Half-Marathon

The half-marathon was last weekend. It was a distance I once dreaded, but I have taken to running over the last 12 weeks in a surprising fashion. Given everything happening in my life it offers a respite from the mental chatter and somewhere around mile 9 of all the training runs I re-realize that resiliency will see me through.

With that dramatic opening paragraph done, on to the race report. It started with a light rail ride to the start. It is funny to get onto a train packed with runners and I imagine any ‘civilian’ commuters were surprised.

The start line was packed and pace initially slow as the crowd slowly thinned. Below is the race early on and Alan and I mugging for the camera.

 

Alan, I and another friend ran most of the race together. Everyone told me to expect the excitement of the race to sweep me along, and they were right. We needed to maintain a 9 min/mile pace to finish  in under two hours, which was the goal. Coming out in a crowd we ran 9:45, 9:30 and 9:15, which made me nervous, but then the excitement kicked in and we ran several 8:30 miles and got back on target.

With three miles left I got to thinking about the direction of my life as of late and how much I wish Dave was around to talk through it. This put me in an odd place mentally, but also upped my energy level. With 2.5 miles left a song that Dave and I liked came on and it was off to the races. I ran the last  2.5 at a sub 8:00 pace, faster than I have ever run since high school. There was an uphill finish that had a lot of people walking, I blazed up it with all sorts of people shouting “go”, “you can do it”, “yeah”, I then took a hard left and ran the remaining blocks at a near sprint. I knew I could finish, but never expected to finish so strong and be covered in goosebumps while doing so. It was far more emotional than I anticipated.

With that said, will I run another one? That remains to be seen.

Texas

One of the Texans, David, offered me a weekend in Fort Worth, promising me a tour of his favorite restaurants and bars, as well some biking and trail running. When it comes to friends, food, and exercise I am like a moth to the light, so off I flew to Texas.

Stop one: Justin, TX, home of Justin Roper boots. David was convinced that as a man in TX I needed a pair of boots. I was convinced otherwise and immediately clocked a city slicker due to my sandals, t-shirts and inane questions for the staff.

Me - “Why the leather bottom?”

Staff – lengthy exhale, look at other staff member “That is for dancing.”

Not being a line dancer and riding a bike versus a horse, I passed, but David walked out with some great ostrich boots.

I did answer the question as to why Texans hike and ski in jeans. It is the marketing of denim as the prime choice for all outdoor adventure.

From this point forward it was food tour of a ridiculous nature.

Below is a burger from the Love Shack, owned by Tim Love. It is made whole by the addition of quail egg and cheese, oh, and some bacon.

Dinner that evening included Magnolia fries and a custom kitchen sink burger with cheese, cheese sauce,ham, chicken friend bacon(!), onions, mushrooms, a fried egg and chili.

Below is a fish bowl sized margarita spiced with serrano peppers. The touch of heat brightens the drinks, but also makes it disappear with alarming speed.

Other meals featured tenderloin for breakfast, samples at Central Market, esoteric beers at the Ginger Man and ribs that fell of the bone at Angelos. I would wilt in the heat and humidity of Fort Worth were I to live there, which is only made more true by the fact that I would be Clydesdale due to the food I would consume.

Network Awesome

There are those moments when you are not sure the internet has anything left to offer. Like a restaurant with a menu that never changes you view the same cute cat videos and news sites with ennui replacing former zeal. And then your prayers for mindless escapism are answered…

It started with BoingBoing, which is an excellent time waster in and of itself, and then leapt to Network Awesome. As noted on the website, “Network Awesome is a platform for entertaining and interesting TV. We spotlight the best from the past to create something new for the future. In a sense it’s TV about TV but our wider intent is to show something about culture as a whole.”

To summarize above, it shows some fairly amusing old school TV footage. It is a retro junk food for the mind. While much of it is amusing, at least to me, the most shocking so far are the commercials by Jim Henson. Who knew that early muppets character would willingly act out violence upon one another?

Coyote

Yesterday (Monday) I knocked out a dozen miles as my last long run prior to this weekend’s half-marathon. While running along the South Platte River I had the brief companionship of a sole coyote.

Constantly vilified as a pest as Denver suburbs continually chew into their habitat with locust like ferocity, I appreciate their resourcefulness and scrappy nature in living and breeding in the urbanized environment.

Slow White Fluffy Death (ski day)

I have skied 6 times since I moved to Colorado and none within the last 5 years. Between the cost and joining the weekend salmon run of front range skiers who clog the roadways and are far more tolerant of gridlock than I, it is a mountain sport I never picked up. Sensing an opportunity for easy entertainment, Ted invited me to join he and Nadine for a day of skiing. Picking up the scent of athletic shame in the wind, Becky instantly signed on too. I know this trio wanted to witness a day of expletives, slow speeds and dives onto the slopes, and frankly I would not want my friends any other way!

It was snowy on the way up and Winter Park was reporting 7” of new snow. A soft cushion into which to cast myself.

While I have not skied in years, I had gotten down a few intermediate slopes in the past, so I knew I would be fine on the beginner runs. Since I had hyped up how hopeless I was Ted and Becky (Nadine was in a lesson) were both surprised at my ability to make turns. Their encouragement led us to a blue slope, where, with additional tips and and tutelage, I did not disappoint, in either skill or entertainment.

I took a sideways fall that left skis and poles scattered on the slope behind me, as though I had an eject button for all items attached to my appendages. A mouthful of snow muffled the sound of my cursing. Yet, my ears could detect an “are you OK?” that was was immediately followed by peals of laughter. Upon righting myself I look upslope to this:

 

Upon catching their breath and wiping away their tears they were kind enough to collect my gear. This was by far the most dramatic tumble of the day, which was great, as we got a lot more skiing in than expected since I did not spend 50% of the day on my back.

The jury is out as to whether it is a sport that could embrace me like it has so many other Coloradoans. Yet, there were a few moments during the day where the slope was just the right pitch, I was balanced on my feet and it was effortless, just tilting hips and moving back and forth in the flow of gravity.   It is that moment where everything falls away and a friend passes on each side feeling the same thing, that could convince me that strapping on planks and braving cold and traffic is not such a high cost after all.

Golden City Brewery

Golden City Brewery (GCB) is a bar, tasting room, beer garden and brewery rolled into one. It quite literally occupies the backyard of the owner and has been serving freshly brewed beer for 17 years.

Its claim to be the second largest brewery in Golden is a bit if humor, as the Coors brewery is located their as well. As you can imagine, there is no comparison between the two…multi-acre industrial complex versus a backyard of beer enthusiasts.

Pictured above is John and Becky, who upon completion of a 90 minute trail run had no problem convincing me that my first visit to GCB was in my best interest. The only difference in opinion, I prefer to drink from a larger vessel.

That is pitcher of IPA that John and I were sharing and we would have both been willing to wrestle over the last pint’s worth. It was delicious, with a hoppiness that had a very subtle bitter at the ending.

The scene was social, with most everyone knowing everyone else. Banjo music, some a capella singing, the din of a crowd and a beer amongst fellow enthusiasts was an excellent accompaniment to the general joy of transitioning from the work week to the weekend.

Dog friendly!

Lastly, it is a cribbage bar! Cribbage is a game I enjoy and consistently lose at. if you are setting yourself up to fail against cribbage veterans, it may as well be with a backdrop of excellent beer.

This post does not need another picture, but it is too nice to hoard. Pale of color, bubbles of carbon dioxide hugging the glass and the sunlight from deep in the western sky.

Mt Democrat and Mt Lincoln

After our success on Quandary Peak, Alan and I were ready to put some more miles on our boots and attempt another 14er. There is a collection of 14ers that wrap around cirque near Alma, CO. Of this group I still had not stood atop Lincoln and Alan had yet to summit Democrat. With 13 miles ahead of us we were glad to have the extra daylight in the evening, as we knew a slog lay ahead.

Pictured below is Alan with Democrat in the background.

As often the case in the winter, the road is not maintained, so we had 2.75 miles of hiking to reach the summer trailhead. The trailhead features two bathrooms, one with a door frozen shut and the other with a door that had evidently been left open.

While resting at the trailhead and enjoying food and drink, we opted for a ridge climb as opposed to the lower angle standard route. The terrain looked doable from our vantage point in the valley floor.

Outlined below is our intended route.

It got steep fast and the rapid pace we had set slowed considerably.

The slow pace was no problem as we viewed the day as a tortoise and the hare sort of adventure, which is what one needs to do in the rarified air at 13,000 feet. That is, find a pace you can maintain and stick with it. The problem we ran into was a ~70 feet of steep snow to cross. We had no crampons but we could have managed without them. But we also lacked the ability to determine snow conditions and avalanche potential. In addition, neither of us had avalanche beacons or shovels as we did not intend to cross avalanche terrain. After staring at the slope for 5-10 minutes we determined it was not worth it and turned around.

It is the first time Alan and I have had to make this decision as a team. It is always a good test and it was good to see that neither of us applied any pressure to go for the summit. Instead we opted to live to climb another day and began our descent, which was long. I got back to the truck to realize I had lost my keys, but that is another story.