Summer Running

Each summer, I plunge into the Colorado mountains intent on strengthening my body for yet another quest to the top of Pikes Peak in August. Last year, my training was pretty good as I was able to get up into the high altitudes pretty regularly.

My history on the mountain is made available through Matt Carpenter's site at: Dan Maas History on Pikes Peak courtesy of Skyrunner.com

I recall racing Matt back when I was in college and he had recently graduated from CU. I had better luck on the flatter courses [;-) Since then he has certainly mastered the art of mountain running and it is always fun to see him still blazing through the trails.

This summer will be no different, although instead of the Marathon, I'll stick to the Ascent this year. If you look at my previous results, you can tell how sometimes I have failed to prepare and had a much slower performance than other years. But careful study will show that only when I was 22 and still racing competitively internationally have I been able to eclipse my performance at age 13... 3:08.40. In recent years, I've been getting closer to that time again, but still missed it.

So that's the goal for this year... beat my performance from age 13! To do that, my father and son will join me in preparation in the mountains. We will take along some communications technologies with us so we can meetup with people along the way. Look for future posts to explain how to meetup with us on the peaks of Colorado!