THE TRIPLE CROWN... don don doooooooooon~! 8:46 TH to TH.
Report on the blog is up: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/08/utah-triple-crown.html
Before that I wrote a summary:
I summited my first 13er (then my 2nd, then my 3rd) which also happen to be the three highest peaks in Utah. The cool kids link them up and call it the triple crown. Since I want to be cool like the cool kids...
I first caught wind of a triple crown blog post (Jun's) within a couple weeks of first moving here a year ago. "Wow," I thought to myself. "I have to do that sometime." I didn't know if I could. Hell, I hadn't been above 12,000ft until I ran the triple C! Was I going to get sick? What if I suck? What if I twisted my ankle and cried like a baby? Lightning was on the forecast?!
It didn't help my nervousness/ complete lack of confidence that the week before I went up to (but didn't run) the Quest for King's marathon... and watched as my friends/running partners ran King's peak in 7-9 hours. Who was I to even attempt to run the same peak, PLUS TWO MORE 13ers in the same amount of time? I spent a week dwelling on it.
So when we got to the top of each Summit and Jun was telling me we were ahead of the men's FKT splits, I ignored him. My goal was not a time. I didn't want to know splits. I wanted to put in a solid effort and keep my breathing easy. Eat every 30min. Get to the top. Suck on bacon to keep the tummy happy. Call the boys pansy-ass boys for making Gilbert sound harder than it was. Etc.
I lost my lead on men's after a huge bonk after S. Kings. I was told usually it was 45min from Kings to S. Kings. I did it in 28min. Lightning clouds were circling S. Kings, it was hailing and snowing, and we hurried. I didn't eat for 90min or so. I just wanted to tag the peak and get down to the pass before the lightning let loose and the mountains got pummeled. So we hit the scree face of Kings, I bonked, fell a few times, and was moving really slowly. I think if I do it again I'd rather go back up and down Kings or wait til there was a snow field to glissade. I lost 1/2 hour just traversing that scree field. I handled all the other boulders, scrambling and scree... But that miserable one hurt. I think it was the moisture, the bonk, and the mental blocks of danger that ultimately made me crash so hard. Whatever. We got off the pass and my mood improved, we clocked a few fast miles, then.... the last 5. I had heard they were awful, but OH MAN. I agree with the sentiment that hell would be running those last 5 for eternity. So hard to transition from peak bagging to turnover and super technical trail, that you think is downhill but really isn't it's just a slice of hell that never ends.
Then it ended.
It was easily my most favorite run I've ever done. Don't listen to the bitter boys, Gilbert was not awful, and it was actually my favorite. Might be because I was practically jumping for joy through all of the false summits/ forever boulders because I was thrilled I didn't have altitude sickness.
I can't wait to do it again. Early July 2014 I hope to go back and shave 20-30min off my (very soft) time. So glad Jun came and gave me the tour. I probably would have accidentally summitted Gunsight instead of Gilbert and missed all the good fun. Can't wait to do it again. Thanks to Crockett and Jun for helping establish (historically) the best run I've ever been blessed to do.
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