The Garden is a spectacularly beautiful place to run but having been mostly a trail runner for the past 15 years, the road surface through the Garden is just eating up my legs. All the basketball I played when I was younger and my 4-inch vertical leap really took its toll on my knees. So I’ll be glad when this first leg of the Pikes Peak Triple Crown is over and we can move on to more trail running. I picked up my bib and shirt for the June 10 run today so the anticipation continues to build...sort of like looking forward to a vacation, I think I’ll start packing now so I don’t forget anything when I have to rise early on Sunday. My “coach” suggests taking a cooler with some drinks but also a wet wash cloth inside. Probably a good idea for freshening up afterward. Even though the race starts at 7 a.m. my last run through on the entire course proved that coach was right, even by just 8 a.m. it can start getting very warm. Now, off to the couch to continue “tapering.”