Trail Around Boulder Prologue
By the time I reached Eagle Trailhead, I was already struggling. The bonus oranges I packed to reward myself at mini-milestones, such as covering 20 miles, 25 miles were already gone. As I turned left and headed towards the Boulder Reservoir on the dirt road, I didn’t run anymore. Keeping forward motion was already a challenge. Then I thought about all the great, motivating stories about how other ultrarunners overcame this low point, pushed through and finished gloriously. Then I grabbed my phone and called my wife to come and pick me up. Less, than a half marathon distance into my attempt to cover the Trail Around Boulder was concluded for the day…
I don’t remember exactly when and how I stumbled upon the trailaroundboulder.org website, but as soon as I mapped out the route myself, I knew I wanted to run it. 2015 seemed to be a great year to do that. I was on a roll with a strong, focused training. I was on a mission to finally break four hours in a Marathon distance. A mark I missed previously enough times that it became a trend for me. A trend I wanted to break.
I was scheduled to run the Chicago Marathon, so I thought I can give the Trail Around Boulder (TAB) a try sometime after the Marathon, while I am still in good shape. I was counting on catching the Colorado Fall weather: cool temperatures with sunshine. What a great plan!
After I achieved my goal at the Chicago Marathon, I felt stronger than ever. The TAB was told to be about 37 miles long. I was confident that I can cover an extra 10 miles. Despite of not feeling very well on the morning of my run, I was still confident. I also casually ignored the fact, that I packed the heaviest backpack ever: I have never ran with that much weight on my back. I was planning to have my longest run ever. But as I left the Chautauqua parking lot, I was determined. As I started, I was even jogging uphill, despite the backpack felt too heavy at every step.
Later as I was moving northbound through the Foothills Trail, I was behind schedule. I was doing the math in my head: “Covered this much in this much time, keeping up with this pace, I could be done by…” At the same time I was waiting for that miracle spark to find me that would give me the strength I didn’t expect I will have to work on finding until much-much later that day. That magical spark probably didn’t get the memo as it never showed up. So by the time I reached Eagle Trailhead, I was already way behind schedule and struggling…
My wife drove me home and just like that: my 2015 running season was over.
2016 and 2017 went by without even an attempt. Either due to lack of a proper training cycle, or lack of my confidence or whatever other excuse I could pull out of my sleeves.
Finishing my first 50 miler in 2017 gave me a much needed confidence boost. So heading into 2018, I was already pretty determined to go back and take care of my unfinished business. Maybe sooner than later. Use it as a training run of some sort for other 50 milers I was planning to run in 2018…
Despite of some inconsistencies in my training (most importantly lacking a consistent strength training effort), the first half of the year saw me spending increasing number of hours out on the trails. I ended up setting numerous PRs on local trails. I set PRs on days, I didn’t even expect. At the end of long weekend runs, I felt already stronger and stronger. The training could have been better, but could have been much worse as well. It was good enough. Good enough for me.
I drew up a new plan, secured the necessary “wife-support” and set the date. Rain or shine: June 10, 2018. Leading up to that date, checking the forecast, it was pretty obvious that it will be shine. Maybe even a bit too much of it: temperatures around 90F (32 celsius). We’ll just deal with it! Actually I will just have to deal with it.
So on June 10, 2018 at 5:37AM, two and half years after my failed attempt, I left the Chautauqua parking lot again. I was determined again.
To be continued…