for Christmas) stashed along the trail as I forgot to pick it up on my way back down the hill, so needed to go look for it after going to the zoo.  I asked Stella if she wanted to go and she was quite enthusiastic.  My hat was off of Towers a little over a mile from the Soderberg trailhead.  Stella walked 3-4 times on the way up to the hat (it was there, yeah!) and then she asked to keep going up!  We went maybe 0.1 miles further up, and then turned around.  She ran the entire 1.1 miles or so back to the car without stopping once, just chatting away.  I'm not sure who was grinning more when we were done.

  And to really top it off, I logged my first 60+ mile week this week with 63.0 miles counting the trip with Stella.  At 3 months to Big Horn I am feeling pretty confident about the 50 right now.  Confident in finishing upright, that is, no idea what my time will be.

  I hope spring is treating you as well as it is me, instead of playing favorites.