Life I'm a badass mofo. Yes, I am. - Page 5

**Rain Man** · 09:53 PM

I did the Pike's Peak Ascent yesterday. I was very uncertain about it because I hurt my knee three months ago and have only done one ten-mile run since April. But based on what I was reading, you end up walking a lot and I thought, "Hey, even if I'm not in running shape I can walk forever", so with great trepidation I went for it, figuring I could walk it if I had to. I figured I could walk it in 4.5 to 5 hours even with no running. Not quite, and I finished in the bottom ten percent of runners, but hey, I'm proud as heck to have made it.

This is not your normal half-marathon. It's a 13.32 mile race that has only one hill, but the hill is Pike's Peak. You start at 6,300 feet in altitude and the finish line is the summit of Pike's Peak at 14,115 feet. Other than maybe a quarter-mile it's all uphill.

Holy crap, that was hard. It was crowded and had narrow trails, so it was hard to pass, and actually was almost impossible to pass from Miles 2 through 5. I only ran a couple of miles at most in that phase because I was stuck behind walkers, and that turned out to be a huge hidden blessing. If I had been running in those early miles I'd've never made it to the finish line.

After 8 miles I was still on track to beat 4.5 hours and was feeling good. I was even thinking, "Geez, this is kind of overblown." The funny thing too is that you could hear the finish line announcements at about 7 miles since the sound carried down the mountain, so it didn't seem like you were that far off.

And then all of a sudden it got tough.

By the time I hit Mile 10 I was hurting, and it was all I could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I really wasn't in the shape I needed to be in, and once I hit 10,000 feet that became apparent. You're going uphill constantly and getting less oxygen with every breath and it just keeps getting harder. Other people in my pace group were struggling too, and starting around 9 miles I started seeing people stopping to rest and obviously struggling.

Typically, by the time I'm at the 10 mile mark of a run, I'm about a half-hour from finishing. IT TOOK ME OVER TWO HOURS TO GET THOSE LAST THREE MILES. My lord, that was hard. I wish I had a picture of the view up to the finish line, because it was absolutely indescribable looking up at it. You could kind of see the finish line at the top, but it was about 2,000 feet up, and you could see switchback after switchback after switchback above you with people walking.

The last mile was unbelievable. There were a few other guys pacing with me, and in all seriousness we would go about 200 yards, collapse on the rocks and rest, get up, go about 200 yards, drop down again, and so on. I think my last rest stop was about 200 feet feet from the finish line, but I couldn't do it. I had to stop again to rest up for that last 200 feet. Unbelievable. It took me over 45 minutes to make that last mile. I got to the finish line, walked away, and practically started crying with relief.

This was by far the hardest physical thing I've ever done. Coming down, a couple of guys that finished right behind me said that they run sub-4 hours marathons, and it took them more than 6 hours to get up. (They were both lowlanders from the East, and none of us had trained at altitude, which was a mistake. The uphill was hard, but the altitude was the killer - you're getting about 61 percent of the oxygen you'd get at sea level.) I made it in 5:58:37, about a half-hour ahead of the cutoff. The poor folks who took more than 6.5 hours (and there were a fair amount of them) were out of luck because you have to finish before 6.5 hours to get counted as finishing the race.

First few miles - forgot to keep track
1:22 - 4.3 miles done (19 minute pace) 2,500 feet climbed at this point
1:58 - 6.3 miles done (18 minute pace on these 2 miles)
2:16 - 7.3 miles done (18 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,400 feet or so for 3,900 feet
2:46 - 8.3 miles done (30 minute pace on this mile - what the?)
3:17 - 9.3 miles done (31 minute pace on this mile)
3:55 - 10.3 miles done (38 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,800 feet or so for 5,700 feet
4:34 - 11.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile)
5:13 - 12.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile)
5:58 - 13.3 miles done (45 minute pace on this mile) - Another 2,100 feet up for a total of 7,800 feet

Here are a few links. None come close to describing this thing.

http://fwix.com/coloradosprings/shar...tart_to_finish (The better photos start around Photo 50 unless you like boring pictures of people crossing the finish line.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyUeANHHdac Oddly, this person finished only six places behind me. If he'd started the finish line film 90 seconds earlier I could've heard my name getting called. The first guy whose name you hear was one of the four guys I was walking with at the very end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ3ePjERzWE

http://www.krdo.com/video/24712049/index.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...884547420.html

http://pokingandpeaking.blogspot.com...ak-ascent.html

GloryDayz · 08-19-2011, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Okay, headed up to do this race again. Let's see if I can beat 5:58.

As a bit of trivia, the rules state that you will be disqualified if you carry supplemental oxygen. Seriously.

Sweet...

**TimeForWasp** · 08-20-2011, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

i watched about 5 minutes of a marathon on tv once

You can't eat a marathon fast. I do know that.

Extra Point · 08-20-2011, 07:34 AM

I made it up and down in 5:46, but I was 17 at the time.

Good job!

patteeu · 08-20-2011, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beer me

Rain Man you're like the hot girl who is also nice and has a good personality and a masters degree in 4 different things and makes a mill a year and gives half of it to charity and saves wounded animals and nurses them back to health and volunteers at a soup kitchen on major holidays and has all geeky guy friends because she doesn't like douchebags and sings at church and reads to classrooms of kindergartners and only dates normal guys because again... she doesn't like douchebags... and doesn't think she's that pretty even though she is and doesn't find me creepy at all but rather charming a cute.

We aren't worthy.

Don't you remember the B-17 game?

bishop_74 · 08-20-2011, 12:07 PM

Got a couple of friends up there today. Have fun man.

I can't run that long. I'll just stick to riding up on my bike.

**morphius** · 08-20-2011, 01:43 PM

had a co-worker from KC who said he finished the ascent today in 4:36.

**Rain Man** · 08-20-2011, 09:11 PM

I almost came in last place.

But I had a reason, kind of. Read on if interested.

My time by mile (2011 vs. 2010). The miles are odd because it's a 13.3 mile race and the mileage markers on the course are "xx miles remaining" instead of "xx miles complete".

1.3 (11:55 vs. N/A) - I think they had the mileage sign in the wrong place, because it was a steep uphill and I wasn't running that fast.
2.3 (34:49 vs. N/A) Given the wrong placement of the 1.3 mile sign, no pace reported
3.3 (57:53 vs. N/A) - 23 minute pace
4.3 (1:19 vs. 1:22) - 22 minute pace
5.3 (1:40 vs. N/A) - 21 minute pace
6.3 (1:57 vs. 1:58) - 17 minute pace vs. 18 minutes in 2010
7.3 (2:14 vs. 2:16) - 17 minute pace vs. 18 minutes in 2010
8.3 (2:42 vs. 2:46) - 28 minute pace vs 30 minutes in 2010 (starting up the final slope here)
9.3 (3:16 vs. 3:17) - 34 minute pace vs. 31 minutes in 2010
10.3 (3:50 vs. 3:55) - 34 minute pace vs. 38 minutes in 2010
11.3 (4:43 vs. 4:34) - 53 minute pace vs. 39 minutes in 2010
12.3 (5:37 vs. 5:13) - 54 minute pace vs. 39 minutes in 2010
13.3 (6:25 vs. 5:58) - 48 minute pace vs. 45 minutes in 2010

Now, you'll see that at the 10.3 mile mark I was five minutes ahead of my 2010 pace, so I was sitting pretty. And then something bad happened.

There were aid stations roughly every two miles, where a fellow could refill his water bottle and eat Skittles and grapes and nilla wafers. The water part is really important.

Well, I get to the aid station at about the 9.6 mile mark, and humbly approach them with my nearly empty water bottle. This is a pretty remote location, and they shrug. "We just ran out of water," they say. "You'll have to get it at the 11.6 mile aid station."

Wha-?

That was not good. Not good at all. Starting at about Mile 10, we've already climbed something like 6,000 feet over 10 miles. Worse, the terrain starting at Mile 10 is all above the tree line. There's nothing there but rocks and lichens. So you're in the sun, you're in very high thin air, and you're tired. It sucks the water out of you.

Man, it killed me. Absolutely killed me. I was doing that "guy crawling through desert thing" relatively quickly, and I lost a half hour over those two miles. Absolutely insane. I finally crawled into the 11.6 mile station and foundered myself with water. (As it turned out, they managed to get water at the 9.6 aid station later, so it only affected about a half-hour window of runners.)

Now, the time limit for the race is 6 hours and 30 minutes. You miss that, you don't count. Not a finisher. No medal. Nada. I figured for sure that I was totally screwed and would have to return home in shame.

But the water started kicking in, and I was able to speed up in the last mile or so. It's a brutal ending because it's the final climb to the summit, and the volunteers at the finish line were yelling down for people to hurry up or get kicked out. I stepped up the pace and snuck in at about 6:25. The people finishing 5 minutes behind me were kicked out of the race, so I almost came in last place according to the formal standings.

Holy mother of god, that was hard. I mean, it was really, really hard. Kudoes to people like extra point and morphius' and bishop's friends who can conquer the course, because it kicked my rear end today.

**DaFace** · 08-20-2011, 09:26 PM

Glad you didn't die. You should ask for your money back for them screwing your time with the lack of water.
Posted via Mobile Device

patteeu · 08-20-2011, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaFace

Glad you didn't die. You should ask for your money back for them screwing your time with the lack of water.
Posted via Mobile Device

I agree. Running out of water is pretty ridiculous.

Hydrae · 08-21-2011, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

I agree. Running out of water is pretty ridiculous.

and dangerous.

**cdcox** · 08-21-2011, 12:11 AM

They need more people of German ancestry running the race.

patteeu · 08-21-2011, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdcox

They need more people of German ancestry running the race.

Are Germans good at estimating how much water they need?

**cdcox** · 08-21-2011, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

Are Germans good at estimating how much water they need?

They tend to run things well. That is the good thing about Germans and the bad thing about Germans.

**cdcox** · 08-21-2011, 12:44 AM

Rain Man -- it must have crossed your mind a time or two that they may not have any water at the 11.6 aid station either?

**Rain Man** · 08-21-2011, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hydrae

and dangerous.

Honestly, I seriously was starting to run into trouble. By that point I'd already been going for almost 4 hours.

08-22-2010, 09:40 PM
Rain Man Seize life. Be an ermine. Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $-532449 VARSITY	I'm a badass mofo. Yes, I am. I did the Pike's Peak Ascent yesterday. I was very uncertain about it because I hurt my knee three months ago and have only done one ten-mile run since April. But based on what I was reading, you end up walking a lot and I thought, "Hey, even if I'm not in running shape I can walk forever", so with great trepidation I went for it, figuring I could walk it if I had to. I figured I could walk it in 4.5 to 5 hours even with no running. Not quite, and I finished in the bottom ten percent of runners, but hey, I'm proud as heck to have made it. This is not your normal half-marathon. It's a 13.32 mile race that has only one hill, but the hill is Pike's Peak. You start at 6,300 feet in altitude and the finish line is the summit of Pike's Peak at 14,115 feet. Other than maybe a quarter-mile it's all uphill. Holy crap, that was hard. It was crowded and had narrow trails, so it was hard to pass, and actually was almost impossible to pass from Miles 2 through 5. I only ran a couple of miles at most in that phase because I was stuck behind walkers, and that turned out to be a huge hidden blessing. If I had been running in those early miles I'd've never made it to the finish line. After 8 miles I was still on track to beat 4.5 hours and was feeling good. I was even thinking, "Geez, this is kind of overblown." The funny thing too is that you could hear the finish line announcements at about 7 miles since the sound carried down the mountain, so it didn't seem like you were that far off. And then all of a sudden it got tough. By the time I hit Mile 10 I was hurting, and it was all I could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I really wasn't in the shape I needed to be in, and once I hit 10,000 feet that became apparent. You're going uphill constantly and getting less oxygen with every breath and it just keeps getting harder. Other people in my pace group were struggling too, and starting around 9 miles I started seeing people stopping to rest and obviously struggling. Typically, by the time I'm at the 10 mile mark of a run, I'm about a half-hour from finishing. IT TOOK ME OVER TWO HOURS TO GET THOSE LAST THREE MILES. My lord, that was hard. I wish I had a picture of the view up to the finish line, because it was absolutely indescribable looking up at it. You could kind of see the finish line at the top, but it was about 2,000 feet up, and you could see switchback after switchback after switchback above you with people walking. The last mile was unbelievable. There were a few other guys pacing with me, and in all seriousness we would go about 200 yards, collapse on the rocks and rest, get up, go about 200 yards, drop down again, and so on. I think my last rest stop was about 200 feet feet from the finish line, but I couldn't do it. I had to stop again to rest up for that last 200 feet. Unbelievable. It took me over 45 minutes to make that last mile. I got to the finish line, walked away, and practically started crying with relief. This was by far the hardest physical thing I've ever done. Coming down, a couple of guys that finished right behind me said that they run sub-4 hours marathons, and it took them more than 6 hours to get up. (They were both lowlanders from the East, and none of us had trained at altitude, which was a mistake. The uphill was hard, but the altitude was the killer - you're getting about 61 percent of the oxygen you'd get at sea level.) I made it in 5:58:37, about a half-hour ahead of the cutoff. The poor folks who took more than 6.5 hours (and there were a fair amount of them) were out of luck because you have to finish before 6.5 hours to get counted as finishing the race. First few miles - forgot to keep track 1:22 - 4.3 miles done (19 minute pace) 2,500 feet climbed at this point 1:58 - 6.3 miles done (18 minute pace on these 2 miles) 2:16 - 7.3 miles done (18 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,400 feet or so for 3,900 feet 2:46 - 8.3 miles done (30 minute pace on this mile - what the?) 3:17 - 9.3 miles done (31 minute pace on this mile) 3:55 - 10.3 miles done (38 minute pace on this mile) Another 1,800 feet or so for 5,700 feet 4:34 - 11.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile) 5:13 - 12.3 miles done (39 minute pace on this mile) 5:58 - 13.3 miles done (45 minute pace on this mile) - Another 2,100 feet up for a total of 7,800 feet Here are a few links. None come close to describing this thing. http://fwix.com/coloradosprings/shar...tart_to_finish (The better photos start around Photo 50 unless you like boring pictures of people crossing the finish line.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyUeANHHdac Oddly, this person finished only six places behind me. If he'd started the finish line film 90 seconds earlier I could've heard my name getting called. The first guy whose name you hear was one of the four guys I was walking with at the very end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ3ePjERzWE http://www.krdo.com/video/24712049/index.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...884547420.html http://pokingandpeaking.blogspot.com...ak-ascent.html Last edited by Rain Man; 08-22-2010 at 09:53 PM..
Posts: 145,331

08-20-2011, 07:34 AM	#63
Extra Point MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Prairie Village, KS Casino cash: $10004900	I made it up and down in 5:46, but I was 17 at the time. Good job!
Posts: 7,845

08-20-2011, 12:07 PM	#65
bishop_74 Veteran Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Denver, CO. USA Casino cash: $8654993	Got a couple of friends up there today. Have fun man. I can't run that long. I'll just stick to riding up on my bike.
Posts: 3,642

08-20-2011, 01:43 PM	#66
morphius World's finest morphius Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $5795027	had a co-worker from KC who said he finished the ascent today in 4:36. Last edited by morphius; 08-20-2011 at 02:01 PM..
Posts: 26,022

08-20-2011, 09:11 PM	#67
Rain Man Seize life. Be an ermine. Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $-532449 VARSITY	I almost came in last place. But I had a reason, kind of. Read on if interested. My time by mile (2011 vs. 2010). The miles are odd because it's a 13.3 mile race and the mileage markers on the course are "xx miles remaining" instead of "xx miles complete". 1.3 (11:55 vs. N/A) - I think they had the mileage sign in the wrong place, because it was a steep uphill and I wasn't running that fast. 2.3 (34:49 vs. N/A) Given the wrong placement of the 1.3 mile sign, no pace reported 3.3 (57:53 vs. N/A) - 23 minute pace 4.3 (1:19 vs. 1:22) - 22 minute pace 5.3 (1:40 vs. N/A) - 21 minute pace 6.3 (1:57 vs. 1:58) - 17 minute pace vs. 18 minutes in 2010 7.3 (2:14 vs. 2:16) - 17 minute pace vs. 18 minutes in 2010 8.3 (2:42 vs. 2:46) - 28 minute pace vs 30 minutes in 2010 (starting up the final slope here) 9.3 (3:16 vs. 3:17) - 34 minute pace vs. 31 minutes in 2010 10.3 (3:50 vs. 3:55) - 34 minute pace vs. 38 minutes in 2010 11.3 (4:43 vs. 4:34) - 53 minute pace vs. 39 minutes in 2010 12.3 (5:37 vs. 5:13) - 54 minute pace vs. 39 minutes in 2010 13.3 (6:25 vs. 5:58) - 48 minute pace vs. 45 minutes in 2010 Now, you'll see that at the 10.3 mile mark I was five minutes ahead of my 2010 pace, so I was sitting pretty. And then something bad happened. There were aid stations roughly every two miles, where a fellow could refill his water bottle and eat Skittles and grapes and nilla wafers. The water part is really important. Well, I get to the aid station at about the 9.6 mile mark, and humbly approach them with my nearly empty water bottle. This is a pretty remote location, and they shrug. "We just ran out of water," they say. "You'll have to get it at the 11.6 mile aid station." Wha-? That was not good. Not good at all. Starting at about Mile 10, we've already climbed something like 6,000 feet over 10 miles. Worse, the terrain starting at Mile 10 is all above the tree line. There's nothing there but rocks and lichens. So you're in the sun, you're in very high thin air, and you're tired. It sucks the water out of you. Man, it killed me. Absolutely killed me. I was doing that "guy crawling through desert thing" relatively quickly, and I lost a half hour over those two miles. Absolutely insane. I finally crawled into the 11.6 mile station and foundered myself with water. (As it turned out, they managed to get water at the 9.6 aid station later, so it only affected about a half-hour window of runners.) Now, the time limit for the race is 6 hours and 30 minutes. You miss that, you don't count. Not a finisher. No medal. Nada. I figured for sure that I was totally screwed and would have to return home in shame. But the water started kicking in, and I was able to speed up in the last mile or so. It's a brutal ending because it's the final climb to the summit, and the volunteers at the finish line were yelling down for people to hurry up or get kicked out. I stepped up the pace and snuck in at about 6:25. The people finishing 5 minutes behind me were kicked out of the race, so I almost came in last place according to the formal standings. Holy mother of god, that was hard. I mean, it was really, really hard. Kudoes to people like extra point and morphius' and bishop's friends who can conquer the course, because it kicked my rear end today. __________________ Active fan of the greatest team in NFL history.
Posts: 145,331

08-20-2011, 09:26 PM	#68
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-1733101	Glad you didn't die. You should ask for your money back for them screwing your time with the lack of water. Posted via Mobile Device
Posts: 53,143

08-21-2011, 12:11 AM	#71
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $-488231	They need more people of German ancestry running the race.
Posts: 46,032

08-21-2011, 12:44 AM	#74
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $-488231	Rain Man -- it must have crossed your mind a time or two that they may not have any water at the 11.6 aid station either?
Posts: 46,032