Week Ending May 24

Mon noon - 8 miles (1,650 feet). Audra/Horsetooth route. Easy
pm - 6 miles easy at Pineridge

Tues noon - 13.5 miles (2,500 feet). 1:54. Mill Creek/Southridge.
pm - 7.5 miles (~700 feet) on Reservoir Ridge trails with a group from Fort Collins Trail Runners.

Weds noon - 13.5 miles (2,500 feet). 1:59. Mill Creek/Southridge. My legs were really tired on this one, but I pushed on through the fatigue and got it done, despite almost taking the short way home on Spring Creek when the skies opened up and started throwing hail at me. I'm hoping that runs like these are money in the bank for the latter stages of Big Horn, and not stupidity on my part that will lead to burnout. How many days left in May? The mileage and climbing is starting to get old ... fast.
pm - 4 miles. Pineridge.

Got close and personal with my second rattlesnake of the season Wednesday morning. This one was a little closer to home than the trail; right under my neighbors' deck. The snake was pretty tired by the time I got there - he'd been rattling for 20 minutes straight after he was located by Kenny and Amy's dog, Bubba.

He was tired, but pissed

We got him in this box and Kenny relocated him

Current snake count for the season: 4 bull snakes, 2 rattlesnakes and lots of slithery garter snakes (all at Pineridge).

Thurs noon - 8 miles (1,650 feet). 1:12. Audra/Horsetooth route.
pm - 11.5 miles (1,700 feet) easy at Bobcat with Chad. 1:50.

Fri noon - 9 miles easy (1,200 feet). 1:21. Horsetooth - Spring Creek - Stout - Sawmill - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderburg - Horsetooth - home. Originally planned an extra climb on Horsetooth for this one, but was feeling exhausted so cut it short.
Fri pm - 8 miles easy at Pineridge. 59:30.

Sat - 0 miles. On daddy duty most of the day. Although I could probably have squeezed a run in, I felt rest was a much more beneficial option.

Sun - 26.2 miles (~2,000 vertical feet). Wyoming Marathon. 3:12. Went through the motions on this one, but with a small field was still able to pull out the win. Second fastest time over this course (since 2000), but still 10 minutes back on Dave Mackey's 2001 course record (3:02).

Total: 117 miles (14,000 feet of vertical).

Another solid week of running, with all body parts seemingly holding up well. Going through bouts of exhaustion and high energy on my runs. The exhaustion is to be expected as I have never maintained this kind of mileage before, but the energy is a very nice and welcome surprise. Beginning to feel comfortable with running while knackered, which is good news for Big Horn. Going to try and run one more 100+ week and then drop it down significantly - hills included. In May so far, I have covered 390 miles of trail with close to 50,000 feet of climbing. If this doesn't have me ready for Big Horn, I am not quite sure what will.