Touchdown from Chicago at 930pm, 1030 home, asleep by 11. Alarm sounded at 245am, Maniac pal Stacy rang my doorbell at 315 – car pooling north to Fort Collins to finish my 50 States Quest, marathoning all 50 in under 3 years.
Knee wrapped, body banged up from yesterday’s 26.2 in Illinois – but mentally in a good place…today, the journey ends. What started as a ‘one and done’ marathon in Anchorage evolved & spread across the whole USA. Maine to Miami, Fargo to Falmouth, Sioux Falls to San Francisco, New Mexico to New York City. After today, I will have marathoned every American state – all 50 plus DC.
50 States Finish
430am bus departure – north up Poudre Canyon, point-to-point trek finishing in downtown Fort Collins. No accident I would end my Quest in Colorado. May 1st in Colorado. Temps in the 20’s, light snow falling on canyon boulders & lodgepole pine. It’s like the gods knew – it’s his 50th – make it PERFECT!
Layered up, descended the bus with hundreds of other eager runners, John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High blaring on outdoor speakers. This was REALLY happening. WOW WOW WOW! Snapped more than a few snowy pre-race pics. I never started with the dream of finishing all 50 – one of the biggest personal accomplishments of my life.
Queued up with the 5 hr pace group. Slow n steady. No failing today – run, walk, crawl – but finish before the 6 hour cutoff, gut out 26.2 miles. Made insta-friends with 1st time marathoner, Jen & trekked together the first 15 miles. Easy, forgiving course, mostly downhill to the Half. IT band stung by mile 7 but kept trucking along.
HUGE smile, enveloped by snow – 100% in my element. 2:30 Half, one of my slowest…but on track to Finish.
Said my goodbyes to Jen at mile 15. Walk, run – but kept moving, Mile 18: shooting pain. Not proud, but popped a pain pill. Getting thru today’s run doing absolutely whatever needed to finish.
Left leg completely stiff – same recurring injury – just 3 miles more. Not gonna sugar coat it – I hurt. Each pounding step, nerve strikes from my weakened left knee (like bone grinding on bone).
Entered Fort Collins. Focused. Mile 24.
Pain was frustrating – constant, pulsing. Crossed a long wooden bridge. Mile 25. I can do anything for a mile. Felt better to slog than walk, drug my left prosthetic along.
Two-tenths to go, saw people, saw the Finish. Bent the tin-man leg, willed it to move. Music blaring in my headset, eyes tearing, pounded my chest – each step closer, folks cheering me on. Kept pushing. Would not stop.
Joy, relief. So much emotion. I DID IT – I finished.
If I never run again, this day I set a goal, met a goal. I walked the talk. I did the impossible. No excuses, no regrets, nothing left undone. Proud to have family & friends see me finish. INNER PRIDE – absolutely anything is possible.
Congratulations #50 K R HAGA!
Here are your results for the 2016 Colorado Marathon:
Your final time is 05:23:27
Post-marathon lasagna. Next stop: dessert – at The Chocolate Café. Shower, (‘nother) pain pill, change of clothes, Dinner Theatre in Boulder. Notta lotta sleep – 4 hours spread over 2 days – but tonite we celebrate. B-I-G. #noregretlife
-
- all 50 plus DC
-
- taking in the moment (ironically, wearing a jacket from my first state marathon, Alaska)
-
- pre-dawn: Poudre Canyon
-
- it’s like the gods knew – make it PERFECT!
-
- body banged up from yesterday’s 26.2 in Illinois – but mentally in a good place…today, the journey ends
-
- Manic pal Stacy
-
- Othman from my Vegas marathon
-
- made insta-friends with 1st time marathoner, Jen & trekked together the first 15 miles
-
- next up: mile marker 25
-
- 50 States FINISHER!
-
- cold day shared with friends & family
-
- notta lotta sleep – 4 hours spread over 2 days – but tonite we CELEBRATE!
May 1 • Fort Collins • Colorado Marathon
pre-race clip in Poudre Canyon — will never forget this day, snow/mountains/Colorado, storybook ending to my 50 States Quest
Swim, bike – hike…triathlon Colorado style.
Limited to only swim & cycling since St. Louis. Tough knowing the exact right thing to do (while injured), to successfully prepare for next weekend’s 50 State Quest finale – a double marathon weekend: 2 states, 2 days, 2 marathons, 2 time zones.
Physical rehab 4 days a week. Lap swimming. Cycling every other day. Running? No miles, nada.
Technically, no one prohibited hiking. Not as much knee impact as road running, but the downhill return over boulders & trail debris – probably not ideal physically. Mentally however, I needed a mountain hike as much as I need air.
trivia nite w/ Tom’s folks
Fair weather week so hoped high altitude sunshine had burned off much of last weekend’s snowfall to make a (8000ft) Boulder Flatirons hike possible. [Still another month/6 weeks before Continental Divide hiking would be doable.]
Street parked at Shanahan Ridge trailhead, met up with Ash & Tom for a fido-friendly hike; today’s destination: Devil’s Thumb. Hadn’t successfully summited this peak since my 52 hike year, 2012. Honestly, not even sure it’s still day-hike accessible since the 2013 Boulder Flood. Never mind trail destruction, road damage from this epic 500-year flood still exists today (County Road in Louisville remains closed ’til 2017).
Overcast cool start. Pups were LOVIN’ an off-leash day. Whole lotta mud – hike day would mean ‘bath’ day later 🙁 Followed Mesa Trail to Shadow Canyon, took the split toward Bear Peak (& South Boulder Peak, 2 bagger possibility here).
Sloppy seasonal swamp gave way to ice & exposed snow as we increased elevation.
If you’re ever short on time or expect an early afternoon weather change, Boulder summer hikes are definitely the way to go. Short mileage, but killer incline – I’ve tagged our trails: ‘butt busters’. Half-mile stretches where each step UP is slightly higher than comfortable, a real glute workout.
Bushwhacking & possibly ropes now required to top Devil’s Thumb. Trail ascent to Bear Peak moved/shifted ~100ft since the Flood; the original trail a maze of battered rock & fallen pine. Snapped a pic, closest we’d get (route no longer dog-friendly).
Up, up, up another 500ft – over ice & snow, toward Bear Peak. Clock stuck 11 & we called it. No summit this day.
First hike of the season: timing slower, steps a bit more labored, lack of oxygen still noticeable. Mentally though – FAAANNNTASTIC! Nothing like snow, thin air & Ponderosa pine. Happy day 🙂
-
- Marty blazing down Mesa Trail
-
- the Flatirons
-
- remnants from last weekend’s storm
-
- snow & ice trek to Bear Peak
-
- Devil’s Thumb
-
- off-leash hike happiness
-
- mountain therapy, Colorado-style
Wed April 27th: More Than a Feeling
Tom’s parents in from New Jersey for a family wedding. First night in Colorado? Trivia night at one of Ash & Tom’s favourite local brew haunts. As luck would have it, tie score. Solution? Air-band playoff. Humiliating…but memorable 🙂
Ashton • April 27 • Brought in reinforcements for trivia!! ❤ these people!! — feeling determined at 4 Noses Brewing Company.
Ashton • feeling proud • Sooooo won an air-band play off to “More Than A Feeling” at trivia tonight. With our parents. It was epic.
The Care Bears vs The Fates
Scotty Danger
Be careful what you say at Quiz, the Fates are always listening! Care Bear Elite had some parents in town tonight, and they brought them to Quiz. Then I went and opened my big mouth about, “how this one time, at Quiz…” Anyway the story was that another team had parents in town and how funny it was that they ended in a tie for 2nd, hence they forced to get up and rock out in an Air-Band Competition for the decision. Haha, laugh laugh, I said, “so just know that there’s that possibility…”
Having heard me say that, Murphy, the Fates, and I’m pretty sure some mischievous garden gnomes decided it was going to happen. Swear to Quiz, I did nothing to rig it, but after a 13-point Round 8 with a Joker, guess who ended up in 2nd place, tied with Christopher Robin had No Friends. Anyway, at that point I had to reprise the original encounter, so Air-Band they did, and to none other than the greatest of Air-Band-able songs, More Than a Feeling, by Boston. Classic, simply classic…
The video is now in my own personal archives, and I will enjoy it when I’m feeling down and need to laugh and someone trying to play air… oboe? I’m not really sure what was going with Christopher Robin, they seemed to be just going down a list of instruments throughout the competition. But congrats to the Care Bears who took it by applause. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t wish they had a good memory of Air-Banding with their parents!
The rest of the night was fairly status-quo, which for us means a better time than most would have on a Wednesday evening! Good Beer, Good Teams, Good Questions, and Good Doggies all around the bar.
Oh, except for Eve and her bunch who decided to ruin our new “Silent Seventh” tradition. Don’t worry Eve, I’m coming for you…
Stay Dangerous, people,
Scotty Danger…
LOVE that my employer never forgets Earth Day – one of the million & one reasons I HEART living in Colorado.
Tough to beat last year’s excursion to NOAA (super interesting). This year PS purchased plants & shovels – so we shared a sunny afternoon hour & beautified our entrance stoop. Not too many employers allow you to play in the dirt on Earth Day. Pretty cool, huh?
Unfortunately my mind diverts to global warming, when I think of Earth Day – the horrible man-made disaster we’ve indebted future generations…polluting resources, increasing ground temps +20 degrees until half the US is a virtual Arizona.
My interest in Antarctic iceberg calving is akin to voyeur-viewing a car accident – you can’t help but slow down & stare.
This year’s focus was much closer to home: Durango, in southwest Colorado. Colorado is like the Earth’s playground – evergreen forests, snowy mountain peaks, glacier-fed streams. Last August’s eco-disaster, makes me CRAZY. Polluted, chemically-induced mining water fed local streams in the Four Corners. Most long-term damage only affects the Navajo Nation in western New Mexico…so who cares, right?
Wake up – it’s OUR planet.
Be good to Mother Earth folks, we share space on this beautiful, live-giving planet. If not for you, do it for future generations 🙂
-
- employer sponsored planting
-
- not too many employers allow you to play in the dirt on Earth Day 🙂
What The Colorado Waste Water Spill Tells Us About Mining Contamination
By Justin Worland, Time Magazine
PUBLISHED Aug. 10, 2015
Scientists grappled with the consequences of a spill of toxic wastewater on Monday, one day after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that an accident had led to 3 million gallons of mining runoff flowing into a river in Colorado used for drinking water. But researchers who study water resources in the region say the spill, while significant on its own, is just the latest example of the much broader problem of water contamination from mining processes.
“In the Rocky Mountain area, acid rock and acid mine drainage is a major water quality problem,” said Diane McKnight, a professor civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado. “This is certainly an unfortunate event, but the impact of acid rock and acid rock drainage is well recognized and understood in Colorado.”
Acid drainage results when water flows through acidic minerals that have been exposed due to mining. Water that contains these minerals in high volumes becomes unsafe for drinking. Colorado alone has hundreds of mines that have created acid drainage—but rarely on the scale of last week’s incident.
Last week’s event was the result of an accident inadvertently caused by EPA workers looking into reports that a mine was leaking contaminated water. During the process, loose material gave way and released millions of gallons of contaminated water, turning the Animas River orange and yielding it unusable for days. Water is still spilling into the river at a rate of 500 gallons per minute, though the EPA has set up a filtering system aimed at removing toxic elements, including copper, lead and manganese, according to regional EPA administrator Shaun McGrath. Still, officials urged local residents to await further tests, which should happen within the next few days, before using the water. The river has been temporarily disconnected from the public water supply.
The consequences of last week’s incident could have lasting repercussions. Events like heavy rain and melting snow that disturb sediment settled at the bottom of the river may release some of the toxic minerals deposited there by the spill. If that happens, local officials will need a game plan to test the water and inform those who may be at risk, said Williams.
The spill has angered local residents, many of whom depend on the river for livestock and tourist businesses. Still, this is hardly the first mining wastewater spill in the area. Largely due to mine pollution, the water doesn’t support a very robust ecosystem, though some organisms manage to live in it. “It’s not correct to say these are lifeless streams,” said McKnight. “There’s certainly bacteria and some algae growing.”
Ultimately, Williams says he hopes the incident raises awareness about the bigger problem of mines polluting waterways throughout the region. The technology exists, Williams says, and efforts by the EPA and other agencies to remediate toxic sites need to be funded fully.
“You hear about pollution, it doesn’t really register,” he said. “Then you see this blob of yellow running down the river.”
