Not sure where to start, finish or how much to write in this post. I will say that I can barely move today. I'll also say that I'm not racing anyone else in the Ascent - nor should anyone be motivated to beat me. Many people will beat me, but I think I will beat a few also. I have always thought of myself as someone when running as "not good enough to win, but good enough to be ahead of the middle of the pack". In other words, not great, but better than average. There is a competitive side in me to do well and there has been a few (small) races that I have won things in my age group (40 - 44).
There will never be any chance of me winning anything in the Pikes Peak Ascent, or marathon - should I ever choose to do that. After running last night, coming back down Barr Trail in steady, cool rain, seeing a picture perfect rainbow over Cameron's cone, running past Alpine flowers and rugged mountain rocks - I figured out to forget racing as much as possible and instead just enjoy running on the mountain trails.
Knee and various other body parts issues that come with arthritis and getting older aside - as long as I can move, I want to be able to enjoy this running thing. Last night I did.
I have no idea how long it will take me to do the Ascent. Despite the knee being scoped out just over 4 weeks ago. I have been able to run for a week now - not a lot, but enough to know that I can and should be able to beat the cut off time of 6 1/2 hours. Last night I wanted to try find out by how much.
Running to the top of the W's was supposed to give me an idea - I could take that time and use that as a split in the PPA prediction calculator. So, I started at city Hall in Manitou just after 4:30 and ran up the street.
4 hours later I made it back.
During that time there was a good amount of running, there was also walking, resting, sitting, getting rained on - sure there was heavy breathing, some aching and considerable effort put forth. After 4 hours on my feet I now have a better idea of what my Ascent time will be. My top of the W's split put me on track to beat an Ascent time faster than 5 hours. I have decided as I type to not put down any more splits or where I managed to get to (further than the W's).
For the few people that read this - enjoy the mystery.
Good job Craig - pretty amazing at 1 month out. There are many who have never has a single surgery that will not sniff 5 hours, so you are coming along great. Have a good week leading up to it! I'm going to have to figure out how to get PPA/M results beamed up to Leadville while we are crewing "the other race" ;-)
ReplyDeleteHave an awesome time at Leadville. As far as PPA / M results go - I think pprrun website has in progress results, last year I think they were not "real time" an hour or so after - but should give you some sort of an idea.
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