End of 2025 Musings

Another year down. Another year with very little blogging. I had the best of intentions at the beginning of the year, but it didn’t happen again. But this blog gets like 8 hits a year, so perhaps that’s a factor in the lack of motivation.

Regardless, it was another good year of running. Ran PRs for the 10k (35:13, Bolder Boulder); Half Marathon (either Georgetown to Idaho Springs (1:14:08) or my first half split at NYC (1:16:52), depending on whether you count downhill PRs); the marathon (NYC, 2:38:19), and 50k (3:25:13, on the track, in Salida). Also ran my most miles ever (3,950 and counting). Made top-20 on the all time list for the Bolder Boulder for my age, which was a bucket list item. I’m on a nearly three-year run streak that started February 19th, 2023.

Some other changes went down this year. I’m no longer coaching high school running. I was just too busy with work to handle the full commitment to coaching track, and there were some others that were motivated to take it over, so I only coached part time last year, and I am fully handing over the reins with distance coaching in Salida this spring. There’s some sadness attached to that change, but with changes to my work schedule, I know there’s no way I can handle coaching, my own training, and work without sacrificing quality of attention in one or more of those endeavors. It’s best to let someone else take it over. There are parts of it I will miss (mentoring, getting to know the kids) and there are parts of it I will not (12-15 hour days at meets almost every week from March to May).

Plus, I’ve taken on somewhat of a role in my son’s U6 soccer coaching. That’s super fun. My kid loves that I’m doing it, so even though I’m no soccer expert, it’s rewarding to show up and have fun with the kids.

I went on a long trip this winter. Took the family to Iceland, Barcelona, Istanbul, Copenhagen, and Ireland. It was a fabulous experience, but we’ve since returned to the US and are in Texas visiting the in-laws. Texas is stupid hot right now for December. 

Not much in the way of planning yet for 2026. I hope to run the Bolder Boulder to see if I can crack the top 20 again and then run the Chicago Marathon to see if I can run a PR on a faster course. But other than that, the year is wide open. 

At some point, I’d like to run a fast, low-altitude 10k and half marathon, but no plans in the works right now. And in the back of my head, I have the notion of representing the US at some event or at some distance as a masters runner. I’m thinking I might make a push to make a masters, short-flat ultra race, but nothing definitive planned yet. 

I’m very grateful to be healthy and improving. Running is fun and rewarding right now. I try not to take that for granted.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Bolder Boulder 10k; 35:13; 1st Age Group

I ran the Bolder Boulder for the first time since middle school on Monday. It was fun, and I had a good race. I ran 35:13, which won my age group (age 47, BB does it by your exact age). 

The Bolder Bouder was the first race I ever ran in Colorado, back in 1990, if I remember correctly. A kid named Kevin Blue moved from Greeley to my elementary school in Lone Tree and tried to recruit someone to run with him. My older sister ran cross country and track at the time, and so I was curious about trying it myself, and I gave it a go. I think I ran 49 minutes and he ran 41 minutes. I’ve been a runner ever since. 

The race was more or less how I remembered it, all these years later. But this was my first time in the A wave, I think. The start was high energy, frenetic, and chaotic. I lined up right behind one of the banana men, and the race went off more like a XC race than a typical road race. But I settled into a groove after a couple of hundred meters. 

I think I paced the race well. I hit the 5k in 17:41, then I picked things up a bit through the next couple of miles. It started to rain pretty heavily toward the end of the race. I don’t think the rain impacted performance much, except for when we got into the stadium and had to run on the tarp. Supershoes and a slick, wet tarp are a bad combination, but I didn’t see anyone go down, perhaps surprisingly. 

I haven’t run a ton of 10ks in my life, so that is a lifetime PR for me. Makes me think I could go sub-35 at low altitude, maybe even sub 34 if conditions were perfect on the right course. 

My time this year puts me #14 all time for 47-year-olds. So I get to have my name here for at least a few years. On that 40-49 .pdf, I see a lot of names of people I have considered heroes or have revered with a sense of awe: Frank Shorter, Doug Bell, Ardel Boes, Pablo Vigil, Herb Lindsey, Ric Rojas, Dave Dooley, Todd Straka, Melody Fairchild, Colleen De Reuck, Ellen Hart-Pena, Clint Wells, Frank Richardson, Simon Gutierrez, Bernie Boettcher. 

I’m not in their league, but it’s cool to have my name somewhere in their vicinity, at least for a little while. 

That Kevin Blue kid (he called himself “Cup” Blue, for some stupid reason) has always been on those lists dating back to when we ran together. I was always a bit envious of that. Perhaps poignantly, I think he got booted off the 11-year-old list this year for good. His 41-minute 11-year-old time no longer makes the cut. He quit running a looong time ago. But it's funny to me that the person who first got me into running got knocked off those lists at the exact same time I was able to make my way on to those lists, a full 35 years later. 

End of 2024/Start of 2025 Musings

2024 was the best year I ever had as a runner. 

It was the most miles I ever ran in a year, with 3563 miles. That’s 500 more than my previous best, which was 2023, when I ran just over 3000 miles. And it was my best year in terms of races and results. CIM was likely my best age-graded result of all time. GTIS wasn’t too far behind. And I wasn’t far off the course record at the Spiral Drive race. The Vail Hill Climb was good but not great. But there were no bad races this year. And I’ve had my fair share of crappy races in the past. 

I discovered in my 40s that I respond well to volume and threshold training. Admittedly, I’m not sure I had any understanding of what threshold training even was before my 40s, but now that I do, I’m finding that I can do more volume and quality than I ever thought possible. And I can be a better runner than I previously thought possible, as well. In my early 30s, I set a goal to run 16:59/35:59/1:19/2:49. I never ran any of those times in my 30s, but I blew all those times out of the water in my 40s. That was my bucket list of times in 2013. I ran them all in 2023 and 2024. And 2:39? I never saw that one coming. 

2024 was also a very good year for me as a coach. 

There were two notable coaching moments this year. 

I coached a local runner named Kristine Clark to two world championship golds at the World Masters Athletics Championships. Kris is 61, and she proved herself to be the best distance runner in her age group worldwide this year. Among Kris’s accomplishments: Fastest age-graded time at the Carlsbad 5000 (19:26 – converts to just over 15-flat age graded); Fastest women’s over-60 time in Bolder Boulder history by almost two minutes (42:10); World Championship Record in the 5000 at the WMAC in Gothenburg, Sweden (19:28 in muggy conditions); World XC Champ in the 8k. 

Kris was a superstar before I started coaching her. But my main contribution to her training, I think, was keeping her healthy enough to show off how strong of a runner she is. She had a great six months of training with no injuries from January through July. That’s all she needed to set the gold standard in her age group. 

The other big highlight was coaching (as an assistant) the Salida boys XC team to a 3A state championship. I can’t take too much credit for this one, since I was only a part-time assistant, but it was certainly fun being along for the ride there as well. That team came really close in 2021 (best ever team score for 2nd place), but this year they got it done. Salida is small for its class, and always competes against private schools that draw from a wider geographic area (teams 2-5 this year 3A all had the word “Academy” in their name). It was good to see those kids get the reward they deserved.

What’s new for 2025? Running-wise, not much. More of the same. In terms of races, I plan to race the Vail Hill Climb and the NYC marathon. Other than that, maybe Imogene Pass and the Bolder Boulder. I will likely be extremely busy with work the first four months of the year, so that could impact my training and coaching. I'd like to run a fast low-altitude 10k and half marathon at some stage, but haven't had time to plan anything yet.

I also hope to write more in 2025. I enjoy doing it, here and elsewhere. We’ll see if I can bang out a few more words with more consistency.

Feels weird to report this much positivity in a blog here. I feel like the first 12 years of this blog were a string of excuses for why I wasn’t as good of a runner as I wanted to be. Now it’s all coming up roses. Gotta enjoy it while it lasts, because you know it won’t last forever. 

CIM, 2:39:19; 6th in 45-49

Well, I worked hard for that one. Both in training and on the day. 

Between GTIS and CIM, I had the best training block of my life, by far. I averaged well over 80 miles a week for 15 weeks, usually with one quality long run (18-24 miles at around 7’ pace) and one quality workout, usually getting between 24-30k of quality on the track. I did three key workouts, 6k, 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k, w/ a 1k float, averaging 6:21, the same, but with a 7k to start, averaging 6:25. And then I did a full marathon on the track in 2:54 & change. All my training is on Strava these days, if you're curious.

Given the fact that I had already run a marathon PR in training, I knew that I was in shape. But had been dealing with some crazy work stress and travel the last few weeks. In spite of the great training block, I came into race day running on fumes a bit.

Thanks to some sage advice from a HS friend, I started conservatively, and I think that paid off. Got too excited mid race, though. Miles 10, 11, 12, and 13 (rolling hills) were 5:55, 5:52, 5:59, and 5:57. That was needlessly aggressive. Still felt strong through 21 or so, but around there, I started to feel some cramping. All the track workouts did not prepare me for the rollers. Managed to hold it together for solid running through 40k, but the last 2k I was in severe pain and holding on for dear life. But hang on for dear life I did. 2:39:19. All but mile 9 (mostly uphill with a water station incident) and mile 26 were under 6:10.

Considering my “A” goal going into this block was sub-2:45, I’ll say this was a win. To get a PR at my age, you need to work hard and get lucky, and I feel like both happened here. Very fortunate to avoid injuries and major illness in this block. Sometimes, things just work out. You have to appreciate the moments when they do. 

Never occurred to me that I might have a chance to age group podium at a major race like that, but I was less than 70 seconds off 3rd in 45-49.

Kind of crazy the extent to which I’ve leveled up over the last few years. A decade ago, 6:03 was my 5k pace. Now it’s my marathon pace. That’s not supposed to happen at my age. But I think I’ve gotten smarter (and more committed) about training as I’ve aged, and that’s offset the natural decline associated with aging. 

I think my time qualifies me to compete at the Age Group World Marathon Majors Championships in NYC next year. Assuming I’m correct about that, that will be my next marathon. 

Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon - 1:17:44; 1st Masters, 2nd Overall

The first time I ran a half marathon was in middle school at the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. I think I ran 2:03 or so. 

When I was making a calendar for the year, and I wanted to put some faster but longer races on the calendar, this one came to mind. 

Results here.

I've had a great build up this summer. I've been knocking out 60-75 mile weeks with 2 threshold workouts a week plus a long run, which I've built up to as high as 21 miles. Most weeks I do 2 to 2.5 hour long runs on the dirt roads around here. Based on the metrics I'm seeing on my easy days and thresholds, I've felt confident for a while that I'm in the best shape of my life aerobically, and so it was just a matter of getting out there and showing it. 

With my training lately, I've developed a pretty good sense of what heart rate ranges I can maintain for different periods of time. And so I ran the first mile w/ my HR peaking out at 160, then let it drift into the high 160s the next five miles, and then watched it drift into the low 170s. 

I probably slightly overcooked the pacing, as I was struggling the last few miles. My relative pacing faded slightly. But not drastically so. 

It was a big field, with over 1100 runners, but not a ton of people around me. There was one woman who leapfrogged me a few times over the first few miles, but I passed her for good around mile six. The guy who won was over five minutes ahead of me. Other than that, I didn't see anyone after the first 200 meters. 

The course was net downhill, but with some serious rollers, particularly in the last mile. Checking with the people around me at the finish, it seems like the course runs slightly slower than a flat low-altitude half marathon, with the altitude and the rollers more or less canceling out the net downhill. Course was also about .1 short, so right around 13 miles. Honestly, it feels like correctly measured courses are the exception these days. 

Either way, I'm happy with the result. Very pleased that I'm still able to tick off a few personal bests in my advancing years.

454

That’s how many days in a row I’ve run, which is the longest streak I’ve ever had. My prior longest streak was 453, which I had going when I was in 8th and 9th grade. Yeah, I've been running for a while.

This wasn’t something I set out to do. But I got on a roll last year, and I’ve just kept it going. I had a couple of 12-minute mile treadmill jogs when sick last winter, and a couple of 4:30 am 20-minute runs before travel, but other than that, it’s been no big deal keeping it going. 

Not sure how long it’ll stay intact, but I’ll keep it going as long as I don’t have to make any unreasonable sacrifices. 

I find that keeping my easy days super easy allows me to run every day, with decent volume, and without getting injured (knock on wood). And I was not always so injury free. Unless I go down in altitude, I never run faster than 8-minute pace on my easy days. I just get out and shuffle for an hour on my easy days, and that keeps me reasonably fit and healthy. 

And of course there’s a luck component to this as well. I’d be naïve to think otherwise. Either way, fingers crossed this streak of luck continues for a while longer.  

Spiral Drive Race; 1st place, 25:17

Ran a race on Saturday. It was the Spiral Drive 4 mile in Salida (actually 4.08 by my watch). Race goes 540 ft. up to the top of the iconic Tenderfoot Mountain and then back down on a dirt road.

No track meet this weekend with high school prom in Salida, so I figured I’d give it a go. 

In terms of competition, the race was led out by Jaeson Murphy, who is a two-time top-ten Hardrock guy, Leadville top-20, and otherwise rock-solid mountain trail guy. He’s got some decent wheels and he went out super quick. I knew my fitness well, and so just let him go, but he came back to me pretty quickly. Passed him at about a mile and then led the rest of the way. 

The last time I ran this race, I led to the top and then got beaten on the way down, so I ran scared the whole way down. 

I got to the final turn in 23:3x, which is about a quarter mile from the finish. I figured it wasn’t crazy that I could close in under 5:20 pace and get the course record, which is Tom Sobal’s 24:57 from 2003. But there was a gusty east-west wind that put an end to that fantasy, and I let go of the rope the last 200. 

I finished in 25:17, which is nearly 40 seconds faster than I ran six years ago, in worse conditions. Won by about a minute over Jaeson. 6:40, 7:18 up then 5:26, 5:19 down, with a 30-second last .8 where I was toasted. 6:10 pace average for the distance.

I thought it was a fun, well-organized, low-key race. I’ve run with Jaeson before, but I had never raced him, so that was fun, too.

I probably won’t race again for a couple of months with the end of track season, and I will probably transition to some longer mountain stuff over the summer. We’ll see if the fitness I have developed over shorter distances will translate.