September 6, 2023 - The Old Man And The Mountains

Am I old? Will I be and feel old by the time I get to take my shot at High Five? What is old? These are some questions that rumble around my head as I think about this entire project. 

I’ve been told somewhere around age 45 to 50 it becomes much harder to get any fitter and better as a runner. Somewhere in that time period, the chase moves from improvement to being able to maintain what you already have. And then, you get about a decade of fighting hard to maintain before fitness eventually begins to fade…slowly, then fast.

So over these ten years, I could move from the end of my improvement period to deep in my “fight to keep what you’ve built” period. Does that mean I can’t finish High Five since I don’t think I really have the fitness today? I hope not. And I don’t think so. I do think I can still become a better climber. I know I can become a better descender. And, far more importantly, I don’t think fitness is going to be the limiting factor in being able to finish. I expect the fitness requirement to be not all that different that Ouray 100 demanded, and I have that fitness. High Five is going to demand more. But that more is largely experience based, cerebral, knowledge. All things that can be gained even if I enter the period of no further fitness improvement on this journey.

I can improve in my navigate and route making ability, a skill I’ve only begun to try to develop. I can learn to pick good lines for climbing challenging peaks. I can learn to read the weather better. I can improve my ability to problem solve for the unexpected. And I’m sure the unexpected will be the norm when running High Five.

And, I can definitely learn more and become better at the single biggest challenge I faced at Ouray 100, nutrition. I really haven’t figured out the nutrition game at ultramarathons. Not the faster and shorter stuff. And definitely not while in the big mountains at high altitude. I ate next to nothing (maybe 500 calories) during the final 24 hours of Ouray 100. It was brutal. It was also a lesson on just how far you can push despite very little food. Even so, improving on this is something I can definitely do despite advancing age.

So, will I be the old man and the mountains? Will I still feel young and spry? (Do I feel that way today? Yes, I do.) Maybe that doesn’t matter. Because the things I really need to learn and improve on are things that have little to do with age.

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