Still...A Pretty Good Year

Fruita Trail Festival

Mid April I competed in the Fruita Trail Festival by Gemini Adventures. I raced the 50k with a fair result as well as volunteered the next day to help with the half marathon. Reid and his crew work day and night to make all their events special, and it shows.

I am a race pacer for Beast Pacing. You know- the runners that carry the sign for a target finish time or pace.- that's me. Its such a rewarding experience and a great way for me to give back to my running community as well as get a workout in! Early May I paced the Colorado Marathon with the 4 hour finisher group. Mid July brought me to "...a place where the beer flows like wine, where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. A little place called Aspen..."-Lloyd  I paced the Aspen Valley Half Marathon. I attempted to pace the 3:50 group at Boulder Backroads Marathon too soon after another race and had to pull the plug at mile 23 and hitch a ride to the finish. Luckily, no runners were impacted by my inability... and my last race of this season was Denver's Hot Chocolate 15k (9.3 miles) as the 7 minute per mile pace group. Its always a good time with the Beast crew!

I tagged another three trips up Mt. Sopris... That middle one was a bit sketchy as Thomas and I spooked a mountain lion out of a tree...otherwise, I just love this place...

I ran the inaugural Sunny Half- a half marathon in and around Sunlight Mtn Ski Resort with 3k vert total in late July.

I ran the Snowmass Loop and found myself face to face with a big cinnamon bear...

I tagged the new rerouted South Elbert trail this fall after our friends exchanged vows.

Above the lake in Leadville

Mt Elbert

The biggest of my athletic goal was the Leadman series. 5 races escalating in difficulty finishing with my favorite, the  Leadville Trail 100 Run. This was a challenging series and I found myself chasing cutoffs in both the 100 mile mountain bike race and 100 mile run. All in all I finished, not as high as I first had hoped but I still got it done.

My new Leadman Pick Axe- Dig Deep!

We spent a lot of the summer in Leadville with my races, a family camping trip, and a wedding. We took a short family vacation this fall to Disney Land.  This was a quick drive to Cali with stops in Vegas to "get out and stretch the legs". One day at the park and the other spent at the beach. Fun was had by everyone!

Splash Mountain!

I am on my third job this year-
I was working with the Recreation Center in Snowmass Village for a few years and left in April. I took a retail managers position at a local store selling shoes and left there in September. I am current getting paid to install solar for commercial and residential applications...
I have bounced around a bit this year, and not sure where I will wind up. Prior to this year I've had two jobs for 17 years, so not really a comfortable or common situation for me to put myself in. These are all great places to work. I guess I'm still unsure what I want to be when I grow up...

What I didn't do-  I didn't get a 4 pass loop in- circumnavigating around the Maroon Bells, I didn't get to stand on the top of a 14,000 ft mountain that I haven't done before, I didn't get to Moab for that desert trip, I didn't visit the San Juan Mountains, I didn't get the girls out to camp off the grid, I didn't leave enough time for that weekend getaway with my wife...

These things that I didn't get done will still be there for our next adventures, still there for the taking. The list ebbs and flows and inevitably will overflow as it does every off-season. With the completed and yet to complete... still... a pretty good year...

And so.., today is December 1st. The last month of the year, but more so- the beginning of my 2019 campaign. With almost 8 weeks off from structured training, I was able to put on 12-14 lbs...and I'm not too worried about it. Today was a 3.5 mile snowshoe and just like first days of most things, it hurt. I walked a bit, I looked around and took in the surroundings, and I even brought the dog who cant keep up when I am in better shape. It's not always going to be an easy and painless process. Regardless if I hit my target goal for the upcoming season or not, I always try to enjoy the journey...

Pretty Good Year Tori Amos

Life with running

I read a lot about running and recently have been reading about recovering addicts. I also read about people who find running and it changes their lives. The best is when a recovering addict finds running. I think those stories are great. I sometime wish that I had similar stories of finding sport. Mine is just slightly different...

I started running at a very early age. I was probably only seven or eight years old. I ran on the local track team my dad helped coach. I got my start as a sprinter because that's what my older brother did. I was mediocre. After two or so seasons, I got my chance to run the mile, and that's when I found running...

After that first mile...
That was it...
I was hooked and never ran less than the 800m again. 

That single mile would change my life in so many ways that I didn't even know of at the time.

I loved every minute of running at that age. I would get lost in the tree tops from the high. I would get lost for hours running through the North Jersey burbs for "training". I had no structure, no training plan, no tapering or periodization, I could just run. It was simple then...

I've run ever since. I have run almost my entire adult life. Some years I might have run just a couple hundred miles the entire year, and others over 2,000 miles. On more than a dozen of those years I even added in swimming and biking when I was a triathlete... But I've always had running.

I'm not a fair weather runner. Actually pretty far from it. I prefer the elements, the tougher the better. Blizzard conditions, -10 below zero, over a hundred degrees, bring it on...I can remember my run in the rain on my wedding day just as well as I remember my run on the day of my friends passing. I can easily recall running to the finish with my girls after a week long stage race. It's not always easy for me though. I struggle with motivation, fitness, time, burnout and over-training... When I do overcome those obstacles, the act of running is still simple. Fresh air, heart pumping, lungs burning... running.

I have used running to shake off a hangover. I have used running as transportation. I have used running to get lost and explore.I have used running to help keep me grounded. It's been there for me through the thick and thin.Running has always been a part of me, that thing I can just do. That thing I can always rely on to be there to clear my head of all other thoughts and just move. Running gives me that mental reset. Running gives me that endorphin rush, that high that I've chased for so many years. I work through my lifes' problems while running. I find answers to lifes' riddles that puzzle me otherwise.

Life for me without running is hard to imagine. Even though I have to work harder now to achieve my goals, eat right, structure my season, running is still just as enjoyable as it was back on that track so many years ago... I am thankful that I've had running for so many years of my life and have used it at times when I've needed it most. 

So... I will set my alarm...set out my running clothes tonight... and chase away those negative thoughts...the self doubt... and attack my run tomorrow.

Reflections...

25 years ago...
The train windows flash the passing stations creating the effect that we're moving faster than reality...
The train car rattles and softly sways giving opposite sensations of complete loss of control and slight comfort. The rhythms collide and become hypnotic. It's midnight, or so...and I'm just trying to get to Port Authority. My heart is racing and my body is perspiring from my angst and the warmth of the subway platform. My mind has slowed...almost at ease, calm.  Hypnotic...

Colorado Trail...
The beam of light from my headlamp creates tunnel vision and at this point its entrancing. My peripherals are lost in the shadows and the overhead cover of the forest makes an even tighter squeeze of the night. It's midnight, or so...and I'm just trying to get to May Queen Aid.The trail falls with twists and turns, rocks and roots, making my pace both an uncontrolled stumble and something closer to running. My heart is in a race and racing, but my head is calm and focused. The rhythms collide and become hypnotic.

...and then it becomes familiar. I've felt this before...I've survived this before...and now I am reliving it. Totally different, but just the same. In this moment, I am both scared and invincible.

Tunnel Vision

These two moments couldn't be farther from each other.... The first is my recollection of  running wild in NYC. With my head full of cocaine I was riding the A Train out of Spanish Harlem.The second is mile 83 of the Leadville Trail 100. I am bombing down one of the tricky sections of trail racing the clock.

These addictions are similar in that I'm chasing the high and that my tolerances leave me wanting more, needing more. My mind is comfortable with the chaos and feels at ease while the world moves at a different rhythm. I love that section of trail even after 85 miles and I loved that train ride as much.

I no longer use those substances and choose to find my highs in sport and life. I am fortunate to have these as an outlet. My outcome could have been so much worse.

By no means am I promoting either of these as "healthy". These are just my experiences and how I see the similarities...

Midnight by Coldplay

Om Shanti...

Ganesha at the Denver Zoo

I often write about my trail adventures hence the name of this blog. As much as running has changed and shaped my life, I often see running as taking the drivers seat and all others forms of exercise falling to the trunk. I can talk...a lot...about running...

I was in a yoga class this past week and reflecting... reflecting on how long I've been practicing yoga. I cant actually remember when but I am sure my first class was well over fifteen years ago. I am sure I started because I was a stiff and tight triathlete and I thought that it might help. I remember thinking that I was just there for the physical properties of yoga and all the "Om" stuff was for those other..yogi's. 

It started just that innocently.
It was soon after those first few classes when I recall that one time... the one time that the "Om" actually vibrated... it actually vibrated my body... and my ears...and what seamed like the room!
It was only for a moment and I soon dismissed it as a fluke. I mean, that doesn't really happen... right?

Buddha at the Denver Aquarium

That one vibration...changed the why and how I practice yoga. Sure, there are the physical benefits to an active yoga practice. And sure I stay healthy as a runner and ward off injury when I practice on a regular basis....but those were not the main reasons anymore. I began to learn the translation of some Sanskrit words and feel  empowered by their meaning. I began buying books on yoga... and read and reread them. I sought out different types of practices and tried them. I started to hear the messages that were being passed along. I started to see the changes in my mindset. I was transforming...

...and so back to me reflecting in my sunrise yoga class...and how far I have come... and how the process has manifested into what it is at this current moment. It amazes me how things change, and recreate themselves, into something else entirely.
...And I sit there in my comfortable position thankful that I showed up that first day, and thankful for the encouragement of the practice, and... just thankful...Namaste