PP Marathon Training - Summit 6 miles

Drove up to and parked at the Summit, arrived shortly after noon to a Thunder / Snow shower.  Waited a few minutes and went down to A-Frame (approx 3 miles).  Was a bit slickery, especially up top.  But, it emphasized 2 things to me.  1) Run the parts you can and should run, walk the parts that you should walk.  If you do that, then 2) you shouldn't fall over.

30 minutes down to A-Frame.  By this time it was quite sunny so I shed my jacket, took a quick breather and went back up.  Managed to maintain a decent pace.  Running as much as I could and walking the rest, but overall ran (albeit slowly) much more than I walked.

55 1/2 minutes back up to the Summit.  I think that is one of my better times.  I know any time under an hour for me is really good and I will be happy w/ that on race day.

After Saturday's tumble - when according to my Garmin (if I am looking at it right) I was going sub 7 min mile pace when I crashed - I am really grateful it seems as though nothing structural went wonky.  Just a flesh wound.  (Okay, maybe a 1/2 dozen flesh wounds).

PP Marathon Training - A Frame

This past weekend was 5 weeks till race day weekend.  So, training has been needs to have been in full swing.  Things were going good according to plan the Saturday before was a great hike to the Summit and back with my son.  The 8+ hours, 25 miles of hiking and climbing over 7000 feet did take a toll on me, so I took the next day off. 

Woke up Monday morning and was wandering around the house for a while getting going with my day - bent over to pick up something and my (lower) back went out.

Don't know why or how it went out - but it hurt like crazy - to the point that I was short of breath and of course couldn't hardly stand up.  A trip to the Chiropractor helped the back into place a bit, he recommended that I take more calcium (he calls it Nature's "muscle relaxer") - to help with the pain in the lower back muscles.  Wednesday I saw the Chiro again and it also improved some more.  Gradually over the next few days the pain got less.  I gutted out a couple of slow runs during the week.  Continued to do lots of back stretching and by Friday I could stand up straight and take full breaths without hurting.

With that - I was ready to go again, so I met up with Steve (Happy Trails) at 6am in Manitou Springs to run up a good chunk of the Barr Trail / Marathon and Ascent course.  The plan was to watch Steve suffer as payback for prior runs near gun shooting ranges run with Steve at least up to Barr camp, assess the situation and probably go on to A Frame.

I'm quite familiar with the trail up to Barr Camp, but really need to get more familiar with the 2 1/2 miles from there to A-Frame.  So, we took it easy (sort of) and got going.  It was good to run again w/ Steve as our last run was before the Waldo Canyon Fire, (he and his wife Kathleen were evacuated for several days but fortunately their house was spared).  So, as the day started and we got rolling we had plenty to talk about.

I didn't take a camera with me, did carry a handheld water bottle - trying to figure out if it would hurt or hinder on race day.  More on that later.  Steve did take his camera and writes a great post  (click on his link above in this post) on our run along with thoughts on the Waldo Canyon fire and impact.

Early on in the W's - notice my nice clean shirt, more on that later too....

Fortunately my back wasn't complaining as we began the tough early stretch up Ruxton, through the W's and beyond.  Steve lead early and then let me pass soon after to set the pace.  Lots of people already on the trail - much more than the past weekend.

We made good time up to Barr Camp - just under 1 hr 55 mins.  The last few miles my back was acting up again - not allowing me to really run with any kind of strength.  But we still managed to keep it more of a run than a walk.  Was a good and productive effort I think overall.  We rested for a bit at Barr Camp - which was already very crowded at 8 am.  I was out of water so Steve filled me up - then he set off back down as a necessary precaution to keep his head / belly from getting worse.  The altitude is a great equaliser / showing no respect for anyone - Steve made a good choice to turn around.

I must of got a second wind after the rest stop at Barr Camp and was able to run at least 2/3rds of the way up to A-Frame - taking just under 50 minutes to cover that stretch, easily my best ever time and I really hope to do that on race day.  With 10 miles in, I was even tempted to go a little higher - but instead decided that I should work on getting familiar with running the stretch down to Barr Camp.

WARNING / WARNING / WARNING / WARNING - I'm gonna post a photo that has got nothing to do with anything, WARNING / WARNING / WARNING - below that will be photos of what happens when you are running at full speed, downhill, on rocky terrain and.......... (if you get grossed out, exit now).


An Ice Cream Burger - the next photos are a different kind of hamburger.

A brief rest at A-Frame and then I started down.  The trail is very technical in several places, lots of rocks and roots of various sizes.  It's really hard to go at a decent speed for any length of time as the moment you come to a somewhat smooth stretch, you then come to a rocky step down, or up or sideways.

So, my first half a mile down was kind of slow, was maintaining a decent pace, but not too fast.  It's a series of switchbacks that gradually get longer as you go further down the trail.  The long one is about 3/4 mile long and in several places allows you to pick up speed, so I did, glancing every now and then at my watch to see my average pace was getting much faster.

At 1.15 miles down the trail, at close to full speed, I stopped running.

I then started crying.  Not just because I had ruined one of my favorite shirts.

In a display of spectacular and memorable wipeouts - I crashed, harder than I ever remember before.  I walked the rest of the 9 miles down.  Training day was over.

I stopped several times on the way down the trail - sympathetic passers by helped me wash out the wounds, provide Neosporin and bandaids.  Those didn't stick on for long and were mostly too small.  The Neosporin seemed to help a lot keep things clean.

My water bottle was in my left hand, that protected that hand.  The rest of my body took some good hits.  (If you have made it this far to look at the pics - here, you can have them).

Lessons learned:
1) Considering running covered in Bubble wrap.
2) Considering not running down a trail.
3) Consider not looking at your watch while running down a trail
4) Consider not running.
5) My back doesn't hurt so much any more.

The morning after - this one hurts the most.

(ps - 20.15 miles on the day w/ 5656' elevation gain and 5hr 38 mins of (sort of) forward progress - the journey down took longer than the journey up).

Conquering Pikes Peak Summit

With the Barr Trail Mountain Race being cancelled due to the recent Waldo Canyon fire, the knuckledragging boys went to Plan "B".  We were going to do it last Summer - but due to the knee injury - couldn't.  It was time to conquer Pikes Peak.

So, Saturday morning we set off, parking about 1/2 mile after the start of the Pikes Peak Marathon start line - our goal was to hike the whole way up and then walk / maybe jog a little on the way down.

We carried with us plenty of food and fluids and set out at 6:15am.  It was cloudy and quite humid.  Quite a few people on the trail already, some were going up, while some others were already coming back down "the W's" after going up "The Incline".

We really didn't know how long it would take us to get up to the Summit.  Several times we were even tempted to run - fortunately that feeling went away quickly, mostly because we knew we were in for a long day of hiking and getting up to the Summit at 14,115 feet.

As we got going the clouds were settling in - so we really didn't get to see the Summit for the first few hours.

Somewhere way up there is the Summit covered in clouds

We made good progress up to Barr camp, where we stopped the clock for 5 minutes for a quick break.  The caretakers told us of a 60% chance of a storm on the Summit - we wanted to keep going though to get up there.  We did decide that if we heard the thunder and lightning - we would turn around.

So, we hiked on and eventually made it to the A-Frame Shelter.  By this time we not only were at treeline, but we were at "cloud line"

A Frame shelter just below treeline



Looking up - we can see the Summit (just to the right of center)

With the slight break in the clouds - we were thinking now that we should be okay to attempt the Summit.  1 1/2 hours later we made it - stopping only briefly at the bottom of the "16 Golden Stairs".  We hiked the whole way, but with a 1/2 mile or so to go - the journey and now the altitude was giving us a bit of the wobblies.

We pressed on, the clouds were now rolling in and it was getting cooler.  Finally we made it up, crossing the train tracks in 4 hours, 50 minutes.  Not bad for hiking the whole way.  We treated ourselves to a reward.

We had 4, took 2 home.

We also enjoyed a big sandwich each and gatorade.  We had plenty of food and fluids for the whole trip.  After resting and refueling for 20 minutes, we wandered around outside for a few minutes for photos before heading back down.

We did not share any donuts with this guy

Tempting to catch a ride on the Cog for the ride down - but we didn't



Proof we made it



Somewhere way out there is our house, many miles away

As you can see by the last photo, we were surrounded by clouds, it was about 40 degrees - didn't feel like raining, but we didn't want to wait around for long so we started our way down.  The plan was to walk some, maybe jog a little.

The clouds were really thick

Walking in the clouds, we could hear our voices echo because it was so thick and quiet.  We couldn't see much of anything, so we just walked and eventually got lower down the trail back towards treeline.  We jogged a mile or so every now and then - nothing fast at all, just trying to make the time go by a bit quicker.

By the time we got back to Barr Camp we finally heard our first rumbles of thunder.  So, we stopped only briefly to empty our shoes, grab a quick snack and kept heading down the trail.  We jogged again on and off for the next few miles, hearing the occasional rumble of thunder, amazingly all day we never got rained on.

The last 4 miles or so was tough.  Our feet, knees and hips were by now aching and sore - we were looking forward to finishing.  Finally, we made it back to where Dad had parked the car. 

Within 5 minutes of getting back to the car and taking off our shoes - this was me.....

What a long day

Thanks to my son (13 years old) - that was one of my best days and experiences on Pikes Peak.  25 total miles.  8:05 for the round trip.  7867 feet of climbing and 2 very tired dudes.

Barr Trail Mtn Race is cancelled

Got this e-mail from the RD in the last couple of minutes.....

Link to the Race website - where they have updated status also.

Dear Runners, After a great deal of consideration, the Barr Trail Mountain Race (BTMR) committee has come to the painful decision to cancel the 2012 edition of the BTMR. As we are sure you are all aware, our community is in the midst of experiencing what is being called "the most devastating wildfire in Colorado history." The impact of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire on both Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs has been incredibly severe. To date, over 17,000 acres have burned and nearly 350 homes have been destroyed. We realize that while Barr Trail has remained unscathed by the fire, countless other trails and open spaces along the front range have been directly affected. Because of this, both El Paso County Search and Rescue and the US Forest Service have been busy focusing their efforts towards helping contain the fire and deal with the destruction which has already occurred. We as a committee, and involved community members, believe these organizations should continue to direct their energies and resources where they are most needed, i.e. helping with the Waldo Canyon Wildfire. We recognize that the wildfire crews are making significant progress and the percentage of containment continues to jump on a daily basis. However containment, even full containment, does not mean extinguished. And as the fire continues to burn, the quality of air along the front range remains less than ideal. We would like to thank our sponsors and look forward to working with them in 2013. We know they too are hoping for the best possible outcome for this situation. Since the BTMR is a non-profit race, meaning 100% of entry fees are put directly back into the community, you will have the choice to either: 1) Have your race entry fee be donated to the original BTMR beneficiaries: El Paso County Search and Rescue, Friends of the Peak and Barr Camp. 2) Request your entry fee be donated to the Colorado Red Cross. 3) Defer your race entry to 2013. If you opt to have your entry fee be donated, you will be guaranteed a slot in the 2013 BTMR. Please email the race director at........

Waldo Canyon - taken January 11th this year while I was running it