Brandon Fuller

Stone Temple Pilots @ Red Rocks

STP is getting up there into Metallica numbers for me. I have seen them so many times in so many places. So after just seeing them last fall on a reunion-ish tour, I was excited to see them again this summer with their new album out at my favorite venue on the planet. And to top it off, I worked my magic again and secured a row 2 center stage ticket. Doesn’t get closer or better than that.

Only took my iPhone this time and was seeing if it did any better at concert shots. Not so much. I just need to take my SLR but I don’t care that much. Just trying to capture the moment a bit for myself. Plus, everyone is shooting pictures like crazy these days so it gets you in the mood.

They opened with Heaven & Hot Rods off No. 4. I was surprised by that one. These guys never open with the same song no matter how many times I see them. Its always some seemingly random song that I sort of forgot about.

Didn’t’ realize it until Scott said it but this was the first show of the entire tour. That was fun. They were pretty pumped up to be out and playing again. I think it showed. As always, Red Rocks was given its props for being one of the most magical places in the world to play.

Interestingly, there was an event staffer roaming the crowd telling people to stop taking video if she could tell that was what they were doing. Never seen that before. Anyway, off the new album, Hickory Dichotomy.

They played some stuff that they admitted had not been played since the mid-90s. It was cool to get a new set of songs versus the usual set. But the classics and favorites were there too. Played a 2 song encore then did the usual bow and ended the show. Always a solid night with STP.

View all photos from this event.

The Rippin’ and The Tearin’

Found a new exercise for my hip problem. Should get me loosened up.

The Competition Plan

In my continuing look into my upcoming race, the Leadville Trail 100, today we focus on the other people joining me!

That’s how I hope the competition looks on race day as I zoom by!

Sure, I probably talk about like this like I am the only one that ever attempted such a feat and it will never be repeated. But that’s hardly the case. The first run was in 1983. Since then the race has grown in popularity. There are 780 names on the registration list for this year so far. Some late entries will be also be accepted as permitted by the race director. Finisher statistics vary year to year but the average of late seems to be about 45%. Yep 1 out of 2 people that start the race DO NOT FINISH (DNF). They either quit for a variety of reasons or they miss a time cutoff and are pulled from the race.

While I have prepared for this race, I have come to personally know current and former runners of this race. Some of them are virtual connections — blog followers, or blog followees or both. Some I have run with. Some I just know their name and they don’t know me. I am not going to make any predictions — OK, maybe just 1 or 2 — but I would like to highlight a few of the people that I know that I will be racing alongside of me (or likely in front of me) in this adventure. On course, we will be competing against each other but at the same time we will be battling it out together. A shared bond of happiness and agony.

In alphabetical order:

Boyack, Chris - Littleton, CO - Met Chris at the night run. Followed his blog for some time. He finished the race in 24:44. Proving that even with a big buckle in hand already, there is motivation to return.

Callahan, Duncan - Gunnison, CO - Solid runner on the Colorado scene. Has won this race before.

Clark, David - Northglenn, CO - Former heavy dude that works in Longmont and is going for his first 100 mile finish.

DeGrave, Leila - Evergreen, CO - Blog follower from way back. BQ’d with me last fall. Been stepping up her game since then. If I get chicked by her, I won’t be shocked.

Donaldson, Jamie - Littleton, CO - 1st female at Badwater. You think Leadville is tough? Badwater is tougher.

Jones-Wilkins, Andy - Ketchum, ID - Well known on the ultra circuit. Continually top 10 at the Western States 100.

Koski, Kraig - Longmont, CO - Fellow Longmonter that I met through friends. Should put down a very solid performance. I blame myself if/when he beats me — we were on Green Mountain and I said “register already” and he did the next day he announced.

Labbe, Chris - Longmont, CO - Another local guy. Never met in person but chatted here and there. Chris does a lot for the LT100 online community.

McDonald, Barefoot Ted - Seattle, WA - Read Born to Run? Then you know.

Mika, Shad - Boulder, CO - Another friend of friends. Never ran together. That’s a shame.

Smith, Paul - Colorado Springs, CO - Met him on Longs Peak a few weeks back. He gave me props on my ascent there and told me this race would be a piece of cake.

Teisher, Jon - Old Colorado City, CO - I have nothing to say about this wanker. Our feud is well documented.

Waggoner, Tim - Golden, CO - Otherwise known as Lucho. Former #1 ranked Ironman dude. He is sick fast. Unproven at 100 miles. Struggled at some shorter ultras for non-fitness reasons. If he gets his head together, he will be up front. Way up front. Many of us are very excited to see how he performs here.

Williams, Brooks - Colorado Springs, CO - A friend of many friends, Brooks has been raising the bar. Finishing Leadville last year in big buckle time and recently breaking 3 hours for 26.2. He is the only runner competing at these distances with Cystic Fibrosis.

And that’s about it….except for my pick to win.

Krupicka, Tony - Boulder, CO - If he shows up! He isn’t registered but has made claims of being there. Maybe. So how could you pick anyone else? Coming off 2nd at Western then the surprise entry and subsequent course record at White River. This guy is ready to rock. Its his home turf — from last summer. He has had a whole year to think about the well documented DNF attempt from last summer. He has more strategy and maturity now. Surely, he will be chasing that elusive course record again. He is on the top of the list when it comes to people that I have learned from, enjoyed watching, and have motivated me in pursuit of this sport.

Some of my usual running buds are not on the list. Why not? Well, you see they run the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon on the same weekend most years. And a ton of those guys are headed to that mountain instead of this race. So its a jam packed weekend in Colorado for exciting end of summer races!

There’s the list. Might have missed someone. Probably a few that know me or of me that I don’t know. Let your presence be known!

See the rest of you at the race!

The Buckle Plan

In my continuing look into my upcoming race, the Leadville Trail 100, today we focus on the prize!

For some reason, many of these 100 mile mountain races make belt buckles the finisher’s prize. I never see anyone (OK, 1 dude) wearing them but we all want them. So when I threw down the gauntlet for this challenge, I set my sights high: the Big Buckle!

There are two buckle prizes at Leadville: small and big.

The small buckle is given to any finisher who completes the race in under 30 hours. After 30 hours, the race ends and you are out of luck. People are still coming down the street at this time. Cheering fans are pushing them to the finish. Sometimes they make it and sometimes they do not. This is probably the most fun, exciting, or depressing moment of the race that a spectator can partake in. Seeing people crest that final hill. Counting down the time. Can they do it? After so long on their feet. Endurance? The winners are done in about 1/2 this time. The real test of endurance is on display here at hour 30.

While that prize is nothing to joke about and those that receive them every year are pretty happy with completing the race, there is another tier and its reserved for the big buckle finishers. To get this you must complete the race in under 25 hours. That’s 24:59:59 by the official race clock. That’s a 5 hour difference. Seems like a lot of time to shave off a finish. Hell, if you ran 8 minute miles for 5 hours around your neighborhood, you would cover 37.5 miles in that time period.

When I initially conceived of doing this race, just finishing was a huge goal. It still is. If I cross that finish line, I will be a Leadville finisher and that will be a pretty sweet addition to my running resume. But during my research, training, and preparation, I have come to believe that just finishing is not sufficient for me. I must race the clock. I must go for the big buckle.

There are lots of web sites out there that give you tips, strategies and splits for finishing Leadville in certain amounts of time. There is another site that slices and dices the finishing data in every which way so you can figure out what people do right and do wrong. I have combed through these sites. Its all fun but at some point you just have to run the race and maybe have some targets in mind so you know when you have a bit of breathing room and when you better hustle.

So here are some nice rounded numbers that would deliver a big buckle to the finisher. These times are based on leaving each checkpoint. In theory, if you arrive early, you can sit and relax before moving on. Strategically, that’s not the right answer of course, but you don’t want to work the other extreme and try and blow away the early splits to bank time. It doesn’t work that way. You will pay for it later.

What do you think? Those paces are interesting, huh. Not a single mile (average) under 9 minutes. Is this a race or a walk-a-thon? 100 miles is about slow and steady. There will actually be miles run under 9 minutes, maybe 8 and even 7. Downhill sections. A few open roads. But the uphills always bias the averages towards that hiking pace.

So for me and my crew, these times will be the cut-offs. The minimum set. If I am not hitting these marks, the buckle plan isn’t going according to plan.

However, my actual race plan will be different than this. I think I can do it in less. But its new territory for me. I don’t know how my person will respond at mile 51 - 100. Never run that far before.

Reference sites: Dana, Weber, Chris.

This Week In God

Previously.

The view from behind my house out to Longs Peak in the distance. They planted sunflowers for the first time since we have lived here. Its a cool sight.

I haven’t covered much on this topic in a while. For those of you new to it and that care about anything other than running, here is a quick recap. This church in Longmont bought up about 300+ acres of land directly behind our house. They outbid the city of Longmont who was going to make it into open space. Oh, well, a church isn’t the worst neighbor. But this wasn’t just a church, it was a planned development with lots of multi-use facilities. It was a city. Over the years, myself and neighbors got involved to object, block and contest the effort. We filed a lawsuit. We went to planning meetings. We went to zoning meetings. We tried to start our own town! A lot of time was involved by a lot of people. We were successful at a few small things, like getting some building height restrictions. Eventually, it turned into an annexation issue between Longmont and neighboring city Firestone. Votes were held. Annexations were overturned (actually, withdrawn). New borders were formed. It was all very exciting. And complicated. And annoying.

But in the grand scheme, we didn’t win the war — or so I/we thought at much of the time. What we did do, however, is put the project through an appropriate amount of scrutiny early on which caused timelines to grow and the project to delay. Now, here nearly 10 years later, the Sunday paper in our town has yet another front page article on the church. This time, things aren’t so rosy:

Promised Land: LifeBridge had high hopes for its development plans; now it has let go of most of its properties

The force that seemed to get this project off the ground has now crushed it. Money. It took a lot of donations and contributions to acquire the land for this project. We are talking millions of dollars. The plat behind my house was more than 5 million itself. Not a single thing has been built but millions have been spent on development firms, plans, and people. The process is expensive and their have been multiple iterations of it. All at the expense of the church member’s pockets (and big donors). And then the economy took a nose dive and that was a force bigger than you, I or the church. Few saw it coming of course. During our opposition, the delays we caused surely played a hand in pushing the timing of this project out and into this darker economic climate. We didn’t know it at the time of course. But I always felt that if we worked it, a bigger force would eventually solve this problem for us. And it did.

You can read the article above for details. There was a 2 full-page fold out on the entire timeline in the paper with the whole history. But the basic situation at this point is that the church deeded much of the land that was not zoned for religious use to a 3rd party out of California that helps churches with land issues. So basically, the property directly behind us is not owned locally anymore. This new firm, Church Development Fund (CDF), is chartered with selling this property and taking any remaining proceeds and gifting it back to the church. Shady.

The bad news there is that any deals that might have been cut are sort of off the table. A new owner could show up. Its not going to be Wal-mart or anything (they are building their new superstore 2 miles down the street right now) but who knows who the eventual owner might be. Probably nobody for the foreseeable future that would be ready to work the process to build there. Its well documented that they will see resistance from the neighbors if the proposal isn’t harmonious with the area. We have done this before. We know how to organize now.

As for the church, they remain in their current location north of Longmont. They have re-mortgaged their current location with that same Church Development Fund company for about 10 million dollars. CDF says, “We are a ministry that assists churches all across the country in developing properties and buildings for the advances of the kingdom of Christ”. Sounds like a winner — I mean crap — to me. Seems like a foreclosure scheme. We will give you great terms and rates ‘cause we are all up in Jesus together…but eventually when you can’t pay your bills, we will own your shit. Sorry. The church also says things are changing and people are preferring small localized (possibly rented) worship centers instead of massive structures. Seems like some long term vision rework is needed.

Fundamentally, I do believe this development was still a business-based endeavor disguised to all as a religious pilgrimage to affirm the “right path”. Its hard to poo poo things when people start throwing God and Jesus’ name into the mix. They get sensitive. But when people look for business benefit (like excepting themselves from taxes) by lining up behind a religious charter, it just seems wrong to me.

At times, I was able to talk myself into the reality of this development behind us. It could have been nice. The concept plans were really pretty. But overall, it wasn’t what I desired behind myself when I moved out into an unincorporated area. So we worked the process as it exists. I didn’t like many of the outcomes…mostly because they didn’t go our way. I got to see how it really works in local government.

So we are back to where we started in some sense. The property behind us remains empty and farmed annually. The views of the mountains remain. No mega development will occur there anytime soon. My dirt road I run on every day will likely remain dirt for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and I still worship the devil…

Leadville Night Run: Fish Hatchery to Finish (22.20 mi)

Well, it ended like this for me…

The call went out a few weeks ago. There would be an unofficial group night run on the LT100 course 2 weeks from the race night. Seemed like an appropriate finishing workout to cap off this season’s preparation for the race. I have run nearly every step of the course of this summer but I had not covered the first 6 miles. This would put that to rest…every step covered.

I arrived in Leadville around 6 PM in the midst of Boom Days. This is the summer festival in Leadville. Never been to it. Definitely more people out than I have ever seen in town. But didn’t seem like we had missed a whole lot.

Found Brownie drowning his sorrows in the Provin’ Grounds. He had raced that morning and put down a pretty solid time on a 10 miler. However, we had a long distance to cover this evening so he knew he had more to go. This is a dude that is running four 100 milers this summer so I had no worries. But of course, he had to go burn himself out so that he wouldn’t have to compete tonight. That was cool though. I was not in the mood. The showdown is in 2 weeks!

We left my truck in town near the finish at 6th and Harrison and piled into to Brownie’s truck and headed for the Fish Hatchery. Think its about 8 miles or so on the road out there. Arrived to find it pretty empty. We tailgated and chatted and prepared the gear. Found a 24 hour bathroom with potable water and a flush toilet. These don’t come easy in these parts. Then took a tour of the place.

About a dozen other runners showed up prior to our 8:30 PM start. Guess the forecast of rain scared off most of the rest. Met Chris Boyack for the first time. We follow each other via blogs. He HTFU and ran down from town after leaving his truck there. That’s the spirit. Another car pulled up and runner’s got out ala a clown car from every door. Leila DeGrave was among them. She has been a blog follower of mine for quite a while and I have enjoyed seeing her progress in her running as well. Never had met her in person even though we have crossed paths a few times.

Everyone was chatting it up so I hit my watch and started jogging out of the parking lot and up 300 to Powerline. My lungs were hurting right off. I hadn’t been here in a couple weeks and I felt it. But by the time we hit Powerline, it was all good. I was running hot so I stopped to strip down layers. The small amount of duskish sunlight was now gone and you could just see runners heading up the Powerline by their own lights. Figured since I was fresh, I could run the whole thing to the top but once I regained the pack after my gear change, I gave in. I will be walking this in the race so might as well today.

We hit the top of Sugarloaf Pass and the rains came. It wasn’t a downpour but it was pretty steady. The whole group stopped and put on various rain gear to help with the wetness. We had hours to go and it was only getting colder. It would reach about 39 degrees by the time we finished for the night. On the way up Powerline, all my systems were unstable. Normal stuff. Pretty much needed to shake things out. My dinner was sitting heavy in my gut. I purposely ate to make myself uncomfortable on the run. Must deal. Finally, as we crested Sugarloaf, things smoothed out and I felt like running solidly. Moved myself up through the group and led down to Hagerman Pass Road and then down onto the Colorado Trail and all the way to the Timerberline Campground. That singletrack through there was a bit treacherous in the dark while raining. The rocks were soaking wet. But with a train of lights coming behind me, I kept on my game and watched every foot placement. I didn’t want to hit an ankle. Ouch! OK, focus more. Caught my left ankle once but it wasn’t the usual deal. Just slipped a bit. Felt great through this section. Ended up being a 2 hour spilt from Fish Hatchery. That’s probably about right for outbound. Inbound will probably be slower. Average HR was 144. Nice.

We stopped near May Queen for folks to refill water and just to soak in the night for a few minutes. Got to the Turquoise Lake Trail and started in again. I fell back to allow myself to run my pace instead of being pushed. Brownie and Chris followed in behind me. We made a focused effort and never spoke as we pushed non-stop through the singletrack along the lake in the rain. We ran a pretty good pace until I thought I saw a big snake on the trail and stopped dead in my tracks and caused a pile-up. Oops! Sorry. “He is seeing things”, Brownie says. Yep. Got back in the groove and finally hit the Tabor Boat ramp in about 48 minute from May Queen. Average HR was 142. Really nice given we felt that was solid work through there.

We stopped at the boat ramp and dimmed our lights and chatted a bit more before the final push to the finish. Got moving again along the lake, to the Matchless Boat Ramp, and then up onto Turquoise Lake Road. It was all new to me from here. Although I have been in the area many times. That cut down to the next road was definitely sketchy. Then we arrived at Sugarloaf’n Campground. Then cut right and the pack wasn’t exactly sure where to go but we finally turned onto the Boulevard. This is a 3 mile stretch of dirt road with no lights. You can’t see town because you are ascending up to it. It was long. It never ended. Brownie and I were content with our workout at that point. We moved to walking pace and started chatting. There was flickering desire to try and run again but we had came and saw and were going to finish in time for last call at the Sliver Dollar Saloon. So we just walked it in. Covering that last 7.5 miles in about 1:45. Not a record but hell if we can move that fast after covering 92.5 miles beforehand, we would be golden!

Brownie made us cut sharp right before we hit Harrison. Apparently, it was bad karma to cross the finish line proper on a training run. We save that for the big night. Lots of people were out and about with Boom Days. Busier then I have ever seen Leadville after dark. As we were walking to the bar, a random dude called me out for my short shorts in the middle of the street. “Look at that dudes short shorts!”, he said. Weird having dudes checking out your legs. We hit a pretty full Silver Dollar 10 minutes before last call. Had some PBR, of course, and reflected on the run. Brownie gave me some sage advice on how bad its really going to hurt and suck on race night. Then he drowned his sorrows.

We fetched my truck and drove back to Fish Hatchery. Both of us were pretty beat so we just opted to car camp right there in the parking lot. No signs saying you couldn’t so what the hell. If you car camp within city limits, they ticket or tow you. Plus, this had that nice bathroom nearby. So we crashed sometime after 2:30. I woke up at daybreak and found it to be cold and rainy. After only 4-ish hours of bad sleep, Brownie and I decided to bail on our plans of a Sunday morning run and parted ways. The next time we see each other, the war will be on!

Driving home, I wasn’t sure what to think of this run. It didn’t quite turn out like I wanted but there were some solid parts that I can bank on. But coming from a fresh perspective, I just put down a 1/4(ish) of the course in the night in the rain on no taper with no crew and no support with no problems at 10,000 feet. That’s sick. 4 years ago I used to think a run from home around the neighborhood was a big damn deal. I have come a long way.

So the race is in less than 2 weeks. Life is all about taking it easy now for the taper. Will continue to run…but it should be more like jogging. Staying loose but getting repaired. Fixing this butt thing. Healing up all the nagging pains. Putting gas in the tank for the longest day of my life. The real question at this point for me:

Am I about to break down or am I about to break out?

Onward to Leadville! Let’s find out!

I went 22.20 miles with an elevation gain of 2,657 feet in 04:35:07, which is an average pace of 12:23. Heart rate average was 139. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.

Why Does My Butt Hurt

Got a tip via Twitter on my problem. Started looking it up and I think this sums up my issue. I have some Piriformis Syndrome.

Found a Running Times article on it. That article goes to explain how a common cause is tight hip abductor muscles (these are the muscles along the inner aspect of the thigh that pull the leg inward), which override the hip abductors (muscles along the outside of the thigh that pull the leg outward). Had me wondering if my ankle rolls were related although on the other foot. It sounds like it might also validate some of it. Meaning I am rolling my feet inward more often lately and on the left side, its causing the roll when I get the wrong landing.

Anyway, the recommendations were the usual list of strengthen and stretch. Oh and rest of course. You can run but they say:

Avoid speedwork; you should not run hills or on uneven terrain.

Um, yeah. About that. 14 days and hours till the start…

Frankly, my hips have been the thing that have limited me for years. After a hard race, I will feel like I have hip rotator issues. Almost can hear it grinding. Or it feels that way.

This article has more tips and talked about specific exercises as well as deep tissue massage. I am going back to the therapist tomorrow armed with this new information. It also mentioned other causes such as running on canted surfaces, long stride, and running downhill fast or too often. Not exactly sure what put it over the edge but its been present all of July. I remember it during my Indiana runs. Its just worse now.

Started looking for stretches and exercises and found a bunch of them on YouTube. I liked this one. I have watched it many times. Just to get it right. Ya know. Research.

For you ladies, there is this creepy guy in his hotel room showing you how to get it done too.

Like nearly any running injury, this seems like yet another imbalance that flairs up and you have to work through. That seems to be the deal. Possibly gaining strength in one area and tightness in another creates a weak point that you have to repair. But it usually rebuilds stronger than before.

So I took today off in preparation for tomorrow’s longer run. Might as well. Doing some exercises. Getting to the therapist in the morning. Icing. Relaxing. I am supposed to be in a taper anyway. This is one way to keep myself in check I suppose. Just hoping I have enough time to bounce out of it as needed not to jeopardize my race performance. There is going to be enough pain already without this added on top. But maybe it just won’t matter at all because I will be on a mission.

No Magic Involved

Its practice, its training, and experimenting while pushing through the pain to be the best that I can be.

I like magic, illusions, and all that jazz. Many people don’t care for it. That’s fine. However, I appreciate the “how did they do that” effect. Makes my mind work. In this video, for the first time, David Blaine shares his story about breaking the world record for holding his breath. Showing that its not all tricks and slight of hand. Sometimes you just have to do it the hard way. So you research, calculate, train, retrace, fail, and you might succeed. This is what appeals to me about my own upcoming adventure.

More Press

My Mom keeps submitting photos of the family to her local paper in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Last time they picked up a picture of Kayla. She shared the honor with a tree!

This time it was me…with my Boston growl. August 4th edition of the News-Sentinel. Neighbors section.

Hey, this is big time stuff! I mean I am next to a guy playing with his cat on the floor.

Big time, baby. Big time!

However, I remember the days of being in the Wall Street Journal for rants. That was fun.

The Hydration Plan

In my continuing look into my upcoming race, the Leadville Trail 100, today we focus on drinking!

Its going to be a long day. So I think variety will be the key to staying on the plan. Does that make sense? I routinely struggle a bit with hydration. Usually that means not getting enough down mostly because there is not water available. Like my water sources are too far apart on runs and I am lazy and don’t compensate. The hope was that it will train me to run on less but its likely a losing proposition over a 100 mile distance. So I have multiple tactics that I am going to employ.

1. Switch from bottles to hydration packs at various predefined intervals

This will allow me to alternate between the best of all worlds. The bottles, which I train with most often, make me feel comfortable and light on my feet. My center of gravity does not seem to be as effected as with a full hydration pack. But fatigue in the arms will build over the course of the day. On the flip side, I tend to hydrate a lot better with the pack because the water is slightly easier to consume and stays colder over long periods of time. All this might go out the window during the race but the plan is to alternate.

2. Use the weather

The temps in the morning and at night will be cooler so I feel like I won’t have as much of a water consumption need. Hence I won’t need to carry as much. But this is where the pacer comes in, I can take from him in the late hours.

3. Water and Gatorade (G2)

Been working with Gatorade powder packs all summer. They work great. Pour one in a bottle, then fill and you are off. No HFCS. Gatorade works well for me. I liked the Powerade they had on course at training camp too. The takeaway here is that I have opted not to go with a more “performance fuel” type drink. I have jars of that stuff here and I just don’t enjoy it anymore. Wish I could. But after you blow it out your nose during a pukefest, it loses its taste. I bet there are more benefits but I don’t think I will worry about them. Sticking with what always goes down easily. So on a 2 bottle fill, it would be 1 water and 1 Gatorade. On a hydration pack fill, just stick with water and probably pour in 1 packet of Gatorade. Might squeeze a GU into the water here and there too.

4. Red Bull. Lots of Red Bull.

This will be on an as needed basis. More likely each aid station as I come back inbound. Saving the power of the caffeine for the night time.

So here is the layout based on crew aid stations.

Start - MQ: 1 Bottle (Water)
MQ - FH: 2 Bottles (Water/Gatorade)
FH - TL: 2 Bottles (Water/Gatorade)
TL - WF: Pack (Water with 1 Gatorade packet)
WF - TL: Pack (Water with 1 Gatorade packet)
TL - FH: Pack (Water with 1 Gatorade packet)
FH - MQ: 1 Bottle (Water with Gatorade packet on hand)
MQ - Finish: 1 Bottle (Water)

Basically, take advantage of the start to travel light for the first leg. Pick up some more calories for the next two as the heat of the day builds. Then for the haul over Hope Pass take the pack. I need to be fully hydrated coming into Winfield as you can get stopped by race staff if you fail the medical check because of weight loss. Then continue with the pack until I get back to the more runnable stuff. Then bring it home light with a single bottle through the night. Of course, leaning on my mule/pacer as needed.

There are only 2 snags in the transition here. Meaning at all spots, I will be able to drop what is in my hands and go except for at Winfield and Twin Lakes inbound. That’s OK. I will be at Winfield longer with the medical check. Shouldn’t be an issue. And at Twin Lakes, I can leave and my pacer can bring the gear if needed. All good.

These bottles carry 21 ounces. The hydration bladder is 2 liters, which converts to ~67 ounces. Therefore, we are looking at 3 bottles in the bladder. Not sure I need the bladder totally full for the distance between aid stations. Might make sense to go 3/4 or so just to reduce a bit of weight. Or maybe its no big deal. Anyway, that extra bottle plus the center of gravity thing is why I put this down for the Hope Pass crossing plus the climb back up and onto the Colorado Trail.

Other randomness:

+ Other liquids will be consumed at various course supplied aid stations, such as Halfmoon. Crews are not able to meet me there. I will be able to quickly fill my bottles with help from race staff. On the return, I will have the pack but my pacer can help me.

+ There are two other crew points, Tabor and Treeline, that I am not planning on any hydration changes or refills. They seem too soon/late. I suppose I could figure out how to optimally carry less weight and take advantage of the crew through these sections. For example, outbound I could go with 1 bottle out of FH and pick up the other at Treeline. Saves carrying that full bottle about 3.5 miles. Do people do that? Kind of worried about crew traffic and such so if I couldn’t get the bottle for some reason, I would be sort of screwed going into a long section with only 1.

+ I have reworked this plan 10 times. Overthinking it. So I wanted to post it and see if there are any obvious flaws or improvements.