On The Loose: May 12th to May 18th

Monday, 5/12--Out and back to University via Crooked Canyon

2,994', 1:42

An easy pace, getting a bit of turnover on the flat section. I'm still a little sore (mostly upper) from Saturday, but felt good cruising down Crooked. An inch of snow lingered near the summit from yesterday's storm.

Tuesday, 5/13--Crooked Canyon/Sentinel Loop

2,164', 1:22

A moderate pace with quite a bit of flat (including the whole of the Fire Road and Crooked Canyon). I felt good, but I'm not sure of my speed on the flats, maybe 7-ish minute/mile pace. Now that I'm becoming familiar with the Double Dip course, Kiefer Hahn's 1:34 record is pretty astounding. It's a tough course.

Wednesday, 5/14--South Sentinel Tempo Run

1,909, 43:38

The direct route on South Sentinel has been blocked off (I thought it was an actual trail), so I went out to beat my old time of 45:31 up and down Pengelly from my apartment. I knocked off over a minute on the ascent, hitting the summit at 28:34 (down from 29:40), and descended in 15:04 (down from 15:51). In two months I've taken almost two minutes off--maybe in three of four months I can get this in under 40 minutes, and beat my time on the direct route outright.

Thursday, 5/15--Smokejumper Loop w/Jimmy, John, Steve

1,988', 1:28

Beautiful weather, but a bit warm. We spent a few minutes up on top of Sentinel, enjoying the view and chatting. Now that the semester is over for me, I'm definitely getting pretty excited for summer. There's so much terrain to cover here!

Friday, 5/16--Sawmill Gulch Running and Wandering (Rundering?)

1,596', 1:09

This was my first time back in this area, and I wasn't quite sure where I was going, so I just kind of wandered, mostly uphill. Eventually I got to some bad trail, with blow down and some snow, so I turned around and took Curry Gulch back to the trail head. Some of the trails back there are really beautiful, really green. It's definitely an area I'd like to explore more.

Saturday, 5/17--Off

Sunday, 5/18--Eleven Miles to Paradise (10.53 miles)--4th place

758', 1:07:36

Another bittersweet 4th, missing the podium by 30 seconds. Any other year I would have made the podium, but any other year the race also would have been a little less exciting. I'm pleased with my result, especially since I began the race not feeling great and unsure if I could run flats at a good clip. We started off in a group of five (Jim Rucker, Tim Caramore, Tyson Warner, David Morris and myself) and I started to fall back a little bit on the flat sections, but figured if I could keep David (in 4th) in sight I could catch him and maybe some other guys in the hill section. I passed him around 40 minutes in, and soon after caught a glimpse of Tim Caramore, maybe 40 seconds ahead. I started to close the gap, coming within twenty feet at one point, but he gave a bit of a kick once he caught sight of me, and had a 30 second lead on me at the end. Considering he ran a 33 flat 10k last weekend, I'm just psyched I was able to stay within sight of him. I'm also psyched I was able to finish ahead of David Morris, the former American record holder for the marathon (ran a 2:09 in 1999). Yeah, that was fifteen years ago, but the guy's a legend and is still one of Montana's best master runners.

The course was amazing, with sharp turns, short steep climbs, riverside views and even a bit of technical trail at the end. Runner's Edge did another fantastic job, and I'm already looking forward to coming back next year.

I'll post pictures once they're up.

A really long cool down w/some crazy runners

nil, 1:00

Some of us decided to run the 7 miles back to Quinn's Hot Springs, because a one hour cool down is what we needed after a speedy trail race. Our cool down was almost as long as the race itself.

11,409', 8:33

A recovery week that's leaving me hungry for big days again. This was needed a bit due to a stiff right knee from the Spartan Event, and also to taper a bit for what turned out to be a fast field at 11 Miles to Paradise. I'm anxious to explore some new trails, and will have the mornings entirely free next week. Running in Sawmill Gulch was the first time I've used my car to get to a trail head in a couple months, but I think I can live with driving around town a little this next week to explore new terrain.

Also, as a side note, I'm helping to assign waves this year for the Bridger Ridge Run, and just got the list of applicants today. It looks like I have a lot of research to do, but there are definitely a few names that stand out right away as podium contenders (Scott Creel, Minde Erickson, Nikki Kimball, Kaitlin Macdonald, Seth Swanson, Justin Yates). It could be an interesting race if all those folks make it through the lottery and show up. There are probably a few fast folks in there as well who I'm not familiar with yet.