INTO EACH LIFE SOME RAIN MUST FALL
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

SOME PEOPLE JUST WALK IN THE RAIN, OTHERS JUST GET WET
– Roger Miller

Well darn they canceled the Quad Rock due to weather. The park managers decided that there would be way too much damage to the trails if they allowed the race to proceed. I guess that is always a potential for any urban trail race. Horsetooth and Lory State Park are very close to Fort Collins and Loveland. So close that they could be considered part of the Fort Collins / Loveland urban corridor. Not only did the park managers close the race to the event, they have closed both parks to everyone this weekend. My guess is that part of this closure is not just related to trail damage but also to potential liability and safety. You get a group of people out running a 25 or 50 mile race in rugged terrain with a lot of climbing, 5500 feet for the 25 miler and 11,000 feet for the 50, and add in the potential for snow and dropping temperatures in the afternoon on Saturday, well there could be some issues. I am writing on Friday afternoon and the temp in Lory State Park at the moment is 44 degree Fahrenheit. This could really lead to some hypothermic situations on Saturday.

I know how I feel after doing a 50 miler in good weather, not sure how I would feel after doing the same distance in challenging weather. It could become an issue of evacuation or rescue? I recall some friends that I made at last year’s Leadville Training Camp, talking about the previous year’s Silver Rush 50 trail race. According to them the race started off in good weather but towards the very end a large thunderstorm rolled in and preceded to drop what appeared to be “Biblical” amounts of rain, falling temperatures and small hail for the last hours of the race. They talked about how it became more of a rescue than a race for a lot of contestants. Or the time talking with a Steamboat Spring resident about the weather issues at the 2012 Run Rabbit Run 50 miler. Again it was during the last part of the race when a weather front moved in and dropped rain, snow, high winds and falling temperatures. Per this individual “the snow was falling sideways” and people were not prepared. Getting everyone off the mountain and accounted for was a huge struggle for race officials. A lot of participants needed to be rescued.

So what do you do when you have all the training in place, you have rested, you got off work, rearranged schedules, and you have put all the pieces in place to get ready for this one big day. And then it gets canceled!! Aggghhhhhhh!! Good question and I do not have the answer at the moment. It is like getting ready for a big wedding but then the bride or the groom backs out? Then what? Have your own party? I think that most trail races go off rain or shine, especially if the weather is good to start with. But when it starts with marginal weather to begin with, and the forecast is for it to get worse? Well then I cannot blame the park and race managers. Looking at the big picture I would make the same decision. I think tomorrow I will have my own party so to speak in Fort Collins. Maybe a 12 or 24 hour run in the city just to see how far I can go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well on a different note. I bit the bullet so to speak. Told myself that I would not pay that much for a sports watch, but what can I say? When my old Garmin Forerunner 101 gave up the ghost I needed a new GPS for training. My first thought was to just replace it with another Garmin which would have been the cheapest thing to do. But after thinking about it for a while I found what I WANTED, not what I needed, I wanted a better sport watch and that is what I got!  Wow I am glad that I did this.  I was currently using a Suunto Vector for elevation gain/loss measurements, a Polar FT4 for heart rate and the old Garmin for distance. After looking at different reviews I decided on a Suunto Ambit 3 Peak. The nice part is that it replaced all three of the above units. I get elevation gain/loss measurements, heart rate and GPS. I have been using it for about 2 weeks with running and biking and so far I am very happy with it. But this was not the best part, during the research part of this purchase, I discovered the Movescount App, the Strava App and the App called “Lose It!” All three of these are amazing apps in and of themselves, but what really makes this cool is that the Apps all connect. The watch with the Movescount, the Movescount with the Strava and the Strava with the Lose It App. I feel that I get the same kind of feedback that I would get with a personnel trainer. Pretty cool. I am guessing that in the next 5 to 10 years, all watches will be App enable and the Apps themselves will be able to communicate with each other. It will probably not be too long before we all have our own personnel trainer so to speak but it will be an AI of some kind. This gives me a weird, scary, cool feeling all wrapped up in one. Only time will tell.

Well that is it for me this week. Stay safe, but play in the rain a little. See ya out there!!

Just a quick note the Quad Rock was reschedule for Sunday June 14th!!  Yea!!