I decided to keep with this week's Grandeur Peak theme this morning. I left my car at the mouth of Millcreek Canyon (because I'm cheap and didn't want to pay three bucks to park at the trailhead) and then ran up to the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead. I was feeling pretty worked on the climb up the gulch, but I feel better about that now knowing that the trail climbs a little over 600 feet in 0.7 miles, which is reasonably stiff. At the top of the gulch, I picked up the Pipeline. This was the easiest part of my run, and I felt pretty good as I cruised along in the high 7s and low 8s for a couple of miles until I reached the Grandeur Peak trail. I've run down this trail many times but I've never run up it, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Unfortunately, the trail kicked my butt and although I ran most of it, I ended up hiking more than I would have liked. From the back side, the Grandeur Peak trail climbs 2200 feet in 2.7 miles, which is certainly steep, but with the possible exception of the last half mile there isn't anything on it that shouldn't be runable. At least, not if you're feeling good. Which I wasn't. I'll have to try it again sometime. I left my car planning to run this as an out and back, but early on I started thinking about running it as a loop. At the top, I decided the loop was the way to go and I set off down the west side of Grandeur. Which, I don't think I need to remind anyone, is steep. Steep enough that even at a quick pace I was only running 11:37 per mile. The descent is tough, but I do like it, and I think it's a great way to prepare the quads for long descents late in a race. On the fire road a couple of hundred feet from the bottom, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake that was out sunning itself. But it didn't rattle at me, so maybe it was something else, or maybe it was dead. Either way, it startled me. I hate snakes. From the park at the bottom of the climb it was just under two miserable miles back to the car. Miserable because I was on a busy road, miserable because it was getting hot, miserable because I had rocks in my shoes and miserable because I drank a ton of water at the park and upset my stomach. But the miles went by quick enough and soon I was back at my car. I dunked myself in the stream, which felt great, and then it was back home to pick up the U-Haul and keep packing. Ah, the packing . . . where did we get so much stuff? 
 PM: An easy mile with Catherine put me at 50 miles for the first time since my knee injury. Result!
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