Saturday, 10/27/12 Basic Boulder Mountain 14.22 miler

Flagstaff/Green/Bear
14.22 miles
5,330 vert.
3:06
Avg. HR 161

Photo copied without permission from GZ's fine blog

Was going to write something up, but don't really feel like it, so I'll just list a few highlights/details in no particular order.

• Fresh snow added to the challenge, yet made for an amazingly beautiful day.
• Had a great time catching up (if only briefly) with many good friends and acquaintences.
• Regretted not being able to socialize more with those I only said hi to, or missed seeing altogether.
• Pace was super easy up Flagstaff.
• Homie attacked hard above the Ranger Cabin and we were impressed.
• Homie blew up hard and bailed at the Ranger/Greenman jct. and we gave him crap ;)
• Ran with Dave for the remainder of the run.
• Johannes, Gavin and Andrew Skurka joined us for Bear Canyon descent, before continuing on the prescribed route.
• Dave and I wanted to get home to our families, so we amended our route to include Bear first, then head home.
• Gavin joined us for Bear.
• They kicked my ass up Bear above the saddle while I was sucking wind.  I managed to keep them in sight, but then stopped to put on my tangled jacket in the wind and they were gone.  Fortunately, they were nice enough to wait at the post while I quickly tagged the summit.
• Icebug shoes were great all day, but Microspikes would have been way better descending Fern (though I was more than happy to not carry them for the entire run).
• Dave had no traction, yet he was hard to keep up with going down Fern.
• Many people opted for Bear first instead of heading over to Shadow, as we bumped into Sage and a stream of others behind.
• It was wicked mucky and sloppy heading back on Mesa, but was fun once I gave in to getting dirty.
• Dave seems to be super fit and it was not easy keeping up (and I am sure he was taking it easy on me much of the time).
• Be careful around Rob when he has a camera handy.
• Impressed that Tony went easy and kept his run short.  This is more impressive than if he had dusted us all.
• Though I am normally the warmest dressed, I was in the minority wearing shorts.  I was fine all day, but froze on Bear above the saddle in the wind and snow.
• Even though we cut the run short, it was still double the time of my next longest run since Pikes in August.
• This morphed into writing something up.