Leadville

I'm not sure I have any desire to run the Leadville 100, as it seems like a lot of road, but I had a blast pacing my good buddy Nano from mile 73-86. I emulated Gazelle's pacing at States, by which I mean I actually pushed him. ("It's going to hurt tomorrow regardless, let's move." "Start running again." "You can hike faster than this.") We crushed that section, passing two or three dozen people, and he finished in 24:24, earning the ridiculous pie plate-sized sub-25 hour buckle. Congrats to Nano, and I hope he pushes me the same way at Hardrock next year (fingers crossed for the lottery).

Yesterday I started my Nolan's 14 recon by doing a Mt. Massive traverse, then driving past Twin Lakes to the La Plata trailhead and bagging that. The parts took 4.5 and then 3.5 hours, with a total of 9,000 feet of climbing. Fun! (I've already done Elbert, plus it's a veritable sea of humanity, if you're wondering why I skipped it.)

Today Mr B is flying out to Denver, so I am picking him up, and hopefully going to be a guest panelist on my friends' hiking podcast: The Trail Show. (Which you should totally listen to if you're into long-distance backpacking or beer.) Mr B and I don't have much time, but I think we'll try and do Huron plus the three other 14ers right next to it one day, the Maroon Bells loop, and maybe one other thing before having to drive home, so I can fly to Florida to see gf in her new environs before starting school on Labor Day.

Cramming it in/eating life with as big a spoon as possible. I hope the Subaru holds up.

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