apAdventures

My buddy John and I ticked off an AMAZING trail run yesterday that’s worthy of a webpost: Sabino Basin. Beginning at the Sabino Canyon visitor center we ran the classic Phoneline Trail up the canyon, continuing up to the West / East Fork junctions in Sabino Basin. Having run Phoneline a bunch (which is beautiful in and of itself), I can’t believe the scenery I was missing further up the canyon all those times. Incredible! Temps were cooler than usual Saturday so with a 6am start conditions couldn’t have been better. And with the trail cutting along the east side of the canyon we had shade for most of the journey. AND, at 13ish miles this was John’s longest trail run to-date! Excellent trail, excellent run. Wooo!

Cranking up the start of the Phoneline Trail

Approaching Sabino Basin

The Basin

A commanding view from the Basin up the West and East Forks

A babbling brook – how’s this for a reward at the turn-around point?!

Awesomely beautiful seed pod

John on the return down Phoneline Trail

posted by arr

Wanted to share a few fun running photos we’ve snapped lately:

Linda and Paul looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the start of a Mt. Lemmon run

My summit pose (lame, I know)

John making construction-cone-orange look good in the mountains

Mountain wildflowers

A break on a stroller run to let a rattlesnake cross our path

A desert tortoise crossing Paul’s path

High desert wildflowers

A trail’s view of Tucson

The Catalina Mountains from the Douglas Springs trailhead

Storm blowing in over the Rincon Mountains

posted by arr

As Linda nears closer to her big 50k, our mileage increases steadily to keep up! This weekend Linda completed a run that Paul and I, and Linda too, have talked about wanting to do for years. Literally, years. The Tanque Verde Ridge run in the Rincon Mountains is a stone’s throw southeast from our home. This one-way 20 miler starts at the end of Speedway Blvd (at 2750 feet), runs all the way up my beloved Douglas Springs Trail past the Douglas Springs Campground (at 6.1 miles and 4800 feet) to Cowhead Saddle (at 8.5 miles and 6100 feet), up to Tanque Verde Peak (at 7049 feet) and then aaaaall the way down the ridge to the Tanque Verde Ridge Trailhead in Saquaro East National Park (back at city level). Oh, and if you want to turn it into a marathon you just tack on the Cactus Forest Trail and run it back to Speedway and make a loop of it. The real reason we’ve never done it is because the start/finish are at a low enough elevation to make it a better winter run than summer (and we all know what and where Paul and I are typically spending our energy on during the winter months…you got it, Hueco!). Linda got her chance though, lucky gal. Thanks to tropical storm Ivo Tucson got some clouds and cooler temps over the weekend. And Linda went for it! And succeeded! Wooo!

We were her support crew for the effort. I ran the first 6.1 miles with her to Douglas Springs Campground, carrying an extra 2 liters of water (in addition to my 2 liters!). Paul ran a couple miles up the end of the ridge to join her on the descent. And Silas and Ivan helped set up a quaint aid station at the Saguaro East parking lot, looking their darned cutest to greet her return. A stellar time was had by all!

Although I will admit – I was quite bummed on my solo 6.1 mile return to the car after seeing Linda off at the Douglas Springs Campground. I was bummed I wasn’t fit enough to join her up and over the ridge. At this rate though, I’ll be plenty fit come November. Just in time for the Hueco season to start! Ahhhh, the vicious yet lovely cycle. I love the desert. 🙂

Ready to rock

And there she goes

Me trying like hell to keep up

Fellow trail user

Low elevation beauty

Trees. Gaining elevation

Linda and I at my turn-around point, the Douglas Springs Campground – which is nothing more than a rundown outhouse, a couple old bear bins and a few posts in the ground designating the campsites.

Only 13.9 to go Linda!

Fuel up girl. I didn’t haul that extra 2 liters up her for nothin.’ 😉

A view of Tucson and the Catalina Mountains on my lonely descent

Silas and Ivan’s aid station. They kept wanting to eat all the pretzels!

A tortoise dropping by for a snack

No pretzels for you Mr. Tortoise. Enjoy a tasty leaf instead.

The finish! She made it…woo! Nice work girl.

posted by arr

Linda and I bagged Mt. Guthrie last weekend. A nice little run. Nothing big or epic, just a modest 6 miles roundtrip from the Lower Green Mountain Trailhead. Nothing at all compared to the 9 mountain miles my legs just ran this morning, the heinous 7 Butterfly Trail miles Paul’s legs ran, and the 17.8 miles Linda ran!!!!! Yes, you read that right. Linda is training for the Water is Life 50k. We’re not. But what’s convenient about this situation is that Paul and I can tag team Linda’s training runs and do kid trade-off! It’s a beautiful thing, really. We gotta get Linda to sign up for more of these ultra’s, hehe.

This morning’s run began with Linda and Paul running the Butterfly Trail one-way from Mt. Bigelow. From either end the trail plunges down, WAAAAY down in elevation. And then you have to climb back up, WAAAAY up. Each of us had dabbled a bit on both ends at one time or another, but only traveling a mile or two down-trail. None of us had ever tried to run the whole thing…probably just because of the logistics of it being a one-way endeavor.

Overgrown, hot, steep, hard and so-not-fun was their account this morning when the kids and I met them at the finish. Guess that wasn’t a good game plan after all. I suppose there’s a reason why you never hear of anyone running the Butterfly Trail, haha. (Note: On the drive back down the mountain however, Paul admitted that he actually kinda enjoyed it a little and would run it again. 🙂

From their finish at the Butterfly Trailhead it was kid and runner trade-off time. I handed the boys over to Paul, tied my shoes on and continued with Linda on our “Mt. Lemmon Classic” loop. This is a loop we’ve all done many times, thanks to our good buddy Courtney for taking us on it for the first time. We usually park at the Butterfly Trailhead (cause it has a better vibe, as Courtney says…and he’s right), then cross the road to the Sunset Trailhead and start there. Thanks to our genius plan we were already in position. Linda and I ran Sunset Trail down to Marshall’s Gulch, then on a whim decided to add some extra mileage and took Aspen Trail (we usually take Marshall’s Gulch Trail) up to the junction. From there we continued on Aspen up to the summit of Mt. Lemmon, then down the backside via the Aspen Draw trail, over to Summerhaven, through town and down the pavement back to Marshall’s Gulch. I met Paul and the kids at the Gulch and called it quits and Linda continued on, taking the Sunset Trail back to where her and I started (and her and Paul finished earlier that morning). Whew!

Meanwhile, Hueco training is underway. We did some work on our rings yesterday (pushups, tuck levers, L-sits, jackknifes, etc). I think every single muscle in my body is sore right now. Including my butt cheeks. What the?

Linda approaching the Guthrie Summit on last weekend’s run

Running buddies

Ok, so the Guthrie summit isn’t quite as amazing as I’m making it out to be. It’s more like a ridge, or a bump maybe, just one of the many in the Catalina Mountains

But the view is pretty sweet

We’ll soon be calling her our ultra-running buddy

Silas and Ivan at the top of the Butterfly Trail this morning anticipating dad & Linda’s sweaty arrival

Linda kicking my butt on the Aspen Trail (ahead in blue). Ok, so she kicked my butt on the whole run but I’m not training for a 50k so that’s my excuse. 😛

posted by arr

Last Christmas we did a run with our sister-in-law Francine and the Pittsburgh Fleet Feet runners. They do a run every Sunday so we decided to show up and run together with Francine.

This run was dedicated to historian David McCullough, shown here. He turned 80 this day and Pittsburgh renamed the 16th Street Bridge in his honor

Francine in pink, Paul in orange

And afterwards all runners got $1 biscotti at Enrico’s!!!!!! YES.

posted by arr

Ahhh, we’re east.

posted by arr

To break up the 3000 miles of highway a little bit we opted for a quick detour into Rocky Mountain National Park. Having driven through the night to get there, we couldn’t believe our luck at finding a quiet, comfortable campsite without house-sized RVs obstructing our view of the mountains. This trip was starting off well!

Surrounded by mountain beauty that we were anxious to get into ASAP, we struggled a bit with how to spend our 1 full day in the park. This was our first time in RMNP with the kids. Pre-kids we would have likely conjured up some insane near-vertical hike over our morning coffee that would have most definitely involved peak bagging or high elevation bouldering – a full day affair for certain, with us rolling into our sleeping bags well after dark. With Silas too big to be carried in a pack now however we …for the first time… felt a bit limited.

We left the crashpads at home (figuring we could bum one off our Pittsburgh peeps should we boulder while east). Plus Paul is currently taking a few weeks off from climbing to let a tweaked finger rest up. So the bouldering option wasn’t very desirable.

We could try a big hike and if Silas got tired Paul could shoulder him. But hearing Silas ask to get carried just walking around the rolling hills of the campsite quickly instilled doubt with that option. Silas is a pretty darn good little hiker if I might say so myself. But with the elevation, Paul would probably be carrying him for the entire hike….decreasing the fun factor just a tad.

We could always do a little short 1 mile stroll…to a small lake or something. Yeah. I suppose we could. But that’s…well…just not our style. 😉

So after much deliberation, we decided upon this: We’d find a lesser-traveled mountain road that we could run pushing both kids in the double B.O.B stroller. Again, we completely lucked out. The Old Fall River Road that winds its way up to the Alpine Visitor Center was still closed for the season, meaning a wide dirt road, uphill (but still run-able) with steep switchbacks, incredible vistas, no cars and no people!!! Excellent choice.

Hello mountains

posted by arr

Reason #11… why my kids are making me a better runner:

Because sometimes random things drop out of the stroller that need a go-back for retrieval. Toys, books, shoes, articles of clothing. Today it was a piece of twine. And not just any twine. It was about a 1 foot segment of the twine that held the Christmas tree to the top of our car on the way home from the tree lot. A neglected piece that didn’t make it to the trash can that was picked up by small hands and pocketed. A very special piece of twine. Perhaps a magical piece even. This time, Silas didn’t notice that he dropped it right away. He wasn’t sure when he dropped it. He just started yelling “Stop mama! STOP!!!! Go back. GO BACK! It’s back there. Waaaaay back there!” I doubled back a little. No twine. I went a little further. No twine. I asked him when he had it last. “Way back. Waaaaay back!” I wasn’t far into the run and selfishly just wanted to get moving so I tried convincing him that we would stop and look for it on our return (since we were doing an out-and-back). He started crying. I got annoyed and repeated my promise to find it later. He cried harder. The real cry, not the fake cry that we sometimes get when he wants his way. I can tell the difference. This was a sad sobber. Afterall, it was the special twine. The Christmas tree twine. Seriously mama. I went back further. Further, further, further until we were basically almost back to the house. Still no twine. “The wind must have blown it away, Silas.” Surprisingly this sat ok with him. I guess he’s realist, like his parents. There was simply no explanation other than the wind and now there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s gone. We turned back around to basically re-start our run (after 1 mile of backtracking) and he sat quietly.

Then….low and behold….we get almost to the exact spot where we had turned around in the first place and there, on the side of the trail, was the little piece of twine. Just sitting there, wiggling a bit with the wind, and definitely looking very lost and lonely. Silas went nuts, hugging his little lost treasure.

We continue our run and all is well, although I notice that Silas isn’t his normal chatterbox-self. I figure he’s still having his moment with his lost twine.

Then, finally, after about 10 minutes Silas says:

“Thanks mama. You were very helpful to me.”

My heart melts.

posted by arr

The big day finally arrived – last Saturday was Imogene Pass Run. And…well…I finished it!! Woohoo!!!! With my dear friends and family cheering me on as I came barreling down the homestretch into town, I crossed the finish line 9 minutes under my goal of completing it in 5 hours. I call that buffer of 9 minutes “finishing by the skin of my teeth.” Our buddy Courtney calls it “overtraining”, haha. Either way, I’m psyched. One week later I’m still smiling just thinking about it (and still sore!) And as is always the case after completing something that really pushes one’s limit, I’m already dreaming about how stellar it would be to shave an hour off my time in Imogene 2013. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?! 🙂

Here’s a recap of the weekend’s race:

The little guy who started it all. 4 months ago the last thing on my mind was running Imogene. (Ok, that was just a teensy bit of a lie. I was in fact fantasizing about it just a tad, couch-bound with a newborn in my arms)

Catching our first glimpse of some Colorado mountains on our drive in. Right about now I’m looking over my mile splits and having serious doubts about having not trained nearly enough. Yes people, I actually figured out mile splits….as lame as that may sound. I was petrified of getting turned around at the cutoff points for not moving fast enough!

Silas psyched to be in the mountains and ready to cheer mama on with his coined phrase “Go mama! Run faster!!”

Approaching Telluride around noon on Friday. The lowest part of the ridgeline in this photo is where the pass is.

This time we decided to stay in Telluride (the finish line) versus Ouray (the starting line), thinking that it would be awfully nice to just be able to roll over to our accommodations after the run versus having to get in the car for a 45 min drive back to Ouray. What we hadn’t considered was having to wake up at 4am Saturday morning (which is 3am Tucson time!) to catch the runner’s bus to Ouray.

First line of business: race registration. As we mosey around town we can’t help but notice that Telluride is packed with incredibly fit-looking human beings, most likely here for the race. And a remarkable number of them with kids! And little babies! Maybe I’m not too out of my league after all…

…and then I catch a glimpse of this: the supplies for each aid station, lined up under these signs outlining mileage and elevation. My heart leaps just a little at the thought of these supplies being shuttled high up into the mountains later that afternoon/early evening by race volunteers on some bouncing, rugged truck; and then sitting there all night as the temps dropped below freezing, awaiting my arrival the next day.

Help!

Next line of business: Checking into our big fancy condo in the town of Mountain Village just above Telluride. The place was huge and the view from the couch, gorgeous.

It comfortably housed 8 adults and 5 kids and we each had our own bathrooms….sweet. The crew contained our fam, Mandy’s fam, Linda, my sister Holly and her boyfriend Joe, and the one and only, Courtney.

Silas doing some monkey-hangs in the log-mansion.

Most of you know Paul and I well enough to understand that it simply is not possible for one of us to sit contently as a spectator just watching the other do some sort of massive physical exertion of fun (i.e. run, climb, hike, etc.) without getting in on the action. This time was no exception. As soon as we got settled into the condo Paul was chomping at the bit to go off on a big solo run of his own (having not entered the race on account of designated kid-duty). From the front door of our condo he hopped on a ski slope and ran up to the See Forever Trail, shown here, hoping to bag an ascent of Palmyra Peak – 13,320 feet.

Although he didn’t quite make it to Palmyra Peak (shown in background), he claimed he had a great run nonetheless. He did about 10 miles and reached just under 13k.

From the See Forever Trail, you can…uh, for lack of a better term,…see forever. Paul was able to see almost the entire Telluride-side of the course. In this photo you can see part of the town of Telluride. Near the lower left corner of the photo you can see a jeep trail cutting from Telluride up the hillside, angling left to right below the red cliffs. This is the course. Keep following the trail and see how it switch-backs up through the mountains. The pass is in the upper right corner of the photo, hidden behind some peaks in the foreground.

Meanwhile, while Paul was running, Silas, Ivan and I did some exploring of our own of Mountain Village.

Paul kept us up-to-date with his trail progress via email and some photos so we were actually able to pick out the peak he was attempting from town – the rocky summit in the photo is Palmyra Peak.

Silas had never seen a gondola before so we spent a great deal of time inspecting this one that connects Mountain Village to Telluride from all angles, including the loading/dropoff station.

To our delight, we learned that it was free to ride the gondola (FREE?! In a ski village?! I kid you not.) So we rode it just for fun. Better than an amusement park.

Some time later Paul stumbled back to the condo and spent the rest of the evening dead-tired and nauseous (typical for Paul when he runs something big).

And then it was race day. Here is Linda, Mandy and I in the Ouray Community Center keeping warm before the start.

Approaching the starting line.

And we’re running! Or, well, walking as fast as physically possible – as shown in this pic.

A photo I snapped of the pass (over 2 miles and 2,000 feet of elevation away) just as we were leaving Upper Camp Bird aid station where, according to an extremely loud and jolly aid station volunteer, “the temperature is 80 degrees!!!” and “it’s all downhill from here!!!” with a promise of “all the beer in the bars in Telluride will be FREE!!!!!”
From this spot I could just barely see the little ant-sized runners making their way up to the pass. Obviously they were too far and too high away to show up in this photo. (Gulp).

Linda snapped this photo of the Imogene Pass aid station. At this point in the race she is significantly ahead of Mandy and I.

Another photo of the Imogene Pass aid station.

Next Mandy makes it to the pass and then finally me. Here we both are at the pass together. My lower back was in a significant amount of pain from all the uphill and I could tell Mandy was a bit concerned as to whether I’d be able to make it down. Luckily they had hot chicken noodle soup, peanut M&M’s and pain pills at the aid station.

The view from the pass down to Telluride, 7 miles away. ‘You could be done with this in an hour’ I tell myself.

And just over an hour, I am indeed DONE! Super cheese photo of me running by the gang down to the finish line.

And here comes Mandy not a minute behind me. Let me just point out that she too had a baby not more than 6 months ago. And, having never done a mountain run of quite this magnitude, she impressed us all – totally rocking it to the finish looking fresh as a daisy. Nice, Mandy!

The runner gals celebrating our victory. Linda, the natural-born-runner she is, finished in under 4 hours…even taking a few minutes off last year’s time! And, like last year, barely trained!!

Yeah baby! See ya next year Imogene!

posted by arr

#10. Because pushing two kids isn’t easy, despite the fancy, expensive, lightweight, smooth-rolling rig (B.O.B. Ironman Duallie, aka “Double Bob” in our household). All the roads around here are flat too – and it’s still hard!

#9. Because I need to beat the heat. To run in the summer in Tucson means one either has to get up early and get out and back home before it starts to cook, or suffer later in the day and be cooked. So running with the kids means buckling them in the stroller as soon as Silas gobbles up his breakfast in the morning (at the constant “hurry up” urging of his mother) and running like a bat out of hell to get back home ASAP before the thermostat creeps any higher into the danger zone. If we can wrap up the morning’s run before 8am, we’re usually pretty good. Toasty, but no where near cooked.

#8. Because Ivan is getting heavier by the day.

#7. Because mud puddles after a rainstorm are kid-magnets. Rain is rare here. And getting to splash in a mud puddle, even rarer. After a good rain Silas commands the stroller be steered through every. single. puddle.

#6. Because it’s windy sometimes. Wind + Double Bob = no further explanation needed.

#5. Because if there’s any sort of construction vehicle anywhere in sight, it requires a closer look. ‘Anywhere in sight’ is literal – Silas has an eagle eye. Our runs have made many a lengthy detour.

#4. Because my 2 year old likes to talk. ALOT. And not just chatter to himself. He has to ask questions and requires responses. And if he’s not asking questions and just making a comment, he still requires a response. And if I don’t respond, he’ll just repeat. And repeat and repeat and repeat. A typical conversation while out on a run:

Silas: “What’s that sound mama?”
Mama: “Probably someone’s air conditioner or a pool filter.”
Silas: “A POOL filter, mama?”
Mama: “Yes. I think it’s a pool filter.”
Silas: “(humph). Pool filter.”
Silas: “Is this our turn, mama?”
Mama: “No, not yet. Next turn.”
Silas: “Go faster mama. Catch up to that man.” (referring to some old dude walking his dog in front of us rather slowly)
Mama: “I’m going as fast as I can, baby.”
Silas: “Faster mama! GO FASTER!!!!”
Mama: “Silas, can you just sit quietly please and enjoy the ride?”
Silas: “Okey dokey. That’s a good plan, mama.”
Not 30 seconds later,
Silas: “What’s that sound, mama? A pool filter?”
Mama: (no response).
Silas: “Mama, is that sound a POOL filter?”
Mama: “(sigh) No, it’s an air conditioner.”

Note, this becomes increasingly difficult while pushing the Double Bob through mud puddles on a windy day.

#3. Because when I finally do get a chance to go out on my own without the kiddos, I’m wicked motivated to rip it on the trails.

Note: “rip it” is a relative term here. “Ripping it” for me right now is running what feels to be top speed with perfect form, a long stride, muscles ripped and hard, skin glowing and jiggle-resistant, face calm and totally chill, mind ready for 10 more grueling uphill miles. In all reality, what I’m really doing is just picking up the pace from 10 minute miles down to 9 min 45 sec miles, with maybe only a few inches longer in my stride, muscles that look as though they may have seen more-ripped days, skin beat red and drenched in sweat with those nice crusty, highly noticeable, salt crystals forming on my temples and around my armpits (cause sweat evaporates in the dry desert), face looking like I need a mountain rescue to helicopter me outta here cause I’m about to collapse any second and mind cursing at myself for looking like a poser wearing only a spotsbra and stupid skirt because I’m totally having to suck in the jiggling, deflated baby-pouch around my middle when I pass people.

#2. Because despite my ranting I do really enjoy taking Silas and Ivan out on runs with me. Running through mud puddles has never been so fun and “Run faster mama!” really gets me goin’ some days…even if I’m only stepping up the pace by 15 seconds/mile. These two keep me company and make me smile – and smiling while running can be pretty hard!…given all of the above.

and finally, #1. Because this view of little feet from the cockpit can’t be beat:

posted by arr