So I'm not 100% sure exactly how far I ran today. It definitely kicked my ass though, I know that. I woke up at 615 and it was raining outside, so I decided to wait for a bit for the rain to pass. I was out the door around 715. Looking back, I definitely went out too fast. To be able to complete this marathon without tons of walking at the end, I'm going to really need to pace myself. I was up smuggler mountain faster than I thought I should be, but then took a little break on the next part of the climb and walked for a couple minutes. It's hard to determine when to walk and when not to, but I think I'm going to work a bit of walking in to the steep hill sections to conserve energy. So many things learned from todays wake-up-call-run. Went down to Hunter creek via the Iowa Shaft Trail. I really like the Iowa shaft trail. Fairly flat and smooth in dense woods skirting the side of smuggler mountain. The drop down to Hunter Creek is nice, too. Love running through Aspen groves. The climb up Sunnyside trail is kind of hard because it's fairly deeply rutted and steep toward the bottom. I think I'm going to walk some of this to conserve energy.
The climb continues along a road, into Van Horn Park. A park is basically a huge open meadow in the alpine zone. This one is at about 9800 feet or so. Next the Hobbit Trail breaks off from the road. I had never run the Hobbit Trail until today. Pretty sweet. The first part of the hill, which isn't too steep or too long, still brought me to a walk. I also floundered today by not brining enough food. I must bring more food with me to sustain energy. The Hobbit Trail was a bit overgrown at first, but then turned into a great trail. Next you hit Four Corners, where 5 trails meet. I ran the road [Sunnyside Trail] which you stay on for quite a while. Fairly flat the whole way, then a big down, with a few minor bumps in a few miles. Some of the short bumps were quite steep though, so I walked a little bit. There was a very muddy part toward the top of the mountain that got my feet pretty wet and my legs pretty muddy. I almost fell, glad I didn't. Up next, the trail traverses through these HUGE aspen groves. It's awesome. Probably my favorite part of the trail today. So you traverse for a long time. then it's a pretty steep downhill on the Sunnyside Trail to the Rio Grande Trail. It's technical in some parts too, so it requires a bit of care. Quite a knee-cranking down, but it could be much worse. It's pretty exposed to the sun on the down too.
Next you hit the Rio Grande Trail, and start to climb again on the paved Cemetary Lane Trail to the Chatfield Trail. I had to walk some of this as I was pretty damn exhausted at this point. I started running again, then walking, then running, then walking. All uphills at this point were a walk. I was pretty damn close to my limit. The trail drops down into Maroon Creek Valley, then climbs shortly but steeply up to the Tiehack lift of Buttermilk. I was supposed to continue a bit further, but I ran out of water and energy, so I walked to the bus stop and went home. Legs were definitely hurting all day, and even now at 8pm. It took me 3 hours 45 minutes for the whole run which doesn't seem so bad. Although, if the marathon were today the last 8 miles would have been nearly all walking, except the downhills, haha. Lots of lessons learned though, so that's great. Does feel pretty damn good to go out and run 18 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation gain too. Damn good.
xoxo,
Blake
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