We took a short trip to Playa Del Carmen. The weather was perfect everyday. We didn’t do much but play in the ocean, sit on the beach, and run the coast.
I tried to be out every morning at sunrise for a run. Tracy would follow 30 minutes later and meet me up the beach.
We didn’t spend a lot of time in the room, but the view was nice.
We are back in Austin now, but I wanted to add the last picture of BV – Tracy at the dog park at sunrise.
Saturday night, the 3 of us met some friends at the Planned Parenthood dinner.
Alan and I used to work together at Dell.
Helen is his mom and Cara, his wife.
Isn’t that a group of strong women.
The event honored Cecile Richards who is the outgoing CEO of Planned Parenthood.
A surprise guest was Nancy Pelosi, who introduced Cecile.
Afterwards, in the park next to the hotel, there was a Beto rally that featured a concert by Willy Nelson. It’s estimated that 10k people showed up. We were a long ways back, but Tracy managed to get close enough for a zoomed in picture.
I’ve been wrapping up the remaining projects before Tracy comes in today. Our master closet got an upgrade from the container store. However, their website is really terrible and I ordered the wrong brackets for a shelf. I called and get the new part number, and those were wrong also. All that stuff is going back and I’ll just order another shoe shelf.
We have some artwork, but the shipment of frames were cracked.
I’ve perfected my “Campfire Salmon” over the summer. I think I’ve found the perfect mix of vegetables, spices, and fish.
Darby and Izzy are as cute as ever. I think they will be excited to get back to Austin, but will miss chasing all the critters here.
Everyday we do a walk along the river. Both dogs can now be trusted to be off the leash and not get swept away by the river.
This is the view from the above the river on the other side. Our house is just behind the hotel in the bottom right corner.
8 miles from the house is a section of the Colorado trail that climbs 2,700 ft in just over 3 miles. I’ve climbed it a lot and have never been able to break the hour mark on the ascent. Before my race, my best was 1:02. Yesterday I went out and came up a minute short which really ticked me off. Today, I went back and did it with 8 seconds to spare. I also set a new personal record on the descent with just over 34 minutes. The picture below is my on top looking towards Silver creek and all it’s orange Aspen trees.
I’ve been the project person the last week. Between IKEA and Container Store, I’ve been busy. Our master closet got an upgrade of new shoe shelves and drawers.
The master got a new dresser under the TV.
The same dresser went in the upstairs bedroom.
IKEA was out of the big drawers, but I was able to put half a dresser together.
Yesterday in yoga class, I was told about a half marathon that was sponsoring a few of the local non-profits. The race started close to where the Cottonwood aid station was on the HL100 and ran through the autumn-colored canyon to the main road heading into town.
There were 214 people in the race and I finished 9 minutes shy of 2 hours and took 48th place.
Afterwards, I was tired and Darby had no issue lounging around with me.
I’ve been busy around the house the last couple weeks. Tracy keeps shipping stuff so I’ve had a lot of projects. Last week, I did make it out to Little Browns’ Creek trail and climbed Mt. Antero. I’ve climbed this route several times, but I never turned up the last 1,000ft to the summit. Antero is not a pretty mountain – it’s mainly rock and scree and scared by many 4WD trails.
With the exception of one day last week, the weather was terrible. Storms rolled in every afternoon and caused the dogs to run and hide.
The dogs may be hiding, but I was busy. The picture below shows the amount of boxes I broke down. Lots of Ikea, other furniture, and fixtures. I needed to use my neighbors trash can to get rid of all our trash.
Izzy is a big lover and is always under my feet.
The weather turned nice and we’ve been hiking the river trail. Our house is in the background on the left side of the picture.
On Saturday, I climbed Harvard and then did the traverse across the ridge to Columbia. My watch wasn’t working so I grabbed someone’s else’s GPX file below so I’d have a record of the route. It was a fun hike since the traverse is mainly off road. The only negative on the day was that I came across two young guys from Ft Worth that were way over their head on the ridge. I guided them across, but they were so slow that I was forcing the dogs to cross their legs at home.
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Football season started this weekend and I installed a TV on the deck so we could enjoy the nice weather. Izzy enjoys it also.
The Monday Night Football game last night was awful, but the sunset was pretty.
The sunrise this morning was just as beautiful.
*** Update – waling to get ice cream last night – our house is the one in front on the right
Tracy came last week and one of the mornings had an incredible sunrise. The picture I took was amazing but Google made the colors a little more vivid.
We took the dogs on the trails.
Darby won’t jump on the swing, but Izzy has no problem hanging out.
The last couple weeks have been filled with house duties. I feel like a logistics company with the amount of stuff coming in. I’ve put a lot of furniture together and the picture below is the new couch and fire table on the patio.
I spent all of Sunday in the garage putting in shelves and organizing all the building stuff the previous owner left and our camping stuff.
On Saturday, I met Mike at Winfield and paced him over Twin Lakes to Hope Pass. We were a little slow on the uphill, but Mike lit it up on the way town and we beat the time he wanted.
Google magic helped the picture looking South from Hope. Huron Peak is to the left in the distance.
The dogs and I went back to Leadville to watch Mike finish with his best time ever – sub 29 hours.
The dogs and I have developed a routine of going to the dogs park before sunrise. Some days we are treated with incredible views. The weather and fires make for interesting cloud formations – a couple of them are below.
Tracy arrives tomorrow. We are excited to see her.
One thing I forgot to post was that Tracy’s sister came to visit us. It was a short visit but we had a great time. We were able to climb to the shoulder of Mt. Yale.
Last night they began setting up for the Trans Rockies race in the square across from our new house. The dogs and I went out and watched the start this morning.
On the first Friday in August, I ran the High Lonesome 100. Since the course travels over 5 passes for a total of 23,000ft of climb, my goal was to finish in 35 hours. The average elevation of the race is 10,433ft reaching a high point of over 13,000ft. Over the past few months, I’ve hiked almost all of the course. My race card is below. The sections in yellow indicate that I can have a drop bag and light blue means that my crew can meet me.
It was a perfect morning and the forecast was for light rain in the afternoon. My only worry was that Saturday was going to be hot.
Tracy and the dogs were there to see me off.
The race started at 6am sharp.
I came into the first aid station in 1:26 against a predicted 1:45.
A quick bite to eat and a coke and I’ve off for a 4,000ft climb up to the high point of the race on the shoulder of Mt. Antero.
The climb follows Little Browns Creek up a tight gulch to above treeline. It then drops down a highly trafficked 4wd road that I hadn’t run before, nor do I want to again. Since it was Friday, there was a lot of traffic, but it was an incredible 5 mile downhill.
I reached St. Elmo aid station, over 90 minutes ahead of schedule. I now had to climb Law’s pass to Cottonwood where I’d meet Tracy.
A storm started rolling in so it got a little cold in the wind. Once I cleared treeline, it started to rain.
I made it to Cottonwood 1:50 ahead of schedule and unfortunately, I beat Tracy there by 6 minutes. A nice couple relayed my schedule to her and took the picture below of me.
I turned around and headed over Law’s pass back to St. Elmo.
Once in St. Elmo, I had to traverse about 6 miles of exposed ground above treeline. I rolled into the halfway point at Hancock, 2 hours ahead of schedule. Tracy was waiting with a kiss and I got to pick up Mike to pace me through the night. Mike and Tina are in the picture below waiting for me to come into Hancock.
Once leaving Hancock, we had to climb Hancock Pass, descend into the Middle Fork, then climb 3,000ft to Chalk Creek Pass, and finally traverse the Monarch Crest into the store parking lot at Monarch Pass. It was a tough night of climbs, but the weather held and we made it to the parking lot 3 hours ahead of schedule. There I picked up Mark to take me the next 20 miles which are considerably more flat and at a lower elevation.
I had a very dedicated crew. All of them turned up at 4:30am to meet me in a freezing parking lot. From left to right, Mark, Danielle, Mike, and Tina. I couldn’t have done it without them.
This section turned out to be the hardest for me since there are a lot of up and downs and the temperature climbed into the 80’s. It doesn’t sound hot for a guy from Austin, but when the sun beats down on you on the dry Colorado Trail, you bake. I met Tracy and the rest of the crew at Raspberry Gulch still an hour ahead of schedule.
Tracy took me home for the last 8 miles.
I crossed the finish line 70 minutes ahead of my plan. A storm started blowing in and the wind was so strong it had knocked the sign down.
I was rewarded with another kiss.
Out of 100 starters, I finished in 43rd place. It was my first 100 that I finished in the first half. My Strava read out is below. Since my watch was the longest battery setting the pace and moving time gets messed up. The distance and elevation gain are close to accurate.
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It’s been a while since I updated the page. I’ve been busy with a new house we bought and getting ready for my 100 mile race, The High Lonesome 100.
CW completed his hike around the Collegiate Peaks and Preston and I met him in Winfield and camped for the night. We ended up playing some poker and hanging out with the dogs.
The next day, I sent Preston with CW over Hope Pass and I drove around to Twin Lakes to meet them. Since they were turning off the CT onto a smaller trail, the dogs and I hiked up to meet them at the intersection. It was a steep climb so the dogs were crashed out while I read waiting for them to arrive.
The next weekend, I went with a group doing a training run on the High Lonesome course. It was a really fast group and I bonked in the heat so it had me worried about the race. We went 22 miles and climbed 6k feet in 5 hours.
There were some serious runners in this race.
