Scott loves trails

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...

Well, it's been a busy last three months, on every front except in terms of my blogging! Too much of a perfectionist to just sit down and get out those immediate thoughts and experiences. Which is I guess what this is all about rather than being too analytical! Anyway, there were two interesting footnotes to the successful Miwok race and trip: My lost wedding ring on the Miwok course mysteriously became "found" when I happened to read the blog of friend Cherie Yanek a few weeks ago, noticing she had posted a report on the race. Turned out to be from the RD, and at the bottom she listed a wedding race as "lost and found." I had so given it up for lost (during a glove change at an aid station most likely) that I hadn't even thought to contact the RD till I saw that 2+ months later! In the meantime, I had gotten an identical ring at the same jeweler's as 1995. The other Miwok footnote also involves Cherie: Turns out I came within a minute of her, even thoug...