Since I hadn't run up a mountain since August and had relegated myself to mostly flatland running the last couple months I was unsure how my legs would hold up on the steep stuff.
As it turns out everyone (except JV who was way off ahead after Green) was keeping the pace on the easier side of casual and so I held up just fine. I felt really good actually, which surprised me. The steep ups and downs were not an issue. But we were only clicking off 20 minute miles at some points, definitely not what could be classified as any type of hard effort.
What a great run though! I met a lot of cool folks, and had a great time chatting and catching up with a bunch of others. Boulder certainly does a great job of attracting a bunch of nice people who like to run trails.
It's funny to me how many people I met who live within about a mile radius of my house who I had never met before. I guess I should get out more? Ryan C, Scott B, Jay, Eric D. all live in that radius and yet we've never crossed paths, though we're all probably out running in the same places every week.
Here are some pics of day that I snagged:
Jack, a great host. And a bonus pair of legs helped him win the sprint at the start line!
JT getting ready to throw down, JV was having none of that
Scott wins best retro gear once again
Milling around on top of Green for a while, Nick P. hunching over to install some traction apparently
Scott and Dakota surveying the land from Bear Peak, as the wind started getting pretty cold after hanging out there for 10 min.
Ryan Cooper and Geoff R. on the Bear
The obligatory S. Boulder peak shot. We didn't stay there long.
At the beginning I was running with Brandon, Tony, and Jeff V. It was great to chat with so many people. I run so much solo that I almost forget how nice it is to run with other people sometimes. We made quick work of Flagstaff without spikes, but I was glad that Tony and Jeff stopped atop flag because my altra instinct road shoes weren't going to cut it going up in the snow and ice from there. Virtually no tread or traction on those babies. But I can't bring myself to wear any other shoes because none fit me so well. At least their trail version just got released and is on its way to my home as I type.
I chatted with Scott B. and Johannes on the way up to Green and didn't realize how far we had gone until we all of sudden popped out on the peak and everyone stopped. It was still a pretty large group on top of Green. The pace was super casual. But from here it started to break up. Tony K. needed to resist the other peaks and bail here. And the rest of us got strung out depending on who had spikes or not. I chatted with Dakota most of the way down from Green and across the west ridge of Bear. Then one of my spikes was coming off so I stopped to fix it and found myself in back of Nick Pedatella and Ryan Cooper. Had a chance to chat with Nick about his awesome UTMB and bear races, as well as chatted with Ryan as we approached Bear. But Nick P didn't have spikes so I found myself wanting to move faster and ended up catching back up to Geoff who was at the tail end of the group ahead as we got to the peak.
We sat around on bear eating, drinking, chatting for a while. And left just as we were all about to get really chilly with the wind up there.
We did the quick out and back over to S. Boulder and didn't spend much hanging out up there. I fell in behind Jurek coming down from Sobo and asked him about his book that he is about to publish. Sounds pretty cool, a memoire of his running career so far among other things. He, Geoff, Jay R. and I were making pretty quick work of the shadow canyon descent when all of sudden one of my spikes broke. The rubber piece ripped on one side. So I stopped and turned it around real quick, and that served well enough to get me down Skunk the rest of the way chatting with Geoff.
We all stopped at the bottom of skunk and took off the spikes, and it was nice for most of the way from there, but I wished I would have had them on to avoid a big face plant on a super muddy corner by NCAR. My road Altra instincts were not a really suitable solution for the conditions without the spikes on. And whatever Geoff was wearing at that point seemed to have plenty of traction because on the slick descents and muddy ascents he and Scott gapped me pretty fast. I was slipping all over the place, but didn't feel like digging the spikes back out at that point. So I watched them cruise on ahead as I made my way slowly down the slicker sections. Still had an enjoyable pretty much solo run in for the last couple miles. Caught up with Brandon F. and chatted for a while. Passed a few others, and then caught up and ran in the last couple blocks with Eric Dec. Super fun morning run with a bunch of cool folks.
