Pre Race Pneumonia/Crest Trail/ and Goals for Leadville 50 Mile Run
And sometimes, Pre Race pnuemonia is actually:
a double eye infection,
conjunctivitis that is viral, guessing, that since it’s been 5+ days on the meds and it’s only partially better.
Compounded with Celiac’s,
and a high altitude run to boot.
So the last week has been rough to say the least.
The eye thing started about 90% of the way through the Crest Trail run, which was awesome!
Post run for 2 days, it felt like I had sand in my eyes, and then, by Friday morning, I knew, I had something going on. Especially since, well, it wasn’t windy or sandy where I was running.
But the Vistas, they were awesome.
July 3rd I went up to 10,600 feet for what I thought would be close to 16 mile run. I have never been up there, didn’t really know what to expect. I got a headache right away, but ran through it, and the trail, as your heading south descends about 1000 feet, it was a techincal trail. More so than I thought it would be.
This is one of those things, that I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to do, and probably wouldn’t have unless I was signed up for the 50 miler in Leadville.
This is the initial view on the trail. I drove up to the Crest House and started my adventure from there.
I think, I am going somewhere over there yonder. I know that the trail is 8 miles in length. Really, I have no idea but it sounds fun!
I get to the ski area and Tram within 20 minutes. It was cool, I was here 2 times, once about 3 weeks ago on the bike, and once about 2 weeks ago, when I ran. Both were good experiences. But super cool, I am here again!
When I see these markers, I know I am on the right road. I’m glad, because there were several unmarked trails, and I was just doing my best to navigate, although, I had a time I wanted to run today, so I was prepared for anything my adventure brought: wrong turn, bear, cougar, little ol’ men sneaking up on me at Pino Trail Head; his shoe rubbed on the rock and I thought it was a hissing cougar, I didn’t know there was a more techincal ascent around the top of Pino. That sneaky guy!
Here’s Pino: I’m 1:20 into it, the trail has been much slower than I thought, I think, I descended about 1000 feet. It’s time to turn around and get back home to my responsibilities, but it has been real, but this is the trip, I knew, I had to go 12,000 feet before Leadville.
I’m not sure how I missed it on the way out. The Kiwanis Cabin. It was build in the 1930’s. The girls and I first hiked there when we laid Rico to rest. I have never seen it from this angle. And when you first look, you can’t even see it, not until I put the telescopic lens to work. Some cool stuff.
My Goals for Leadville are simple:
Finish
Take Pictures/Have Fun
and as always my main goal:
To not Shat myself.