I took on the Chubby Cheeks 50K course today that Nick has designed for the 12/18 Fort Collins fat-ass. I was hoping to provide some stats and a GPS track for those out-of-towners who may want to upload some data to their navigation devices. Of course, Nick will probably add a time penalty if you run with a navigation device. Well if you do upload the GPS track, only follow it for the first 23.5 miles. The course was pretty much mine for the first 19 miles. Both summits (Horsetooth and Arthurs Rock) down and going strong. The section of Well Gulch and Overlook (Miles 19 to 21) landed a few jabs on me as it normally does with a lot of miles in my legs. The knockout punch came going up Sawmill around Mile 23. Not just the climb, but the sideways rain/snow and a good 20 degree drop in air temperature in a matter of minutes. I was not prepared for that as I was underdressed and packed pretty lightly on what was a very pleasant morning. I started having flashbacks of Bighorn and hypothermia. So I made a left turn at the Loggers/Sawmill junction (about Mile 23.5), instead of the right turn and eventually climb back up toward Horsetooth Rock that the course takes, and I drug my beaten and frozen self back the shortest route I knew to the trailhead.
Today's route:
Horsetooth Rock-Southridge-Audra Culver-Horsetooth Rock to North Summit-Horsetooth Rock-Soderberg-Spring Creek-Stout-Herrington-Spring Creek-Mill Creek-Howard-Arthurs Rock to Summit-Timber-Valley-Well Gulch-Overlook-Arthurs Rock-Valley-Sawmill-Loggers-Towers-Herrington-Spring Creek-Soderberg-Horsetooth Rock-Southridge
Start/Finish at Horsetooth Mountain Trailhead.
GPS Data here
According to Garmin
Distance 26.8 miles
Climbing 6115 feet
I figure I cut out about 1000 feet of climbing (and about 3 miles) with my shortcut near the end, and if you add the 600 foot climb back to Nick's house, this course should be in the 7500 to 8000 foot range. Nick, you've created a monster. Next time she is mine.
If a FoCo runner can make it almost 24 miles, us South CRUD guys should have a cakewalk with the course.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that sideways snow/rain didn't look like much fun yesterday. I think you missed about 1,500' of climb total, and just over 6 miles from the 23.5 mile Loggers/Sawmill spot. Add the 1.3 out & back from my house and the route looks to be really close to 50k with about 7,500' vertical.
ReplyDeleteBe interested to look at your data when the Garmin site comes back up.
Brownie:
ReplyDeleteGive me credit. It was Miles 24-27 that were the most impressive in that I got back to my car alive. Be sure to get your CRUD up there for the earliest start wave so we don't need to call Search and Rescue when it gets dark.
Nick:
The numbers sound about right. My shortcut at the end had about 500 feet of climb to get me to the 6115, leaving the first 23.5 miles of the course at about 5600 feet.