The taper has begun!
I've run my longest weekend - more than 54 miles, with a 31-mile Saturday and 23-mile Sunday - and longest week - 83 miles - and am in my last couple of weeks of preparation for the Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic 50-mile race.
A few statistics for Jan. 1 through June 1:
- Number of runs: 96
- Total miles: 1,123
- Total elevation gain: 134,667 feet
In the middle of that period, I literally ran until my shoes fell apart - after more than 750 miles on that pair, the sole ripped in two places and peeled away during a race.
Missoula's particularly cold and snowy winter made for some challenging runs, even on roads. After a springlike weekend run through Hells Canyon on the Idaho-Oregon border in late March, I turned more to local mountains, but still managed to find lingering drifts and get caught in a late storm.
While the high-country snow is holding on, mountains around town have traded flakes for wildflowers. A friend and I even managed to get in a marathon over three of the city's iconic summits: Mount Sentinel/University Mountain, with the "M"; Mount Jumbo with the "L"; and the North Hills/Randolph Hill, with the peace sign.
If all goes according to plan, my long back-to-back weekend runs will be compressed into a single 50-miler through the Bighorn Mountains near Sheridan, Wyoming, on Saturday, June 21.
