The Epic Run

Enter the “Epic Run.” Some people love to run on the treadmill, I don’t. A few years ago I would occasionally run on the treadmill, but I haven’t been on one in years. This is not to say I don’t like it, after all, it is a great tool for exercise. However, I would rather run outside, sun or snow. I’m a triathlon-mountain-man. It’s the same with cycling, if the roads aren’t an immediate hazard in the winter, I pull Janet-Bike or my mountain bike out of the stable and ride.

The Epic Run is a five-mile loop through the mountains. To call it a run, is generous. To actually run the entire thing would be near impossible—I said near impossible, nothing is impossible with the right attitude—due to the extreme terrain. Some portions you have to crawl up, hop over and diver under trees, and side-hill like a mountain goat. The entire loop takes about an hour, but there is no sense of time when you enter the world of epic-ness.

*Any means necessary

The run starts with a six-minute stretch of relatively flat terrain. This is the warmup. The climb starts subsequent to this “easy” portion. The next 30 minutes is a constant climb deep into the mountains. No houses, no people, just trees, nature, and animals. Speaking of the latter, I always carry some form of protection on my mountain adventures.

*Marles Barkley in formation

I have had past adventures with wild animals. The most intimidating was an encounter with two HUGE bull moose while mountain biking deep in the woods. The overpowering size of the moose standing 10 feet from me will stay with me forever, what a powerful, awesome animal.

On the Epic Run I cut the tracks for the trail with my footsteps in the fresh snow. The route is unique to me, not many other people run the loop. Mackenzie runs the loop after I told her about it, so that would make two people. You get the point. I ran the same route the next day, but my tracks weren’t the only ones. I noticed the tracks of a mountain lion (aka mountain cougar) that accompanied my day old tracks.

Rather intimidating to see a mountain lion trekking the same path that I took the day before. However, things like this do not cause fear, just awareness. I had my bear spray (my chosen method of protection, it’s hard to run while toting a gun) and I knew that if the mountain lion was close the dogs would most likely “tree it” with their barking and natural instinct for pursuit. Animals are no problem at all, just makes for a good story, and heightened awareness of being alive.

I trekked the Epic Run through the climb, the spooky forest, the switchbacks, the burn, and then found myself on the best part of the run, the fire trail. The fire trail is about a mile long, slightly downhill, wide open, and perfect to let it fly. The fastest running is downhill running, it is also the most injurious.

*The spooky forest

The fire trail on the Epic Run was awesome because it had about a half-foot of snow cover. This allowed the speed of downhill running, but the snow cover combined with a behind-the-hip footstrike made for fast and soft running. The feeling of bookin’ down the mountain with soft footstrike and a body that begged for more speed was as close to flying as humanly possible. The momentum of the downhill would carry up and over the top of the few inclines on the fire trail like a roller coaster. My legs and lungs asked for more as the speed would pick back up. The dogs had a fantastic time in chase as we all blasted off the side of the mountain. Sweet...

The last section is a steep downhill to get back to the house. My legs, lungs, and my dogs were all tired. What a fitting end to the Epic Run. No other word would be fitting, epic. Here’s my advice: Find the “epic” in the things around you. The satisfaction derived from the things you do, is a direct result of what you put into them.

*Mack feeling, epic, duh.