The Mesa Trail

Last Sunday I got a chance to run the Mesa trail and it was wonderful. The Mesa trail is the main artery along the foothills of Boulder. We park at the Doudy trail head parking lot near Eldorado Canyon and walked over to the Mesa trail head. The weather was crisp and perfect for trail running. This trail runs north and south between Chautauqua and Eldorado Springs around 6 miles one way and is intersected by most of the mountain trails in the area.

Although there is no real elevation change from its northern point to its southern point, there is still plenty of elevation change along the way. The trail climbs and descents again and again so be ready for a great work out.

This trail is well maintained and spends most of its time right at the base of the foothills in coniferous forest. All along the trail are beautiful views out over Boulder City and the eastern plains. Over all it was a great trail and very close almost in my backyard. I plan to come here more often this summer to practice trail running.

My running mates, Cindy and Truman.


                             

Greenland Trail 50k Race Report

At the start of Greenland Trail 50k the weather was clear and cool and I ran into a marathon maniac Lisa, she told me that the Greenland course is a fast course and it's one of the easier ultra trail course, no hills. She also told me that she DFL this course last year as well. Being an ultra virgin I did not know what DFL means but affraid to ask, I later found out what DFL means "dead fucking last", and I also want to acknowledge that the Greenland course is not easy or fast in my humble opinion, this course is wicked hard with some epic climbs and some quad busting downhills and the uneven surface covered with loose gravel and and sand did not make the footing any easier to run on.
This course is divided in 4 laps of around 8 miles per lap, I went into this event knowing that I have not trained enough on the trails, but I kinda thought if I ran and completed five marathons already, this 50k should not be much harder right? just another five extra miles, how hard can that be? Well to my surprise, it was a lot tougher than I expected it to be, trail running is a lot different than road running, treadmill running or any other form of normal running.

I used the Galloway's method of 3:1, run 3 minutes and walk 1 minute for the first 2 laps. In retrospect, I should have reduced that ratio to 1:1 at the begining of this course. The course had two water stations, one at the turning around spot and the other at three and half miles away. I did not refilled my water bottle after the first lap and ran out of water prior to the next water station on the second lap, which did not help my cause for the day. Oh did I tell you that this course was all up hill for the first 5 miles or so then it was all quads busting downhill for the last 3 miles, yes that is what I remembered and I am sticking to that.
I ran into my girlfriend/pacer #1 at the start of the 3rd lap and she ran with me and let me tell you by that time I was not having fun anymore, my energy was depleted, I did not fuel enough, drank enough electrolytes and my body was giving me fits. Cindy was there to talk to me and keep me going when I wanted to quit, and even by the end of lap 3 I told myself and Cindy that I will walk to the car and call it a day after this lap since I did not have anything left in my tank, I was in a dark place of the mind that I never want to be there again. Somehow at the end of lap three my marathon maniacs friend Lisa ran by me and her energy just gave me a boost and I felt reenergize and motivated to complete this task.

My brother paced me on the last lap, we played games like let run around the next three corners before we walk, let count to seven and do five set of sevens before we walked, or let's run to the next marker before we walk. Since there is a time limit on this course which is 8 hours, I was now battling myself, the course and to finish on time as well. Well I am happy to report that I crossed the finish chute in 8:06 and was second to last place, Lisa DFL again :)

I am an Ultra Runner!!