With an early tease of Spring for the past few days and the Mountain looking big and inviting......
..... I got a mid afternoon start yesterday. I parked by Manitou City Hall, the start line for the race - in order to get accurate split times.
I then ran up to Barr Camp.
I have been to Barr Camp several times - so that was not a first. Yesterday was the first time I ran the whole way. A couple of exceptions - there are a few step ups that require a literal big step up. There were also a few slickery sections where it was necessary to shuffle over the ice / snow. Melting was in progress, still some ice though.
It wasn't a fast running pace - but there was no walking. Plus, I made it to Barr Camp with a few seconds to spare before 2 hours. Admittedly my earlier split times at the W's, No Name Creek, the 7.8 mile sign - all had me at a faster (projected) pace to summit. But entering the time into the Skyrunners pace calculator - gave a projected summit time of 3:56.
While honestly hoping for a little better, I am quite excited because that is less than 8 minutes from my Ascent race time from last year. According to the Pace Chart - the average Marathon time for a 3:56 Ascent is 6:24:59. That will be what I enter tomorrow afternoon.
If all goes to plan - I will beat that prediction on Race day.
After resting at Barr Camp for a few minutes I made my way down, went fairly easy until I came to the trail from the Incline where a guy joined the trail right behind me and pushed me a little faster. It got my competitive juices going and I picked up the pace during the upper W's until I dropped him. Then I eased back down into Manitou.
Round trip time of 3:06 (watch was stopped at Barr Camp) - total distance 15.3 miles. Very pleased with that.
A few more photos from the down journey.
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