So Much Inspiration. Log Week of July 6

Kilian Jornet winning the Hardrock 100

It's such a good thing (sometimes) to be connected to/on social media. The escape, escape from my own unexciting life, can be interesting and often inspiring. This was the case this week as much of my weekend was spent glued to the computer screen following two great events: The Hardrock 100 and the final days of Scott Jurek's run up the Appalachian Trail.

Hardrock marked the return of the incomparable Kilian Jornet to Colorado for what is annually one of the toughest ultra marathons in the world. In 2014, he made "easy" work of the field and the terrain to set a new course record by an hour. This year, fresh of a record setting victory at the Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska, Kilian ran and hiked to another course record, again by nearly an hour (it should be mentioned here that the Hardrock course is run in opposite directions every year, so actually, there are TWO course records).

Kilian is a marvel. He wins races all over the world, sets FKT's (Fastest Known Times) on Summits in every continent, and remains grounded in his simple love for moving in the mountains. A world class mountaineer, skier and runner, he seems capable of almost anything and is limited only by the restrictions within his imagination (and he has a BIG

Anna Frost overcomes

imagination). A short bio of Kilian can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71lsMLTi9s. His website www.summitsofmylife.com is sure to amaze and inspire anyone visiting.

The Hardrock women's race was exciting as defending champion Darcy Piceu and New Zealander Anna Frost ran together, traded leads, had good and bad patches, with Frost emerging the victor.

Mountain and trail running attracts runners of all kinds. Tracksters and marathoners move up, slow folks move in but the culture of the mountains and trails seems to breed one thing: good people. At the Hardrock awards ceremony, the T Shirt of 10 time finisher Billy Simpson said it all, "Train hard & Be Nice." Can we pass those out in Washington DC?

Scott Jurek celebrates

Sunday afternoon was spent hitting refresh hoping to catch the moment when Boulder's Scott Jurek would finally hit the peak of Mt. Katahdin in Maine ending his record attempt of the Appalachian Trail. Yep, the AT. 2189 miles long and Jurek would average just over 47 miles a day. He would fight everything a runner can imagine from exhaustion, to injury, to sickness only to keep moving until the goal was accomplished. Amazing.

Then, from the stories of the amazing, to the story of my running week. Well, for the fourth straight week, I ran 70+ miles. My longest run was a trail run Sunday of 13. As always, most of my time was spent in the Cherry Creek State Park. The CCSP is a wonderful place in the South end of the Denver Metro area surrounding the Cherry Creek Reservoir. It is a refuge of the country in the middle of the urban sprawl which the Front Range has become. I consider it a blessing.

This next week will be spent primarily at sea level. One of two things could happen: an easy recovery week, or some take-advantage-of-the-oxygen mileage week. Hopefully a run up Mt Tamalpais will be included either way.

Four short weeks until the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon and four more after that until the Imogene Pass Run. Excited, but much training left to do, and pounds to shed. Down to 195.6 which is a drop of 33 since the beginning of April. I would like to be at 185 by Georgetown and 175 by Imogene. Then will see where it goes.

Run on!