Barr Trail Mountain Race

  The Barr Trail Mountain Race (BTMR) is essentially the lower half of the Pikes Peak Marathon.  The race is a bargain at $35 and has brought good reviews from my fellow Fort Collins Trail Runners.  It's also another thing I can cross off the list of "Shit Alex May Has Done".  It's a formidable list.  There's no rest for the weary trying to conquer that list, yesterday as myself, Scott, and Celeste crossed Barr Trail off the list Alex parried by adding the Silver Rush 50 (sub-10 hours, well done Alex) to the list.


  I signed up for Barr Trail months ago.  I signed up for it partially because I felt guilty on backing down from my original goal of running my first 50 and running the Pikes Peak Marathon this summer.  The Barr Trail Mountain Race is essentially the bottom half of the Pikes Peak Marathon, run on the same trail, Barr Trail surprisingly, up to Barr Camp (10,200 ft) and then back down.  I also signed up because I love running up Towers and Barr Trail is essentially two Towers in one (12.6 miles and 3630 ft vert vs 2 times 6 miles and 1700 ft vert if you skip the Swan Johnson connector trail).  Next year I'm in for Pikes, now I want to see what the top half of the course is like.


  My modus operandi lately seems to be to doubt myself in the weeks leading up to a race. Barr Trail has a 1:10 cutoff at the 3.1 mile mark ( ft gain) and a 3:30 finish line cut-off.  I had no doubt I could easily make both times when I signed up for the race, but a recent trip up Round Mountain where I was working harder than I anticipated had me wondering a bit.  Just ignore the fact that the Round trip was 2 weeks out from Big Horn and I may not have been fully recovered, I did.  I successfully managed to talk myself off the ledge after looking at past race results and set some goals based on about an 80th percentile finish.


Top of the Ws (1.9 M, 7800 ft) -- 34:00
No Name Creek (3.1 M, 8750 ft) -- 57:30
7.8 to Summit sign (4.6 M, 9350 ft) -- 1:23:30
Barr Camp (6.3 M, 10200 ft) -- 1:53:00
Descent (6.3 M, 6570 ft) -- 1:07:00
Finish (12.6 M, 3630 ft ascent/descent) -- 3:00:00


I started about 1/3 of the way back in the pack, further up than I maybe should have been but I've heard how crowded the W's get.  I figured the faster guys behind me had a mile to put me in my place!  By the time I got to the Ws, steep and sharp switchbacks, I didn't feel guilty at all as I found myself walking more than I wanted to.  I took some advice learned from Victoria a few days before the race and carefully timed my passing to be in areas where I could pass 5-10 people at once, and set out passing runners going up the hill.  I hit the top of the Ws at 33:00, a minute ahead of pace.  I was worried a bit as everyone says not to go out too hard in the first 3 miles, but I was feeling good so kept on pushing.  From here to No Name Creek I continued to pass when I had the chance and continued to feel strong.  I hit No Name Creek at 54-ish, over 3 minutes ahead of pace, still wondering if I ran too hard but thinking not.  Above No Name there are some flatter parts, and even a couple short downhill sections mixed in with the climbing, unlike the bottom half of the climb which is almost all up.  Running up Towers teaches you when to push and when to conserve energy and I felt like I aced a test as I made good time to the 7.8 sign, passing several runners too exhausted to take advantage of the easier grades when they presented themselves.  7.8 sign at around 1:16 I think, over 6 minutes ahead of pace.  Not far beyond the 7.8 sign the lead runner and I crossed paths, he going down, I still up.  I estimated I was still about 1.5 miles from Barr Camp.  I'll do the math for you, he was 3.0 miles ahead of me, at mile 7.8 where I was at 4.8.  I decided to focus on how easily he made it look as he was flying downhill and push on so I could do the same.  Soon other runners started coming down too and a few minutes later I passed Scott in about 15th place.  I got a boost seeing a familiar face and set my mind on Barr Camp in 1:45.  The closer I got to Barr the harder the gentle grades seemed; I'm still not sure if it was the altitude or accumulated fatigue.


  I hit the Barr Camp turnaround at 1:45:34, 7:26 ahead of pace and wasted no time in heading downhill.  Going by my highly scientific algorithm of 3 parts up, 2 parts down I calculated a 2:48 finish was in reach.  Game on.  I bounded downhill, falling in with a group of 3 or 4 runners all moving at about the same pace.  I was now very happy I wore my Montrail Mountain Masochists as the sticky rubber soles on them left me feeling very confident and I was running relatively aggressively (for me).   And then the irony to end all irony happened.


  I think of all kinds of goofy shit when I run.  Sometimes I do math, sometimes I sing songs in my head (sometimes, though rarely, out loud), sometimes I think about future races, sometimes I compose poetry.  Silly (as opposed to artsy and profound) Haikus are my favorite.  So with a little under 5 miles to go in the race I am trying to determine how many syllables are in gryptonite (what Montrail calls their sticky rubber outsoles) and thinking whether it should be in a 5 or 7 syllable line.   Bam.  I find myself on the ground.  If composing a Haiku in honor of the great traction your shoes have causing a fall on trails isn't ironic I don't know what is.  For what it's worth, I had just settled on "Gryptonite magic" as the 3rd line of the Haiku when I fell.  The first two lines remain unwritten.


  Trail runners are awesome, 3 or 4 stopped and asked if I was alright.  One guy helped me up.  I told them all to get going and took inventory of my injuries.  The first thing I noticed was an egg on the side of my right forearm.  It was sticking out 3/4 of an inch nearly immediately after falling.  I was briefly scared it was broken, but the lack of sharp pain pushed that thought away.  I had some road rash on my calf but otherwise thought things were fine.  Until I took my first step with my left leg.  Ouch.  Evidently I took a rock right square in my quad and had a big charlie horse kind of knot in my quad.  You may be able to guess this, but running downhill with such a beast isn't pleasant.  I ran as hard as I could the rest of the way down which was probably dumb, but races are where you do dumb stuff, right?  I am sure my pace suffered from where it could have been, but don't know how much it suffered.  The 1:05:45 I ran on the way down was still faster than the 1:07 I had predicted, but after my ascent I hoped to gain 5 minutes on the downhill (and in the back of my mind thought it possible to break 60 down the way I felt at the top of the descent).  Next year!  My overall time of 2:51:21 was good for a finish 65% of the way down the field, significantly better than my 3:00:00 goal and significantly better than the 80% mark that I used to set that goal.  I'll call that success.


Special thanks to El Paso County Search and Rescue for gently cleaning up my wounds after the race, they didn't even make me scream.


And yes, I really should post a Big Horn report sometime.  And a schedule for 24 Hours of Towers.

24 Hours of Towers Update 1

30 July 2011  7:00 AM
Soderberg Trailhead in Horsetooth Mountain Park
Fort Collins, CO

You all hoped we forgot, didn't you.  You should know better than that by now.  24 Hours of Towers is still alive and kicking.  Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday?  An entire Saturday.

We have previously stated our goal was to have fun, and it still is.  Being a little competitive though, we did notice a couple collective total benchmarks our friends to the south set one April day on Mt. Sanitas.

• 34 Runners
• 240 Summits
• 745 Miles run
• 325,440 vertical feet

It will be fun to see if we can meet or exceed those numbers.  The first should be easy as we've had nearly that many runners out on a single Thursday evening run up Towers and over 100 different people over the last year.  745 miles can be beat with 107 round trips.  That's very doable.  The vert is going to be tougher, it will take 192 round trips to beat that total.  And that is why we need everyone to come out, even to run one lap.  They will all count towards our total.

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

• The Birthday - Run your age in miles worth of laps.
• The Starry Night- Run laps all night, starting Sunday night at dusk.  With a new moon that night there will be stars-o-plenty to guide your way.  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 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.  

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.

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 big 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, I54, where you can record what you ran.


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.  There is even rumor of a boat or two being around for the day.  If the usual FCTR shenanigans aren't occuring at basecamp I'll be disappointed. 


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 evening though the park remains open, I will get the specifics and post them at a later date.

The mental side of running

  You may have noticed I haven't posted much lately.  The biggest reason is simply history, I am not a consistent blogger.  Another reason is that I was in a bit of a mental slump though.
In March and April I was running well, both in terms of speed and pushing to new training distances.  I was feeling good about the Big Horn 50 Mile race I had signed up for.  Doubt started to creep in though in mid-April.  It started with an injury to my right arch, a strain or something, I am not 100% certain.  The injury didn't sideline me but did curtail my fast running as fast running seemed to irritate it most.


  I was still running my planned weekend long runs and was still maintaining weekly mileage volumes which I planned on.  Nonetheless  doubt over Big Horn still managed to creep in.  I am typically very positive when running (the Moab Red Hot excepted), this was new territory for me.  The nature of my doubts had to do with the large "no man's land" nature of the race, the territory between my longest run, 33 miles, and the race distance, originally 52 miles.  This was not going to change during my training as 30 miles was the longest I planned on running, and is typical of a 50 mile training plan.


  Fortunately I know some great runners in the Fort Collins Trail Runners who did a great job talking me off the ledge by sharing their race experiences and advice with me.  Slowly their advice took root and over the two weeks before the race I was gained confidence, or at least was less afraid of the unknown, and I found myself eager to find out what was in store.


  The evening before Big Horn, and the morning of, I was less nervous than I have been for some other races I've done.  As the race started I focused on small chunks of the race, not the big picture.  I didn't think of "no man's land" until I was actually there, and by that point I was feeling good because I hadn't been dwelling on it.  I kept the negative out, something I failed to do at the Red Hot, and I had a very enjoyable race.  I've done a good handful of 30+ mile training runs and races now and I can honestly say none of them were as enjoyable as Big Horn, quite possibly none of them were as easy as Big Horn.


  The physical tools have to come first, the endurance, the training.  But all the physical stuff can be thrown out the window if the mental game isn't in order.  Yogi Berra was right.  The converse is also true, the limit to what we can push ourselves to do is lot further away than many of us realize.  Going into Big Horn I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of running a 100.  I now see how it's possible.  I'm nowhere near ready, physically nor mentally, but I can now see the path to get there.


  I have been quite pleased with the sense of accomplishment that completing Big Horn has left me with.  It has left a smile on my face for over a week now.  My friend Mary, who also ran her first 50 at Big Horn, summed it up well yesterday when we were out running, she said she was still on a runner's high.  Me too.

24 Hours of Towers

  Yes the glorious rumors you have heard are true.  The FCTR summer running fun will be 24 hours of Towers.  The date will be Saturday July 30th.  Mark your calendars.  The details are yet to be determined, probably after some beverages at the Trailhead, but the broad strokes are in place.

• Who: As many of you as possible, and any borderline crazy friends you may be able to talk into this.  You can run solo or as relay-style teams.
• What: 7 mile laps up and down Towers road.   As many as you can or want to do in 24 hours.  Here's a great blow by blow up the route from Nick.
• Where: Towers road in Horsetooth Mountain Park.  We'll start/finish each lap at campsite I54 which is right across the road from the Soderberg parking lot.  This makes the route an even 7 miles round trip to make the math easier at 3:00 AM.
• Why: To celebrate the beast that makes us all stronger runners.
• When: 7:00 AM Sat. July 30th to 7:00 AM Sun. morning July 31st.  Breakfast and tall tales to follow, probably at the campground.

We simply want a lot of people to show up and have fun.  To that end, there aren't a lot of rules.

• Run solo, or run as a team.  
• Start/finish each lap at the campground and tag the service building up top.  
• Run when you want, stop when you want.  Drink beer when you want.  Dip your toes in the Reservoir when you want.
• Have fun.

Three of us have campsites in Horsetooth reserved already.  There may still be a couple more available, if you're so inclined, but you're welcome to hang at the sites we have too.

Ask Alex, Pete, or Brian any questions you may have and check back here for forthcoming details.

No PB in the Horsetooth Half

No Half PB for me in the Horsetooth Half Marathon.  No sub-2:00 hour finish.  Not even a course PB.  Oh-for-three on my goals, no fun.

 Last weekend I ran at Pineridge Reservoir and the wind was all over the place.  At times it was 15-20 MPH, at times calm.  At times I ran into the wind at one end of the loop and with the wind, while going in the same direction, at the other end of the loop.  I hit wind in some spots that were calm the loop before and vice versa.  It was just difficult to figure out. 

Such has been my running.  In the past 2 weeks I've run a 5K PB, a Towers road PB, had one of the uglier long runs in months and ran my slowest half marathon in 3 years.  I've had all the runs to fill in the gaps in between too.  It's been difficult to figure out.

I suppose there's probably some wisdom in here regarding adequate recovery after hard and fast efforts.  Probably some more wisdom regarding riding the ups and downs while increasing mileage volume.  Maybe even some snarky comments to be made regarding pavement pounding.  For now I'm just kind of bummed.  That will probably change tomorrow when I go out for a run.  Wonder which way the wind will be blowing?