Taking the day off work was a great idea. I'm too excited about the race to do any computering this morning. Instead, I'm packing camping and running gear in my car. After lunch I will drive up CO 14 and over Cameron Pass to the race start in Gould, set up camp, hand in drop bags, and go for an easy run.

I'm expecting rain today from moisture in the monsoon flow which is beginning to affect Colorado. Tomorrow's forecast on the course looks better than today, starting sunny with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon, typical summer weather in the Rockies. I'd rather not be wet all afternoon, but I'm prepared for it, and the race is prepared for it, too. There will be hot food at aid stations. I'm looking forward to cups of soup in the later stages of the race.

Tapering for the race has been challenging. Air quality has been poor here the past two weeks and because of that I've done less running than I planned. But I have kicked my sinus infection, banked up plenty of sleep, and eaten well. I feel rested and energized, and that's the important thing.

It was a light week of running.

• 4 hours, 3 minutes

• 22.9 miles

• 1614 feet D+

Allergy and a sinus infection have been getting me down and I skipped a workout last week because my head was stuffed up and throbbing and I felt fatigued. I'm taking medication for the infection, using an over-the-counter steroid spray in my nose, keeping my house closed up, running the air conditioner instead of the house fan, and spending less time outside sucking up pollen. I feel better already.

I've set goals for the race and made a plan simple enough to follow and evolve on race day. My first goal is to finish. My more ambitious goal is to finish in under 19 hours and 30 minutes. My stretch goal is to finish in under 18:30, to cross the line before 11:15 p.m. OpenSplitTime allows racers to make pacing plans based on data from previous years. I've done so for 19:30 and 18:30 finishes, made a spreadsheet, printed it out, and roughly laminated it using packing tape.

My three drop bags are mostly packed. The one at the Diamond Peak aid station has calories and is for ditching gear that I may have needed before the sun came up. We're required to carry a headlamp from the Ruby Jewel aid station (29 miles) onwards, so I have one in that bag along with more Tailwind and gels. I'm leaving my biggest bag at the Clearly Canadian aid station, miles 38 and 44, with calories, a change of clothes, spare shoes, stormy weather gear, and a warm layer for the home stretch.

Waiting for the race to start is hard, but I know I need a few more days of rest before I'm ready to do my best. Four more sleeps to go. I'm not counting Friday night, since I expect to sleep poorly before waking at 4 a.m.

I'm focused now on preparing for race day, the 25th of July. I'm working 9-5, but not thinking about work after 5 p.m. I'm not working on any open source projects after hours or any house projects other than gardening, cooking, and cleaning. Instead I'm sleeping in, exercising moderately, organizing my gear, and packing drop bags. Next week I probably will not be responding to any non-emergency emails.

I had a virtual appointment with my doctor on Friday to talk about my allergies and some cold-like symptoms, including an intermittent fever, which developed last week. I recorded an ear temperature of 99.8 °F on Wednesday. The high temperature concerned me because COVID-19 cases are increasing again in Larimer County, and also because the race organizers are going to check temperatures at the event and disqualify racers (and crew) who are hotter than 100.4 °F. I approve of this! But I don't want to get DQ'd if I'm not infectious. My doctor diagnosed me with a sinus infection. I've had a serious sinus infection before, in Winter though, never in Summer, and this is exactly what it felt like. What a relief. I'm taking a five day course of amoxicillin and expect to be free of symptoms before July 25.

My doctor also recommended using Nasacort® (Triamcinolone) to treat acute allergy symptoms which have been interfering with my training since the end of June. I'm using the Kroger brand of this over-the-counter steriod. On July 10, when I was still optimistic that I would eventually stop feeling crappy without any intervention, I joked on Strava about getting a "therapeutic use exemption" (TUE) and some "pro cycling strength" medication to cope with my allergies, and now, here I am. It's not a joke. Triamcinolone is, of course, the steroid which Team Sky is alleged to have been abusing at the Tour de France. Use of triamcinolone by athletes in international competition without a doctor's orders is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). I am going to be squirting it up my nose once a day, only, not injecting it into my butt or leg muscles like cyclists have done to enhance recovery and lose weight.

I feel good right now about the steps the race organizers are taking to make the race safer with respect to COVID-19. Masks are required at aid stations. There will be no self-service food or water, no communal plates or bowls, no use of the warming tent unless you're dropping out. Racers are starting in waves of 10 every five minutes. Parties before and after are cancelled. It's not risk-free, but it's outside on a one-way loop except for the six miles to Clear Lake and back and it won't be hard to keep a safe distance from others out there on the trail. I hope conditions don't change next week, but if they do, I trust the organizers and Jackson County to make the right call.

I reduced my mileage again in week twenty-two while trying to keep the quality of my activities high. I did some moderately intense weight training, went to the gravel track, did a hilly tempo run at Lory, and a nice long Never Summer recon run.

• 10 hours, 25 minutes

• 46.5 miles

• 8379 feet D+

Saturday I drove up CO 14 to Cameron Pass to run on the Never Summer course for the first time this season. I parked at the Zimmerman Lake trailhead and loaded my pack. Although I expected mild weather, I brought all the gear that the Never Summer directors are requiring this year: rain jacket, gloves, hat, light, water containers of at least forty ounces. This, along with my first aid kit, drinks, food, and phone, would give me a good sense of my load during the race.

From the parking lot I ran west to Montgomery Pass (11,156 ft). That will be mile 23 of the Never Summer course and there will be an aid station. From the pass, I ran on the course, in reverse, to North Diamond Peak (11,852 ft), the high point of the race. From there, I diverged from the course, traversing to South Diamond Peak, down to the Cameron Pass parking lot, and crossing over CO 14 to get on the Michigan Ditch trail and back on the course again.

The Michigan Ditch diverts water from the North Platte basin to the South Platte basin. The dirt road adjacent to the ditch has a very gentle grade and is very runnable. Still traveling in the reverse sense of the course, I eventually left the ditch trail and climbed up alongside the Michigan River to the American Lakes basin (11,200 ft). I hadn't been up there in years. It's more beautiful than I remembered and I found it hard to leave.

After descending from the lakes I switched over to running the course in its forward direction to tackle the infamous North Diamond Peak climb: 2100 feet of elevation gain in 2.3 miles. At 2 p.m. on a hot day this was grueling. I'm glad that I'll be beginning this stretch between 8 and 9 a.m. during the race. Near the top, the grade increase to 25 percent and beyond. I got slightly off course and ended up attacking the 35-40 degree face of the peak instead of the less steep micro-ridge that I will stick to on race day. I had to sit down for a few minutes to recover at the top.

I started with 1.5 liters of water in a Camelback reservoir, two half-liter soft bottles of Tailwind solution in my vest's front pockets, and another liter of water in my stomach. This turned out to be not quite enough for a sunny and hot day, but I was able to collect and melt enough snow to survive.

I covered 22 miles and climbed 6000 feet on my outing, 35% of the Never Summer 100k distance and 42% of its positive elevation change. 21 of these miles were above 10,000 feet and six were above 11,000 feet. I crossed paths with other runners, including a couple who were doing a self-supported 60k version of the race. I hope they brought a water filter.

My right hamstring confirmed at the track earlier in the week that it is still not one hundred percent recovered, but I didn't have any problems with it on my long run. I'm not planning to run faster than ten minutes per mile during the Never Summer 100k and still have two weeks of tapering and recovery before race day. I'm confident that I'll be fine by then.

Week twenty-one is done. The Never Summer 100k starts in twenty days. I'm reducing my training volume gradually in the last four weeks of my training program. Here are my running and hiking numbers from last week.

• 19 hours, 12 minutes

• 62 miles

• 12,054 feet D+

Monday through Thursday I was backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park with Ruth, Arabelle, and Bea. A heavy pack and family-friendly pace explains the relatively long time I spent on trails this week. We used two days to pack in to Lawn Lake and slept two nights at one of the three backcountry sites near the lake. Wednesday I left camp before breakfast to run up to a pass called "the Saddle" and hike from there to the summit of Fairchild Mountain (13,502 ft). Camping at 11,000 feet helped make this a quick trip.

Fairchild Mountain is named for Lucius Fairchild, U.S. Army general and Governor of Wisconsin from 1866-1872. According to Wikipedia, Fairchild believed Reconstruction of the South ended too soon and that Southern veterans shouldn't get back their captured battle flags. Imagine his surprise and anger if he could see the Confederate flag still flying in the United States today.

Fairchild Mountain is not a complicated or difficult hike, but the route from the saddle is unmarked and variable. There are a few isolated cairns, but no clear network of them. You can scramble directly to the top over couch to car-sized rocks or follow less technical but more winding paths. I did a bit of each. At the top there is a crude windbreak made of stacked chunks of granite and a plastic bottle with a few notes.

Looking to the west and northwest you can see the Never Summer and Rawah mountain ranges that Never Summer 100k participants will be traversing. Those peaks are nowhere near Fairchild's elevation; the highest point of the race is 11,852 feet on North Diamond Peak in the Rawah range.

It is windy on top and with only a light thermal layer and a ripstop nylon jacket fifteen minutes may be all you can linger on the summit before you are chilled. The descent faces neighboring Hagues Peak, a more formidable mountain.

Fairchild Mountain is remote, a twenty-mile round trip from the Lawn Lake trailhead. I was the only person to reach the summit on July 1.

Saturday I ran twenty-three miles at Lory and Horsetooth, the twenty-five mile Quad Rock route minus a few miles because I ran out of water in the heat. Today I ran twelve miles at Pineridge and Maxwell in warm conditions, again. These were my last back-to-back long training runs.

This week I did no running workouts and no very long runs. Just five days of easy short to medium length runs on trails within a few minutes of home, a yoga session, and a session of weight training intense enough to leave me sore all weekend long. The numbers are modest.

• 6 hours, 1 minute running

• 34.4. miles

• 1827 feet D+

Next week I will be backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park with Ruth and our kids. If I'm lucky, I'll get to summit a few of the Mummy Range's 13,000 foot peaks.

What a week. I ran and I ran some more. I carried a very heavy pack to the top of Lory State Park, camped with my family at a beautiful "backcountry" site overlooking Horsetooth Reservoir and Fort Collins, and then I ran from there. I ran after we got home, and then I got up early to run again today. Here are the numbers.

• 19 hours, 11 minutes

• 83.2 miles

• 15,925 feet D+

In my week sixteen recap I set my goals for 220 miles and 36,000 feet D+ in weeks 17-19. I realized 231 miles and 44,347 feet of climbing. If my season ended here for some reason, I'd still feel satisfied. It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun getting here. I've never identified as a runner until a couple years ago and so I'm still rather geeked about having run 80 miles in a week for the first time.

This morning I got up before dawn to drive to Rocky Mountain National Park for more alpine running. From the Bear Lake trailhead I ran and hiked up to Granite Pass (12,080 feet), and then circled back via Storm Pass (10,257 feet) and the Glacier Creek Trail. I avoided bad weather, my legs and feet felt great, all in all a perfect day on the trail.

I'm liking Rocky's new timed entrance reservation policy. The park is less crowded and feels less crowded. The Bear Lake trailhead parking lot was less than half full when I arrived at 6:30 a.m. On my way up to Granite Pass, I saw one person. On my way down from Storm Pass, I went an hour without seeing any other humans. The few other people on the trail thought this was pretty cool, too.

Solitude is nice, but I also like seeing people on the trail discovering things about the environment and themselves. A pair of college friends from sea level finding their limits on the tundra below Longs Peak. A family from Denver carefully leading their young kids to their highest elevation ever. A dad and his teen son talking about doing more hikes like this during the summer season. The week after next, I will be backpacking in Rocky (what we Coloradoans call Rocky Mountain National Park) with my family and having similar experiences.

Ruth and I hiked to the summit of Longs Peak by the Keyhole in August of 2002. That's the "easy" route. In June, you need an ice axe, crampons, and good timing. In August, you only need good timing.

The Rename St*pleton for All campaign has won.

Benjamin F. Stapleton was a Ku Klux Klan member and a 5-term mayor of Denver. This bit of Colorado history has been whitewashed for seventy years. I didn't know the story until I read this great blog series by Meg Dunn about the Colorado K.K.K..

Remember: de-honoring white supremacists isn't erasure of history as long as we continue to teach future generations that the K.K.K. once held considerable political power in the State of Colorado. And that it could happen again.

This was my biggest week of training ever. I aimed to surpass my efforts in week nineteen of my 2019 season and I did it.

• 17 hours, 34 minutes

• 77.3 miles

• 15,279 feet D+

I ran on six days, including three long runs and one hill workout. My hamstring continues to feel fine at a slow pace. Saturday's long run was in hot weather, and I managed the heat well. Sunday's was at high elevation, up to 12,324 feet, and I handled that well, too.

The wildflower season at Horsetooth and Lory is evolving. The State Flower is in bloom, as is our showiest penstemon and the bright yellow and red blanketflower.

It's great to live close to Rocky Mountain National Park and have relatively easy access to high elevation trails. My family I drove to the shuttle lot on Bear Lake Road, masked up for the short bus ride to Glacier Gorge trailhead, and were on the trail soon after. I'm going to do this again soon, to run and to pick up the permit for our family backpacking trip at the end of the month.

Big news this week is that the Never Summer 100k race is officially on. There will be rule changes and constraints to keep runners and volunteers safe: wave starts, no parties, reduced service at aid stations, masks required when not running or eating or drinking. If I'm healthy on July 25, I'll be on the starting line. For a few weeks I've been making plans for an alternative adventure in case Never Summer didn't happen, but I didn't think it would be feasible to run the entire course by myself due to the high elevation and remoteness. I'm pleased to be able to do it with support. Thank you, organizers, volunteers, and our State Forest hosts.

Shit is fucked up and bullshit, but I'm still running. Running restores me. Here are the numbers for week seventeen.

• 16 hours, 5 minutes

• 70.5 miles

• 13,143 feet D+

That's my biggest week of climbing and running/hiking time since I started keeping track in 2015 and number three for mileage. Early in the week I was worried about my hamstring. I definitely tweaked it a little at the track on Tuesday. It was a mistake to try a speed workout this week and I'm going to do something else instead next week. Wednesday my injury didn't hold me back too much on the climb at Maxwell and I was able to go up and down Timber and Howard on Thursday. My hamstring is okay at 10 minutes per mile or slower, so I decided to keep my long running plans for the weekend: back-to-back runs of about 20 miles and 5000 feet of climbing.

Saturday I did Quad Rock climbs four (Timber), five (Mill Canyon), and six (Spring Creek) in light rain under cloudy skies. I got home before a rare derecho hit Fort Collins and the rest of the Front Range.

Today, Sunday, I drove to the Roosevelt National Forest's Dunraven Trailhead and in perfectly tranquil mountain weather ran up to Signal Mountain, Donner Pass, and back. My runs at Lory and Horsetooth top out at 7000 feet. This run started at 7800 feet and I ran 8 miles above 10,000 feet. The Never Summer 100k course that I'm training to complete has eleven of its first twenty miles above 10,000 feet and twenty-five miles above that elevation overall.

This was my first time on these trails. The 4.5 mile, 3000 foot climb on Bulwark Ridge Trail through dog-hair stands of lodgepole pine is less than special, but the Signal Mountain peaks offer neat views and the tundra is in great shape. I don't think many people come up here.

The trail between Signal Mountain and Donner Pass (not that Donner Pass) is a little sketchy in places. Mature limber pine are everywhere. I had an odd accident ducking under a fallen one: the bill of my cap, pulled down low against the sun, hid a branch on the far side of the trunk and I knocked myself on my ass coming out from underneath.

The trail down from Donner Pass is much more runnable and attractive than the Bulwark Ridge Trail and there are many wildflowers along Miller Fork Creek, a tributary of the Big Thompson River.

I'm going to try to get up into the high country again next weekend. Snow is leaving the mountains so quickly now, a higher peak or two might be possible.