This last weekend I completed my 5th and final race of the MountainCup, the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase in Park, City. I placed 6th in the race which was good enough to maintain my 5th place standing in the Mountain Cup and make the podium.

Jupiter Peak Review

I had a pretty large scare the Moday before the race, that morning I went for an 11 mile run on the roads with a couple of friends at a moderate pace and felt pretty good. By about noon I started feeling stiffness and pain underneath my left knee and by the evening it hurt to lift my leg high enough to walk up the stairs in my house. I was able to run Tuesday but had to stay pretty flat and had a good pain in my knee for the first half of the run. I pulled out my foam roller and rolled my IT band and started to feel a little bit better Wednesday and cut myself back to only about 5 miles the Thursday and Friday before the race and was able to get the strain on my knee down to a point to where I knew I would be able to run the 3k feet of gain that is part of the Jupiter Peak race.

Saturday Morning was a beautiful day up in Park City with the race starting at about 8:00AM and a starting temperature somewhere probably in the upper 50's. I felt pretty good at the start of the race and was in about 5th place after a mile and was passed by Jason Bryant about 2 Miles into the race. For about the last 6 weeks I have been managing soreness in my achilles which has caused me to reduce my training intensity and made running uphill more difficult so I wasn't able to move as well as I would have liked to but hey everyone always wants to go faster. After about 4 Miles I was in no mans land with 7th place a couple minutes behind me and 5th place a couple minutes ahead of me. More than anything I tried to just enjoy the climb and the beautifull trails that the race covers.

After cresting at Jupiter Peak I was able to open up and run much more freely on the downhill and quickly made a larger gap between myself and 7th place. Half way down the Mountain (about 12 Miles into the race) I took a wrong turn and after not seeing any markers on the trail ran back up to where I went the wrong way and ended up waiting 2 minutes for the next runner as I wasn't sure which way to go. Its alway annoying to take a wrong turn due to poor marking but atleast I didn't get passed. The race was beautiful and definately worth running with it not getting hot until the last two or three miles of the race.

(Hikeing up the last few meters up to the top of Jupiter Peak)

Time to Re-Focus

Competing in the Mountain Cup has been something that I have thought about doing for over a year and has been a lot of fun. I have been able to make some new friends and run some of the funnest trails in the US. With the Mountain Cup series coming to an end it is time for me to review my season and look at what I want to do next and what I need to change. One of my first priorities is to get my achilies healthy again so that I can run uphill more easily (I have already visited a Sports Doctor and was given excercises but was told not to start them until after my race as they will cause some initial soreness). I currently don't have any races scheduled until October and need to decide whether or not to just train until then or look for another couple races (If your a race director I do have a hard time saying no to races that comp me entry...) or perhaps attempt a FKT on Kings Peak, which is something I have been wanting to do for some time.