Twenty-seven, 8 x10, color glossy photographs, with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one...

Ok, now it's officially Thanksgiving. A Turkey Trot and Alice's Restaurant are more Thanksgiving than turkey and football.  Everyone enjoy this day of thanks.

Pretty good turnout.  Each year Brandi has grown it a little more.  Here, Brandi gives final instructions for the 6k course.  The Aspen Club's Third Annual Turkey Trot.

The overall winner...Timmy Olson???

Photo Reminiscing

Ran and exercised today- first time in over 3 weeks- unless you count fetching 6 cords of firewood.  Feeling great.  Doesn't feel like I missed a step.  Can't wait to get my training going with purpose.  For now, just easing back into the game.  Yoga, Circuit Classes, treadmill, nordic, stepmill, skin and ski, pool running.  This is my winter.  Working on my racing schedule next year.  Exciting stuff.

Been looking at some old time pics- from adventures of yesteryear.  Sitting around playing Playstation isn't worth photoing, so I'll throw some older shots up there.  Enjoy.

Diamond of Longs Peak, CO.  5.10 climbing at 14,000 feet is no joke.

Lumpy Ridge, Estes Park, CO.  Trying to rap the Nose Route in a looming storm, we encounter this guy at the base.   What do we do- face the storm or face this bear?  The storm fizzled out before it got to us and we hung out and watched this guy for an hour.

Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO.  Running up to Lone Eagle Peak on the west side of the IPW, I bumped into him not long after leaving the truck at first light.  He was very mad and had I not found a boulder to climb, I think he would have stomped me to death. 

Jah Man on Sister Superior, Moab, UT.  We ascended the soupy cloud bank into blinding sunshine.  Awesome climb and beautiful day in the desert.

At the base of Jah Man, Sister Superior tower, Moab, UT.

Brandi in the early squeeze chimney on Jah Man.

Time Wave Zero 5.12.  Potrero Chico, Mexico.  This 3000+ foot climb was great fun to the top of the Toro Peak.  We speed climbed it in about 8 hours round-trip (climb and rappel). Back in plenty of time for Cervesa at camp.

Atop Time Wave Zero, Potrero Chico, Mexico. 

Childhood's End 5.12, Big Rock Candy Mountain, South Platte, CO.
One of my favorite Colorado climbs with Brandi.  Physical and scary, this proud line runs 1500' or so feet through perfect granite to a great summit atop the dome.  The admission fee is long runouts on 5.10 and 5.11 slab climbing and a tough 5.12 crux.  No one around for miles.  I will never forget adventures like this.

Dogma 5.11c, Red Rock Canyon, Vegas, NV.  Great 2500+ foot climb on Mt. Wilson.

The business on Dogma.  Fingery and gently-overhanging for a long way- I am just getting to the summit or plummet move where you latch a big hold or fly about 40 feet.  I sent.  B sent too.  Awesome day.

B on Serenity Crack 5.10d, Yosemite, CA.

B in the midst of the Northwest Face of Halfdome 5.12c A1, Yosemite, CA.  We fired it in 13 hours- climbing as fast as we could for the 2000+ foot route.  Very committing.

Thank God Ledge, NW Face of HalfDome.  After 2000' of climbing the route hits a steep and blank spot.  Thankfully, Thank God Ledge traverses 100 feet left providing a reasonable passage to the last pitch.  Royal Robbins first did this pitch on the first ascent of the route in the 50's and said "Thank God."

B after finishing of the "Scenic Cruise" at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Long, hot and tough- we were glad to be out of that Hell Hole.  Gunny is known as "Yosemite...for grown-ups."  An intimidating place to climb for sure.

Arizona trip

Well, Javelina didn't go as planned.  I went out aggressively with the leaders- hoping to run under 14 hours.  I managed 70 miles in about 10 hours, but had to quit to avoid serious injury.  The last 40 of those miles were full of pain from a foot problem.  My feet had been aching coming into the race from the Bear 100, but I thought plenty of rest would fix them.  I also started in Hokas because the softness seemed to help the pain.  While running, I took some Ibuprofen and that worked for a while, but as the heat grew into the 90's I was unwilling to take any more meds for fear of kidney problems.  I had the lead after the 50k mark (3:54), but I had to stop after the next lap to ice my feet.  There, I changed into a SCOTT road shoe (AF Trainer) and that felt a little better.  Hal and an Arizona guy named Catlow passed me while I sat in the aid for 15 minutes.  I decided to try to go some more.  I managed another good lap to mile 60.  The pain was unbearable as I climbed up the hill to Jackass Pass at mile 70.  I stayed close to second place on the way up.  There, I asked the aid volunteers if I dropped, if I could get a ride back to the start.  The foot pain was severe and I feared it was breaking a bone in there.   I decided to quit.

I felt great, except for the foot thing.  I had to hang there for a while before my ride left.  I cheered on the other runners while I drank some beers.  First beer in a while.  It was great hanging out with Ian and greeting Hal at the finish.

The next day, presumably from limping for 40 miles, I had a big black and blue bruise indicating a bad strain of my right calf.  This was from favoring that bad left foot.  I had a lot of pain in my right hip/groin too.  I came into the race fantastically fit, but my tissues were obviously still recovering from the strain of the Bear, less than 1 month earlier.  The effort felt easier than any ultra I had ever done.  I had an unfulfilled season and I was trying to get one more good one before the fall fitness wore off and the snow fell.  I will learn from this and move on without regrets.  I had a nice time down there.  Running with Hal K, Joe G and Ian was fantastic.  We kept a good conversation going for the first 30 miles. They gave me a drop-down finish of the 100k- 8hrs 53 mins.  I'm not a fan of consolation prizes, so I didn't take a buckle.  I quit the race, plain and simple.

Now, I am taking a full month off of running.  I am almost 2 weeks into it and my feet, calf and hip still hurt.  I had a weird year- some success and several near misses.  My energy has never been higher as I make out 2014's race calendar.  I am actually looking forward to the torturous grind of training season.  I have some really big plans...

Early in the race- Hal, me, Joe G, Ian (Coury Photo)

Leading after 2 laps.  It was getting really hot. (Coury Photos

The Rhodes kids were a fantastic crew.

Arizona Hot Springs, near Hoover Dam.  Brandi and I stopped here for a quick run a few days before the race.  A great wash leads down to the Colorado River.  From here you climb up a very narrow slot canyon and climb up a ladder to the very hot pools.