Summer

Summer… It has been balanced and even, beautiful and eventful, with a small dash of spontaneity and a large dash of adventure thrown in as well. In early June Lynnette and I went out to Virginia. This was to be our 5th honey moon (I think). It was full very little running, lots of sights to see, and one solid race. We landed in Dulles Airport, drove north a few miles to the Potomac River. Here was were the 50 mile North Face race “DC” race was to be held. The following morning dark and early the race got underway just as the first daylight rays were touching the sky. I started off easy as the pace set by the leaders seemed a bit overwhelming. This was my first race in almost 2 months. I had had to deal with a planter fasciitis in my foot the previous month and was finally starting to feel good. I wanted a good race, consistent and strong. I was tied with Dennis Ball and 1 other runner in about 10th place. The 3 of us settled into a solid consistent pace and just rattled off the miles slowly passing runners.

We chatted away and slowly made up ground as we passed the slowing lead runners. By mile 20 it was just Dennis and I as we had moved up to 6th and 7th place. At the half way mark the time was about 3:17. I managed to move up one more place during the second half, running about a 3:25. I finished in 5th place in a time of 6:42:05. I was really happy with my race simply because I felt like I ran consistent. The race went by the Great Falls of the Potomac http://www.nps.gov/grfa/naturescience/falls.htm which I highly recommend visiting. It was a little surprising suddenly seeing and hearing such a force of nature.

Our Virginia trip was amazing. Lynnette and I stayed with our Aunt Rosily and Uncle Lenard, picked snow peas, visited West Virginia, went up Spruce Mt the highest point West Virginia, went to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, James Madison’s Montpelier, and George Washington’s Mt Vernon. We also flew over the Shenandoah Valley in Mark and Sue’ 2 seater airplane (our cousin). We went to the National Mall where we visited 10 museums and to Arlington where we saw the changing of the guard.

Upon arriving back in Gunnison I promptly packed and left within days for a 2 week adventure to the West Coast. Scott Drum, Duncan Callahan http://strategicendurance.com/ , Ryan Burch http://ryanwburch.blogspot.com/ , and I left for CA. Ryan was going to run the Western States 100 mile race where I paced him. Unfortunately, do to poison oak Ryan had to drop out of the race. Ryan drove back with Nick Clark http://www.irunmountains.blogspot.com/ while Duncan flew back. Meanwhile, Scott and I drove up North. We spent the next week as a sort of running and climbing camp. We ran daily and climbed Mt. Shasta, Mt. Rainier, and Mt Baker.

At the end of the 2 weeks I felt strong and ready for some solid training. Since being back in Gunnison I had a great month of training, with lots of miles and mountains. Last week I had my last hard long run prior to Leadville. I ran the first 40 miles of the course. I finally feel ready. Leadville is going to fun, it is going to hurt, it is going to be epic.