The Lapham Opener

I was in the area, so I figured I would swing by Lapham peak to join the LPTR gang for a quick jaunt in the woods.

Turns out, the weather has been warm enough to kill the XC ski trails and open most of the place for trail running.

So Grabowski announced "Lapham is open! Let's run a black loop". Gee... I get 2 operners in 1 week.

I did not realize running a black loop means going to the peak, and doing stair repeats until the other runners show up. If you have run a whole loop at Afton, the stairs are like the ones on "The Back 40", but all strung together with no breaks and more of them.

Apparently there are also rules to doing these when there are more than 1 runners.
* Run up skipping every other step
* No passing on the up hill
* Each runner takes turns leading
* Do 15 straight and then take a break

This is just like one of those Crossfit Metcons. After #4 I was feeling like toast. Then Tater Todd Egnarski shows up and picks up the tempo.

Somewhere in there the Big Grabowski takes off his shirt to show off his guns and ammo. He took every chance he could to point out this over there.... and that over there... flexing his muscles. "The beach is over there".

I was getting close to pukie... not sure if it were the stair repeats or looking at KG.

15 was enough for me. KG's record is something like 75. That is why there is an "era" attached to that name.

We met up with Lammers, Mallach, and Dehart to do the first Black Loop of the season.

I guess open means only that skiiers can't go there anymore (yet we saw 2 kids refusing to accept that the season was over... skiing on ice sheets), but there is still a bunch of mashed potato snow. It was a lot like Sunday's Afton run. I hung with the paint king while the others decided to take off, and do a few more stair repeats.

These guys are fun to hang out with, because they all have an elite resume of running either sometime in their life, or now. They are what makes the trail scene fun. Still competative, hardcore, but unassuming. I think it was Dehart's quote "Runners who dress like super heroes always have more to say than I am willing to listen to".

Great interview here if you haven't read it.

And more importatntly, we decided that I have to make a malt liquor for Ice Age. "Mallach's Malt Likka". Or put it in a 40 ouncer and call it the "Emma Carlin 40" (At Ice Age 50, Emma Carlin is 40 Mile point).

Thanks guys. Great time.

It was a thin crowd due to some of the usuals heading out to Syllamo.

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Was thinking of doing Irish for a Day 10 Miler this weekend, wasn't very pumped about the prosepect of going pedal to the medal for 10. Was very happy to see the race filled up. Wahoo! Will do something hard by my house instead. Not 10.

Looks like I might do a Zumbro recon run with "The Fast One" next Friday. That will be my final long run. Correction - My only long run. (I only made it 25k at Afton)