3 months without a post? Are you kidding me? It has been a really busy summer so far with a lot of adventure and good times with the fam. I have run in a few trail races and also climbed quite a few peaks. I need to do a better job of keeping up with this blog (not that anyone is reading it).

Let's start where I left off in mid May. On the 15th I ran in the Grandeur Peak fun run and had an excellent time. The race starts at the grandeur West Ridge trail, climbs up to the summit, then back down to Church Fork, onto the Pipeline Trail, through Rattle Snake Gulch and then back to the trailhead. It is a total of 10 miles and is a TOUGH course, but a lot of fun. Craig told me about the race and I thought it would be a really good prep for Sapper Joe on the 29th.

There were about 75 people in the race and when I arrived at the start they all looked really hardcore and I was nervous. I chatted with my friend Matt for a while and then the race started. I really pushed hard climbing to the peak and all of my hill training over the last few months seemed to pay off, as I was really making good time and passing a lot of people in the way up. Only a few people passed me and I made it to the summit in 1:06 (shattering my previous best time). I was the 26th person to reach the peak, so I was doing really well.

The rest of the run was a bit of a struggle for me and a lot of the faster trail runners passed me. I also stopped a few times to mess with my gear and to take gels, and I just need to learn to get faster at doing these sorts of things on a race. I got passed a lot and ended up coming in 50th place. Not great, but I learned a lot and this little experience would help me a lot at Sapper Joe.

Sapper Joe 30K May 29th, 2010- This would be my first official trail race and I had been looking forward to it for several months. The race is on the Camp Williams base and goes over some very rugged and steep terrain. I knew it was going to be tough, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I ended up taking 26th place and I felt very good about my race. The way that the course is set up I think about 3/4 of it is up hill and it really is a hard slog, but it was FUN. You can read my race report here:

http://scottw.fastrunningblog.com/blog-Sapper-Joe-30K/05-29-2010.html