Arctic Lollipop

I gave an old route a new name this week. I tour of Arctic Valley is now known as the "Arctic Lollipop." I popped straight up from the parking lot and headed for the peak above- Gordon Lyon.

  

I ran down and across this saddle, heading up to...

Rendezvous Peak. This was the morning of the big storm and so the winds were beginning to pick up. The rain stayed away but running into the wind slowed me down a bit.

Coming down from Rendezvous, I headed out the ridge above the South Fork Eagle River Valley and the Ship Creek Valley. This was the lollipop stick portion of the route- an out and back.

Once back at the base of the lollipop or Rendezvous, I headed down the long descent from the ski area ridge. A challenging route: 3 climbs up to the military road, up Gordon Lyon and up Rendezvous; 3 downhills and a lengthy rolling ridgeline. I likey.

It's been a good first week back to running after a month long rest post -Res Pass. I ran a couple of hour + runs last weekend and then began the week with my first Arctic Valley Road  run. I completed the Arctic Lollipop on Tuesday. Thursday I did a morning  Crossfit workout with the ladies and ended the day with a fabulous 2.5 hour Epic run to Rusty Point. Tomorrow I head into the Climbathon: a 10 hour race to climb 2,000 ft of the North Face Trail as many times as I can. I feel rested, excited to run and my feet are pretty happy. Climb on!