Much to my surprise, I got an email from Matt Carpenter this afternoon stating that my bid for a competitive entry into this year's Pikes Peak Ascent has been accepted. I put in for it just a few days before the deadline last week, thinking that I'd had a decent first half of the season and may sneak in if there weren't too many others looking to get a spot via the competitive entry process.

Anyway, the upshot of the recent news is that I'm going to have to get serious - quickly - about getting into high-altitude, mountain-running shape. I have exactly 23 days to get ready. I've already arranged with friends from the Fort Collins Trail Runners to head down early Monday morning for a jaunt up the mountain. This will be my first time running the trail up Pikes.

Lucky for me, I have a two-mile, 1,600' climb essentially out my front door in Horsetooth Mountain Park. I'll be doing repeats up Horsetooth at least a couple times a week for the next two weeks. In addition, I'll be running Longs with Ryan B, per a phone call this morning, and looking to do Evans or Greys if I can find the time. Failing that, I'll try to sneak some time up in Rocky Mountain National Park to get up on Flattop. Not much else I can do really with just over three weeks to go. Fortunately, I have a good base to pull from and I think my legs are close to fully recovered from Bighorn.

Goal? Top ten.