Friday 040414

Matt Carpenter turns 50 this year.  I am assuming that he will return to Pikes this year and look to take the age group record.  The 50 year old age group Ascent record is held by Mike Kloser at 2:31:32 and the Marathon is by Senovia Torres at 4:11:16 off a 2:39 climb.  It is fair to assume that Carpenter could take both of these records as he posted a 2:19 climb enroute to a 3:48 marathon in 2011, but three years can change a guy a lot.  Anyway, I put a poll up to the right to get your take.  My half nickel sez he gets the record for both in the Marathon.  I don’t pick him for the win as he is racing guys half his age, but he is on the podium.
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Current thinking on the year in terms of racing …
1.)  Mile.  Yeah.  Four laps on the track.  Perfect suffering.  Occasionally the road.  I don’t seem to have the ability to dip under 5 anymore – as I have not done that in a few years.  I will see what I can do with this.  At current, I appear to be in about 5:20 shape, so I ought to be able to take few ticks off of that.  I am hoping to jump into some of the BRR races to get after this a bit on the track.
2.)  Some Burro Racing.  My family requires this.  They actually wouldn’t care if I didn’t do any other race all year but Fairplay is something they really enjoy.  I enjoy it too.  While at the same time I absolutely dread it.  Not because of running with a burro that does not want to go for 29 miles at 10k feet is harder than it sounds but because the journey my little CPU takes during those events.
3.)  Pikes Marathon.  Yeah, I am signed up and yeah I have been listed as qualified.  This will be my 8th run at that marathon.  I can’t say that I am feeling particularly stoked to get back to this as the taste of the failure from last year still is pretty bitter.  But I love that event and like to think that I could redeem myself with a better than last year performance.  Maybe sub 5 there and sub 5 in the mile?  Could I pick possible two more different events?
4.)  The answer to that is yes, yes I could as I am thinking I will also return to the Boulder 100 in early to mid October.  This one is probably the most up in the air but I am also thinking I can improve on my one 100 performance of nearly 22 hours where I melted down for the last 50 miles.  I am hoping to actually recruit a few GOM competitors for this.  Sub 20 ought to be do-able but I thought sub 17 was going to happen when I went after this a few years ago.  I fear the distance which is part of why I am doing it.

Of course, all this can change tomorrow if I get a hangnail.  Here’s the catch … I see these events on the calendar but I can’t say that I am ready to sit to formulate a training plan for any of them.  And I am completely okay with that.  I have about 45 days of business travel between now and October.  I have about 10 days of backpacking with Scouts on trails between now and August.  I have probably another week of more general camping.  None of it matters and it all matters.  I am going to enjoy the whole dang thing and see what I can eek out of this body each time I line up.
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A fecal DNA database program.  Awesome.  Yes, this is gummit run amuck.

My work buddy Tom sent me a link to that SWXS list.  A lot of crud in there but I also have a few things I have really dug.  Based off one song by Saint Paul and the Broken Bones, I bought their latest album last night.

So we have now seen a meteorite in flight on camera, but still no real UFOs.

13.1 miles in the afternoon.  Started on the Bismarck, but the south side was a muddy mess – heavy shoes and all that.  I bailed on a service road out to 128 and cut back.