Ring the Peak Run

Its pouring down rain mixed with hail, thunder & Lightening, we’re up above 10,000 feet and now someone is shooting at us. CRUD’s annual Ring the Peak Run was all about adjustments this year and adjust we did! For me it started out with a flat tire on the way to the start. So once the tire was fixed, I  headed to the first aid station at 20 miles (womaned by Jill Hessek and Roswitha) and ran the course in reverse until I joined up with the rest of the starters coming the opposite way. There were approximately 15 starters with seven actually completing the entire 66 mile loop. Because of missing the start I completed 51 miles.

Meeting the leaders heading for the Crags

Jill & Roswitha's "Aid" Station

From the first aid station at the Crags we headed up the trail to Pancake Rocks. I’d never been there before and the rocks really do look like giant pancakes! From there we headed down to the road where we met up with our next aid station hostess, Crissy and her kids, and stocked up on food and water.

The Gang of Eight at Pancake Rocks

Once we left Crissy, our first major adjustment was made after an irate KOA campground owner went ballistic when we were cutting through the campground. I didn’t quite understand it because he was the nicest guy in the world last week when we pulled up on mountain bikes. He opened up the store, let us use the bathrooms and was just out right friendly. Today he was screaming, threatening, cussing, and just crazy with rage! We adjusted and went around.

We continued down the road and eventually to trails that led us to Bison Reservoir. The trail from Bison led to private property that we had to cross to get back to the National Forest and the rumor was the owner was adamantly against anyone traversing “his” land. We were attempting to go around the backside of his property when he saw us and tried to hunt us down in a pick-up truck. We had to adjust and scramble over a ridge and try to go around the front side of the property. We came down the ridge and started climbing another at about the same time a thunderstorm complete with hail broke out. So now we are trying to be elite stealth commandos in bright colored rain jackets! As we were climbing the next ridge we heard three shots. This took our minds off the rain, hail, lightening, and miles in our legs. Making our way over the ridge we came to an opening with about 100 meters of open space, through a field, uphill, that we had to cross to get to National Forest property. All eight of us lined up and made a dash for it. If you ever wanted to see the slowest 100 meter dash in history, that was it. Being above 10,000 feet, with over 40 miles in the legs, running uphill, it was not pretty, but we made it.

For the rest of the run it was your typical mountain running. Steep rocky climbs, the jeep road from Hell as Steve calls it, long rocky descents and just running along in paradise. Eventually we arrived at Frosty’s Park, ran the Pipeline Trail to Jones, then Bear Creek to High Drive where we met Gina Harcrow with her kids for our third aid station. We had stayed together up to this point and kept it together up Palmer Trail to the top of Section 16. At this point darkness was approaching and we were like horses heading for barn. The descent down Section 16 split us up and we all finished within a span of 16 – 17 hours, with Harsha and me finish right at dark.

Finished!

Incredible run, incredible adventure!

For a bonus Steve Bremner took some video  footage and posted at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tdcCB0xbwM&list=UUBQurL3A8E3JapyLeZta2tw&index=1&feature=plcp

	Training Log May 28 - June 2 2012	Bike	Bike	Run	Run
		HRS	Miles	HRS	Miles
Monday	2 sets Core 20/reps upper and lower body 12 - 20 reps 2 sets
Tuesday	Ran with Sunrise Striders this  morning in Garden of the Gods. Absolutely great workout. Start at Kissing Camels parking lot, run the trails to Rampart Range Road then did 8 min tempo up, 4 min recovery  down, 8 min tempo up, 2 min recovery up, 8 min tempo down, then easy run back to the parking lot. I was very surprised to be in the top ten of the tempo runs. Felt really good and stayed relaxed on the runs. Tempo - .99 miles 8:07 pace, .96 miles 8:36 pace, 1.4 miles 6:09 pace. 8:44 overall pace with 1,617 ft of climbing.			1.2	8.3
	ProCycling Shop Ride. Felt pretty good considering this past weekend and this morning's workout. Went with the second group and was in the top 3 of each climb (Gold Camp, Cheyenne Canyon, Orion). Tied for first on Gold Camp. Tried to keep HR  below 155. HR 123/158, 4071 ft of climbing.	2.1	29
Wednesday	Easy recover run with Max. Hank's Loop. Felt pretty good. 9:37 pace.			0.5	3.2
	Easy ride home from work. Rode with Steve to Manitou then rode home. Tried to keep hills to a minimum and just ride as easy as possible. HR 104/137	2.1	26
Thursday	Ride to work with Tempo. Rode MTB to work today and did tempo from Critirium Bike Shop to Oracle turn off. Temp stats: 31:37, 7.3 miles, HR 134/142. Felt a little tired but was able to get my HR where it needed to be without too much effort. I could feel fatigue in my legs on each of the hills. Over all ride HR 119/142	1.1	13.5
Friday	Easy run with Max, Hanks Loop. Felt a bit tired this morning. 9:38 Pace.			0.5	3.2
Saturday	Ring the Peak. Missed the start due to flat tire, but went to the Crags and ran in reverse until I met the leaders and ended up with 51 miles. Incredible run and adventure. Pretty beat up at the end though. Was in a lot of pain, but felt fairly good on Sunday.			13	51
Sunday	Recovered from RTP run yesterday
		5.3	68.5	15.2	65.7
				20.5	134.2