This year marks the 6th time I've run/crawled/hiked up Pikes Peak for fun. The infamous 4 hour wall was missed by a little over a minute. It seems like the times I've been close (4:01:08 this year, 4:01:18  two years ago), it was partially a result of really bad leg cramps. I went out pretty fast as I got bogged down in the W's last year while attempting to hold back and save some for the top which I didn't think worked for me. This year my splits to top of W's, No-name and Barr Camp were…

Thanks to my fellow wearers of Purple and Gold for blazing the trails with me this summer.  We may not be the very fastest Marmots on the Mountain, but we may well be having the most fun. 

Thanks to Brianne “Tough as Nails” Pierson for the saying: “If the bone ain’t showin’ just keep goin’” This girl is determination incarnate, who else even thinks of doing the Incline after racing a 10-Miler? Or running the Crags after the Ascent?

Thanks to Beagle for a one of…

I'd say august 16th and 17th are arguably two of the most highly anticipated pair of days for the MUT runners of our state. You've got the famous Leadville 100, TransRockies, and our own local yet internationally renowned Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent.

I've run a bunch of races and I've had a lot of super cool and memorable experiences throughout high school, in college, and now post-collegiately, and this one undoubtedly makes my top 3. First and foremost, it was my first race in as…

Race and the alarm was set for 4:15.  I went to bed around 9:30 and woke up around 1:00, again at 3:00 and then the alarm rang at 4:15 as scheduled.  I felt good, I felt refreshed and surprisingly I wasn’t nervous.

Breakfast was my normal oatmeal.  I doubled checked my sweat check bag and all my other supplies and headed out the door at 6:00.  Start line was already crowded and after some scouting by our awesome driver we had a prime spot and its 6:15, plenty of time before the…

The girls had their last week of summer vacation this week. Since we had just returned from our trip 10 days before school started, the last week of summer was filled with appointments, check-ins at school and picking up last minute items in order to be prepared for the first day. Fortunately, the week was not all drudgery. 

Tired, grateful, and feeling accomplished at the end of Ascent Day 2014!

Restraint was the name of the game for me as I ran my first Pikes Peak Ascent yesterday.  In an effort not to add injury to injury I had to seriously adjust the goals I had for the Ascent when the season began.  Anything under 5 hours meant…

What an amazing day! Yesterday I attempted one of the most difficult things I've ever physically done before....The Pikes Peak Ascent (a half marathon to the top of Pikes Peak, ending at an elevation of 14,114 with 7,815 ft. vertical gain). 

I've been training for this race for the past year. Literally.  

And I was chosen to represent PikesPeakSports.us as part of their purple…

The Pikes Peak Ascent played host to the World Mountain Running Association Long Distance Challenge. Basically, on top of an already deeply-talented field, an extra 75 or so runners from around the world were invited to represent their countries in the Challenge. Happy to say that Team USA won both the men's AND women's challenges, but damn were there some fast runners from all over the world. The highlight of this race for me - and basically the main reason I was able to run the time I did…

"The hay is in the barn" so they say. I need to have faith that the hard work and miles spent playing in the mountains will pay off tomorrow. There is always that lingering voice of uncertainty that pops up once I step up to the starting line. Regardless of how hard I trained there are always those variables outside the realm of my control that factor in on race day including but not limited to : congestion in the w's, stomach issues, nerves, weather, Aunt Flo's visit, work, and numerous…

I'm sick.

I've been sick for three days.  Not really sick.  But sick enough that my head hurts and lots of gunk is thickening in my lungs. I keep hoping I'll recover, but I awoke this morning with the addition of a sore throat.

Will this unfortunate turn of events keep me from the starting line tomorrow?  Hell no.  But it very well may hurt my performance, which, if I were more zen-like, I wouldn't be too upset about. After all, I'm strong, and I will have the good…

With the Pikes Peak Ascent here it has made me reflect on the people that got me where I am.  I have so many people that have inspired me but I want to take this opportunity to give some love to those that have had the biggest impact on my life.

My mom does not run but has had a tremendous impact on my running.  She taught me that nothing is easy and if you want it you need to work for it.  Thank you for instilling this drive in me when I run mom.  I love you.

My dad does run…

In keeping with my tapering, I'm shortening the length of my bl

When I signed up for Leadman back in January, I knew the wild card for me would be the hundred mile mountain bike race.  I wasn’t a bike rider and I had never done a bike race before, and suddenly I was registered for one of the most famous mountain bike races in the world.  I projected nothing but confidence, telling anyone who would listen that if I could run 100 miles then biking 100 miles would be cake.  But inside I was really worried I had blown $850 and had given all my friends a…

As part of my rigorous (some might say rigor mortis) training regimen, I am now tapering in order to rest my feeble body and store up whatever energy I might be able to save. The total training regiment also calls for tapering the blog so my blog posts will be getting shorter and shor....

The Magnificent 7, to use teammate Bill Beagle's name, take to The Mountain, America's Mountain, Zebulon's Peak, whatever you want to call it, in three short days.  Since there's no stopping Saturday from coming, here's what I'm doing to prepare:

• Having my usual existential pre-race shoe crisis...Hokas? Peregrine 2? Peregrine 3? Nike Kiger?  I had planned on training in the Hokas and racing in something a bit flatter.  I'm such a klutz, I'm not sure I want to deal with the…

Looking forward to teammate Mary Baldwin sharing her purple and gold nail polish with the rest of the team before the big event on Saturday. As far as i can tell, my two other male teammates are also in touch with their feminine side so we should have a complete, team effort, all 7 of us (The Magnificent Seven) pointing the way to the top with glittering digits. Purple & Gold - For Honor and Glory!

Since my good friend Tom had expressed an interest in getting some elevation at least one more time before he did the Ascent, I shot him an e-mail asking if he wanted to go to the summit and do an A Frame and back. He responded with a phone call. “Better idea,” sez he. “Let’s go do the Democrat group and we can spend more time above 13,800." Splendid. Capital idea. As Bill Murray said in Ghostbusters, “I’m excited about this plan, I’m glad to be a part of it.”…

Our trip to visit family in upstate NY and VT continued this week. We typically venture east to see family once per year. While I was going through chemotherapy, it became critically important to me to make the trip this year. I wanted to see my family and to physically be able to hug and touch the people I love. I wanted to get away from all of the distractions of our day to day lives so we could just focus on one another. I needed to take care of my…

My third year racing this race and finally I laid claim to one of the coveted gold pan awards. All it took was a 1:15:55 to get 9th overall and 3d in my age group...crazy amount of talented runners that show up to this race year-in, year-out.

Drove up to Georgetown last night so I could avoid a stupid early wake-up and deal with the traffic this morning. It also allowed me to have dinner with Leah and Brent in Silverthorne last…