Two by Green

My legs were aching with every step, my breath was a bit ragged, and I had laughed off the last person who said "you look strong," followed by a "there's no way I could ever do that." I felt like I was shuffling along at a snail's pace, fighting for every step, and was perfectly aware of the packed snow/ice mixture on the trail in front of me. I wondered for perhaps the 20th time in the past two miles why I ever thought this would be a good idea.

I had a little extra time this past Saturday. The forecast had a high of 75 and sunny skies, with remarkably little wind.  I was coming off of what was already a tough week for me, mileage-wise.

I decided it was time for a bit of a fitness test.

I've run up Green Mountain a number of times in the past few months, and thought that a good test would be to do the 8.5 mile Green Mountain loop, up Amp/Saddle/Greenman and down Green Bear/Bear Canyon back to Mesa, and back to the start. This would give me 5000 or so feet of climbing on a 17 mile run, which I thought would be both a good fitness test and doable.

So come Saturday morning, later than many head out, I popped a couple gels in my pockets, filled up my hand-held with water, and grabbed a bit of dried mango (my preferred summit snack) and drove up to Chautauqua, wondering if this was really that good an idea after a pretty hard week capped by a hard 7 miles the night before.

As expected, Chautauqua's parking lot was already full to overflowing, and I parked on Baseline. I was joined the first half mile across the meadow by a runner from Kansas, in town for a few days, who I duly directed up Gregory Canyon. Ever since the relative publicity around Anton's Green Mountain Project, it's been the go-to climb for trail runners visiting Boulder.

I took the first time up easy, knowing that I'd have to do it again in another hour. Even so, I was surprised by how quickly I was moving and how easy the pace felt. Nevertheless, I was surprised and slowed by snow on Greenman. Until that point, I had been around PR pace, but the snow combined with my own lack of foresight at not bringing traction slowed me down to the point where I hit the top at just under 50 minutes. Slow, but not shamefully so given how much I was slipping and sliding (and walking) on the upper reaches.

A quick snack at the summit, and I was off down the upper reaches of Ranger, feeling good and moving quickly. I gave a wave and greeting to the runner I'd directed up Gregory, and headed down Green Bear.  I made it quickly down to Bear Canyon, and was surprised again by how much ice was left on the trail. One good spill left me with a bloody knee and some missing skin on my thigh. Nevertheless, I quickly made it back down to Mesa, and jogged the two or so miles back to the ranger cottage to refill my water bottle.

I opted this time to head up Gregory Canyon, hoping this route might have less snow. Immediately on hitting the uphill, I realized this was going to be a slog. The combination of the big week and the previous climb was catching up with me (why did I run Flagstaff three times the past week?), and I was in for a suffer fest.

Even so, I kept a running cadence the whole way up Gregory to the first stretch of snow on Ranger. Somewhere on this stretch I saw a hiker coming down telling me I looked "strong." And I laughed him off.

After a bit more hiking on the snowy section, I eventually made it to the summit again, giving it a good push up the last, steep stretch and summit a second time.

I had to take a break at this point. My legs were shot, and shaking, and I took a few minutes to rest before I noticed a coworker sitting a few feet away. Turns out, he and another friend of mine were playing a gig in Golden that night, and I made a note to stop by for  a while.

That would prove the best decision I made all day. The gig was a series of 4 different groups, all of whom were quite good. My only regret is that I forgot to bring my fiddle, as my friend's Bluegrass group was in need of one.

And if you're wondering if I forgot the last downhill, I'm doing my best.

It was not pretty. But I did the whole run.