Towers Road Again and Again and ...

This had to be the craziest thing I've done since Round Mountain Ladders.  Again, I only have the FCTR crew to blame (thank).  What an idea!  Let's run up and down Towers Road for 24 hours!  Okay, so I didn't start until 3:15am this morning, giving me a little less than 4 hours to add some laps to the 1st ever 24 Hours of Towers.  I had to give it a pretty stout effort to get 3 laps done by 7am.  I then made it a Towers Quad with a 4th (very slow) trip up to the towers and back to complete my workout this morning.  Brian's preliminary results had us putting up over 200 laps as a group.  Not hard to see why Fort Collins seems to dominate the results lists at many trail races around the Rocky Mountain region.

A new Appalacian Trail speed record was set today by Jen Pharr Davis.  No, not the women's record (which she already owned), but the fastest known time by anyone.  Her 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes for covering the 2181-mile AT was over 26 hours faster than Andrew Thompson's previous record.  Of course this was fully-suported (no 40 pound pack to carry), but still amazing!

Today's run:
Towers Road Quad, 27.29 miles, 6722 feet climbed, GPS data here

Granite Pass Loop

I like to hit some variation of this loop at least once a year in RMNP.  My first time above treeline this year.  No snow along the trails up to Granite Pass (12,000+ feet) and it looked pretty clear up to Longs Peak.  There were a lot of hikers heading up to the peak, although I had all of the trails to myself until I got to Granite Pass.

The Loop:
Storm Pass Trail/Boulder Brook Trail/North Longs Peak Trail to Granite Pass/Longs Peak (Keyhole Route) Trail/Connecting Trail from Longs Peak Trail back to Storm Pass/Storm Pass Trail

Start/Finish at Storm Pass Trailhead at Lily Lake

20.94 miles, 5694 feet climbed, GPS data here

Early morning view from Storm Pass Trail.

Interesting.  I guess I ran a little faster than normal through this section.

Boulder Brook Trail.

Overlooking the Boulder Brook Valley and beyond.

Longs and Meeker from the Chasm trail junction.

Lost Lake

It's not Hard Rock, but still not a bad destination this morning.  My first time running up the North Fork trail this year.  No snow until the lake at 10,700 feet, but much of the trail down low was underneath the high-flowing North Fork Big Thompson River.  Huge congrats to everyone that kissed the rock in Silverton this weekend!

Today's run: 18.75 miles, 3449 feet climbed, Start/Finish at Dunraven Trailhead in Glen Haven

GPS data here

Submerged trail.

Higher up.

Final climb over the snow field to the lake.

June Summary (Black Hills Final Thoughts)

June Totals:
Total Miles 251 (1360 for year)
Total Vertical Miles 7.2 (42.2 for year)

Trail (10 runs, 226 miles, 7.2 vertical, 55 hours)
Road (3 runs, 8 miles, 0 vertical, 1 hour)
Track (2 runs, 13 miles, 0 vertical, 2 hours)
Treadmill (1 run, 4 miles, 0 vertical, 1 hour)
Weight Training (5 sessions, 7 hours)
Rest Days (14)

Biggest mileage month of the year so far, with 105 miles last weekend having the most to do with that.  Took the rest of the month off after finishing Black Hills.  My body is slowly getting back to normal and I am looking forward to getting back on the trails.  Exertional rhabdomyolysis was the diagnosis given to me after the race, along with being severely dehydrated.  Could have lead to something serious, such as kidney failure.  It does make you want to think twice about taking Ibuprofen (or any NSAIDS) during a 100-miler, which I did not do this time or ever will in the future.  The combination of "rhabdo" and Ibuprofen has put some athletes in pretty bad shape before as that causes major stress on the kidneys.

For now I am just excited to getting back to some summer running on my Colorado trails, exploring some new ones and revisiting some old ones.  I'll try to get higher in altitude as our snow is still slowly melting.  I got a date with Pikes Peak on August 21.

It's been nice putting some names to the faces from all the great people I met before or during the race in the Black Hills.  Adam Schwartz-Lowe ran a smart race being patient and not letting anyone else dictate his race.  There were plenty of runners ahead of us coming into Dalton that either didn't finish or finished behind Adam.  Phil Lowry, you are an animal, and I had a blast making those stream crossings with you heading out.  Go Ranger!  Alistair Munro and Andy Pele were making it look easy through the Crooked Tree section.  It was nice meeting you Alistair at the pre-race meal. I'm not sure what took you out of the race late, but I'm sure you will run strong another day.  Thomas Etter, you said this was just a training run so no worries on the DNF.  It was great sharing some trail time out there and best of luck with the adventure races.  Laura Range, I thought you were done lying there on the cot at Dalton on the way back, and then I couldn't shake you for 29 miles.  Great job!  Finally, it was great sharing some of the last few miles with Casey Lopez.  I enjoyed seeing Casey's Dad at all those aid stations at night when I was struggling, and then I finally get to meet you Casey near the end.  Well done!