Brandon Fuller

Run: Mount Elbert

Previously.

Yep, 2006 was the first and last time I was on Mount Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado. Back in those days, I had vowed to not repeat 14ers — I mean, what’s the point? If you gotta do them all (55), why repeat before you are done? Times have changed. Training and convenience take precedence.

So on the final day of the camping trip, I figured I would wake up and do another run. Felt like doing some vertical and doing something notable. Thought Hope Pass might be good but that’s further away and I was just there and its frankly…boring. Maybe Massive via the south trail. Or Elbert via the north trail. I had been on both before but via the opposite routes. So at least I would see something new. Got a tweet from fellow Longmont runner Jay Austin that he would be doing Elbert on Sunday. Decided. I will go over there. Plus, its the tallest. Why waste time on #2 (Massive)?

I slept much much better and had to have my alarm get me up. Felt refreshed and ready to go. Limped out to the truck because my hip is stiff in the morning. Emptied out all the stuff the family would need from our make-shift bear container (aka H2). Then drove over to the trailhead. Maybe 10 miles? Proud of myself that I knew exactly how to get there via the backroads. I am becoming quite the Leadville master. Found the parking lot nearly full upon arrival. I forgot it was a weekend, in the summer, in Colorado. There would be lots of hikers ahead to give me plenty to chase all morning long.

Weather was great but slightly chilly at 45ish. Went lighter than I ever have for a 14er. Tech shirt and shorts. Stuck my ultralight jacket in my wasteband. Grabbed 2 GUs. 1 hand bottle of water. Time to go! Instantly started picking up people on the trail and flying by them on the early portions. Looked like a crazy man. Other run bloggers have mentioned this but its so fun to be out there doing a run on these mountains when they are packed with hikers.

Wasn’t going all out, just keeping a steady cadence so I could keep my run going as long as possible. Kind figured this was going to be like a double Green Mountain so I was conserving a bit versus the pace I run there. I think I ran about every step until tree line minus one steep slope just before it. As I got above treeline, that feeling of being back up high hit me and felt great. No issues today. Felt like I was meant to be there. Saw 2 hikers coming down. They were the first summiters. I knew I wouldn’t be first, but I made a note of them so that I could see if I could beat them back and be the first roundtrip finisher for today. Finally started alternating the run/hike, which became more hike than run in the steeper stuff. Came around a ridge and could see the summit about 500 vertical feet still up. Exciting!

Ran it in so I looked good coming into the finish line. 1:42. That’s like a half hour slower than Kilian pumped out a few weeks ago. Oh well. Guess the time stands. Felt like a decent job but would like to run it harder sometime. Took a few pictures and sent a couple text messages. Yes, there is a bit of coverage on top of that mountain. My fingers were getting kind of cold up there so I had to get moving soon.

OK, a few photos for those of you that haven’t enjoyed Elbert yet.

South ridge of Elbert with Hope Pass on the next set of mountain behind there. See you soon Hope Pass.

Twin Lakes down below. That’s the lowest point on the LT100 course.

Here is a shot of the north ridge that I came up and back down.

What’s the actual summit look like? This. Not much to it. But for a few minutes while I was alone, I was the highest person in Colorado!

Then cranked the engine back up and made quick work of the descent. Passing by all those folks that saw me come up from behind earlier in the day. There was much chatter and even some applause as I passed by one group. Hey, I am not super star at this mountain running but I will take what I can get. Saw Jay about 1/2 mile from the top so I stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Kept moving and eventually caught those 2 hikers down near the junction of the CT. Yeah!

I was back down in about 50 minutes feeling pretty good. Pounded the descent pretty good in parts to the point where I had to slow up to catch my breath a few times. Felt like my footwork was on again. Just the other day on Green, I felt like I had never run downhill before. It was back today. The best part was getting out and doing a 14er with little angst. Its just a training run. When I was here 4 years ago, this was a big damn deal to me. Now, not so much.

Got back to the campsite by 10 AM — just in time to help pack up the whole place to head back home. I haven’t really been home more than a couple of days in the past month so I am sort of looking forward to the routine. I have been good about running over this past month but its been hectic and not quite the total accumulation of miles that I wanted. However, I made pretty good with the time I had available. Now, the final phase starts this week as I only have 33 days left until the adventure of my athletic career (so far) begins.

I went 9.04 miles with an elevation gain of 4,573 feet in 02:35:00, which is an average pace of 17:09. Heart rate average was 144. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.