Filling in the gaps

I got called out for my lack of posting by a relative, so here are the last two months (aside from Boston and the late Dan Wheeless) in a nutshell:

Trip to Colorado's Front Range right after Boston.  Fort Collins had the biggest storm of the last three years -- fifteen inches when we landed, to be exact.  Not much to do when the weather plan changed a few days after you left home, but we still liked it.  Would be interesting to see the town at full activity.

Snow.  Over fifteen inches at this point.

 
After a few days in Fort Collins we hit up Boulder for lunch and then drove to Colorado Springs for a few days.  We skipped the train leading to the top of Pike's Peak (would rather work up to doing the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon in the future) and instead hit up the Incline Trail as our intro to hiking at altitude. 

Gains ~2000 feet of vertical in a mile.  Notice the treadless flimsy road sneakers I'm wearing.  We did the trail on a whim, so I just opted to not think too deeply and just keep going.

We also ran the CURE Ultra 50k that Saturday.  Three loops in Chatfield State Park in Littleton, CO.  Had the entire course been singletrack then I could have finished it.  One third of the loop was pavement, and the grass next to it was not nearly enough relief for my legs post-Boston.  I only made it two laps and then happily tapped out for my first DNF. 

Start/finish line, the Front Range in the far distance.

Here's Nathan's big finish.  He took 3rd place.  Hazzah!  Such a different vibe than the throbbing marathon finish chutes.  So informal Nathan didn't realize he had to reach the cones to be "official."  Forgive that I held the camera the wrong way.  Vertical videos are dumb, and in my DNF haze I forgot to change orientation after taking some photos just prior...

I finally made it across the New Jersey/New York state line on the Long Path on my last big training run before my next big race.  Just over 5 hours for just under 31 miles, all in a blanket of fog and rain that made the run incredibly pleasant and energizing.  I find myself hoping for cloudy skies if not rain or some kind of weather for long runs and races.  Why?  Good question....

I meant to get a photo of the monument at the actual state line, but I didn't read up on that section of the path before I left.  Who needs reference to follow a single trail with a single color blaze for 12+ miles each way with minimal intersections to negotiate?  Turned out there were lots of ski trails up by the state line that threw me a little.  Also didn't realize the short chain link fence that protected against a steep fall down the wrong way on a stone stairwell was also the state line.  So I went past it, until I hit 2h 38m and realized I didn't have enough water and food to turn it into a 6 hour run just to look for it.  Came to find out I turned around about a mile north. 

The Hudson from an overlook ~half way to the state line.

My turnaround.  Can't really tell in the photo, but the tree across the bridge has markings for the Long Path (green) where it meets the Shore Trail (white).

The Long Path NY/NJ Trail Conference map.  You can see the red highways at the bottom where they are crossing the George Washington Bridge.  My finger is at my turnaround.

Closeup of my turnaround, where green meets white at a creek.

This coming weekend is the Cayuga 50 miler just outside of Ithaca, my second goal race of the year.  Originally the race, which is two 25 mile laps, touted 6500 feet of ascent total according to a National Geographic map program.  Then a local ran the route and noted their Garmin at closer to 5000 feet for one loop, meaning 10k for the whole race, but it isn't known if the guy's device has a built in altimeter (without it, there's apt to be a few big random elevation spikes that don't throw off mileage but dramatically affect elevation).  That's more on the line of what Virgil Crest was all about (the ski hills I ran last Sept and will do again this year).  A few tweaks were made on the course, and it is now officially 10,500 feet of climbing.  I don't know if that's according to Nat Geo or to Garmin/NASA.  Whatever.  I've got some climbing to do.  So do your rain and cold front dances, because otherwise it'll be a slog through leg spasms....