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Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 12:36 PM Subject: Incline Club V4 TH #13 LR #32 Please note that there is NO ELK PARK RUN this week due to the car race practice! #### Thursday, June 29, 5:30 p.m. meet at Soda Springs Park. Warm-up to the big hill (which big hill to be decided before the run). Tempo run. Head back down the Barr Trail and do 10 (for Glen) Hydro Street hill repeats. Cool down back to park. Sunday, July 2, 7 a.m. meet at Soda Springs Park Notice: Car race practice on toll road. >From the bottom to the top - 2+ to 4+ hours. Hitchhike down. I understand that is not our regular hitchhike (all the way back to Manitou) so an alternative would be a run to Barr Camp or the A-frame and back. Unless you have been doing a lot of the club long runs I would not recommend going much further for an out and back run. The A-frame run would be about 20 miles at altitude. #### Sorry this is not out on the usual Wednesday but I must admit to having some hesitation about writing this one. I for one am growing tired of the controversy surrounding the Incline. The paper has had a field day with “the runners” despite the fact that walkers and hikers do it daily and we have been on it only 3 times in 10 months. I am getting letters from non club members saying that if we do it they feel ok about doing it. The Pikes Peak Road Runners won’t publish *any* of our Thursday runs because we do it which is ironic when you consider that in their GOG training run they jumped signed fences in the Garden of the Goads to run on the private Glen Erie land. Meanwhile, the club is doing some excellent promotion of trail running and running in general. Last Thursday there were 11 high school kids in our group of 50 for the Hwy 24 bypass repeats and we are getting more people all the time. We all know how well Incline Clubbers do at the races:-) Also, we are getting some really nice feedback from many for our work on the top mile of the Barr Trail. So I put this simple question out to all of you: Is it (the Incline) worth it? #### Brent A writes: It’s wonderful that the club has been able to attract so many people to the wonderful world of training as a runners. I’ve been watching from a distance and been noticing how numerous people have been improving there times. Just to mention a few Dan Vega, Rick Hessek, Trent Brinney and many others that I don’t know well or at all. I’m now living in the Grand Canyon while working for the National Park service. A wonderful place to train this vast inverted mountain is. The hardest part is the return trip out of the canyon at the end of your run. A complete reverse to the standard protocol of training for Pikes Peak. I missed out on the deadline this year for the annual trip up the mountain in August. I had some words with Dave in regards to mailing delays that aided in missing out. Anyhow, hope all continues to grow in the club and in your life. Pass words of encourage to other members. Rim — to- Rim (23.6m) w/ 110 heat! #### Jonathan C writes: I’m a Senior Developer for eFunds. We’re looking for Java and Microsoft Senior Developers and Software Architects. Do you know anyone in the club or outside the club that would like significantly more money that fits this description? Jonathan Cavner Work 719-531-2640 #### Jim S writes: A guidebook to the island of Kauai states that the 22 mile roundtrip from Ke’e Beach (on the north shore) to Kalalau Beach (on the Na Pali coast) “cannot possibly be done in one day.” This leads one to the conclusion (as put by Matt Carpenter) that the run was “just begging to be done.” I started out this past spring in the dark at 5:30am with a flash light and it was still dark after 2 miles when I had to ford the 60-foot wide Hana Kapiai stream. The “trail” featured 800-foot dropoffs into the ocean below as well as slippery rocks, branches, vines, waterfalls, wild goats, and many other obstacles. The longest level stretch was 20 feet, making the lower Barr Trail seem like the Pikes Peak toll road in comparison. I only made it to the near side of Kalalau Beach (9 1/2 miles) before I had to turn around to get back for a meeting. The stream water isn’t safe and I was really dehydrated. The 19 mile trip took 6 1/2 hours (Ok, I’m slower than some of you) but the scenery was incredible. How about a race there someday? #### Hans Z writes: Thanks for the news letter. Looks as if I have a lot of catching-up to do. Too busy this weekend to join you on the Peak, so have to substitute with a run up Mt Herman, (which to you may be only a “pimple on the ass of progress”). But did make a moon shine run up to Barr Camp with Eck June 13th. Guess what, we were the only ones. June 22 ran up 4/5 way up to Barr Camp after work, solo run. Congratulations to Bob McAndrews on his excellent run up MT Washington, but big deal, did you then ski down Tuckerman’s Ravine? That is part of the “Real Deal"! #### Mike K writes: Even though I can rarely get down there to run with you guys I continue to train up here in Fort Collins using your tips. (last week was 9 mile run to 12,000 feet in RMNP). I do have one training question I hope you can answer. Last year’s race I started off too slow and got stuck behind the walkers. This year I intend to go out faster than race pace at least to the trail so I can get ahead of as many walkers as possible. My question is what kind of training should I be doing so that I can go out faster and not blowup? My ultimate goal is 3:00 — 3:15 for the Ascent. PS. I did the GOG 10 mile but had a dismal time due to tired legs. 475 105/146 MICHAEL D KOLESNIK 40 1:34:25 Matt C responds: Congestion on the trail is becoming a big problem. Last year they significantly increased the # of people they allowed to register which of course increased the # of people who ran. I sat on top of the Ws and watched and it was pretty disconcerting. What basically happens is this: Everyone is afraid of getting stuck behind people on the trail so they go out fast to get ahead of them. Of course then they die and they end up being the very people they are trying to get in front of. Now everyone has to go out even harder to get in front of those people which makes it even worse till the point that last year at the top of the Ws right at 200 people went through at a pace that was fast enough to get a 3 hour ascent and yet only 43 people did it! Things in the marathon are just as crazy. 300th place came through in 42:45 which is on pace for a 3:33 ascent yet 300th place to the top ran a 4:05 and only 120 ran 3:30 or better. So what to do? I still think it is OK — and unfortunately a must for all but the first 50 or so — to go out a *tad* bit fast for the first 3/4 mile *until* it starts going up before the COG depot. After that I just don’t think going out fast is smart or that it works because of the above snowball effect. I feel that once the hill starts it is best to get back on pace and just stay relaxed and calm. It will thin out and although passing people does take energy it does not take as much energy as going out too fast so you don’t have to pass people. Generally I tell people to say “on your left” (or right) 2 times - 2nd time to make sure they heard you and then I say just push them aside! NO KIDDING! There are rude people out there that think they own the trail. I know more than a few women who say that some guys refuse to move for them at all! If you just brush up next to them an give them a slight nudge on the shoulder that should do the trick. Do NOT do this however if you did not try to give fair warning — we don’t need fights during a race;-) The rest of the time try to stay relaxed. Being stressed about getting stuck in the middle of a bunch of people that went out too fast is not going to help your race! 1/2 mile after No Name Creek the trail widens out and flattens out and that is when it is time to start blowing by all the stupid people that went out too fast. Read the stories from the Incline Club runners posted on my site — one of them said he wanted to pick people up and throw them off the trail its getting so bad! You will also see some who totally disagree with me and think that blowing out fast is the only way to do it — to each his own. As far as training for it goes I guess you need to start your long runs off with a fast 5-10 minutes and then figure out how to recover while going uphill into the thin air. As far as tired legs goes read today’s Run Around column: http://www.gazette.com/weekly/outthere/run.html #### Phyllis D writes: Tom K, your disclaimer, or whatever, that had to hurt, it read like it really hurt. Did it??? Probation Officers don’t get offended, they get even...be aware and be forewarned. To the few incline folks that tackled the Skyrunner Half marathon in Aspen, CONGRATULATIONS!! It is a beautiful route. After spending some time in Ohio, I have to say I suffered like a real low-lander. NOT the reptile kind either, Tom k!! An extra Congratulations to David E who placed first Masters. He did this even after seriously turning his ankle. Way to go out hard and when it really did hurt you kicked tail anyway!! :) #### Gary H writes: After our honeymoon in New Zealand, I thought I’d write up a quick article on the mountain race we did there, but never seemed to get the time for it. Since I’ve visited some other areas outside Colorado since then, though, I thought I’d share my thoughts on each of those locations, too. NEW ZEALAND For those who have never been there, New Zealand is a fantastic place to visit! I’d been there after completing grad school in 1996, and was excited that Lynn was interested in doing our honeymoon there! New Zealand is an outdoor adventurer’s mecca, and we were planning to do a bit of climbing and hiking, as well as, .. well, ... you know, the NORMAL honeymoon-type stuff ;) ! Lynn said she’d like to do a race while we were there, so I did some surfing on the Internet before we left. I found a race called the Avalanche Peak Challenge that looked very interesting. It was a 26 km run in the mountains of Arthur’s Pass National Park, where I’d done some climbing on my previous visit. We weren’t able to coordinate our entry before leaving, so we just took a chance that we’d be able to get into it when we got there. We were able to sign up at the last minute on the day before the race (when we arrived in Christchurch), and were able to finally find a place to stay about 3-0 minutes from the race start (the park area is pretty small, and an event like this, even with its limit of only 200 or so entrants, quickly fills up all the available lodging). That evening, we attended the mandatory pre-race briefing at the host hotel. We were somewhat surprised by all the requirements: we needed to carry polypro tops and bottoms, a rain shell, a hat, gloves, food and water, and even a space blanket! I guess they’ve had problems with hypothermia in the past. We were required to undergo an inspection of our gear the next morning before we would be given our race numbers. Lynn and I had to buy the space blankets, but had climbing gear that would suffice for the other requirements (although it was considerably heavier than clothing intended specifically for running). The next morning, the women took off 30 minutes before the men started. There was a one-mile loop through the village to spread out the field before it headed onto the narrow mountain trail. From here, the trail climbed about 3500 feet steeply up to the “bushline” and on to the summit of Avalanche Peak; the altitude was much lower than in Colorado (the bushline is at about 4000 feet, and the top of the peak was barely over 6000 feet), but the trail was much steeper, at times requiring use of your hands to aid in climbing up over the rock. At the bushline, I started feeling nauseous (I think I was a bit off due to the long overnight flight from L.A. — I hadn’t slept very well), and dropped out, returning back to the start to get the car and drive to the finish line to meet Lynn. At the bushline, and again at the peak summit, there were course marshalls who again checked that everyone had all their required gear with them. They’d had to helicopter the marshalls to these points; there were no roads to use for providing logistical support. They had water at those two checkpoints, but no other aid (e.g., food) anywhere on the course. The top of Avalanche Peak was only slightly more than a fourth of the way through the course. From there, the runners followed a ridgeline toward a neighboring peak, then dropped off the ridge down a 2000-foot scree slope where each footfall sank up to the ankle or deeper. This led to a boulder-choked creek valley, where the runners followed the stream downvalley, crossing through the creek numerous times. This eventually emptied into a broad river valley, where the course wandered through scrubby trees and grasses until hitting the road for the last couple of miles to the finish. We hadn’t expected the race to be too tough — we’d thought it might compare to the Ascent (slightly longer, but altitude wouldn’t be a concern, and we’d only have to go uphill for the first third of it or so). We figured we’d be done in 4 — 4 1/2 hours, at most. We underestimated the difficulties!! With the rough terrain (no trail after reaching the peak top), water crossings, and the heat (it was quite warm — much too warm to be carrying all that “survival” gear!), it took Lynn about 6 1/2 hours to finish (and she was not the last place finisher)! I was getting quite concerned when she hadn’t come in after 5 1/2 hours, and I went to look for her in the car. I was glad to find her still running along, chatting with another runner she’d made friends with up on the mountain (typical of her!). We figured that those Kiwis are pretty tough people — not just from this race experience (the winner finished in about 2:45), but from subsequent climbing and hiking excursions; their trails are much more steep, rough, and dangerous than those you’d encounter here in Colorado. Ask Lynn about our “crawl” up to the French Ridge Hut in Mount Aspiring National Park! MASSACHUSETTS On a business trip just before Memorial Day, I was working in Sudbury, Massachusetts, west of Boston. Our work wrapped up late on Thursday evening, so, since my flight home wasn’t until Friday afternoon, I thought I’d spend Friday morning exploring. It wasn’t far from Sudbury to Hopkinton, starting point of the Boston Marathon, so I thought I’d go visit Hopkinton and see if I could find the starting line (it’s painted boldly on the roadway, so it wasn’t too hard to find). On the way, I passed Hopkinton State Park, and decided to return on the way back for a quick run through the woods. I parked near a boating ramp for a small lake, and headed out on a trail through the woods. I immediately recalled why road running is so popular in the East — there are just too many tree roots trying to trip you up when you run on trails! I managed to stay light on my feet, though, and enjoyed the hilly path through the forest around the lake without stubbing any toes too badly! It was a beautiful day after a week of rain, so it was exhilarating to get out in the tree-muted sunshine (not to mention the exhilaration of running at sea level, where there is AIR!!). BOLIVIA Not a stop on the regular trail-running circuit, I suppose! Unlike the Massachusetts trip, the air pressure did NOT improve on this journey. We flew in and out of La Paz, where the airport is about 13,000 feet above sea level. Our downtown hotel was quite a bit lower (more like 11,200’), but this was as low as we got the whole trip. Our first excursion to climb in the Cordillera Quimsa Cruz put us in a base camp at about 15,700’, and we climbed peaks up to just over 18,000 feet. When we completed those first few days of climbing, and had packed back out to the road and were waiting for our transpiration back to La Paz, I tried to “jog” up the road a bit — it just didn’t work very well at that altitude! The second part of our trip took us from a small village at 13,800’ to a base camp at 15,400’, to a high camp at 17,900’. Unfortunately, on summit day, we encountered a wild windstorm that pinned us down at high camp for the day, sent one of our party hurtling down the mountainside inside his tent, and completely squashed another of our tents. By the time daybreak hit, we packed everything back down to base camp to prevent loss of all the tents (all of them had some structural damage, such as bent poles, torn rainflies, snapped guy lines, etc.). Back in the small village of Sajama, though, we had our last dinner meal at a small restaurant, and, since it was quite cold walking back to our camp, I decided to go for a short jog to try to warm up before getting into the sleeping bag. Unlike the previous week, though, I found it quite easy to run here (at 13,800’). We noticed many runners running along the main street from La Paz to the suburb of El Alto (The High One), where the airport is located. Given this ideal altitude training location, I’m surprised we don’t see more mountain runners from Bolivia in the Fila and FSA races. #### Bob M writes: I am going to write a longer piece on my Mt Washington experiences, but for now I will provide a summary for the Incline Club. My journey to Portland Maine and Glen, New Hampshire, was more challenging than my race up Mt. Washington. I was unfortunate enough to get caught in what I call the “United Airlines meltdown.” I purposely left for New England on Thursday (June 15th) in case I had travel troubles. The race was on Saturday morning. The one flight on United from Chicago to Portland, ME was cancelled and we were told there were no flights for two days. All flights into Boston (the next closest airport to where I needed to go) were filled for two days, there were no hotels available in Chicago, etc. In other words we were captives and I might not be able to get to the race at all. Skipping over many frustrating details of meeting the challenges of getting to Mt Washington, I went standby and finally got on a Boston flight. Arrived about five hours later than planned and found out there were no hotels available in Boston — I would have to rent a car and drive beyond Boston. Only one car rental had one car available. I drove to Portsmouth, NH, spent the night in a motel and then drove to meet Maggie and Bill , my hosts for the weekend, in Glen, NH (about 20 minutes from the Mt Washington race start). Matt stayed with Maggie and Bill last year and kindly paved the way for me to stay with them this year. My other house mates for the weekend were Alice Muriithi, from Kenya, and Jacqueline Gareau, from Montreal and now living in Boulder. I knew on Saturday morning before the race that I would not have an easy time breaking an age group record, because it was extremely hot and humid (85 degree heat). My strategy was to run well within and hold back for at least two miles, while being aware of a pace which would allow a record (11 minute miles to break 1:24). I was able to stay comfortably under 11 minute miles for four miles. I had decided I needed to kick into another gear for the last 3.6 miles (the entire race is only 7.6 miles). Unfortunately, miles five and six were rather steep and the heat had sapped my “kick” AND we began to get hit by 55+ MPH winds. So, I never died and actually felt strong through the finish, but I could not improve my pace. The last mile and a half took us into a thick fog, 58 MPH wind and light rain. I could only see 5 ft. in front of me. I did not catch my main competitor, John Pelton, who set the age group record last year. He finished 35 seconds ahead of me. We were both considerably off the record. My time was 1:30:17. I now know that I did not run hard enough in the first four miles. I was afraid of the heat and not knowing the course. If I could run it again this week I feel certain that I could run several minutes faster (even if the weather was exactly the same). I had the strange experience after the race that there was not enough mountain for me. Since we Incline runners are used to a much longer climb, I had “Peakus Interuptus.” Meanwhile, the three women in my household were all champions. Alice, the first Kenyan woman to run Mt Wash won overall in 1:17:26. Jaqueline was second overall and first master with 1:18:43, and Maggie won her age division (65+) by power walking it, since she had broken her pelvis in a bike accident in New Zealand just six months ago and did not want to run. I talked with the overall winner, Danial Kihara (59:24), the night before the race while we were at dinner. I told him about Matt’s rib injury and he said he was sorry and wished Matt was there to give the race more competition. He did get some competition from Joseph Kibor (his first time at Mt Wash) in second place (1:00:04). The Mt. Washington race is unique and quite different from our own mountain races. As Matt had told me some time ago, Mt Wash is INTENSE. I may have to return to increase my intensity level and see if I can get that record. Meanwhile the chap who beat me said he is coming to run the ascent the first time. So, I will now have to lead the way up my mountain. — Bob McAndrews #### Keith G writes (PG WARNING!!!) This past Sunday while running back down to the bottom from Elk Park, I saw something which I have never seen before on Barr Trail and I hope to never see again anywhere! I had stopped at Barr Camp, refilled my water and eaten some GU and was about 3 miles from the trail head. I was tired and did not feel like running downhill very hard, so I was taking my time back down. I heard footsteps coming up from behind and they eventually caught-up and passed me. As this person went by, I nearly emptied my stomach at the sight before me. It was a lone male runner (jogger). He had on black running shorts and a single water bottle fanny pack. His water bottle pack had caused his running shorts to be pulled upward which caused his shorts to be imbedded deep into his butt-crack, far beyond what I though was humanly possible. At first glance, before gagging, it looked like he was wearing a black thong!! This cramming of his shorts into his crack was only half of the disturbing sight. It caused his hairy, snow-white ass cheeks to be in full view of anyone behind him... I thought I was going to gag from not only the unwanted view, but from laughing... I immediately slowed my pace until he was WAY out of view....so I am asking of fellow male trail runners... be thoughtful and think of the view others may have to endure... Now if it were a female runner, we would be reading an entirely differently story here. Still rubbing my eyes... #### I got this after my Run Around column about breathing through the mouth and thought you might find it interesting: With all due respect, did you consult an ear, nose and throat doctor before suggesting to “nosers” that they should breathe through their mouths? It is my understanding that the nose is well equipped with tiny hairs to keep certain, dusts and pollutants out of our lungs. So if we breathe through our mouths, as you suggest, doesn’t that mean that more of the bad stuff gets to the lungs quicker? Mouth breathing creates a lot of problems, the least being that it dries out the mucous membranes which also helps to trap bacteria, etc. Not to mention that air pollutants are delivered quicker to the lungs, than if one had breathed them through the filtering system of the nose. Respectfully (name cut but they must own stock in the Breathright company;-) #### The Barr Trail Mountain Race got a nice mention in the paper today: http://www.gazette.com/weekly/outthere/rec.html Check out the boatload of random drawings the race committee has acquired on the “results/awards” page of http://www.runpikespeak.com The list is growing all the time. #### www posts: 6/25/2000 44 Incline Club runners ascended the peak today - some from the bottom, others from the top, most from Elk Park. The trail crew took about 200 pounds of garbage off the top mile today. Mostly rusted cans and old metal bands from wooden barrels. A railroad tie took three of us but the grand daddy was an old metal trash can that was well below the 16 Golden Stairs. Before we brought it up we filled it with rusted stove pipe other trash. All and all 9 of us put in a total of 15 people hours today. Many who ran by us were looking better this week and quite a few were a lot faster than last week. 6/22/2000 A monster group of 50 consumed the hwy 24 bypass for 40 minutes of hill repeats. A lot of people are getting the hang of this workout and keeping their times for each repeat very consistent. An amazing 17 newbies came out for the fun with a large portion of them runners from local school teams. This excites me because they are the future of our sport! Skippies and high knee drills rounded out an awesome workout. #### Go out hard, when it hurts speed up... Matt Carpenter http://www.skyrunner.com
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