Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Revenge on Green Mountain

Those of you who know me personally, know I was defeated by Greent Mountain back in May.

This weeks' travels brought me to Denver. Every time I got in my rental car, I looked up at the mountains and said "That one... no.. that one". Too many to chose from.

On Monday, I cruised to Golden and ran up "Chimney Gultch" to the top of Lookout Mountain. I think it was about 1500 of climb. I passed six mountain bikers and two runners on the climb. I had to flex my muscles just a tad. Great climb, great run, but really not as hard as I thought it would be.

So I cruised over to Boulder today. I saw there was a "Green Mtn.". Must be an omen. Time to get locked and loaded, get my A game on, and get revenge.

Here is a shot at the peak about half way up the climb


The starting point was at Chautaqua park. My brother-in-law grew up on Chatauqua in the Palisades, how odd is that?

Anyway, a lady at the info tent told me which trail to take to get to the peak (there are tons of trails at that park, most people don't go for the peak). She said 1.5 hours to the top. "Running?" No- hiking. Piece - o - cake.
Starting point 5400 ft., peak 8100 ft.

Took me just over an hour. Scott (another trail runner who passed me near the top) snapped this pic


There was a place to sign your name. I did it with an "uff dah".

Another guy snapped this one


Then it was back down. Very technical at times.


When I was almost at the bottom, a couple I had passed on the way up was finishing their hike on the way down (they only went about half way). The lady actually said "are you a professional athlete?" There you have it... I can retire now. That was pretty damn funny.

Go to the bottom and told the lady at the tent that it can be done in an hour.
She took this picture.


That is not the mountain in the background.

So revenge is sweet, and best served up with a "Mojo IPA" from the Boulder Beer Co. Awesome. The Crawfish Etouffe from Pappadeux's was excellent as well.

Time to get inspired

6 comments:

Julie said...

Hi Matt,
Colorado is so beautiful! I do miss it....I spent alot of time there when I worked in the airline industry.

Wow, you had an awesome run/climb! Thanks for posting a few pictures of your run! You look great!

Take care!

SteveQ said...

Nice scree field you had to traverse! - haven't done one of those in a while. When I went up Harney Peak in South Dakota, the signs said how many hours to plan and I went up and down in 40 minutes, with people saying as I passed them both ways "How the @#$% did you get up and back so fast?" I didn't have the heart to tell them I had just dropped at the marathon mark of an ultra an hour earlier. Made me feel like a great athlete - then Zach Pierce's son made it to the top... and he was two years old, so back to deflated ego.

Londell said...

congrats! My son lives in Golden... he bikes and runs that and many local trails often... Could have seen him and not known it.

Anonymous said...

http://antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-summary-aug-30-sept-5.html

Note the number of times Anton has run Green mtn. Yikes!

Helen said...

Forget about Anton K - MP the professional athlete rocks Green Mountain!! Nice run. Lovely part of the country. Oh, and sweet revenge too!

See ya up north. Will be a fun weekend.

keith said...

They may have thought you were Brett Far-vre.

But some guy at a toll booth in New York said "How are you doing, Mister Carville?"

I'd rather be a pro athlete.