Beginning of Build Up to San Juan Solstice : A weekend in Fruita

Winter is over and spring has arrived, along with the opening of my trail racing season.  It was a bit of an odd winter for me.  I did get in 8 snowshoe races in this winter: Five (3-4K's) at the Eldora Nighthawk series and three (10Ks) at the BeaverCreek Snowshoe series.  So that was pretty solid.  But I can't say I felt like I was running that much.

As for skiing, I ended up logging 16 days skiing, at 8 resorts in 3 states, including one day of back country skiing above Moffat Tunnel.  But the skiing was very hit and miss, to the point I only had a half day at the Beave this winter and no days at Vail.  I did have an epic day at the Canyons, a solid day at Copper, a couple of fun days at Jackson Hole (can't not have fun in Jackson), along with some nice snow that day above Moffat.

Always a good time at Jackson Hole

The unusually dry March here in Colorado left me not skiing much, so I starting to get back into a consistent running schedule.  This was good as I had entered the lottery for San Juan Solstice 50 miler and had "won", thus earning an entry into the late June race.  I needed March to get up to a decent fitness level, to allow me to start putting on miles in April.

All was going to plan until I got a death cold at the end of March.  It knocked me out, leaving me unable to run for a full week.  The next week I was able to get slightly back on track, but ended every run with a coughing fit.

This was my build up to the Desert Rats Trail Running Festival in Fruita, the weekend of April 18-19.  Put on by Gemini Adventures, the Saturday schedule included a marathon, 50K and double marathon.  I was signed up for the marathon.  I probably only ran over 2 hours once this calendar year, and that had to be a couple months ago.  Expectations for this race were low.  Basically I was using it as a long run and a jump start to getting in longer long runs.

Winter decided to reappear the week of the race and I-70 was shut down Friday morning due to heavy springs snow and multiple accidents.  With rain predicted for Friday night on the Western Slope, it didn't seem like ideal conditions for a weekend of camping/racing/hanging out.  Because of that, a couple of friends bailed on me, and I was left doing the drive and weekend solo.

View of Eldorado Canyon as I was leaving Boulder Friday afternoon.

I-70 re-opened shortly before I left work Friday afternoon and the drive started off remarkably pleasant.  There wasn't much traffic or weather and the roads were pretty clear and dry through the tunnels and over Vail Pass. At this point I thought it would be smooth sailing to Fruita until I hit heavy snow in Glenwood Springs and then had rain the rest of the drive to Grand Junction and Fruita.  Since I now was flying solo, I decided against finding a place to set up camp Friday night and just slept in the Xterra near the start/finish line.

Woke up Saturday morning to chilly temps and overcast skis, but no rain.  Because of all the precipitation, some of the trails on the normal course were not in good condition, and a course change was made.  The course is run on the Kokopelli Trail system in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the BLM is sensitive to their condition as it is a very heavily used mountain biking area.  Instead of one big 26.2 mile loop, we would now be running a 10.4 mile loop twice, then adding on a 3 mile out and back section.  The 50K folks would be doing the loop 3 times and the double marathon pain junkies would be doing the loop 5 times.  At 6:30 AM, we all went off together.

The first few miles were now run on the dirt frontage road that runs parallel to I-70.  This was muddy.  Everyone was trying to pick the best line that had the most solid footing.  Around 4 miles, I was sitting around 7th.  I tried not going out to fast but still ended up averaging about 30 seconds faster than I wanted.  I was trying to ease up a bit when things went awry.  I swear there was an arrow and was following that along with the folks ahead of me, when they stopped.  There was confusion on if we were on course.  I thought I heard someone yelling in the distance.  We were told we were going to run Mary's Loop.  It had been a couple of years since I had been on these trails and only remembered bits and pieces of them.  One guy was saying we weren't on Mary's, that this was wrong.  I thought since there was no course marshal pointing out a turn, and there was an arrow, and there were markings on this trail, we must be in the right place.  So myself and a few others continued running.  I think a couple of guys did turn around, but when I looked back, I saw a string of runners following us.

Now I found myself in the lead and on a superb single track trail in fantastic condition, so my next few miles were still a little too fast.  Then at 6.5 miles I missed a turn and ran the wrong way for about 200 yards till the trail came to a dead end at a bluff.  A little irked that wasn't marked well, I backtracked and got back on course.  But I was relived that I no longer was leading and could finally relax.  About a half mile later I no longer was irked by that little wrong turn, as it was apparent that we had all gone the wrong way back at the 4 mile point.  As we were running along the base of some cliffs, people could be seen on top the cliffs running in the opposite direction.  At 8 miles in, I was back to the point of the missed turn.  I had added 4 miles my race.  I now was totally relaxed.  Instead of getting upset, I forgot all about racing and just was going to enjoy this beautiful scenery.  I also told myself, it doesn't matter what the race officials think, I am just running 26.2 miles.  I am not in shape to do a 50K today.

Now back on course, I eased into a comfortable pace.  The trails were in pretty decent condition with some mud, until miles 13 and 14.  This section was really muddy.  It was ironic that the best trail conditions were on the trail we weren't supposed to be on.  (I would later realize that section, Rustler's Loop, was part of the original 50K course, hence why there were markings on it.  Since the course change was done late Friday night, they hadn't had a chance to remove the markings from this section).

Me, somewhere around 11 miles into my run.  Entry fee includes gorgeous views.  Glen Delman Photography.

As we came through the start/finish area after our first loop, the race director had become aware of the mistake early on.  He apologized, stating that someone was supposed to be at the turn and got there late.  I felt like most everyone was okay with the situation.  I felt pretty good when I headed out for the 2nd lap.  I still was planning on just doing 26 miles.

The muddy frontage road was drying out a bit and didn't seem quite as bad as the first time, but now running alone, it felt like a slog.   I made the correct turn this time around, although I had to yell at the guy in front of me as he was about to miss it.  The arrow was there this time.  So either we all missed it the first time round, or it was moved to its proper place.  It didn't really matter, but gave me something to ponder for a few miles.  Around mile 20 I was beginning to feel like crap.  Due to a lack of mileage, I knew this would happen.  I was curious how I would respond.  I felt like I chugged along pretty well.  Miles 23 and 24, with the uphill and mud, were not great, but I got through them.  Mile 25 felt awfully slow, but it wasn't any slower than the first time I ran through this part.  As I came through the finish line, I was told that there were course volunteers about three quarters of a mile down the road and that if I had run the wrong loop, I could turn around at them and come back, instead of doing the full 3 miles out.  I continued to chug along.  For the first time since about mile 4, I could figure out where I stood in the race.  On this short out and back section, I saw 2 or 3 guys ahead of me.  When I got to the volunteers, they asked me if I had gone the wrong way early in the race.  I said yes.  They said I could turn around here.  I told them, I was going to turn around here regardless of whether or not they were here or said I could.  There was no way I was going to do 30+ miles today.  As one of the volunteers was friend of mine from Boulder, they trusted I that I did indeed done the extra loop early on.

Turning around, the last 0.75 miles back to the finish were uphill, and I had very little incentive to go fast.  I just plodded back to the finish, ultimately running 26.86 miles (based on my GPS) in 3:57:06.  Based on everything that happened, I was impressed the race director was able to change things up on the fly.  Now that worked well for the marathon folks, as for the 50K and double people, I'm not sure if there was anyway to correct for the extra mileage.

I ended up finishing 5th overall and as has been my luck of late, still couldn't end up on the podium in my age division.  Even with the overall winner not being considered in age group awards (even though he was in my age group), I still finished outside the top three 30-39 year olds.  All four guys ahead of me were in my age group.  It isn't a big deal, as I had few expectations for this race, but it was a bit funny as this seems to have happened frequently the last two years, finish high in the standings, but still not get an age group award.

Overall I am happy with the effort.  I did feel pretty tired at the end, but rebounded quickly.  The following week was probably my best week of training in months.  That is one big reason I am happy with the race, it shows my fitness is getting to a good spot where I can start getting in the bigger runs and mountains.  The other thing I was pleased about was my stomach.  Last year, after my gallbladder removal, I was continually having issues on long runs and races with keeping food in me.  I took the advice of a friend and took some Imodium before this race.  Either my stomach has found a new balance over the winter while I wasn't training as hard, or the Imodium did indeed work, but I had no issues out there this day.

Going forward I know I still have a lot of work to do.  This race was right in my happy zone.  The original course would have suited me, but the revised course was definitely easier.  While there is a lot of single track, there is very little technical, rocky sections to navigate.  Total elevation gain was 2000 feet, not that large amount for a marathon.  And no major climbs.  I don't think any climb was more than a mile or with more than 300 feet of elevation gain.  It fits into what I do well.  Now the Jemez 50K I am signed up for in May is a different story. It has a 3000 foot climb over 7 miles in the middle of the course.  I felt good about my marathon for 3 days, then looked at the Jemez course profile and no longer felt that good.

All the nitty gritty details, like pace and splits can be found here:

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move59691750

This was the first time I used my new Suunto Ambit3 Peak.  I am quite happy with it so far.  Battery life has been fantastic.  I fully charged it the first time on Friday.  Including the marathon and other training runs in the next 10 days, it has been GPS active for a total of 12 hrs since I first charged it.  Plus just normal time keeping over these 11 days and it still is reading 30% battery left.   The GPS signal is quick to acquire and seems very accurate.  (everything my old watch wasn't.  Poor battery, slow acquisition of signal, and seemingly a bit inaccurate.  I went cheap on it.  Not worth it.  Two years later I splurged and am already wishing I did this two years ago.)

Post Race Highlights.

After racing, grabbed lunch at the Hot Tomato Cafe in Fruita.  Highly recommend for some tasty pizza.  Beer tap was primarily New Belgium, but they did have Slap and Tickle ESB from Copper Club Brewery, which is basically their neighbor (just around the corner).  That went down nicely with the pizza.  Great spot to refuel.

I then headed out to Rabbit Valley to find a spot set up camp for Saturday night.  Rabbit Valley is cool area right on Colorado / Utah border.  During the summer it probably is unbearably hot, but early Spring, it was perfect.

On drive thru valley, came head on to a herd of cattle. Living in Colorado, there is a lot of wildlife and animals to worry about.  But I don't really worry about most of them.  Except cows.  They are the one thing that freak me out.  Bears, I think, can be reasoned with.  They don't want trouble.  By the time mountain lions are going to let you know they are around, it's probably to late.  Coyotes are a little sketchy, but not a big deal.  But cows always weird me out.  I don't trust them.  They might do anything.  I hate when I have to run by them on Boulder Open Space.  So when I drove into this:

I got a little nervous.  Until I saw the cowboy driving the herd along, with a coffee in his hand.

Ultimately I found a place to camp, at the Knowles Canyon Overlook.  Might be the best campsite I have ever had.  Too bad I was just there for one night.

View of Colorado River from campsite.

Had a few beers, read a book, and took a nap (not necessarily in that order, and cycle was repeated again in a different order) at the campsite before heading to Grand Junction Saturday evening. The post-race party/awards was hosted by Kannah Creek Brewing Co.  It actually was at their new restaurant/brewery, Edgewater, along the Colorado River as it flows through Grand Junction.  They were serving Lands End Amber free along with wings.  It was a solid beer and nice spot.  While I didn't win any age group awards I did win trivia, earning a canister of Hammer Heed mix.  The question : "In 1910, at the Paris Motor Show, Georges Claude publicly debuted his light containing what noble gas?"  That made up for the not getting an age group award.

I had a lazy Sunday morning.  Slept in.  Took time making/eating breakfast.  Enjoyed the views.  Had a beer when I finally got around to breaking down camp.  Turns out the weekend was Free National Park weekend, so after packing up,  I checked out Colorado National Monument for the first time.

I have been wanting to road bike the loop through the Monument for some time.  After visiting, I definitely will come back and do that at some point.  It was nice to get out and stretch the legs.  Drove the loop, stopping multiple times at the overlooks, doing some short little walks.  Then near the Grand Junction entrance, stopped at the Devil's Kitchen Trailhead and did a couple hour hike up and back down, No Throughfare Canyon.

A mile into the hike there was a nice pool, than it was about 2 miles up to a waterfall.  Just a trickle right now.  In late May, early June, with runoff, probably is a better sight.

The trail continues past the waterfall but becomes more bushwacking than hiking.  I wasn't quite in the mood for that, so only traversed a little beyond the waterfall before turning back.

It was a nice way to spend Sunday afternoon before heading back to Boulder.

All in all, a good weekend.  All my pictures from weekend can be found here :

https://plus.google.com/photos/106597417627187460452/albums/6139645996391725249