Brandon Fuller

Run: Green Mountain Extended (13.83 mi)

Given last weekend’s snowfest, I was really wanting to “Run Some Fucking Hills” ® today. So I put out the call mid-week. JV and JP bit. We met at Chautauqua at 9 and set out for Green Mountain and then some.

We went straight over to the Gregory Trailhead, made pit stops, and headed up. JV would alternate running with me then with JP as we had a gap between us. Gave the boy something to do as this was below his usual pace. Nice and dry the whole way up today until just before the 4-way where the snow and ice still sat. Hit the top in 45:22. No PR although I felt like I was on it pretty good today. Still too much power hiking happening on this trail.

Self-group-portrait attempts.

It was good to see that ladies were still up high!

We stayed up there for 5 or 10 minutes chatting before heading back down the west side to catch Flagstaff Road. From there we started down the road and then cut over to Flagstaff. JV was talking about Sanitas but JP and I voted for the shorter route. So we went around Flagstaff on this fire road trail. JV said he had to pee so he stopped. JP and I kept rolling because we knew that “Mr. Frog Legs” ® would catch us soon. But he never came. We kept looking and looking. No dice. So we kept slowing. We had just had a big conversation as a group about mountain lions so we figured he finally got eaten. Then suddenly, JV appeared running up the road at us! WTF! I had a hunch. He bushwacked down the steep side and cut over and met us. Nice scratches, Tarzan.

We got down to the Tenderfoot turnoff and JV said we should proceed straight — through the fence with the No Trespassing sign. Smaller signs indicated that bikers would be prosecuted. So we rolled through and motored down. No signs of life. As we near the bottom, I look over and JV is doing a wardrobe change. Removes the hat and puts on his windbreaker. Apparently, now if spotted, he is “that dude”. Once he scampers away from the popo or angry redneck landowner with shotgun (I presume), then he changes back to his other outfit. “Wasn’t me!” would be the claim. I think he has done this before.

So we look down and there is the house and he gives us the “sssshhh” sign. So we quiet down and make it to the fence and JV goes all military and slides under it on his chest and pops back up. I follow, then JP. JP was hanging behind me because I had a camo TNF hydration pack on and he knew it had super powers in which I could not be seen. We made the moves down to the road and never heard a peep. JV transformed back into himself — kinda like how Superman used to wardrobe change running down the street. And we were headed back downhill all legal and shit.

We picked up pace coming back down Canyon and back into Boulder. Then headed up Viewpoint and picked up Flagstaff Trail. Going back uphill after all that downhill was not the best part of the day. My legs like to stay downhill after switching gears. We swooped around and picked up Baseline and ran it back into Chautauqua for a solid 2.5 hours of mountain running. I claimed the finish line was this random pole so I claimed the win. However, JV said that the cars were really the markers so he bolted over and summited my truck for the win!

I wore the NB MT 100s and they were fabulous today. Laced them up real tight right after the balls of my foot. Didn’t slide. Good stuff, Tony. (Was this similar to your route a few weeks ago?)

Thanks for getting out today guys. Great weather, trails, and company!

We went 13.83 miles with an elevation gain of 4,352 feet in 02:26:32, which is an average pace of 10:35. View my GPS data.