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aha, it's a link
Jun. 6th, 2013 06:34 amI have fixed yesterday's post at http://ilanarama.dreamwidth.org/129
I'm not doing a very good job of updating my journal from the trail, as although we usually have net access in the evening I have to share Britt's iPad with him, and we are pretty busy with other things. I can do a little with my Kobo e-reader, but there's no keypad (as there is for the iPad) so I'm disinclined to type much. However, I do manage to type a sentence or two most days to Facebook, and there are a few photos as well: http://www.facebook.com/ilanarama (publicly viewable - you don't need to be a fb friend or, I think, even have an account).
Here is a photo from yesterday (I hope this works):
Aha, it is a link, click here!
Here is a photo from yesterday (I hope this works):
Aha, it is a link, click here!
White Rim trip
Apr. 26th, 2013 06:13 pmThe White Rim Trail is a well-known 4WD road approximately 100 miles long which loops between the Colorado and Green Rivers through Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah: it descends from the 'Island In The Sky' mesa top down to the level of the White Rim sandstone, which was formed during the Permian period 245 to 286 million years ago. Blah blah blah, a picture's worth a thousand words:
(Okay, I'm cheating here, because I'm not riding on the actual trail but on the sandstone rim. Most of the ride is really not as scary as this makes it look!)
( More about our trip, with [occasionally scary] photos )
(Okay, I'm cheating here, because I'm not riding on the actual trail but on the sandstone rim. Most of the ride is really not as scary as this makes it look!)
( More about our trip, with [occasionally scary] photos )
Boston thoughts
Apr. 15th, 2013 05:22 pmThree years ago I ran the Boston Marathon. This morning I watched the elite women's race on livestream, watched one of my friends who started with the elite cross the finish line in 33rd place overall, amazingly caught by the finish camera despite being almost half an hour behind the winner and checked on the tracking for my many friends running this year. While I was cheering with other friends on Facebook, one of the people I know through an internet running forum - who was there cheering in person - posted, "Holy shit -- explosions. What is happening?" I went to Google news, and to Twitter, and watched the horror unfold real-time.
The first thing to do was make sure all the people we knew (we being the collective internet running forum banded together on FB) were okay. As it turned out, everyone I know personally has checked in, but one of the women (who I first met at Boston when I was there) finished shortly before the explosions, and said she was only 200 yards away - freaked her out! Another friend hadn't finished and was diverted away - couldn't get to her warm clothes for hours.
So far there are two confirmed deaths (one an 8-year-old, apparently) and upwards of 100 people in hospitals. At least four leg amputations and a dozen critical injuries.
I haven't managed to get much work done today. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to work much this morning, tracking my runner friends, but I have been glued to various liveblogs and news outlets and Facebook all day. It's depressing, rage-inducing, and frightening. It reminds me of 9/11, when Britt and I were at some friends' house in Denver, getting ready to fly back to our sailboat in Grenada, watching CNN and realizing we weren't going anywhere.
Nobody's claimed responsibility, and despite what various quasi-news places are saying, there's no suspect in custody according to the Boston PD. The timing on tax day, and near the Oklahoma City bombing date, makes me suspect domestic terrorism. But nobody knows yet.
I have been thinking about running Boston again; I mean, I would have to qualify, but I almost certainly will at my next marathon (hopefully this fall), so it would be a decision of if I wanted to go or not. I'm leaning toward it, now. Maybe it's a gesture of defiance.
The first thing to do was make sure all the people we knew (we being the collective internet running forum banded together on FB) were okay. As it turned out, everyone I know personally has checked in, but one of the women (who I first met at Boston when I was there) finished shortly before the explosions, and said she was only 200 yards away - freaked her out! Another friend hadn't finished and was diverted away - couldn't get to her warm clothes for hours.
So far there are two confirmed deaths (one an 8-year-old, apparently) and upwards of 100 people in hospitals. At least four leg amputations and a dozen critical injuries.
I haven't managed to get much work done today. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to work much this morning, tracking my runner friends, but I have been glued to various liveblogs and news outlets and Facebook all day. It's depressing, rage-inducing, and frightening. It reminds me of 9/11, when Britt and I were at some friends' house in Denver, getting ready to fly back to our sailboat in Grenada, watching CNN and realizing we weren't going anywhere.
Nobody's claimed responsibility, and despite what various quasi-news places are saying, there's no suspect in custody according to the Boston PD. The timing on tax day, and near the Oklahoma City bombing date, makes me suspect domestic terrorism. But nobody knows yet.
I have been thinking about running Boston again; I mean, I would have to qualify, but I almost certainly will at my next marathon (hopefully this fall), so it would be a decision of if I wanted to go or not. I'm leaning toward it, now. Maybe it's a gesture of defiance.
alien revenge!
Apr. 3rd, 2013 05:00 pm
On Sunday Britt and I went mountain biking on the Alien Run trail near Aztec, NM. Last year (almost exactly!) I fell hard not much more than 2 miles in, and we took the early turn-around; this year I made it past all the hard parts (well, I walked a few of them!) and only fell once, in deep sand at the top of a climb. Fortunately, sand is a lot softer than rock, and no damage was done. Anyway, we rode the full ten miles and it was loads of fun and we did not get abducted by aliens.
Since I don't have any big running-race plans this spring, I think I'll try to work on my mtb skills a couple of times a week. (Also, I should update my biking icon with my current bicycle, duh.)
The snow-covered mountains behind my head are the La Platas just outside Durango. The high country's still got winter, but it's definitely springtime in the desert!
Moab multisport!
Mar. 19th, 2013 08:03 pm
Friday afternoon Britt and I drove out to Moab with the bikes in the truck; we had a pleasant dinner at Miguel's with our friends Kevin and Nora (as per tradition) and I drank a margarita (also as per tradition), then went back to the motel (the Gonzo Inn, where Karah and I usually stay) and took a soak in the hot tub (you guessed it). It was a lot more fun to have Britt along, which was not not as per tradition, but I hope it becomes one.In the morning we got up and had coffee and breakfast cookies with Kevin and Nora (yep), then caught our respective buses for our respective starts. I was running the Canyonlands Half for my fourth time, and Britt would be running the five-miler; he's not really into racing, but he runs four miles with me a couple of times a week, so I figured he'd be fine.
It was a relatively warm but cloudy day, with only a light breeze - welcome weather after the ferocious headwinds of 2011 and 2012. After a quick porta-potty stop, I found Karah and the rest of the Grand Junction girls, and we chatted, resting among the red rocks while waiting to be allowed to move up the canyon to the start.
I lined up a bit in front of the 1:40 pacer; based on my last few tempo runs of around 7:32 pace, and my average mileage of around 44mpw, I figured 1:38-ish would be a good goal. Maybe I had a shot at a PR, under 1:37. My plan was to go no faster than 7:20 for the first mile (it's sharply downhill and oh-so-easy to go too fast - last year I ran 7:20 that mile, and the year before, 7:18) and no faster than 7:24 (1:37 pace) for the next three miles, then play by ear.
( The race )
( And then we went mountain biking. And eating. And biking again. )
Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend, A+ would run (and bike) again!
springtime of ADVENTURE!
Mar. 5th, 2013 10:54 amI haven't been posting much here this winter; I've been running, as usual, and skiing on Fridays, and doing stuff in local politics blah blah blah. Typical winter. But things are going to ramp up this spring!
There's the Canyonlands Half in Moab a week from Saturday; Britt's running the 5-miler, and we decided to bring our bikes and make a weekend of it. Not that I'm going to be full of energy after a half marathon, but. We have to get in mountain-bike shape as we were invited on a White Rim trip in mid-April! Britt and I have done it twice before, but that was back in the 1990s, so it's high time we go again.
We also need to get our rowing arms in gear as we have been invited on two raft trips this spring. One, on the Salt River in Arizona, may or may not happen depending on how much run-off there is this year; we haven't had much snow so things are looking grim. The other is on the San Juan in Utah, one of my very favorite rivers! So we're going to have to get the little boaty-boats ready, and do a few Animas River runs soonish.
Finally, in late May we are flying to Edinburgh, where we'll spend a few days with a net-friend before joining a Sierra Club trip on the Coast-to-Coast walk. Yep, we are going to walk across England! And in style, too. We've never done a group trip like this but hey, we get to stay in B&Bs and have our luggage hauled while we dayhike every day for two weeks, sounds good.
I fell down on the job as far as vacation reporting goes last fall, but we didn't take very many pictures on the Grand Canyon (it was COLD in November!). I promise to do better this spring!
There's the Canyonlands Half in Moab a week from Saturday; Britt's running the 5-miler, and we decided to bring our bikes and make a weekend of it. Not that I'm going to be full of energy after a half marathon, but. We have to get in mountain-bike shape as we were invited on a White Rim trip in mid-April! Britt and I have done it twice before, but that was back in the 1990s, so it's high time we go again.
We also need to get our rowing arms in gear as we have been invited on two raft trips this spring. One, on the Salt River in Arizona, may or may not happen depending on how much run-off there is this year; we haven't had much snow so things are looking grim. The other is on the San Juan in Utah, one of my very favorite rivers! So we're going to have to get the little boaty-boats ready, and do a few Animas River runs soonish.
Finally, in late May we are flying to Edinburgh, where we'll spend a few days with a net-friend before joining a Sierra Club trip on the Coast-to-Coast walk. Yep, we are going to walk across England! And in style, too. We've never done a group trip like this but hey, we get to stay in B&Bs and have our luggage hauled while we dayhike every day for two weeks, sounds good.
I fell down on the job as far as vacation reporting goes last fall, but we didn't take very many pictures on the Grand Canyon (it was COLD in November!). I promise to do better this spring!
still running
Feb. 17th, 2013 06:05 pmI know, I said I was so over the Moab races. Expensive, headwinds, long drive, blah blah blah, not running there again, find some other damn race. Except that I kept getting email from the Moab race management telling me that there was still space available in Canyonlands (on March 16h, one month from now); ordinarily it's a lottery, but I guess enough people have been put off by the winds that it didn't fill this year. And I am weak. So I signed myself up for the half marathon, yet again; and I signed Britt up for the concurrent 5-mile race, to give him an excuse to come out to Moab as well! Maybe we'll bring mountain bikes and make a weekend of it.
So as a tune-up race, yesterday morning I ran the Community Cares 5K. I ran the same race last year; at the time it was a PR by 30 seconds, but in April I ran another 5K on a downhill course and took off another 41 seconds. I knew I was unlikely to beat that mark, but hoped to beat my previous time on the same course.
Which I did. By ONE FREAKIN' SECOND. I...guess that means I'm in the same shape I was in last year? Last year I came in second woman OA, though a pro triathlete beat me by two minutes; this year I came in fourth, but all three women ahead of me were either 20 or 21, less than half my age, so I don't feel too bad.
This time I decided to set my Garmin so I could not see my pace as I ran. Ordinarily I have it set to display total time, total distance, average lap pace, and heart rate; I changed it to show only heart rate, so I could see if I was slacking off. As it turned out, it didn't really matter, because I hardly looked at it - I just ran. Really hard. And just like last year, I ran too fast on the first mile and had a hard time holding pace after the turn-around. Of course, the route is more or less flat and downhill to the turn-around, and then flat and uphill, with an uphill right at the finish.
Here are my splits compared with last year:
Total time was 21:43, as compared to 21:44 last year. Woohoo.
So what does this predict for Moab? Well, last year I had my worst Canyonlands ever (and my worst half marathon since getting serious about running) on a hot and windy day. My PR came on a windless day one month after a 22:14 5K (then a PR), though with higher mileage than I'm running now. I think it will all come down to conditions; I might be able to PR (though not by much) if it's cold and calm, but if there's a headwind I'll probably run slower than 1:40.
I guess I'll find out in a month!
So as a tune-up race, yesterday morning I ran the Community Cares 5K. I ran the same race last year; at the time it was a PR by 30 seconds, but in April I ran another 5K on a downhill course and took off another 41 seconds. I knew I was unlikely to beat that mark, but hoped to beat my previous time on the same course.
Which I did. By ONE FREAKIN' SECOND. I...guess that means I'm in the same shape I was in last year? Last year I came in second woman OA, though a pro triathlete beat me by two minutes; this year I came in fourth, but all three women ahead of me were either 20 or 21, less than half my age, so I don't feel too bad.
This time I decided to set my Garmin so I could not see my pace as I ran. Ordinarily I have it set to display total time, total distance, average lap pace, and heart rate; I changed it to show only heart rate, so I could see if I was slacking off. As it turned out, it didn't really matter, because I hardly looked at it - I just ran. Really hard. And just like last year, I ran too fast on the first mile and had a hard time holding pace after the turn-around. Of course, the route is more or less flat and downhill to the turn-around, and then flat and uphill, with an uphill right at the finish.
Here are my splits compared with last year:
| 2013 | 2012 | |
| mile 1 | 6:39 | 6:42 |
| mile 2 | 7:11 | 7:08 |
| mile 3 | 7:25 | 7:22 |
| mile 3.1 | 0:28 | 0:32 |
Total time was 21:43, as compared to 21:44 last year. Woohoo.
So what does this predict for Moab? Well, last year I had my worst Canyonlands ever (and my worst half marathon since getting serious about running) on a hot and windy day. My PR came on a windless day one month after a 22:14 5K (then a PR), though with higher mileage than I'm running now. I think it will all come down to conditions; I might be able to PR (though not by much) if it's cold and calm, but if there's a headwind I'll probably run slower than 1:40.
I guess I'll find out in a month!
the thing I do for work
Jan. 23rd, 2013 12:02 pmSo there was this XKCD comic, which inspired the Up-Goer-Five Text Editor, which allows forces you to write using only the thousand most common English words. And now my friends are using it to rewrite their job descriptions. Bandwagon, jump, whee!
I work in my house, using a computer to reach other computers. These computers make a pretend world inside them, with pretend air and water and rain and land, and then they show what the pretend world will be like in a hundred years or two hundred years or even more. We use this to guess how things might be like in the real world then, because we are worried that it will be very warm, warmer than it is now across the whole world.
Then I take the answers the computer makes, and I pull out each thing (like how warm the air is, or how strong the wind is, or how much ice is at the top and bottom of the world) and put it in a computer place for other people who study the world and how warm it might get.
But what I write about here is usually the things I like that are not work. I run a lot, and I like to run very far. I also like to ride a thing that moves on two round parts that go around when I push other parts of it with my legs. In the summer I walk in the woods and sleep there at night, and in the not-summer (like now) I go to a place where I get pulled up to a high place and I go back down on two long things like wide sticks under my feet.
I work in my house, using a computer to reach other computers. These computers make a pretend world inside them, with pretend air and water and rain and land, and then they show what the pretend world will be like in a hundred years or two hundred years or even more. We use this to guess how things might be like in the real world then, because we are worried that it will be very warm, warmer than it is now across the whole world.
Then I take the answers the computer makes, and I pull out each thing (like how warm the air is, or how strong the wind is, or how much ice is at the top and bottom of the world) and put it in a computer place for other people who study the world and how warm it might get.
But what I write about here is usually the things I like that are not work. I run a lot, and I like to run very far. I also like to ride a thing that moves on two round parts that go around when I push other parts of it with my legs. In the summer I walk in the woods and sleep there at night, and in the not-summer (like now) I go to a place where I get pulled up to a high place and I go back down on two long things like wide sticks under my feet.
capping off the year
Jan. 15th, 2013 05:15 pmHi! I'm not dead, really! I've just been busy with other things (and other usernames la la la) and haven't really had anything to say. I've slowly been building my running back up to a minimal (for me) level - hit 40mpw a couple weeks ago, but was too hungover to run this past Sunday in a snowstorm and barely made it to 31. No real racing plans other than a 5K next month; I'd like to find an April or May half, though.
I feel like such a slacker! But I was reminded of what I can do - what I can be, if I get my butt moving - at my running club's winter party:
It was gratifying (and a little embarrassing) to hear Marjorie, the club president, read out a list of my race placements during the past year. Yeah, I had a really great 2012! And now I am revved up to win some hardware in 2013!
I feel like such a slacker! But I was reminded of what I can do - what I can be, if I get my butt moving - at my running club's winter party:
It was gratifying (and a little embarrassing) to hear Marjorie, the club president, read out a list of my race placements during the past year. Yeah, I had a really great 2012! And now I am revved up to win some hardware in 2013!
radio silence
Dec. 2nd, 2012 11:19 amIf you're wondering why I haven't posted in a while, it's because I've been off at my parents' for Thanksgiving and a bit of touristing around the DC area with my husband, followed by several days of catching up with work and stuff, followed by being incredibly sick with a stomach virus that has been going around town, apparently. (Britt went out with some friends on Friday night to our monthly local open gallery night - the downtown stores stay open late and have wine and snacks - and as usual, ran into lots of people we know, and everyone asked him where I was, and when he said I was sick they all told him in excruciating detail how miserable they were when they had it, too, or how miserable their husband/wife/children/co-workers were, etc etc.)
Anyway, I'm beginning to feel better, but I'm not running (hell, it takes all my energy to walk across the room), I'm not skiing (not that there's any snow yet; Purgatory is touting 10" of man-made base on a single run, which, no thanks), I'm not doing anything other than reading, sleeping, and drinking broth and ginger tea. I don't have the energy to sort through Grand Canyon pictures yet, and anyway, we didn't take many and the other people on the trip haven't yet shared theirs.
So, basically, tl;dr to tell you I have nothing to say! But when I do, I'll be back.
Anyway, I'm beginning to feel better, but I'm not running (hell, it takes all my energy to walk across the room), I'm not skiing (not that there's any snow yet; Purgatory is touting 10" of man-made base on a single run, which, no thanks), I'm not doing anything other than reading, sleeping, and drinking broth and ginger tea. I don't have the energy to sort through Grand Canyon pictures yet, and anyway, we didn't take many and the other people on the trip haven't yet shared theirs.
So, basically, tl;dr to tell you I have nothing to say! But when I do, I'll be back.
hello and goodbye
Nov. 21st, 2012 09:06 amBack from the Grand Canyon, about to head off to my parents' for Thanksgiving. I wanted to post about our trip but I've been too busy to put together anything or even dl the photos we took. (OMG LAUNDRY. OMG.) I promise a bit of a trip report sometime in the near future.
Quick report on The Other Half
Oct. 24th, 2012 04:02 pm
I'm about to head out of town for our Grand Canyon raft trip and so I don't have much time for a report. In brief: 1:38:37, not a PR but my best time on this course, 2nd AG (16 seconds behind the winner, who I tried in vain to catch up with over the final 4 miles), 9th OA woman. I was running really well and feeling good, covered the first 6 rolling miles at a 7:16 pace; the next two were a bit slower because of the big uphill, but when I topped out at mile 8, the wind hit, and the last 5.2 miles were into a ferocious headwind that slowed me down and sapped my will to live. I was expecting to give up a little on the uphills but make up most of it on the downhills, but I couldn't even run fast downhill. (The woman who beat me ran a 1:35:xx last year, so obviously she was affected by the wind as well.)
I did have to post the photo above, though, because it makes me giggle. I fell in with this guy in the cheerleader's outfit somewhere in the middle and we chatted for a while. He had a French accent and said that when he discovered how comfortable skirts were, he decided to run all his races in a skirt - and besides, people always cheered for him when he went by. He took off ahead of me on one of the hills, but I caught up with him and passed again near mile 11 and ended up finishing about a minute and a half ahead of him.
As beautiful and well-organized as the Moab races are, I think I'm done with them for a while. The last three half-marathons I've run there were brutally windy (as well as the last 10K, although that wasn't bad since it's not in a canyon), and it's just not fun running into a headwind. Time to move on and find some new races.
Double your fun (part 2)
Oct. 8th, 2012 03:08 pm...or, taper is overrated. :-)
After running the 25K of the Durango Double on Saturday, I got a quick leg massage, drank a couple of beers, and then went home to rest up for Sunday's half marathon. (I should add that I got to the race start - and home again - by bicycle. Needless to say, I rode home SLOWLY.) I did a little stretching and foam rolling, and I iced my calves.
My legs were starting to ache by evening, and when I woke the next morning DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) had set in. Oddly, the part of my body that hurt the most was my butt! Walking around the house in the morning helped loosen up my muscles, as did the hike to the start, about 3/4 of a mile - and 350 feet vertical - at the college on top of the mesa behind my house. It was quite cold, and I wore a jacket and gloves along with my short-sleeve top and running skirt, intending to send them to the finish in my drop bag. I ended up keeping the gloves on, and in fact didn't take them off until mile 9 or so.
I said hello to several of the people I'd run with the day before, and other local runners I knew, and we all jockeyed for position at the start. Both the half and full marathon were starting together, as had the 25K and 50K on Saturday. ( And we were off! )
After running the 25K of the Durango Double on Saturday, I got a quick leg massage, drank a couple of beers, and then went home to rest up for Sunday's half marathon. (I should add that I got to the race start - and home again - by bicycle. Needless to say, I rode home SLOWLY.) I did a little stretching and foam rolling, and I iced my calves.
My legs were starting to ache by evening, and when I woke the next morning DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) had set in. Oddly, the part of my body that hurt the most was my butt! Walking around the house in the morning helped loosen up my muscles, as did the hike to the start, about 3/4 of a mile - and 350 feet vertical - at the college on top of the mesa behind my house. It was quite cold, and I wore a jacket and gloves along with my short-sleeve top and running skirt, intending to send them to the finish in my drop bag. I ended up keeping the gloves on, and in fact didn't take them off until mile 9 or so.
I said hello to several of the people I'd run with the day before, and other local runners I knew, and we all jockeyed for position at the start. Both the half and full marathon were starting together, as had the 25K and 50K on Saturday. ( And we were off! )
Double your pleasure (part 1)
Oct. 7th, 2012 04:38 pmThis is it! The weekend of the Durango Running Festival, resurrected from the ashes of 2006 by race director Matt Kelly and the sponsorship of the Animas Surgical Hospital. When I ran the marathon portion (only) in 2006 I thought that it might be fun the following year to do the "double half" - the 25K trail race on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday - but then the race went out of business. When it was announced that the Durango Double was being revived, I jumped at the chance.
So today I ran the first half of my double, the Horse Gulch 25K. ( Read more... )
Final stats: gun time 2:21:54, chip time I was the 5th woman finisher (out of 71), and won a pint-glass trophy for 1st in age group 40-49F, but actually the 3rd woman overall was in my age group (she is 41, though, and I am 49!) so I'm really second - but they don't "double-dip" the awards. I was the 25th human being to finish, out of 116.
Tomorrow: the second half...
So today I ran the first half of my double, the Horse Gulch 25K. ( Read more... )
Final stats: gun time 2:21:54, chip time I was the 5th woman finisher (out of 71), and won a pint-glass trophy for 1st in age group 40-49F, but actually the 3rd woman overall was in my age group (she is 41, though, and I am 49!) so I'm really second - but they don't "double-dip" the awards. I was the 25th human being to finish, out of 116.
Tomorrow: the second half...
plans change
Sep. 29th, 2012 05:12 pmTo my delight, we were invited to join a raft trip on the Grand Canyon! (They want another proficient oarsman, and Britt is that.) To my dismay, it conflicts with the New York Marathon on November 4th, which I have already shelled out quite a lot of money for. After dithering about whether I should try heroic measures to make it back in time to fly to Flagstaff, hire an expensive shuttle service to take me to the Havasu Falls trailhead and backpack down over two days to join the trip for the last week, I decided that three weeks of rafting beats three and a half hours of running, ditched the marathon, and signed up for the raft trip.
So, no fall marathon for me. Instead I will run the 25K trail race/half marathon road race option of the Durango Double as planned - that's next weekend, yikes - and then run The Other Half in Moab (for the fourth time) two weeks later and try to PR. (I thought about trying to run a full that weekend - the only option, since the river trip starts the following weekend - but that would involve heroic measures, and I really love The Other Half, and the half distance is the only one I haven't PRed in the past 12 months. I also thought about switching to the full marathon instead of the double half, but - I really want to run the double!)
Anyway, the Grand Canyon, yay! I have rafted it twice with Britt in the 1990s, so it's sort-of-familiar, but it's been a while. I've never run it in the fall season, which is non-motorized rafts only - it will be wonderfully quiet. Also, the trip is longer, because the lower levels of Lake Mead mean that the river below the traditional Diamond Creek take-out has recovered, and we'll be going through stuff neither of us have seen before. Should be fun!
So, no fall marathon for me. Instead I will run the 25K trail race/half marathon road race option of the Durango Double as planned - that's next weekend, yikes - and then run The Other Half in Moab (for the fourth time) two weeks later and try to PR. (I thought about trying to run a full that weekend - the only option, since the river trip starts the following weekend - but that would involve heroic measures, and I really love The Other Half, and the half distance is the only one I haven't PRed in the past 12 months. I also thought about switching to the full marathon instead of the double half, but - I really want to run the double!)
Anyway, the Grand Canyon, yay! I have rafted it twice with Britt in the 1990s, so it's sort-of-familiar, but it's been a while. I've never run it in the fall season, which is non-motorized rafts only - it will be wonderfully quiet. Also, the trip is longer, because the lower levels of Lake Mead mean that the river below the traditional Diamond Creek take-out has recovered, and we'll be going through stuff neither of us have seen before. Should be fun!
The morning of the 39th Annual (and my fourth) Imogene Pass Run dawned clear and surprisingly warm in Ouray. In previous years I'd worn arm warmers along with my short-sleeved shirt, as well as fleece hat and gloves, and kept my rain/wind jacket on as I lined up for the start, stuffing it into my pack at the last minute. This year, it didn't matter that I had forgotten my arm warmers back home in Durango; I wore a headband instead of a hat, and the jacket stayed in my pack as my friends and I headed for the start line.
( A few photos and a whole bunch of babbling )
( A few photos and a whole bunch of babbling )
So, Imogene.
Sep. 6th, 2012 12:10 pmOn Saturday I'll be running the Imogene Pass Run for the fourth time (you can read my previous race reports via my Imogene tag). It's an entirely gorgeous race, 17.1 miles from Ouray to Telluride over a high mountain pass.
As far as my goal and plan: my PR on this course is 3:54:26 from two years ago (the last time I ran it - last year I had a stress fracture and didn't run) which was only a tiny PR over 2009's 3:55:07. However, in 2009 I ran the Kennebec Challenge in 3:19, and this year I ran it in 3:04, a 15-minute improvement. I'm a little reluctant to project that to a 15-minute improvement at Imogene, since a) Kennebec is about 2.4 miles and 1000 vertical feet shorter than Imogene, b) this year's Kennebec course looped in the opposite direction from the 2009 course, and c) and a friend of mine ran Kennebec in 3:06 and Imogene in 3:50 last year.
I have similar mileage over the past 8 weeks or so, although in 2009 I had higher mileage over the longer term (since I cut back hard over much of June this year), and in 2010 (my slight PR year) I had substantially lower mileage. (In 2010 I was faster uphill but slower downhill, at the end of the race, than 2009, which I attribute to the lower mileage.) I'm in better shape now than in either of those years, based on shorter-distance race times and training paces. I'm about 4 pounds lighter than I was in both these previous races. A month after Imogene in 2010 I ran the St. George Marathon in 3:36; I am reasonably shooting for 3:25 at NYCM in November.
So. I think my A goal here is 3:45, my B goal 3:49, and my C goal a PR. However, this is not the kind of a race where you can target a pace. I'm just going to run this sucker and hope I make my goals!
As far as my goal and plan: my PR on this course is 3:54:26 from two years ago (the last time I ran it - last year I had a stress fracture and didn't run) which was only a tiny PR over 2009's 3:55:07. However, in 2009 I ran the Kennebec Challenge in 3:19, and this year I ran it in 3:04, a 15-minute improvement. I'm a little reluctant to project that to a 15-minute improvement at Imogene, since a) Kennebec is about 2.4 miles and 1000 vertical feet shorter than Imogene, b) this year's Kennebec course looped in the opposite direction from the 2009 course, and c) and a friend of mine ran Kennebec in 3:06 and Imogene in 3:50 last year.
I have similar mileage over the past 8 weeks or so, although in 2009 I had higher mileage over the longer term (since I cut back hard over much of June this year), and in 2010 (my slight PR year) I had substantially lower mileage. (In 2010 I was faster uphill but slower downhill, at the end of the race, than 2009, which I attribute to the lower mileage.) I'm in better shape now than in either of those years, based on shorter-distance race times and training paces. I'm about 4 pounds lighter than I was in both these previous races. A month after Imogene in 2010 I ran the St. George Marathon in 3:36; I am reasonably shooting for 3:25 at NYCM in November.
So. I think my A goal here is 3:45, my B goal 3:49, and my C goal a PR. However, this is not the kind of a race where you can target a pace. I'm just going to run this sucker and hope I make my goals!
getting high
Sep. 5th, 2012 06:06 pmWe always get out of town for the long Labor Day weekend, since there are several motorcycle rallies in the area which attract the kind of rider who likes to make his or her bike as loud as possible. Next weekend I'm running the high-altitude Imogene Pass Run (more on that in another post), so I wanted to go backpacking at relatively high elevation. We decided to head for Endlich Mesa, sort of on the southwest end of the Weminuche Wilderness. We've done a number of hikes there; this time, we hoped to climb Sheridan Mountain and get to an unnamed lake on the flank of Emerson Mountain, which Britt had visited many years ago.
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USA Pro Challenge
Aug. 21st, 2012 06:36 pm
Durango's been all abuzz for months about the USA Pro Challenge, a cycling stage race across the pretty part of Colorado that this year (its second) was to start here in town. We got a new piece of public art, a road through our college that was to be part of the course was repaved, and all kinds of events were scheduled for the several days before the start of the race.
Britt and I participated in a 'bike parade' from a downtown park to one of our local brewpubs just south of town - it was supposed to be a costume event with everyone wearing tutus, but we just showed up in normal clothes as did about half the other riders. It was great fun, though, with about 300 riders including the city manager (in a tutu) and several of our city council members, and we got to drink beer and listen to music at the end!
On Sunday there was a citizen's ride that happened to go on the same country road I was doing my 18-mile run on. It was nifty to see all the cyclists, probably more than I had ever seen around here at one time.
And then Monday morning the race began. I staked out a switchback on the hill going up to the college, and then after the riders went by I ran down a seekrit ditch trail that goes right to my house and came out on the course again to watch them go by again (right by my house!). And then they went through the rest of town and on to Telluride. Bye-bye, bicycles!
( A couple more photos )
Eight total on Flickr.
