Scott loves trails

"He didn’t want level surfaces or follow-the-leader crowds. True adventure was to be alone. The terrain he traversed was steep slippy grass, or sheer clumps of rock where you had to climb or jump. Sometimes only shepherds or sheep had been that way before. Often you found your way just by eye and compass. If you were lucky, there was a good bright day, and close-burned heather to run on. If you were unlucky there was thick mist, loose scree, and a headlong descent down through rocks and bracken where you had to leap as much as run, risking a broken leg." From The Economist's obituary of British fell runner Bill Smith, who died doing what he loved best ( http://www.economist.com/node/21533348 )

The last few months have been a whirlwind!  The trip to Ethiopia in June to meet Mihiret and travel around and have our adoption hearing.  The trip to Wyoming a week later for Bighorn and the cathartic effort there.  A summer of totaling reorganizing our place, putting up a new wall to create a nursey, throwing away tons of stuff, putting a ton of stuff in storage, and generally trying to get our place ready for the new addition!  Then after also squeezing in Escarpment 30K and NYC Tri and mostly tri-oriented training in, we got the call to go back to Ethiopia in mid-August! After 5 days of bonding with her and our embassy appointment to finalize everything and get the US visa, we finally got to bring her home (after a trip of nearly 24 hours) on August 25th!  Five years of trying to adopt, 10 years trying to become parents.....Mihiret is WONDERUFL--social, inquisitive, walking, beautiful, into everything, just like a one year old should be (her first was...

Sweet glorious Bighorn!  My muse.  My nemesis.  You've been at the center of this trail runner's imagination and aspirations for more than four years.  With your stunning canyons.  Raging rivers.  Brilliant wildflowers.  Velvety green mountain meadows.  Forever climbs.  Moonlit June nights.  Three times you've let me partake of your wonders, only to prove unworthy of a 100 mile finish.  But my respect and admiration for you only grew, as I knew you did not give of your fruits easily.  This time, finally, I made the grade, and you let me into your secret garden, sweet Bighorn.  And what a glorious feeling it is! The Unique Bighorn Experience The barebones of it are there in this year's results--a 34:20 finish.  Surprisingly little drama, especially compared to my 2007, 2008, and 2010 attempts.  I built a nice margin on the cutoffs, feeling strong and breathing well.  Held up surprisingly well ...

Well, I finally broke three hours!  Just didn't think it would come in a snowshoe race, or a *half* marathon--or that I'd be so proud of that kind of time for a "mere half"!  But hey, this one was a KILLER, and it was my second ever in this category (both in the space of three weeks)!  Based on a trail map, it looks like we ascended from the trailhead at about 1,050 or 1,100' up to South Hill at 2,065, then back down.  Then we repeated the whole thing again.  So you can break the half into four "quarters"--up to the summit, down to the finish area, back up to summit, back down to finish.  All on a lollipop course with a short "stem" where the only common section is the first and last half-mile of each loop. The climb ranged from steep to gradual, and the descents got to a be a bit hairy at times and I really had to concentrate on foot placement and braking, occasionally letting faster descenders go ahead and making sure I didn't lose it a...

I could sort of rationalize the Masochist thing, with missing the cutoff by like 9 minutes at mile 42. I knew going in I would be slower than in '08 or especially '09, and that I didn't have enough quality training time post-toe fracture and post-Rainier and -half Ironman to really feel well prepared. But I had the comfort of knowing Hellgate was the bigger prize, and that I would have five more weeks to train. Surely the 42 miles at Masochist would also be a great training run. So after allowing a little more recovery time than last year (a lesson from '09) I got back in and did a couple of confidence-boosting 8-hour runs, each followed or preceded by 2-2.5 hour run as back to backers. That plus a good 16-day taper should have left me well prepared for Hellgate. But things just went awry early, and I missed the cutoff at AS#4 (official mile 22.5 and Garmin mile 24.9) by something like 13 minutes. From the start I was near the back, though I thought my pace was decent...

A much delayed report, but here's what I remember, about a month later.... Well, skipping right to the climax of the story, we got to about 12,400' or so, only to have to turn back due to unacceptable avalanche danger. Our outstanding guides from RMI made the right call. But it was still disappointing. Especially since my original journey in mid-August was postponed due to my broken toe, and the weather would have allowed for a summit then. It was only the second trip up of 25 or more for our head guide, Brent Okita, over the summer of 2010 that didn't result in a summit for him and at least part of his party. But them's the breaks! Day 1: The 8 of us assembled at RMI headquarters about 20 minutes outside the park for the orientation and gear check with Brent. Turns out I'm with a group of 5 anasthesiologists from Chicago along with a friend of one of theirs from Florida. And then there is a separate group of equal size, composed of mostly women, with a different he...

As posted to my Yahoo group on August 4th (never did get around to writing the longer report).... This is a not so short little recap before I prepare a more> organized report for my blog and post the pictures. Will give a> shout when that happens. And hopefully Brice can chime in with his> own take on things! You can see the final results, and some of the> racers' daily posts, at> http://www.geminiadventures.com/new/?page_id=374 > http://www.geminiadventures.com/new/?page_id=374 >>> With me and stage races, I think it was love at first sight! Such> a cool format, combining friendly competition with camaraderie and> lots of emotional support. Really like a series of organized fun> runs, with some widely scattered checkpoints and unmanned water> spots. Time to hang out at camp each day and swap stories and get> to know each other (there were 11 runners here, and almost that> many race officials/organizers!).>> The Colorado high...