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

Overdid it! Winter Games and more.

This past weekend I didn't do much, because the weekend before I may have overdone it.  As I wrote in my last post, I was feeling very tired after the Nighthawk race on the 6th.  So I bailed on my workout the morning of the 7th and focused on the Teva Winter Games 10K snowshoe race at Vail, which was on the 8th.

Going in, I figured the course would be "easier" than the 10K I did at Ski Cooper in January.  It would be run completely on groomers.  No trekking thru snow.  No running thru the woods, jumping over logs, being smacked by branches.  However, I didn't know how hard the uphills would be.

Did a few laps at Keystone Friday morning and then headed to Vail.  Race started at 5:30.  So there was still a decent amount of light at the start line.


Start.  I'm in red between guy in blue and gal (918) in gray.

There was a little bit of pushing and shoving at the start, as I was trying not to trip over other people's snowshoes.  Quickly it became apparent who was winning this race.  A group of 3 guys formed a pack that pulled away quickly. Those 3 guys, eventual winner Josiah Middaugh, a multiple XTerra triathlon winner, Jason Delaney, last year's Pike's Peak Ascent winner, and Sage Canaday, winner of the Mt Washington Road Race.  A pretty stout group of guys. Not going to compete with that group.

But another group of 4 or 5 formed and I moved around them into 4th.  On the first climb, I was paced by eventual female winner, Hannah Williams and another guy.  I kept them in sight for the next mile.  The first 1.5 miles of the course weren't too bad.  Then it got interesting.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRun
       

The climb up to the Riva catwalk was rough. It was a power hike.  That's when 4th and 5th got away from me and another gal passed me.  The calves were screaming.  I was able to recapture 6th on the downhill along Mill Creek Rd.  Then hit the bear of a climb going up the Bear Tree run.  This went straight up the ski slope.  But I found a good rhythm and power hike this well.  By the turn off of Lindsey's Way onto Lion's Way, I had done a good job of putting distance between myself and 6th place.  I also knew it was mostly downhill from here.  And now it was completely dark. 

The descent down to the Vail Village Catwalk was pretty steep in sections.  It's amazing how a blue intermediate run feels relaxed on skis, but downright frightful on snowshoes.  You are just trying not to catch your front claw on the downhill and go tumbling. 

Along the catwalk, I had a moment to take in Vail Village below me, twinkling in the night.  With no one around, it was very peaceful and quiet.  A slight uphill after the 5 mile mark and then downhill to the finish.  6th overall, 2nd in my age group, with a time of 55:13.  Luckily this wasn't a true 10K, but more like 5.25 miles.  I was glad for the shorter race.

The following two days, I would get in over 60 000 vertical feet of skiing at Beaver Creek.  Which including my day at Ski Cooper put me over 300 000 feet for the season.

This all ended up taking a toll on my body.  The following Monday on my easy run, I felt a bit of tightness in my groin.  A few feet later, that tightness became a pull and my run was done. 

A massage from Jean Pierce on Thursday showed how tight my adductors had gotten.  A trip to Heather North at In Motion Rehabilitation was in order for Friday.  My achilles was starting to get a little sore and tender and I knew would need some work, so figured good time to get that taken care of and get the groin strain worked on.  She really worked the muscle over and then did some dry needling.  Neither was a very pleasant experience.  Then the same thing on the achilles, which is just the most painful thing I have to deal with.

But come Sunday, I felt remarkably better.  A few more days of running are in order to ensure all is well.  Plus have ski trip on tap for Jackson Hole.   So a little downtime from running won't be so bad.

So Tired ....

This past Sunday I felt great on the BTC run.  Relaxed.  Comfortable.  And would have pushed the last few miles if Brisco hadn't started to lag behind.  I had the thought, "I think I might be getting into some decent training shape."

Tonight I am reconsidering that thought.  Maybe it's the consistent workouts over the past few weeks, the skiing, or more likely too many stouts at Southern Sun, but I really felt tired today.  As I rode the bus up to Eldora for week 3 of the Nighthawk series, I took a little nap.  Lunch at the Southern Sun was sitting heavy in my stomach.  Upon arriving to a calm, warm Eldora, I didn't have much hop to my step.

I did a good 10-15 min warmup.  But it didn't help.  I still felt really tired.  Once again the start of the snowshoe race would be uphill.  About two steps into the race, I didn't care.  I had no desire to run hard, to hurt, to be the least bit competitive.  3 guys pulled away, including Shawn who had edged me out last week.  The course was the same as last week, but run in the opposite direction.  On the downhill half way thru the first lap, I caught 3rd place.  Maybe I would be a bit competitive.  50 meters later on an uphill, he pulled away, with ease.  I didn't care.

So the 2nd lap, I ran, slowly, by myself.  Afterwards, I didn't do any cool down. There are times when you listen to your body.  Mine is tired.  So I am watching this week's episode of The Americans on FX (my replacement now that American Horror Story has wrapped up for the year.), then go to bed.  Tomorrow is another day.

Nighthawk results

Windora and A January Re-Cap

Last night was the 2nd race in the Eldora Nighthawk Series.  Last week was warm, dry, and calm.  Odd conditions for Eldora.  And only a handful of people did the snowshoe race.  Turnout seemed down.  Last night things were back to normal.  Cold with hurricane like winds.  I don't think it was snowing, but with the winds, snow was blowing so badly, there were whiteout conditions on the drive up from Nederland, and on portions of the race course. 

Blustery Night at the Base of Eldora

Now this is the Eldora I remember.  And apparently, by the larger turnout, what others were waiting for.

The Nighthawk series runs 6 consecutive weeks on Wednesday nights and includes ski races along with the snowshoe race.  I have done the series for 4 out of the last 5 years.  The snowshoe race, run mostly on the nordic trails, range from 2-3 miles each week.  You never know what to expect until you get there.  Tonight was a relatively simple course, about 1.3 miles for the loop, which was done twice.  But there usually is a pretty solid hill somewhere along the way.  And on the Gandy Dancer trail, there was a doozy.  Relatively short, but steep.  And with the added 4-5 inches of snow that had accumulated in the past day, it made for even slower going. 

Typically, I am either way out in the lead or solidly in 2nd with no chance to catch the leader or be caught.  This tends to allow me to sort of bag it later in the race.  I'll run hardish, but not gut busting, racing hard.  Tonight was different.  A newbie showed up and we ran side by side up the bunny slope, onto the Training Ave and made the turn up 17th Ave together.  At this point, I let him pull away.  I'll take the uphills at a consistent but easier effort.  I have found that when running above 8000 feet, a hard effort uphill can quickly become an anaerobic effort which one never recovers from. 

So a 15-20m gap formed.  This would stay fairly consistent thru the rest of the 1st loop.  Toward the beginning of the 2nd loop it looked like he might pull away, but on Gandy Dancer, he hit his wall and walked a few steps.  This allowed me to close the gap back to 10-15m.  Now it was a question of whether I could get him on the downhill.  

Noureddine Morceli had a quote in a Nike ad that I had hung on my bedroom wall while I was in high school.  "When I race, my mind is full of doubts, who will come in second?  who will come in third?"  

Like Morceli, when I race, my mind is full of doubts, but they usually are, "why am I doing this?  do I really want to try to catch that guy?  whatever place I'm in is good enough.  Who will finish in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th?"

After all these years, the same doubts always emerge.  Which is odd, because I normally don't fall victim to them.  But they continually re-emerge.  On the beginning of the downhill, they re-emerged again.  And I was close to falling victim to them.  I ran hard, but not all out crazy that I know I am capable of doing on a downhill.  I sort of closed in on the leader, but wasn't right up on his ass.

As we came out of the woods onto the top of the bunny slope, I finally got it together mentally and hammered down the bunny slope.  In the woods, the wind wasn't bad, but out on the bunny slope it was gusting hard.  With the blowing snow, my headlamp was doing no good.  I was pretty blind. It was a complete whiteout.  I had no real feel for the degree of the slope or any undulations.  I just ran as hard as I could.  I passed him with about 100m to go and got a few steps on him.  But I couldn't finish the effort.  He caught back up and we ran side by side for about 30m before he gained a couple of steps and took the win.

Thank You .... (already forgot your name even after chatting while we did a cool down. I'm bad with names) for a great race and making me hurt.  And of course, now I have the Eldora hack for the next 24 hrs.  Racing in cold at 9000 feet really hurts the throat and lungs.

Let's look back at January.

Races in January
Jan 19 : Colorado State Snowshoe Championships 10K at Ski Cooper - 6th 1:13:53
Jan 23 : Eldora Nighthawks Race #1 - 2nd 20:49
Jan 27 : Frost Giant 5K - 9th 20:12
Jan 27 : Frost Giant 5K - 4th 41:28
Jan 30 : Eldora Nighthawks Race #2 - 2nd 22:10

Almost 200 miles, a couple of fun races with good effort.  3 days of skiing with total of 70 000 vert feet.  Visits to 7 different breweries.  That's a pretty good month.  Started training with the Boulder Track Club's Mountain/Ultra/Trail group.  That has been very good.  So I am happy with January.  Probably one of the best January's I have ever had.  And now on to February, the greatest month of the year.  Not only because my birthday is in February, but also because it is Stout Month at the Mountain Sun/Southern Sun.  Mmmmmmm ......... stooooouuutieeeeeeee.

Welcome. And Let's Go Snowshoeing.

You are privileged to be reading the first ever post on my new blog.  I have tried to do a little blogging before on the Fleet Feet Racing Team blog.  But I find talking about one's training and racing is a bit vain.  Especially if one isn't a top runner.  So I needed to expand upon just the running thing and add in some other topics.  What goes well with running?  Why, beer of course.  And it happens to be one of my other favorite passions.

So this blog will hopefully give you some insights into my running and the Colorado beer scene.  Just within Boulder city limits, there  currently are 11 breweries, with 2 more expected to open this year.  In Boulder County, there are over 20 breweries.  In Colorado, the total is over 120.  So there is plenty to drink and write about. Plus, I'll add in a few other opinions and insights as well (things I couldn't really do on the Fleet Feet blog).  I don't know how many people will read this.  Even if no one does, it is still a good exercise to keep the brain sharp.   I just need to write more.

My next blog update will recap a recent trip up to Fort Collins to stop by a few different taprooms, including Odell, which was tapping Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout.  This would be my recommendation of the month.  A very good brew.

But for this first post, we will stay with the running theme.  As it is winter time, snowshoe racing season is upon us.  After skiing over 30 000 vertical feet at Beaver Creek this past Friday the 18th, I wasn't sure how my legs would respond for a race on Saturday.  But waking up Sat morning, I felt remarkably good.  It was a relatively short drive from Avon thru Minturn up to Tennessee Pass and Ski Cooper's Nordic Center.  It was a beautiful morning.  Blue skies.  Upper 20's.  No wind.  Perfect day to race.

51 brave souls toed the starting line of the Colorado State Championships 5K/10K, put on by Pedal Power.  The start was on the groomed cross-country ski trails.  But the race course quickly left the groomers behind and instead became single track thru the woods.   Obviously the race director had hiked on the trail to set up the course, but other than maybe a few of others with him and the 2 guys ahead of me when we turned onto the single track, there hadn't been many who had trekked down this path.  It made the footing quite unstable.  When I didn't exactly land in the narrow single track, I sunk into the deeper powder.  And even if my foot did land in the middle of the path, since it hadn't seen a lot of traffic, it wasn't packed down hard, so occasionally my foot still sunk deeper than expected.  And then I tripped on my own snowshoes and bit it twice.

This makes it difficult to find a running rhythm and uses a lot of energy to stay upright.  2 guys quickly passed me by as I struggled a bit with the snow.  I'd almost rather break trail than run in a trail that only had a few pass thru.  Along with the uneven footing, the course meander thru the woods, over logs, under downed trees, and included brushing aside many low hanging tree limbs.  At 2 miles, it had long uphill climb.  Skiing the day before began to set in and my quads were burning.  I stopped and began hiking.  Another runner passed me by.  As I closed in on the 5k, my watch said 36:00.  I was tired and really began considering bailing on the 10k and just doing 5.  If the 2nd half of this race was anything like the first, I might end up crawling.  I, of course, never would do the easy thing and continued passed the cutoff leading to the 5k finish line.

Luckily the 2nd half of the race had a lot more hard packed snow to run on.  I found my rhythm and started to pick up the pace.  A long climb around 5 miles was much easier to do on the hard packed snow.  I passed a guy and thru the trees would occasionally see another guy ahead.  I thought I might be able to reel him in.  As the climb continued, I actually was happy.  It meant a lot of downhill to the finish.  And when that downhill came, I flew thru the winds.  But I never gained ground on the guy ahead of me.  In fact, I never saw him.  It was like he was a ghost and vanished.  A strong push to the finish earned me 6th place with a time of 1:13:53 (the time is quite irrelevant.  But for a perspective on the toughness of the course, Kevin Menard, who finished ahead of me in 1:12:11, went 1:05:49 a week earlier at the Swift Skeddadle 10K in Silverthorne a week earlier.)

I was happy with the effort.  Besides a dry, hacking cough that lasted the rest of the day, I came thru without any issues.  Then followed up on Sunday with another 22 000 vertical feet of skiing.  All in all a good weekend.  Now the mountains just need to get some snow.  I took a nasty core shot in one my skis on what wasn't just a rock, but based on what my ski now looks like, a boulder.  

Results of Colorado State Championships at the Tennessee Pass Nordic Center