July 26, 2009

I'm in: Pikes Peak Ascent and Grand Canyon

1: Grand Canyon Backpacking Trip

My request for a one week long backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon has been accepted. My trip will take place in late October unless I decide not to go.

2: Pikes Peak Ascent Competitive Entry

A few months ago, I randomly decided to apply for competitive entry into the Pikes Peak Ascent. On Thursday, I got an email from Matt Carpenter informing me that I was selected for free entry into the Race. This is good news but there are two problems:

1. I did not expect to get into the race. Therefore, I have not been training for a high altitude mountain run.

2. The race is in Colorado Springs. Where am I going to stay? and I have to get to Colorado Springs somehow.

3. The race is in 3 weeks. At least I only have to focus for 3 weeks instead of 3 months.

These are not huge problems so as soon as I got the email on Thursday, I made a plan. Here is how the last 3 days went in accordance to my plans:

Thursday Afternoon: Recieved email confirming entry into the race.
Thursday Evening: Ran my first workout in a month: 12 x 2.5 min hill
Friday Evening: Drove to Flagstaff, stopped and ran 50 minutes around Bill Williams Mountain in Williams, camped near Schultz Tank in Flag.
Saturday Morning: Completed the longest run of my life by time, 4:14:32.

My run this morning was EPIC. I completed a 20-25 mile-ish loop in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness which included a summit scramble of Humphrey's Peak, Arizona's Highest point (12,637ft). More to come on this bad boy tommorow when my headache goes away.

5 comments:

  1. Email the promoter and see if you can get host housing. I'm stayin in host housing right now for 2 weeks in bend or (which by the way is an amazing city, mountains, 300 days of sunshine, cool town, river to float on)

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  2. Great job Z. You better be icing those legs!!

    Matt

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  3. Stay with the dickhans! Ha I don't know if they live near there! Miss you Zumm...i am in awww with what you are capable of doing :)

    Love leelee

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  4. You're amazing Zach! Your mom shared your blog with us and it's unbelievable all the crazy stuff you've done. Good luck with the Pike's Peak Ascent. We'll be checkin back for updates! Your neighbors ... the Noyes'

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  5. Hey Zach - good luck - looks like an awesome experience. Will look forward to the blog update ! Sue & Bob McVey

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