Old Fall River Road (Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park)

I have always wanted to drive up this road but every time I went, it was closed (it's only open in the summer Thurs-Sun). So I decided that I would run it. It was quite possibly the most enjoyable run I have done. I balked a bit at the RT length of 18 miles, but it was one of the most gradual inclines and an easy road well-kept road (no rocks, steps or roots!) so I just kept going and going up to the visitor center. For some reason I was thinking it was going to be closed and I would have it all to myself, but it wasn't and there were hundreds of cars crawling up it. Some very nice people saying hi and asking if I needed a lift back I could ride with them. Chatted a bit with a guy driving with a LV100 sticker on the back of his truck. The funniest thing someone asked when I was almost at the top was if I wanted a fag (cigarette...they were British). That really made me laugh the rest of the way. I stopped for a few minutes just to take a picture from the visitor center then went back. Going down, as always, was a nice break and up until the last 3-4 miles, felt effortless, though by the end I just wanted to get back to the car! Heard an Elk bugling too which I was hoping to hear. My timer was just hitting 4:19 minutes when I got back after running 18.6 miles, climbing and then descending 4798 feet (max elev. 11768 feet above sea level). GPS map

Here are some more photos I snapped from my Android phone.

A few of the 16 switch-backs

Heading towards the visitor center

Green Mountain, Boulder

First time...didn't know it was such a steep climb! This photo's pretty much shows what one climbs for about 1 mile (interspersed with log steps). My legs will thank me in 3 days, but for now, it was a LOT of work! So funny to see mountains beyond Boulder...one sometimes can forget that they are there. Seeing the flatirons was pretty cool from behind as well. Was tempted to hike over and see how much I can freeclimb one. Will I do it again? Probably! But not this week. My times are all messed up because I hung out on the top exploring a bit. Total distance 5.2 mi, 1:52 total time with 2633 elev gain. GPS map

Boulderfield - Longs Peak

Ran up to the boulderfield at Longs Peak and I had pretty much the exact time that I ran my first time there. Not sure how that works, felt a lot better and springy than I have ever felt and thought I walked a lot less up those annoying big steps, but it came out to be pretty much the same. Also, the elevation gain was completely different (4449 vs. 3833). Makes me wonder if I shouldn't have returned that Garmin Forerunner and stop using My Tracks on my google phone. Total distance 11.3 miles up a questionable 3833 feet in 3:32. GPS map

Which brings me to the quote by Einstein that I love so much: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Quick and flat - Sand Creek Trail

I was staying out in West Denver and realized that I had access to a pretty decent long trail I could pound out 12 miles on. It is a relatively new trail created where Stapleton Airport use to be and runs generally along I-70. The sound of traffic was with me pretty much the whole way which is something I had gotten used to NOT having. But having a nice flat gravel trail and crossing only 2 other people, I kept going and going and was able to keep a fairly consistent 6 mph pace. I was welcomed to Aurora as well as an annoying change of trail to cement which I wasn't really excited about since I just had my trail running shoes. I was hoping to make my turn-around at 6 miles, but the cement was annoying me and so I figured I would make up for it and go in the other direction. By the time I made it back, I went past my starting point and in that direction, it was pretty much all cement as well. So I eventually turned around when I thought I was close to 12 miles and headed in, feeling really good.

Map of Sand Creek Trail Run

Battle Mountain, Hot Springs, SD

I only had one time to run when I went to SD for the weekend to attend a family reunion. I had hoped to be able to run a part of the Mickelson trail, but I was pretty much in a car for the whole weekend being tour guide and so ended up doing the next best (and convenient) run up Battle Mountain which was just across the street from the old Hot Springs cabin we were staying in. This is somewhat nostalgic for me because I remember driving up there with my grandma and at that time it was quite impressive with the fire lookout tower at the top and a nice view of Hot Springs. Nothing else too eventful... a short 3.4 miles, 976' elevation gain, in a slow 40 minutes. Google map.

I wanted to test out this video upload, so here I am up in the look-out tower:

Just short of Chasm Lake up Longs Peak

I wanted to run up Longs before it started to get too cold but only had 2.5 hours of running time before I had to pick up one of my clients from school. So I set my goal to Chasm Lake or as far as I could in 1.5 hours. As expected, I tried to keep a decent pace but I felt sluggish after a while. My RT speed this time was 3.6 mph whereas the first time (though a longer run) was 3.2 mph. This being my third run up, it seemed as if I was getting slower! Though it was more of me being hard of myself. At about 1.30 I made it to just after the Chasm Lake sign where one has to climb up the rocks to see the lake. (photo is from a previous trip showing the general direction towards the lake) I didn't have enough time to make it up and down so I was a good boy and resisted temptation and turned around right there and made it down in 1 hour...exactly how I planned it out. Totaling 8.9 miles, 3849 elevation gain in 2:29. GPS map.