Sean Gillies (Posts about colorado)https://sgillies.net/tags/colorado.atom2023-12-31T01:26:22ZSean GilliesNikolaCOVID-19https://sgillies.net/2020/03/15/covid-19.html2020-03-15T08:00:53-06:002020-03-15T08:00:53-06:00Sean Gillies<p>The news from China and Iran and Italy as the COVID-19 pandemic developed over
the past few weeks has been unnerving. The stream of propaganda, lies, and
bullshit from the White House has disturbed me even more. The President of the
United States can't be trusted to tell the truth about the smallest of things
and clearly doesn't give a damn about the welfare of anyone else. We're up
shit creek and one of America's worst people, a man who you wouldn't trust to
feed your cat while you're on vacation, is holding the paddle.</p>
<p>My Mapbox teammates are in Washington D.C. and San Francisco and started
working from home last week. The team has been semi-distributed for years and
so we're not missing a beat. There's definitely some anxiety at work. Social
conscience is a common characteristic of Mapbox employees, so this is primarily
anxiety about others and society at large. Working from home is recognized as
a privilege not afforded so much by management, but by the industry and by
social class. It's the least a privileged tech worker can do, and we're all
doing it.</p>
<p>In Fort Collins, we've been waiting for more than a week for local institutions
to make their moves, and they finally have. Colorado State University has
closed its classrooms and will go entirely online. Poudre School District
cancelled sports and trips and then announced school closure through March 29.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has published an <a class="reference external" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qxr64Kx2RWsfLWsZGVcjKZP2av3VuT-t/view">executive order declaring
a state of disaster emergency</a>.
The National Guard has been activated and Colorado is going to help with paid
leave for people in certain industries. On Friday, Gov. Polis announced
a strong recommendation that events larger than 250 people be cancelled. I'm
not sure whether this constitutes a ban or not. Maybe it will become one. Today
I read in the Denver Post that Polis asked Colorado ski areas to close for
a week. A few had already done so after finding sick employees.</p>
<p>My family isn't shutting itself in quite yet. The kids were in school on
Friday. Ruth went to a mostly empty gym this morning. I went to the food co-op
for some staples, to the feed store to get a bag of grain for our hens (there's
little wild stuff to eat yet), and
will go out running again this afternoon. However, we're ready to stay in more
and <a class="reference external" href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/preparing-for-coronavirus-to-strike-the-u-s/">flatten the curve</a>
if needed. It may well be. I don't think we can remind each other enough that
doing the right thing in this crisis isn't going to be self-rewarding for most
of us. It's not going to be like going to down to a storm cellar during
a tornado and coming out to see that you would have otherwise been torn up like
your house and car. The lives we're going to save are across town, in other
homes, people we don't even know. I hope that by now you've read Zeynep
Tufekci's article (linked above) or something like it. My oldest is developing
an interest in sociology, and I loved being able to point out Tufekci's work as
an example of what a modern sociologist does.</p>
<p>Right in the middle of all of this, I have a cold. Probably the one my youngest
and her school friends had a week ago. Just sniffles and a mild headache, but
it's no fun.</p>
<p>Next week I'll be working from home, listening to NPR on <a class="reference external" href="https://www.kunc.org">KUNC</a>, and avoiding
rumors and anxiety on the hell site. The kids will be here. Ruth might close
her lab and work from home as well. Wash your hands and stay safe, everybody!</p>Rocky mountains and famous potatoeshttps://sgillies.net/2019/01/03/rocky-mountains-famous-potatoes.html2019-01-03T14:33:01-07:002019-01-03T14:33:01-07:00Sean Gillies<p>We spent Christmas at home in Fort Collins and saved our travel for the New
Year. Yesterday we flew from Denver to Boise to visit my Mom and stepfather.
The views on this route can be spectacular when the sky is clear, and it was.
Waypoints on the flight: Berthoud Pass; Dinosaur National Monument; Evanston,
Wyoming; Cache Valley and Logan, UT; Twin Falls, ID; and finally, Boise.</p>
<figure>
<img alt="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7827/46538626822_1bbc544bc9_b.jpg" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7827/46538626822_1bbc544bc9_b.jpg">
<figcaption>
<p>Peaks of the Colorado Front Range</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img alt="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4872/44772657670_f1522c419f_b.jpg" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4872/44772657670_f1522c419f_b.jpg">
<figcaption>
<p>The Green River and Canyon of Lodore</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img alt="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4824/46538737202_97d6cb862f_b.jpg" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4824/46538737202_97d6cb862f_b.jpg">
<figcaption>
<p>The Wasatch and Wellsville Ranges and Logan, Utah</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is almost no snow on the ground in Boise, but it's cold. Not too cold to
run, however, and I had a good one along the river today. Tomorrow I'm going to
do a longer run up in the hills above downtown.</p>White Christmashttps://sgillies.net/2017/12/26/white-christmas.html2017-12-26T13:44:35-07:002017-12-26T13:44:35-07:00Sean Gillies<p>We got snow a few days before Christmas, not a lot, but thanks to the cold it
stuck around and we've picked up another inch or so since yesterday.</p>
<figure>
<img alt="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4685/38585242394_33988cb2e9_b.jpg" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4685/38585242394_33988cb2e9_b.jpg">
</figure>
<p>Front Range mountains have received up to 18" of snow since Sunday, which is
good news. Snow remains thin: Eldora Mountain has 20" on the ground at its
summit, Cameron Pass 30. This week I need to take our skis in to a shop for
tuning and acquire some boots for the fast-growing feet in our family so we can
ski in January.</p>
<p>We spent Christmas morning at home unwrapping gifts, went for a walk around the
neighborhood, and then spent the evening feasting with friends. The parents of
our hosts were in town, and treated us to some gorgeous and sublime Persian
rish dishes. I made a <a class="reference external" href="http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12/step-by-step-food-lab-reverse-sear-prime-rib.html">reverse-seared prime rib roast</a>
that was excellent and we drank a few bottles of wine which we brought back
from France: a 2013 Castelmaure Cuvée No. 3 and the same cooperative's Grande
Cuvée (its number 2 wine). We were in the neighborhood of
<a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embres-et-Castelmaure">Embres-et-Castelmaure</a>
quite often last year. There's a <a class="reference external" href="http://tastelanguedoc.blogspot.com/2015/07/cave-dembres-et-castelmaure.html">nice write-up aout its wines</a>
on the Taste Languedoc blog. Being able to share an excellent meal with family
and friends is something that I appreciate more each year. Good health and good
company are priceless and worth celebrating.</p>Day After Thoughts About Trail Runninghttps://sgillies.net/2017/10/22/day-after-thoughts.html2017-10-22T15:21:38-06:002017-10-22T15:21:38-06:00Sean Gillies<p>Today, the day after the Blue Sky Trail Marathon, I'm tending my home's wireless
network and thinking about the <a class="reference external" href="https://www.trail-quillan.com/">Trail Quillan</a>, the race that motivated my
training during the Winter of 2016-2017 and <a class="reference external" href="https://sgillies.net/2017/05/13/trail-quillan.html">inspired me to sign up for the Blue
Sky Trail Marathon</a>.</p>
<p>The Trail Quillan site has some great photos from 2017. My favorite sets are
from the top, <a class="reference external" href="https://www.trail-quillan.com/trail-quillan/photos-vid%C3%A9o/photos-vid%C3%A9os-2017/album-pech-tignous/">Pech Tignous</a>,
where you can see the snow (and me, number 80), and <a class="reference external" href="https://www.trail-quillan.com/trail-quillan/photos-vid%C3%A9o/photos-vid%C3%A9os-2017/album-belvianes/">Belvianes et Belvédère du
Diable</a>.
Runners from the Front Range of Colorado would find Quillan both familiar and
exotic at the same time and vice versa; if anyone reading this in Colorado or
France discovers an interest in crossing over for a trail run and would like
a contact, <a class="reference external" href="https://sgillies.net/about.html">please do let me know</a> and
I would be happy to help you. The spirit of the organizers and the participants
in these events is very similar. The Fort Collins Gnar Runners host a <a class="reference external" href="http://gnarrunners.com/gnar-slam/">grand
slam</a> series of events, and in the Pays
Cathare there is the <a class="reference external" href="http://defi-sud-trails.blogspot.fr/">Défi Sud Trail's</a>.</p>
<p>I'm beginning to think about proposing to my family a trip to France in early
summer of 2018 that would include a couple races in the foothills of the
Pyrénées.</p>There and Back Againhttps://sgillies.net/2017/07/24/there-and-back-again.html2017-07-25T07:02:47+02:002017-07-25T07:02:47+02:00Sean Gillies<p>My kids and I left our rental house in Montpellier for the last time at 5:00
a.m Tuesday morning and arrived in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Tuesday evening,
a little over 21 hours later. We found our house and garden in great condition
and found that friends had kindly done a little shopping for us. Ruth and our
dog were scheduled to come in on Wednesday, but heat and other snafus delayed
them until Saturday. She left for Seattle today and I'm solo parenting again
all this week before I go to San Francisco for work next week. It's a little
chaotic here with work, camp, birthdays, dentist appointments, and other
deferred business, but less so than in the week before our flight. Thanks in
part to earlier-than-usual rising, I haven't fallen too far behind in my
running and did 20 miles this weekend. I'm relieved to be here and am happy to
see friends, run along the river, ride my bike, and go out for real tacos with
my kids.</p>Returning to Coloradohttps://sgillies.net/2017/06/21/returning-to-colorado.html2017-06-21T21:41:45+02:002017-06-21T21:41:45+02:00Sean Gillies<p>It's time to get serious about returning to my permanent home in Fort Collins,
Colorado. We've got our tickets and have begun to pack some bags. Once again,
me and the kids are flying on one itinerary and Ruth and our dog are flying on
another. The latter is a bit dicey because the airlines may refuse to load our
doggy in cargo if the forecasted arrival temperatures are over 80 degrees. We
have picked flights to minimize the probability, but some luck would be nice.</p>
<p>A couple weeks ago I finally met the owner of the house that we've rented in
Montpellier. A scientist, like Ruth, who has connections with other scientists
we know. It's a small world, evolutionary biology, and full of interesting
and earnest folks. I wouldn't be surprised if we keep in touch.</p>
<p>I've told people at Coswos, the coworking I've joined in Montpellier, and some
of my favorite vendors and shopkeepers – basically anybody who has ever asked
where I'm from and what my plans are – that we're leaving. We threw ourselves
a party last Sunday night with friends from Ruth's lab and ate Franco-American
sliders and drank champagne, cheaper bubbly from Limoux, and margaritas.</p>
<p>The next four weeks will be busy. We've planned a four day hut-to-hut trip in
the Alpes. I'm hoping to do some other opportunistic trips to nearby cities.
Why I haven't been able to make it to Toulouse or Lyon, I do not know, but
I will try to do something about this. We've got a number of boxes of clothes
and other personal effects (books and bandes dessinées, aka graphic novels,
mostly) to ship. I must drink or give away the bottles of my wine collection
that we can't bring back in our luggage. There are a ton of arts and music
festivals in the region in July, too, it's really a bad time to be moving.</p>
<p>Friday, the 21st of July, I plan to be writing tests on the deck of my house
in Fort Collins and then switching over to grilling burgers, drinking IPAs,
watching kids play in the sprinklers, and feeling more than a little bit
sentimental about my year in France.</p>Colorado Marathon 2016https://sgillies.net/2016/05/14/colorado-marathon-2016.html2016-05-14T00:00:00-06:002016-05-14T00:00:00-06:00Sean Gillies<p>Sunday, the 1st of May, I started and finished my first Marathon.</p>
<p>The only thing I don't like about this race is the godawful early start. I know
that the first weekend in May can be uncomfortably warm here and understand
that an early start makes restricting traffic on CO-14 more feasible, but in
order to eat and begin to digest an adequately sized blob of oatmeal before the
6:30am start I had to set my alarm for 3:30. At 4:30 Ruth and I were headed
to a parking garage downtown and at 5:00 we were on buses to the starting line.</p>
<p>It was cloudy and dry downtown, but a little more wet in the canyon and about
14 miles up we reached the snow line. At the Stevens Gulch trailhead I saw
about 4 inches of wet snow on unpaved surfaces. It was 34° F (1° C).</p>
<figure>
<a class="reference external image-reference" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/by-sgillies/26357748774/"><img alt="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7188/26357748774_e48c7cb1ab_b_d.jpg" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7188/26357748774_e48c7cb1ab_b_d.jpg"></a>
</figure>
<p>At the last minute before leaving the house, I had switched to a long-sleeved
shirt under my ultralight wind/rain jacket and was glad I had when we arrived.
I'd already committed to wearing tights, hat, and light gloves and found this
to be just about right for the conditions. A more breathable jacket would have
been better: I ended up slightly wet from the inside due to condensation and
fairly cold between finishing my gel packs at mile 16 and reaching "Bagel Hill"
at mile 19.</p>
<figure>
<a class="reference external image-reference" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/by-sgillies/26929703676/"><img alt="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7261/26929703676_d1f5fea295_b_d.jpg" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7261/26929703676_d1f5fea295_b_d.jpg"></a>
</figure>
<p>I had a hard time finishing. My hamstrings threatened to cramp up as I sped up
on the last steeper downhill stretch around mile 12, but I survived that and
was feeling pretty good until mile 18 when the quadricepds muscles in each of
my legs began to cramp. I battled quad cramps of increasing frequency and
duration the rest of the way in. The 3:45 flag that I'd been closing in on for
an hour got away from me and the 4:00 flag passed me at about
20 miles. The final 6 miles were brutal: miles 20-23 were the worst, but once
I crossed Taft Hill onto sections of the Poudre Trail I've run for almost 20
years, I regained enough confidence and energy and a sense of too-close-to-fail
to put in a very modest kick at the end. My time was 4:24, which was just in
the second half of all finishers.</p>
<p>I don't understand the cause of the cramps, but can think of a few factors
which might be implicated. The course, while never steep, descended much more
than any of my training runs, about 300 meters. It wouldn't surprise me if I
wasn't quite in the stride that I'd been training for. Also, while I'd run farther
than 18 miles in training, I hadn't done so at race pace. I was confident that
I'd be able to go a bit harder/longer than I had in training without breaking
down, but found I could not. I'm going to train a little more for the next one.
Lastly, the week before the race was super hectic. I was fighting fires all
day long and sleeping poorly at night, and wasn't as rested as I'd hoped to be.</p>
<p>Friends have been reminding me that it's super cool to <em>finish</em> my first
marathon and I really appreciate this perspective: it was harder than I can
expected and I'm satisfied to have been able to fight through a bit of adversity
and finish.</p>
<p>Ruth's race went better. She had just returned from a speaking tour on April 30
and briefly considered bailing on the half-marathon to catch up on sleep and
nurse our ailing dog, but ended up running very well with a personal best time
of 2:00:12.</p>Black Squirrel Half Marathonhttps://sgillies.net/2015/09/07/black-squirrel-half-marathon.html2015-09-07T00:00:00-06:002015-09-07T00:00:00-06:00Sean Gillies<p>Saturday was the 3rd running of the <a class="reference external" href="http://gnarrunners.com/black-squirrel-half/">Black Squirrel Half Marathon</a>. It's a roughly triangular
route up and over the top of Lory State Park and back along the East Valley
Trail.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="500px" frameborder="0" src="https://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/sgillies.ncf8bk2f/attribution,zoompan,zoomwheel,geocoder,share.html?access_token=pk.eyJ1Ijoic2dpbGxpZXMiLCJhIjoiWUE2VlZVcyJ9.OITHkb1GHNh9nvzIfUc9QQ">
</iframe><p>I finished 97th out of 312 in 2:23:24. This is 7 minutes slower than my trail
half on Taylor Mountain outside Issaquah, WA in June. I had a cold and hadn't
slept well in a few days so wasn't at my best. Between the last two aid
stations I was going backwards, but rallied enough over the last 2.5 miles to
move up 3 places. Although I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, I enjoyed the race
and finished with nothing left in my tank and no regrets. High points: hanging
out with my friend and former ultimate teammate Jeanne (who finished 3rd in the
womens masters category), not falling on any rocks, shady pine groves on the
West Ridge Trail, and a great view of Longs Peak from the top.</p>
<p>Ruth battled back from a slow start to finish in 2:35:57. She said she passed
about 50 runners on the singletrack going up and that the intermittent speed
bursts and lack of consistent pace was exhausting. Aaron Anderson, who works in
a lab down the hall from Ruth, was the winner in 1:30:02. This was 8 minutes
faster than the winning time in Issaquah!</p>
<p>It's humbling to be a mere mortal among actually elite athletes, but it's also
completely okay. See also Jacob Kaplan-Moss's <a class="reference external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE">great Pycon keynote</a> on being average in running and programming.</p>
<p>Here's a photo of the run rising over the plains to the east before the start.
I'm not a morning person at all, but I love the light and stillness of dawn.</p>
<figure>
<a class="reference external image-reference" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/by-sgillies/21198158526/"><img alt="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5726/21198158526_d28c213cff_b_d.jpg" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5726/21198158526_d28c213cff_b_d.jpg"></a>
<figcaption>
<p>Lory State Park at dawn</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>Crazy Legs Trail Runhttps://sgillies.net/2015/05/19/crazy-legs-trail-run.html2015-05-19T00:00:00-06:002015-05-19T00:00:00-06:00Sean Gillies<img alt="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7694/17899867135_d1a98948a3_c_d.jpg" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7694/17899867135_d1a98948a3_c_d.jpg" style="width: 600px;">
<p>Sunday morning Ruth and I got up again at dawn to race, this time at Larimer
County's Devil's Backbone Open Space west of Loveland. This 10+ kilometer trail
run, organized for the last 8 years by Paul Stoyko, reminded me very much of
the ultimate (frisbee) tournaments I played in the olden days: low key,
low tech, high enthusiasm. It was an out and back route (map below), taking the
left hand side of the Wild, Hunter, and Laughing Horse loops along the way. The
final loop (at the top of the hills in the photo above) was pretty tough: 500
feet above the start and lots of ups and downs over fractured slickrock ledges.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="500px" frameborder="0" src="https://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/sgillies.m77l0738/attribution,zoompan,zoomwheel,geocoder,share.html?access_token=pk.eyJ1Ijoic2dpbGxpZXMiLCJhIjoiWUE2VlZVcyJ9.OITHkb1GHNh9nvzIfUc9QQ">
</iframe><p>I finished 24th out of 96 with a time of 1:05:10. Ruth finished a few minutes
after me in 31st place. Here we are holding the popsicle sticks we grabbed at
the finish line. Old school!</p>
<img alt="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7745/17900375501_e2ea41e7c5_c_d.jpg" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7745/17900375501_e2ea41e7c5_c_d.jpg" style="width: 600px;">
<p>I've driven by Devil's Backbone many times but had never been to the trailhead
or up the trail before. It's beautiful and wild(ish) and the trail network
extends all the way to Horsetooth Mountain Park. Foothill wildflowers are
starting to kick off right now and there were blue Penstemon (P. virens) and
Britton's Skullcap all along the trail.</p>
<figure>
<img alt="https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6053/5891945647_07bce95393_z_d.jpg" src="https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6053/5891945647_07bce95393_z_d.jpg" style="width: 640px;">
<figcaption>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolannie/5891940057/">Skullcap by Carolannie</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thanks for putting this race together, Paul. We'll be back.</p>