In two weeks this is where I'll be

http://www.4deserts.com/beyond/iceland/videos-47-0

Running on the slopes of Pikes Peak via Cripple Creek Reservoirs

Western States 100 attempt

The Most Colossal Scientific Blunders Ever Made - YouTube

The Most Colossal Scientific Blunders Ever Made - YouTube:

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June 1st, 2013 Ring the Peak 100K+ Fun Run

Pikes Peak's North Face: The Y Couloir

CRUD run up Mt Baldy, 12,600'

Run to the snow

Boston Marathon

In the last 22 years I’ve run 127 marathons. I’ve run the Boston Marathon three times, the last time on April 15^th, 2013, when a celebration of life and community turned into a horrible nightmare. I had finished a little less than an hour before the bombs went off, and was walking across the Boston Commons towards my rental car, having just connected by cell phone with my friend Jose Aponte who finished a little after me. We had traveled together. Though he now lives in California, we had synched flights and shared a rental car and hotel, and now we were trying to link up in order to go to the airport, go home, and go to work the next day. While we were talking Jose exclaimed that two large explosions had gone off and he could see white smoke rising from near the finish line. He said they sounded like ordinance from Camp Pendleton. I waited for him to join me on the Boston Commons and we continued to the rental car, while we picked up conversations, watched every ambulance and fire truck and police car in Boston drive to the scene, all the while my cell phone filled up with text messages and voice mails from concerned friends, family, and colleagues.

I didn’t go to run Boston this year for a PR or even to run a fast marathon.  Indeed my time that day was my slowest road marathon ever. I wanted to run Boston this year for the Boston experience. That experience includes the spectacle of the expo, one of the largest and most exciting of any marathon. I bought a Boston Marathon jacket for $100 even though I surely don’t need any more jackets. As I waited for the race to start in the school grounds in Hopkinton I looked at the thousands of fellow runners and I thought “this is my tribe.” I had a pretty good seed, based on my qualifying time, so I started with the first wave. I knew though that I would not be running very fast because of some health problems that have affected my training, so I settled in to enjoy the day.

Everybody knows about Heartbreak Hill. Well, there are actually a series of three hills with the finale being Heartbreak Hill. Having run Boston twice before I knew what to expect and being from Colorado the hills were not an issue. It’s the five miles after Heartbreak that always kicks my ass. Muscles cramping, quads screaming, all while running downhill and the flats to the finish line, but every step of the way you’re running with your tribe, your friends. And spectators and supporters line every street and sidewalk to the finish at Copley Square.

There are more than 25,000 runners running Boston, and everyone has to qualify with a pretty decent time to run the event. In the 55-59 year age group I had run 3:17 at the Aspen Valley Marathon in order to qualify--the only road marathon I could squeeze into my schedule for a Boston qualifier was sandwiched between the Leadville Trail Marathon the preceding weekend and both the Hardrock 100 and Leadville 50 in the next weekend. But there are five times as many supporters, volunteers, cheerers; the entire race course is a festival. The Boston Marathon has been crafted by the citizens of Boston over 117 years. It is a uniquely Boston event and the entire city comes alive to celebrate life and community.

Why was this happy, joyful event attacked so brutally? We know who the perpetrators are, but we don’t know the answer to that question. Even if we were to get an answer, it wouldn’t help.

To overcome this kind of trauma takes time, time during which we need to look ahead positively. Revenge and scape-goating won’t lead to any real solution. We will remember the pain, and we will continue in our lives, accumulating the miles and the distance from that day as it recedes on the time horizon.  It will take time, but time is our ally.

We’ll remember those who lost limbs and life on Boylston Street by running.  The Boston Marathon will recover from its wounds, and soon those twenty-six miles will again be beautiful, natural, and joyous.

Salida Trail Marathon

My excellent year of running Pikes Peak

Kill The Messenger - Sibel Edmonds - Full film - YouTube

Kill The Messenger - Sibel Edmonds - Full film - YouTube:

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Sibel Edmonds interviewed by Michael Rivero 2012-05-17 - YouTube

Sibel Edmonds interviewed by Michael Rivero 2012-05-17 - YouTube:

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December Ascent of Pikes Peak via the Watergate

November Ascent of Pikes Peak

Climbed the mountain via an obscure seldom traveled trail on the SW slopes.

October Ascent of Pikes Peak

September 30th Ascent of Pikes Peak

My Epic Weekend

My plan for the epic weekend was to run the Hardrock 100 starting at 6 AM on Friday morning the 13th of July and finish in about 36 hours: in time to drive (ride) six hours to Leadville in time to show up at the starting line for the Leadville Silver Rush 50 at 6 AM on Sunday the 15th so I could keep on track for a Leadman finish for 2012. I fell short of that goal.

Hardrock is hard! To reach 60 miles at Grouse Gulch (where I dropped) you have to go over five Hope Passes on steroids!! I was unable to hold down calories, vomiting up any calories I had taken in plus all my water every time I went over 12,000' in elevation. The last 15 miles took me and my pacer, John Courtney 10 hours to complete. Do the math. I was running on empty. I first took a 20 minute nap at Grouse, then I took an hour and a half nap. I was no better able to continue after that rest than when I first plodded into the aide station. Harry Harcrow had been at the Grouse Gulch aide station for eight hours getting sick and sleeping. I talked him into getting back on the course, which he did, finishing in 41 hours. He tried to talk me into getting back on the course too, but I was too weak and I still couldn't eat. I felt bad for Rick Hessek who had driven all the way down from Colorado Springs to pace me for the final 40 miles, but I just didn't have it.

I withdrew and we drove back to Silverton for breakfast. I ate only four bites of the food I got from the buffet, I felt so nauseous. 

Rebekka drove us to our room in Twin Lakes where we got a gourmet meal from the proprietors of the Twin Lakes Roadhouse. Really very well done! The gourmet meal was only for guests of the hotel. We went to bed at 7:30 and I just thought that I would show up at the starting line and see what happened.

Well, what happened is I started off slowly in the 50 miler then I accelerated to the turn around. I saw Clark Sundahl was about 200 yards ahead of me at the turn around and I got a little fire in my eyes. I kept him in sight until I finally reeled him at mile 35 and I just kept pounding it. Ran up the long hill passing another dozen or so runners and finally finished in 9 hours 7 minutes. Not bad for an old fart who struggled through 60 miles the previous day!

Tour de Pikes Peak, June 17, 2012

Last Sunday Larry DeWitt and I ran to the summit of Pikes Peak via the Barr Trail. We descended on the Cog tracks to just above Windy Point, where we dropped down to an old toll road that took us down to Boehmer Reservoir and lower lakes and eventually back to the Barr Trail.

Ring the Peak June 2nd, 2012