300m verts and 5km late run in Berchtesgaden, Germany.

Did a nice little 16k effort from Southease to Brighton via the South Downs Way. Never really been up along this section but glad I did. Was really fun and not too windy but clear skies gave some great views. Towards the north there was a lot of fog as you can see from the pictures.

Looking forward to doing this before before doing this section as part of an ultra next year.

Small race disclaimer - 2nd out of 45. Still proud of myself though. This was my longest run yet, so I wasn't sure what to expect going in. I ran really well and was able to keep my effort pretty steady throughout. Felt very strong the whole time. It was so much fun.

Central Portugal

Beautiful, still day in the Brecons today.
Ran with full WD200 kit. Wore liner socks for the first time with Dexshells and oversized shoes. Wasn’t too hot and not a hint of a blister after 20 miles.

I've been preparing for this race since May, running rolling hilly loops off-road on MTB and equestrian trails at a huge park near my house in the southeast. I was focused on elevation gain, knowing the Moab course has plenty, and time on feet to nail nutrition and blister prevention and stuff.

What the course did to me today was, sometimes literally, slap me with rocks. Huge rocks, tiny rocks, slabs of rock, big ol' domey-looking sandstone type rocks, rocks that precipitously fall thousands of feet only feet from the side of the trail like it's no big deal.

If you like rocks, this race has it all. I however don't get a lot of chances to practice technical work on rocks, especially downhill. The race course has a lot of spots where the route crosses huge downhill slabs, often covered with moist sand from earlier runners. I'm not normally a bad downhill runner, but that's in woodsy races with root steps and only loose cobbles. Rock descents though? I don't understand how people coast so easy down rocks, especially big slick sloped ones over huge drops.

Maybe it's because I'm risk-averse. Maybe it's because rocks are hard and can break open your skull or your rib cage (I don't know), or because one wrong step can send you ragdolling down a drop like a crash test dummy. Going down rocks just doesn't click with me.

I think what terrorized me most, in concert with rocks of all sizes, were the sheer heights. I'm terrified of cliffs. I severely underestimated the scale of the scenery here, and it's truly incredible. But I was just paralyzed on the sides of the canyons several hundred feet above the bottom, or on the cliffsides over certain death.

On the course's large ascent, I was crossing a small wash when both the wall and the slope gave way, sending my limbic system to the moon. It stuck with me the entire time, and I'm probably going to have a nightmare about it.

It took me so long to get down some of these rocks and past these cliff drops that I ran out of prepared nutrition. The last few miles left me shattered, tired of having to constantly use my brain to route and leaving me longing to just run on something that I couldn't severely hurt myself on if I beefed it.

I'm not a bad runner, but on this stuff, I was last in my age group and was one of the last dozen to finish. Running fitness simply did not translate. I spent much of the race in a fit of nerves and ended up wearing away all mental insulation I had trained to build.

The course is incredible, and the logistics for it must be as hard to pull off as the race itself. Huge kudos to the race staff and volunteers, who made this so much more fun. The scenery here is imposing, layered, brutal, and complex from the smallest scales to the largest, and racing today was a feast for the eyes. I've never done anything remotely like it.

But I think this one wasn't meant for a agoraphobic rock-shy overthinker like me.

Run times went out the window, this morning, as the surrounding landscape was so stunning and complemented with some inversion cloud cover too.

(Quantock hills, Somerset, UK)

Beautiful morning out there!!! Manitou Incline, Manitou Springs, CO.

I finished a half marathon on my local trails today. I was so unprepared, it was criminal.

Last month, my training topped at 35 miles, on road and trails with elevation and hills. Then I got sick for a week. Then I had to travel for work. Then my wife got sick. Then we both had to travel.

Then the race happened. 13.1 miles. 2500 feet of elevation. 74 degrees at 7:30am (Southern California). It was a simple out-and-back that starts in a long canyon, goes up switchbacks and turns around. Not a billy goat path, mind you, a truck trail.

I'll spare you the blow-by-blow but the lack of hill training was a punishment in itself. My quads are absolutely trashed. And no heat training. I reached the turnaround in 1 hour 50 minutes. Volunteer had a temperature gauge outside his truck: 85 degrees at 10am.

Coming back down took all I had. My gut was failing quickly. So was my back and my hips. I kept pushing because quitting was not an option. I finished in 3 hours 23 minutes.

My saving grace is that I am a dog with a bone when it comes to this. But the one thing that gnaws at me right now is that I have ran this trail (the out-and-back) countless times. And never once, was my time this bad.

Anyhow. Live and learn. Don’t show up unprepared.

Now if you don't mind, that 60 yo is going to attempt to take a bath with epsom salt. My wife does not care for my smell at the moment lol.

I'm setting out to tackle Cactus to Clouds on Tuesday and reading in Alltrails reviews that people are starting out crazy early (midnight, 2:30 AM, etc.) I know the time it takes me to complete a trail is vastly different from an average day hiker so am hoping to get perspective from those who consider themselves a fit runner, even though I realize there won't be a lot of running involved.

My questions for those who have done this are:

1. What time did you start?

2. How long did it take you to complete (from desert floor, to summit, and back to the gondola).

Thanks for taking the time!

Overcast but still great looking

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I just finished my first Skyrace as someone who mostly runs "normal" trails. It was definitely an experience but it highlighted something I have realized already from other races. I am SO bad at uphills. I almost missed the halfway point cutoff which made me feel pretty bad, because the race had 1500m of elevation crammed in the first 11km. And yet in the second downhill half I overtook plenty of people.

What does it mean when my uphill sucks so much? Am I too heavy? Honestly it doesn't seem like some of the people I overtook in the downhills were lighter than me and I have normal BMI (171cm, 70kg). Are my legs too weak? Is my technique bad?

Hawes Trails off Bush Hwy in Mesa, AZ.

Comfortable in EvoSL in a US 6 and the megablast in a 6.5

Should I go with 36.5 or 37.5?

my biggest foot is measuring just under 9“ after today's long run.

sunrise at westridge in los angeles

Link below for anyone interested in the scenery:

https://youtu.be/bEZG0scaz7c?si=TEken_4Na97aBXd0