Buena Vista to Poncha Springs- Poncha Summit and Beyond- Step 10

Buena Vista past Poncha Springs

   Emily carried me through probably the toughest section of this run to date on Wednesday. The thing is, no one knew it was going to be the toughest section. We thought it was just another flat run heading out of Buena Vista and on southward to Poncha. And it was for the first little bit... In fact I was running down the side of the highway ticking off some nice downhill miles and spending some time inside my head- all systems go- green lights. Emily was on a conference call in the crew car and getting ready to join me in a couple miles (As I recently said on a Twitter post- I have the easiest job in this thing; I wake up and run. Emily is working her phone and laptop, cooking, taking care of me and running huge miles along side me everyday) So here I am running downhill and I see a moderate climb coming in the distance- no big deal I thought, I love the uphill stuff. I put it in a "low gear" and worked my way along the winding uphill grade. As I reached the summit of the climb Em was off the phone and ready to join me for the rest of the day.

  The first thing I noticed after Emily and I started ruining was the extremely long climb lurking in the distance now from this new perspective- nice treat to go with the fierce head wind that seemed to come out of nowhere about 10 minutes earlier. But, hey we are ultra runners, right? This is what we do. We ran down the rolling hill a short distance and then up the long rise before us until we eventually reached the precipice. But each time we thought we were done going up we hit another long climb. One after another we tackled the hills. It was fantastic. I loved every minute of it and wouldn't have changed it for the world. We finished the last climb just outside of Poncha Springs and celebrated another victory- about 30 miles more in the bank. Emily is a machine.

   The evening was tough because Emily had to get back to Denver to work and she obviously was torn by having to leave me for a day. The thought of being without her for even just one day was sad and scary to me, but I encouraged her to take care of business and get back ASAP. She set me on the couch, cleaned the entire house, took care of all the gear, and made sure I was taken care of before she left to Denver.


Poncha Summit to "Parts Unknown"

    "Whats an ultra between friends?" I said as we finished our run today...

     Alan Greening has been a a great friend of mine who I can always count on to do something crazy with me.... The weird thing is- its been that way since the first time I met him. We met at my 40 mile birthday run when he drove all the way out to the Parker Life Time Fitness at 4am to run with a guy he never met. Personally I think he is just about 90% mental. Anyway, Alan drove out to meet me in Poncha Springs at the butt crack of dawn and I was very thankful to see him there. Initially, he told me he was planning on knocking out a few miles with me and getting back to Denver at some reasonable time- after all he does have a marathon to run on Sunday...

   Today our run started with a straight uphill climb from about 7400 feet to 9010 feet. Alan and I started with a slow uphill jog and mixed in some power hiking to get warm. We knocked out the 6 mile climb to the summit seemingly in no time. Luckily we both like to hear ourselves talk so the banter was unending. After the climb we had an absolute "make my whole week" kind of miracle... the wind was at our back! We decided to take advantage of this aid and we set off running. As a result we knocked out 15 miles like it was a walk in the park. The nice thing about having one of those triathlete guys around is getting kept up to date on all of my paces and distances as we moved (in kilometers and miles no less)...
    After a while my knee started to tighten from the downhill running so we slowed it down a bit. But we did manage to keep a strong and steady pace all day. The biggest surprise came when Nancy Rhodes came jumping out of a car along side the Hwy at about 26 miles in to the run. The surprise comes because we were in the absolute middle of nowhere and we were not expecting her- She ran up to us and we exchanged some laughs and hugs before she jumped back into her truck and out of sight. That gave us our last needed boost of energy to finish off our 30 miles for the day. Alan told me this was his longest run ever and first ultra run. He is a genuine badass athlete and a good guy too. He told me to not mention our Broke Back Mountain moment so I wont...

   On a serious note- I need to mention my Dad. As always he was on hand all day to drive and crew and make sure we had everything we needed. He is a great man- and I love him dearly. Everything I know about being a father and pushing on thorough hard times came from him- you are the best Dad.


Stepping on...

"Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it"

     I have continued to take inventory everyday of this run. In fact in many ways for me this step has been my mission throughout this 300+ miles journey. I am not afraid to look into my heart and see whats there. Not because I am confident that everything I do or think is pure- but because there is no truth that I wouldn't rather know than not know. I am aware that as a man, and an addict in recovery especially, that I am capable of being incredibly short sighted at times. I can easily get off track if I don't regularly stop and look around for a land mark and check it against my map.  For me the map and direction is simple- Am I living the life that I would have for my children? Is my behavior something that I can gladly and openly share with others? And is what I am doing having a positive impact on others? If I get yeses- I keep moving forward. If I don't, its time to bring in my spiritual accounts and do another inventory...