Running Mt. Evans

Sunday, I took a little detour from the normal everyday road miles around my house and ventured to the high country to run a few miles up to the top of Mt. Evans, elevation: 14,240'.

Mt. Evans, one of Colorado's 52 peaks reaching 14,000' or more, boasts the "the highest paved road in America" and as such, we Coloradoans host an annual run, in late June, up the beast. Two years ago, I signed up, having never even driven up the thing, let alone run it. But I had registered for the infamous Pike's Peak Marathon (having at least driving up that monster, but never having run or climbed it) so, as is pretty customary for Pikes Peak prep, most people run Mt. Evans for a little vertical altitude training.

Mt. Evans' race is 14.4 miles with 4000' elevation gain. Pike's Peak is 13.2 miles in 8000' elevation gain. Yep, I needed some high altitude hill training to get ready for Pike's Peak so I registered for the Mt. Evans race. That was in 2008 and I trained up Mt. Evans two times to get ready for that race and, at the time, was one of the most physically demanding thing I'd ever done (later that summer, when I ran Pike's Peak, I learned Mt. Evans was nothing compared to PP), yet also one of the most exhilarating experiences I ever endured.

I am no mountain goat; I am the world's worst hill climber but I worked hard to conquer that beast....I did a lot of hill repeats and all sorts of glute work in the gym and I just ran up the thing slow but steady, crossing a few minutes shy of 3-hours. That ain't bad, folks. 4000' up, no oxygen....I was thrilled, it was truly one of the most rewarding finish lines I've ever crossed.

2008 race, perfect conditions (with my friend, Dennis)

I also did this race last year, but 2 days before the event, I had one of my 23,985 annual sinus infections but this infection decided to invite a friend: Mr. Ear Infection, and the two of them combined decided to cause me a great deal of vertigo and equilibrium problems. I learned, in 2009, that you never run up the side of a mountain in less than ideal fitness nor sporting an illness which can cause you to fall off the thing. This was the first race I've ever done where serious thoughts of DNF were entering my head. The start of last year's race saw crappy weather conditions; the entire mountain was socked in a major misty cloud and visibility was about 3', at best. The race director stated at the start of the race they would determine by mile 6 if the race would continue on past mile 9 to the summit or if they would close the course down at mile 9 (the first check point). I stood there feeling very guilty for hoping they'd close the course; I had two friends running the race who had not ever run it before and these guys were phenomenal runners and I knew they could do well....and they wanted to run it. Still, the weather sucked and I was sick and I really didn't want to be there. When I got to mile 6 and learned the race would continue on, it was not going to be closed at mile 9, I was in total disbelief; it was really nasty out ... and I was having some bad light-headedness from the ear thing. When I got to mile 9, I stood at the aid station and had a big tug-of-war with myself on whether to continue up the last 5ish miles, where the beast gets really tough because now you're really tired and now you're above tree-line so are totally exposed to the wind, and now there are about 10 switch-backs just endlessly meandering to the top. The thought of finishing this thing was haunting me. I told the gal at the aid station I didn't think I was going to keep going, I wasn't feeling well. She just stared at me. I just wanted to scream at her, "Um, you go run up it with an inner-ear imbalance and see how you feel..." but I didn't and instead, turned around and continued on. I'm not sure how I made it, but somehow I did. A full half hour slower than the previous year, but oh well, I finished. And once again, felt a great sense of pride for an incredible accomplishment (and again, I ran Pikes Peak last year...but that's another story for another time).

2009 Summit in a big cloud with a big ear infection (again, with my friend, Dennis)

When registration opened for this year's climb to the top of Mt. Evans, I thought long and hard about whether or not to go back up again. I've played this race game enough times to understand that you can never predict how things will unfold in preparation for a big race, but I knew after my lung fungus fiasco that I was not in the condition I wanted to be to run this thing, and beings I had other adventures on the horizon this summer/fall, I didn't want to waste a bunch of training time to get up Mt. Evans in optimal condition. So I didn't register for it this year. And honestly, I'm not sure it will ever be on my race calendar again...I'm just not sure.

Nevertheless, if I'm given the opportunity to go for a training run up the thing, and it fits into my schedule, I'm in...and that's exactly what I did on Sunday. A few guys from a group I run with now and then were going up to train for the race in a few weeks and I latched on. I think they were grateful, actually, because when you run UP this thing, it becomes a complex, logistical production of dropping one of two vehicles off at the top and then going back down and then run up to the dropped off car then driving back down. Enter me. I drove to the 9 mile marker and ran the 5.68 miles to the top, then ran back down to my car. The guys began their run at start line and ran to mile 9, where my car was, thus I saved them time by not having to go drop a car off. I know that's confusing, but trust me, I saved them a lot of time :).

So up I ran 1843', and back down I came. The timing worked out perfectly and the guys finished their 9 mile jaunt up while as I finished my 11.2 round trip....and as an added bonus, my twin boys, along with their friend, rocked climbed to the top of Evans while I ran.

It was an amazing day. No, I won't be running the race in two weeks, but I'm perfectly fine with that; I got to run this incredible mountain nevertheless, and I may try to run up doing it again before summer ends.

Enjoy my little journey up Mt. Evan's Sunday!

Echo Lake, the start line of the actual race

Me, at the start of my run at Summit Lake

My boys and their friend (friend in the middle), ready to climb

The start of my daunting climb (the road is the long gray section)

A furry friend in the road, see him in the hole??

There he is, Mr. Marmot

View of the road from about mile 13

At the top!!!

Looking to the West from the summit

Mt. Goats are very common on this mountain

Coming back down, I ran into this guy on the road

A close-up on this magnificient creature. This is the only place in Colorado where I have run into mountain goats, and I've been almost everywhere in this state!

Happy to see my friends, Craig and Pete, as I was going down and they were running up