The Competition

Another trail run this morning. Up and over Pinnacle Mountain, and then back. I was working really hard to beat the one hour mark for what I call the "Grand Traverse." But I came in at 1:01:41. I shaved a little bit off of last weeks time, but still came up short. As I was blasting down the mountain I gave some thought to "the competition." Not really thinking about the Horseshoe Hell competition, or even the other people that are entered in it. It seems to me that when I think about the competition I am most concerned with how I do, in comparison to how I have done before. I don't intend to try and win the whole thing, as there are far better and stronger climbers. I am mainly concerned with completing the challenge of climbing for 24 hours straight, and then with doing better than I have done before. Although this year, the challenge may just be completing the competition. My shoulder is still not 100% and Dave's back is far from that. We will be there, and we will be climbing. But we may not be competing against our scores from last year. This year we may just be competing against injuries and old age to see if we can keep up.

I will be heading up to the ranch on Friday to help with the Arkansas Climbers Coalition Crag Clean-up. There are many areas of the ranch that don't see as much traffic as the North 40 over the summer and they get pretty overgrown with weeds and briars.We will meet at the Trading Post at 10 a.m. and then branch out from there to attack the trails. Bring weed-eaters and any other gear you've got and we can get the place looking sharp in the morning and then spend the afternoon climbing! See you at the Ranch!