Ghost Town 38.5 Mile Ultra Run Race 2009

1/18/09
38.5 miles
Anywhere between 4,200 and 5,000 vertical feet gained depending on who you ask.
My Picasa Photo Album
Full results
Top 10 finishers, etc. listing


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Admittedly, 38.5 miles is an odd distance for a race. Typical ultras are 50k, 50 miles, 100k, 100 miles and beyond. But 38.5 miles still has a nice ring to it. It’s like a 60k with a bonus mile or so. For the past couple of years I had seen the advertisement for the Ghost Town 38.5 race in Ultrarunning magazine and knew that one of these years I’d check it out. But the 13 miles of pavement involved with the race ultimately kept me from taking a closer look at it. But in the fall of September 2008, my friend and frequent running partner David Coblentz mentioned he was going to give it a try. He also told of the impressive scenery in the area and high chance of good running weather in January in Hillsboro, New Mexico. With my plan of running the Old Pueblo 50 miler in early March 2009, I thought the GT would be a great training run and so I signed up. Then the list of Los Alamos area ultra runners entered in the GT grew and soon there was at least 6 of us heading down there. It was a low-key and enjoyable race for sure. This is how it went down according to me…

Susan, the race director, along with her husband, Matt, have been putting on this race for four years now. My understanding is that the first year was an all-pavement affair (for which I’m glad I missed) but the past three years have all been roughly the same involving an out-and-back course starting and ending with 6.5 miles of pavement with 26.5 miles of dirt road and trail running in the middle. The starting elevation is around 5,300’ with a high elevation of about 7,000’ ( profile from my GPS watch ). Also, for the first three years, this race has been mostly “under the radar” of many ultra runners. That changed this year when some fast dudes showed up including Andy Jones-Wilkins (AJW). Until now the course record had been 6:06:00 set by Albuquerque runner Ed Heller. I hoped to best that time and go under 6 hours and I knew AJW and a few others would likely do the same and finish in front of me. Looking at the list of entrants before the race, I told a friend “I’ll be super happy to finish under 6 hours and finish in fifth place.” As I would later find out, I nailed that prediction.

At 6:00am on Sunday, 72 of us runners all hooted and hollered as we set off from the start line. A relatively warm morning (26 degrees) with no wind and a bright waning moon allowed me to start in shorts, a sleeveless shirt, a light wind jacket and gloves. The pace started out pretty quickly and I went off with the lead pack of six of us—Tim Long, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Bobby Biles, Scott Eppelman, Ed Heller and I. As we topped the first minor hill of the first 6.5 miles of pavement running we were hit with a stiff, cold head wind that lasted until we neared the turn off from the pavement to the dirt road. I was very happy I decided to keep my wind jacket on at the start! The pace was brisk for the first six miles (8:09, 8:25, 7:49, 8:12, 8:12, 8:33) but I knew Ed was a veteran of this race so I figured this was a good, solid pace if he was holding it. But as we chatted he confessed to me that we were going out much faster than he’d ever gone out!

Once we hit the dirt I laid back a bit and dropped back to about 30 seconds behind the main group of five ahead as I didn’t want to over do it too early. Honestly, I hadn’t been training too much through the winter opting instead to do more rock climbing and snowboarding and I really didn’t want to make my all-too-frequent mistake of going out too hard.

The running surface was now a rolling dirt road that was gradually heading uphill. After about two miles of dirt road we hit a very short out-and-back spur to the station 2 aid station where I refilled my single hand bottle with water and grabbed two more gels from my drop bag. My fueling plan was to eat a single gel packet every 30 minutes and drink water as much as I could. In the end, this worked out great. It made for quick aid station stops and was an adequate fuel amount. After this aid station we all started to break up a little bit with Ed and I taking up the rear of the lead group. The road began a steady grind uphill before cresting out and dropping steeply down some 500 vertical feet in about 1.5 miles. OK, so that’s not super steep but compared to what we had been running, it felt steep. I commented to Ed that the hill would be a joy on the return and he said “yeah, but then it’s 9 miles downhill to the finish.” I looked forward to that.


Typical course view and condition. Pretty gorgeous in the Gila National Forest!

At mile 12.7 we all turned left onto the 4 mile round-trip out-and-back spur trail. This was a rugged but beautiful section of the course and definitely my favorite part. It was an old road used to access a mine. The “trail” here obviously sees little traffic these days and crosses a small stream many times. Numerous small, clear pools of water lined the trail and for a short bit we ran along the base of a huge limestone wall complete with a large natural limestone arch! I nearly tripped a couple times as I looked up at this wall and arch considering the climbing possibilities!

As I ascended the last, super technical section of the out-and-back I saw Tim coming back down followed closely by AJW, Bobby and then Scott. I was in fifth position at this turnaround. On the way back down this spur, I made good time as I tend to move pretty well on technical descents and ended up passing Scott to move into fourth position. It was along this section that I saw many of my friends heading out while I headed back. I gave hoots, hollers and/or high fives to David Coblentz, Bill Geist, Tom Stockton, Dan Hadlich and many others. I love out and backs for the very reason of getting to see friends along the way!

Back on the main road we continued heading out to the big turn around. It was rolly with plenty of loose, eroded sections of road to keep my mind in the run. I had been running with my iPod off until this point but with the group broken up and no sight of anyone in front of me or behind me, I turned it on and turned it up for some motivation. For this run I’d be rocking to Silverstein and Strung Out.


Not actually on the course but a good view of the Gila National Forest from Emory Pass the day before the race. Lots of space out there.

At about mile 18 we began a long, technical descent to the turn around at Cave Creek at mile 20.6. Shortly before the turn around I saw Tim and AJW coming at me again not too far apart. Those two were holding it close and I knew it was going to be an interesting finish for them. And just before I reached the turn around Bobby cruised on by me on his way back in too. I took a bit of time at the Cave Creek aid station (station 4) futzing with my jacket and gloves and decided to leave them both there. I picked up a second water bottle here and filled it up thinking I had already poured some HEED drink powder in the bottle but as I left the aid station I realized I had not done that so I had two bottles of water. I promptly poured out half of one bottle as I wouldn’t need that much water to the next aid station. As I began the grind up the technical climb back out of Cave Creek I again saw all my fellow Los Alamos friends and got a boost from their positive comments. I power-walked some bits of the hill climbs and cruised into station 3/5 again to swap out one of my bottles for a bottle that actually did have HEED in it and grab some more CarbBOOM gels.

Leaving station 5 was again a bit of an uphill grind but it was over quickly and I was into more rolling terrain and trying to keep my pace up around 10 minute miles or better and was feeling pretty good. I couldn’t see anyone in front of me but also couldn’t see anyone behind me so I just kept doing what I was doing hoping to hold onto fourth position to the finish. At station 6 I added some more HEED powder to one bottle and filled the other half way with water and got moving again. I didn’t see anyone come in behind me there either. But as I hit the rolling and smooth dirt road out of station 6 and neared the pavement again, I looked back to see a runner coming up fast from behind. I was totally impressed with the speed of this guy! Just before the pavement I stopped to take a leak one last time and the runner coming up from behind passed by me. It was Pete Stevenson looking super strong. Once we hit the pavement I tried to keep up with Pete’s pace but my legs were having none of it. Pete just blasted off into the distance. Pete’s speed gave me some serious motivation and I knew if I could keep pushing hard enough to stay under a pace of 9 minute miles, I could hit my goal time of under 6 hours. I kept pushing and cruised right on past the last aid station, station 7, at mile 34, smiling at the nice and encouraging aid station volunteers. I knew it was going to be close and I didn’t want to stop now. I started to see buildings and knew it wasn’t far. Then I saw the line of cars parked in front of Susan’s house and could hear some clapping and yelling. I ran an 8:30/mile for the final mile to finish in 5:52:15. It felt great to have met my sub-6 hour goal with a race performance that I was very pleased with.

From Ghost Town 38.5 Mile Race, 2009-01-18

The afternoon was spent lounging, drinking four New Belgium 1554 beers, eating the super tasty homemade food and cheering on the rest of the finishers until my friend Minesh finished. This race was his longest ultra to date and he finished in 10:37:ish with a gutsy effort.

An excellent post-race BBQ with a few beers around the campfire topped off a great day of racing.

Full results have not been posted yet but the top ten finishers list has been:

1. Tim Long, 41, CO, 5:21:01
2. Andy Jones-Wilkins, 41, ID, 5:21:06
3. Bobby Biles, 42, NM, 5:43:39
4. Pete Stevenson, 35, CO, 5:45:39
5. Jason Halladay, 34, NM, 5:52:15
6. Scott Eppelman, 42, TX, 6:02:10
7. Marty Duchow, 46, CT, 6:06:41
8. Ed Heller, 46, NM, 6:14:16
9. Paul Grimm, 40, CO, 6:19:30
10. Dave Coblentz, 46, NM, 6:20:54

Urban adventure running in Bellevue, WA

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On Monday afternoon this week I found out I got to go to Bellevue/Redmond, WA to meet with some Microsoft folks for work. I didn't have much time to explore my running options and knew I would have much time to actually run since it was a 36 hour round-trip trip but I did want to get out at least a little bit. My friend Rose contacted her sister and brother in law that live in the area and they made some fine suggestions like Tiger Mountain and Mt. Si. Unfortunately, it turned out I had a couple hours only so I checked Google Maps and saw that my hotel was nice and close to a green space called Bridle Trails State Park. Hey, it was green and had the word "trails" in the name so I figured it would work. And it did.
I ran up there with no more than a hand bottle and a map of the area bike trails folded up in my pocket.
I didn't get out until 3:30pm and knew it would start to get dark around 4:30pm. The run started on paved bike trails along highway 520 and then I found the turn onto the Bridle Ridge Trail that would lead to the park. I got a bit confused by a short detour into a very small wetland area and cruised through that short loop. (Later, I saw on the map that the wetland is right next to the Microsoft West Campus!) Finally on trail, I ran along the northern edge of the Bellevue Municipal Golf Course and then finally hit the northeastern edge of the Bridle Trails State Park.
Once in the park the running was darker because of the tree canopy above and the waning daylight. The trails were sloppy and muddy thanks to heavy horse traffic they evidently receive. Trail intersections were frequent but unmarked and I hadn't a clue which way was which so I just began following small signs that showed a dog print or something. Ironically, it appears dogs aren't allowed in the park? This was fun adventure running as I saw no one else and had no idea where I was going. I eventually popped out on a major road but didn't know where I was. Most of the traffic was going to my right so I went with it until I hit a major intersection at 116th NE St and 60th NE St. Now I could find on the map where I was and voila! I had made a nice little loop through the edge of the park. I headed east on 60th NE until I got back to familiar territory and and cruised on back to the hotel.
It was a great little run of 12 miles in a completely foreign place to me.
Now it's time to check out a Thai place Rose recommended and then read up on the stuff we're supposed to talk about tomorrow at Microsoft. That'll be another adventure, albeit of a much different type.
I'll be back in NM tomorrow night. Yippee!

October 2008 in Review

Seems I'm getting on this old blog about once a month for updates so here's a run down of how I spent my month of October:

• October 1-5: Allison and I traveled to the Grand Canyon with her sister and brother in law where we hiked, camped and even floated down the mighty Colorado River from Glen Canyon Dam to Lee's Ferry.

  From Grand Canyon, AZ, 2008-10-01



• October 10-12: Allison and I drove to Boulder, CO to attend George and Courtney's wedding. It was a beautiful, intimate evening wedding and it even snowed a bit! On the way up to Boulder we managed to get in a few hours of climbing at Shelf Road Saturday morning. Otherwise, it was a drizzly and cool weekend.


• October 17-18: Dan and I had a great time hiking some 13,800'+ peaks in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. The weather was amazing and the hiking fantastic. On Friday we hiked 20 miles and 4,800' vertical up Rio Grande Pyramid and Saturday was a 13 mile, 4,200' vertical day up Half Peak.
  

  From Rio Grande Pyramid, 2008-10-17



• October 25-26: I got out for a nice 13 mile loop run with David Coblentz through Bandelier National Monument.

  From Bandelier Run, 2008-10-25

  After the run I joined Allison, James and Nate at the Dungeon for a bit of climbing. Allison came so close (one small slip) to sending the project she's been working on this month, Gangland, 5.12b.
  
  On Sunday I went up to Sugarite State Park with Bill, Chris, Mark, Minesh and Rose for some enjoyable basalt climbing in a secluded location.

  From Sugarite State Park, 2008-10-26

  
  

It's been a great October so far! November promises to be a great month too with a continuation of great weather in the near future and some great trips planned with friends. Also, my sister and her family will be coming back to New Mexico for bit between moving from Hawaii to the Seattle area so that'll be great too.

Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race 2008 (and some climbing too!)

9/20/2008
50 miles
11,000' vertical gain, 12,000' vertical descent
10 hours, 42 minutes
Map from my Garmin Watch
Photos from my camera
Photos taken on the course during the race from Sean Cunniff
Photos from Greg Norrander (Pro quality)
Full results



Wow, so it's been weeks since I blogged at 'cha y'all. Sorry for that. It's been a fun few weeks so I hope to write about that soon but for now...I'm sitting here stiff and sore after running the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race yesterday. This was my first time running this low-key, high-quality race and I really enjoyed it. If you like easy, flat 50 mile races, this one isn't for you but if you enjoy amazing mountainous terrain with super scenic views of canyonlands, put this race on your calendar for next year!

The pre-race on Friday was very relaxed and small. Only about 45 runners signed up for the race. Allison, Mom and I met up with Sean and Mike (running in his first 50 mile race ever) at the pre-race in Moab on Friday evening and we got the course briefing. It was all very informal and mellow and I really appreciated that. After dinner at Pasta Jays with Mike and Felicia, we drove to a campsite right near the start line at the Pack Creek Picnic Area in the La Sal Mountains. Camping there in the national forest was awesome with a campfire and the waning but bright moon. The only thing not awesome about it was the gigantic patch of goatheads that Allison and I pitched our tent on unknowingly. Well, even after realizing the mistake and adding another beefy tarp under the tent, we both still ended up with deflated Thermarests in the morning. (I later found 17 holes in mine and 6 holes in Allison's.) Nonetheless, I got a good night's sleep and awoke at 4:45am.

It was a warm morning and it was much easier to get out of bed than it often is at higher, colder runs. After downing a toasted bagel and 12oz of coffee I got my growler on and then headed over to the start line a few minutes before 6am. It was a small group of runners and I liked that. I started wearing shorts, sleeveless shirt, a visor, sunglasses, GPS watch and iPod. Also, I made a bold (and perhaps foolish decision) to wear a new pair of La Sportiva Fireblades that I had only run 7 miles in up until race day. The gamble paid off and I really liked the shoes. The low delta-H (10mm) is fantastic. :)

We all got going at 6:00am at the trailhead at 6,400' under the bright moonlight following the Pack Creek dirt road up for a few miles and eventually catching the Pack Creek trail which paralleled a decently deep river gorge on our left. The fall colors were amazing and as we climbed higher I had to take it easy so I wouldn't trip as I looked around to take it all in. The glowing light of the sunrise illuminating the red rock of Canyonlands to the west was phenomenal.

The first part of the course climbs hard from 6,400' to 10,400' in about nine miles to the La Sal 4x4 jeep road crossing through some scenic meadows along the way. From there it was descent on a jeep road and then more single track through some more nicely wooded areas with great views to the valley to the second aid station at Squaw Springs at mile 14. I enjoyed more great single track (and suffered a hard but non-painful digger) on the next section of single track to Oohwah Lake at mile 17. More climbing and more fantastic views summed up the next section of trail to the Geyser Pass aid station at mile 20. Allison and my Mom were crewing for me and were at Squaw Springs, Geyser Pass and Warner Lake and it was great to see them there!



After Geyser Pass came the climb up Burro Pass to the course's highpoint at 11,000+ feet. That was an awesome climb as at one point I looked up to watch the runner ahead of going up the pass and noticed the moon, appearing very large, above his head and above the pass. I wish I had taken my camera! The other side of Burrow Pass was a steep, technical descent that downhill mountain bikers love. I kept myself in check on this knowing I didn't want to beat up my quads just yet. I eventually rambled into the Warner Lake aid station at mile 26 in 6 hours, 5 minutes. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do--go out a decent pace but hold back enough so that I could run more later on the fast dirt roads. I was hoping for negative splits and I ended up with that. (5:50 for the first 25 and 4:52 for the last 25.)

The climb out of Warner Lake to the top of the pass into Miners Basin was an ass-kicker but I had some company (Shane who had just ran the Wasatch Front 100 miler a couple weeks ago) to commiserate on the way up. Shane would go on to finish in 10:01 in second place! On the descent into Miners Basin it rained and hailed on us pretty good for a short bit but that felt nice, actually. The Miners Basin aid station was done up in "saloon style" complete with liquor. I just went for the chicken noodle soup and some water though. From there it was a fast downhill on dirt road to the pave La Sal loop road where we turn left and run uphill on the paved road for a couple miles to the Kokopelli trail turn-off. The paved road kinda sucked but the killer view of Castleton Tower and Castle Valley more than made up for it!

After a quick stop for a bottle refill at the Kokopelli trail turn, I shuffled my way down the Kokopelli trail through the recently burned area. On my way down I passed a guy with a dog on his way uphill and he shouted, "Go Hilltoppers!" I didn't recognize him at all but he obviously knew I was from Los Alamos High School somehow. He would later catch back up to me and explain he had been talking with Allison earlier and that he, David, was from Los Alamos originally. Cool!

Thing started to get warm as I ran onto the Sand Flats Road and aid station at mile 36. I filled both my water bottles and reveled in the thought that the finish was only 14 miles of all downhill dirt road away. I actually managed to run most all of the remaning 14 miles at a decent pace (~9:00/mile) and felt good. I knew my race strategy had paid off as I distanced myself from the runner behind me and passed another runner that had been in front of me. It felt wonderful to actually be feeling good in the final 10 miles of a 50 mile race. That's a rarity for me. One short spur road off the main Sand Flats road was a bit rough as we had to run on a good bit of slickrock and rough terrain (but it was a nice change to get off the main Sand Flats road) and I hit the last aid station at mile 42.

I tanked up on water there, down some more gel and an electrolyte tablet and started going for it. I ran almost all of the final hot, open road to the finish walking only a couple of short uphills. With a few miles to go I took off my shirt as I felt I was overheating a bit. And then, just like that, I rounded a corner and saw the finish line at the Slickrock Bike Trail parking lot and kicked into as high a gear as I had left to finish in 10 hours, 42 minutes which turned out to put me in sixth place overall. I sauntered over to the shade of the CR-V where Allison and Mom had been waiting for me and just collapsed into the chair. It took me a while to get motivated to move but the thought of a shower, food and a beer in Moab was very motivating!



This race is awesome! The last seven miles are pretty brutal but the rest of the course really makes up for it. The low-key style of the race is very appealing to me and the terrain is some of the most scenic I've ever run.

Long week trip coming up!

Hey y'all I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya...
Allison and I are headed out for the week first to Lake Mead, NV for a friend's birthday party on Saturday and Sunday and then on up to City of Rocks, Idaho for a number of days climbing with our friends Rose and Chris. It'll be awesome. On the way, as we drive through Salt Lake City, UT, I'll be stopping to pace my friend David for the last 25 miles of the Wasatch 100 mile trail running race. I've never seen the course so I'm excited to run part of it and support David in this great race. I'll be back online in 9 days or so. Enjoy your holiday weekend.

Here's a great photo Bill took of me climbing Colossus, 5.10c, at sunset in City of Rocks, ID last time we were there.

Taos Up and Over 10k trail run, 2008-08-23

Taos Up and Over 10k
8/23/08
6.2 miles
2,600' vertical
1:04:05
Third overall, second male overall
Full results


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After last week's ascent run at Pikes Peak, I wanted to take advantage of some decent training I'd been doing recently so I headed up to the third annual Taos Up and Over (TUAO) 10k run with Allison, Chris and Rose. Rose and I both had run in the Pikes Peak Ascent last week but Rose was in wave two and had disappointedly been turned around at the A-Frame during the PPA so she was really looking for a finish at Taos.
The TUAO runs 2,600' vertical feet up the ski area and then back down via a course that's all dirt road jeep trails on the mountain. Neither Rose nor I had run it before.

This race was the complete opposite of last week's race on Pikes Peak. For one, the weather today was perfect. Also, the race is super low key and there were probably only 60 runners there. It's also much shorter. :) Just like I like it.

At the 9am start, I started in the front and quickly settled into second position at a comfortable pace. Unfortunately, though, I've come down with a small cold so my lungs were immediately feeling tight and somewhat burning. I was not optimistic about the lungs holding up but as I got higher, they felt better. My strategy was power hike on the steeps and hope those that were running ahead of me would tire out from the inefficient running up steep stuff. After about the first mile I was in fourth position and watched the first female and first male head up looking strong. The runner in third was running up the steep stuff and generally slowing down so I knew it wouldn't be long before I was able to pass him. I passed him just before the first water station where I powered down a gel and cup of water and kept the power hiking alternating with running on the lower angle terrain. At the top of the climb at mile 3 I watched the first male crest over in pursuit of the first female. I hit the top of the climb in 43:52 and hoped I'd catch the runners in front but as I looked down, I couldn't see them and figured I wouldn't catch them. The views of the highest peak in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak (13,161'), were awesome. The descent followed steep jeep roads down that were a bit loose at times so it was challenging. I was still able to run fast down though and held a 6:14 minute/mile pace for the entire 3.2 mile descent. I moved quickly and didn't expect to be caught and didn't expect to catch anyone. That's how it went all the way to the finish--uneventful and pretty quick. I finished in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 5 seconds for third overall, second male overall. For my effort I won a free day lift ticket for Taos Ski Area and now that snowboards are allowed, I'll definitely use it! Rose came in around 1:17ish which was good for third female overall. A very productive day for the Los Alamos runners!

At the start. Beautiful weather!

After the first switchback.

Finish! Note the awesome white balance of this shot. Allison used my chest for the white balancing.

Miles Fitzgerald finishes up around 1:11

Rose finishes in her matching skirt/shoes combo!

Pikes Peak Ascent 2008-08-17

Pikes Peak on Sunday morning after the storms on Saturday during the ascent.

I found myself leaning my shoulder and head into the electric hand dryer in the Pikes Peak summit house, rubbing my hands together and grimacing in pain as the blood and feeling returned to my purple fingers. To the tourists walking into the restroom, I must have looked like some idiot as I continually restarted the air cycle of the dryer by pushing the side of my forehead into the big silver button.

I had just finished running my first-ever Pikes Peak Ascent in what many are calling the worst conditions ever for the race. When the race started in Manitou Springs at 7:00am, it was drizzling and the temperature was around 50 degrees. When I arrived on the summit of Pikes Peak after 13.32 miles, 7,815’ vertical feet of climbing and 3 hours, 12 minutes of running, it was snowing, the temperature was 32 degrees, the wind was blowing between 20 and 30mph and there was an occasional flash of lightning accompanied by some thunder.


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That morning, just before the start gun fired, I took off my wind shell jacket and tied it around my waist knowing I would appreciate it later above treeline. The forecast for the summit of Pikes Peak called for snow and winds up to 20mph. In the jacket pocket, I stashed a light beanie. On my body I wore a long sleeve synthetic shirt over a short sleeve synthetic shirt, shorts, smart wool socks and some lightweight trail running shoes. I had a pair of very light gloves in the pocket of my shorts. I also decided to carry a pair of cycling arm warmers in my other pocket. For fuel I carried a single 20oz hand bottle and a small gel bottle filled with about four gel packets-worth of Carb-Boom strawberry-kiwi energy gel.

The race started off well and I watched the fast runners shoot on ahead as I tried to stay towards the back of the front-runners pack. JV (Jeff Valliere) was gone and out of sight in no time on his way to his 2:53:34 finish so I locked onto friend Jeff Kunkle and made my best effort to keep him in sight for as long as I could. Not having run this race before, I was sure what kind of pace to hold down low and Kunkle had completed this race many times so my strategy was to just keep an eye on him to help pace me.
As we funneled into a single line of runner from the pavement onto the trail to reach Barr Trail, I watched Kunkle about 8 people ahead of me and tried to keep it that way. I expected it to be more hectic and tough to pass people on the trail up the Ws but it wasn’t very difficult. Everyone was very considerate and moved over if they felt someone else coming up behind them.

I set off on this race hoping to run it in 3 hours, 10 minutes. Using the online PPA pace calculator, I memorized three major split times along the course so I would know how I was doing on my way up. At the top of the Ws, I should be at 38:13. I ended up at 37:00. At Barr Camp I should be at 1:36:34. I ended up at 1:32:06. And at the A Frame, I should be at 2:15:21. I ended up there at 2:12:31. For my part, I did a pretty good job of pacing myself. I owe a lot of that to Kunkle too. I managed to keep him in sight, and even talk with him a bit, up until the Barr Camp. After that, though, he charged off to his 3:02:33 finish and I didn’t see him again until the summit.

Personally, I was feeling pretty good and on schedule for my 3:10 finish. The light rain was off and on but never very hard and the wind hadn’t kicked up. But that all changed when I came to the A Frame with about three miles to go. From here, we were out of the trees and into the full winds and snow. The trail began to get slushy from the wet snow and the winds got stronger as I got higher. When I was headed southerly it was a full-on headwind so I would tuck one hand into the pocket on my shorts and with the hand that was holding the water bottle, I’d stick it behind my back so it wasn’t exposed to the wind. When I’d hit a switchback towards the north I’d keep both hands in front of my body to keep my hands out of the wind. I had gloves on my hands but they were so light and damp they weren’t helping a great deal. I did end up using one of my arm warmers as a “mitten” on my right hand for a while which I think helped. The trail in the final few miles is trail constructed through talus so the footing got a bit slick but never too treacherous. As I got higher I could begin to hear the announcer at the finish line up above but because of the dense fog and snow, I couldn’t see up to the summit. Then, just after a volunteer standing next to the trail shouted, “less than a quarter-mile to go!” there was a bright flash of light followed quickly by a clap of thunder. This motivated me to push things a bit more and I cranked out what I could to the finish.

I was feeling good but the cold kept me from pushing it hard to the finish and I ended up two minutes behind my goal time with a finish time of 3:12:00 exactly. As I crossed the finish line I was immediately given a finisher’s medal by a volunteer (the volunteers that endured the conditions for hours on Saturday ought to be given huge stipends!) and pointed to the building where I could change and get some hot beverages. Allison was there at the finish to greet me (she had been standing out in the cold and snow for a quite a bit—what a trooper!) and give me my bag of warm, dry clothes.

En route to the summit shop, I stopped by the moving truck to pick up my finisher’s shirt. At this point, the wind was howling and the snow was blowing sideways. I quickly ran over to the summit shop where a guy yelled at me, “This building is for tourists and customers only, not for runners. There’s a building back that way where you can change.” Well, I knew that Allison was in the building and that there were restrooms with electric dryers in there so I told the guy, “I’m just going in to find my girlfriend.” With that, he gave a skeptical look and let me pass by. I found JV, Kunkle and Allison all waiting in the foyer of the building. I grabbed my dry clothing and ran into the men’s restroom inside to change. My body’s core temperature was still reasonable and I didn’t feel hypothermic but my fingers were completely numb. I had a very difficult time using the zipper on my jacket and untying my shoes. I went straight for the electric hand dryer and got to business undressing. Forgetting that I was among tourists and not fellow runners, I stripped down and threw all my wet clothes into the sink as I rubbed my fingers and hands under the welcoming warmth of the hand dryer. As the feeling and blood returned to my fingers, I grimaced in pain as another guy in the restroom stared at me probably wondering just what the hell I was doing. Runners. Yeah, we're different.

After getting into my dry clothes I headed out and found Allison again. We had heard they were considering closing the road down so we hustled out to the parking lot to find a shuttle. Allison had parked a few miles down the road at the Devil’s Playground so we hopped into a waiting shuttle van and endured a slow, tedious ride down the road to the parking area.

We got into Allison’s car and had an uneventful drive down the mountain and back to Manitou Springs where we met up with JV, Jeff, Jean, Wayne and Mark for some food and giant margaritas at The Loop.
I ended up 84th out of 762 runners in the ascent. Full results can be viewed here. Some good stories from the Colorado Springs Gazette... Peak Throws All its Tricks at Ascent Runners and Storm Pushes Many Ascent Runners Back Down.
And how about some more photos?

Hanging with the 14erWorld.com crew underneath the awning at the laundromat before the race.

The scene at the finish line just before JV, Kunkle and I finish.

JV (in blue) just after finishing. And to think he almost left that jacket at the start line!

Kunkle finishes strong sans hat or hood. What a toughie!

There I am rounding the corner to the finish line. I'm running, really!

Finishing strong! Or something.