Thru Endurance We Conquer!

We all have them - the demons that whisper in our minds, leading us astray from our goals and telling us that we aren't worthy of even attempting our dreams. And you never know when they will start appear. Even the best athletes and most confident appearing people have their demons. I've heard them many times as a mountain biker - from starting line nerves seeing who I am lining up against (I'm not the same class of athlete, I can't ride nearly as fast as them), to solo pedaling under moonlit skies (what am I doing out here, can I keep going for another 10 hours?)  And it was strange to hear them - when I was running, I never had demons. I respected the distances but approached the races with confidence . I've been working on silencing tthem as I progress as a mountain biker. I never thought I'd experience those same voices running.  But this year has been different. I've been running more and doing a lot more local races. I've publicly announced my majo...

This was my third year racing in the Super Half Marathon here in Colorado Springs. While it's not the most scenic course - an out an back on the Santa Fe Trail - the race director Tim B puts his heart and soul into the event. It's his baby and after he's spent all year supporting us athletes, it's time for us to support him. I was a late sign up for the race because of my hamstring issues, but was looking forward to a nice hard and fast race. My race at the second winter series gave me high hopes for a solid race. I knew I had at least 8 miles of speed in my legs and was fairly confident that I would be able to maintain the pace. I was pretty sure I wouldn't be in the mix for the Golden Football, but I knew I could come close to 1:30. Until Friday. Sneezing fits at work and feeling super tired all day. Saturday was just as bad, but added in congestion and the start of a deep, dry cough. Ugh. Not good at all. I went to bed thinking healthy thoughts. Sunday mornin...

Everyone in the group was delayed by this Colorado traffic jam.... Following along the lines of trying new things in 2016 came our first ski-in hut trip. Sure, we'd done a trial run a while back with snowshoes - but that was very mellow and not really a true back country experience. This time we had a group and we were trecking into Vance's Cabin outside Ski Cooper. It seemed a fairly straight forward route - east from the parking lot, cross the drainage, through the woods then climbing to a saddle, where we would traverse to an open field for a quick descent into the hut. A short 2.5 mile track that promised to be well packed in and easy to follow. Seemed was the optimal word. Shortly after crossing the drainage, we stopped to regroup and shed some layers. Skinning is hard work and getting sweaty not a good idea. There was a group of skiers descending through the deep snow directly above us, but we didn't put it together. The trail appeared to continue heading through ...