Running In Circles

Autumn In The Mountains Outside Gunnison

Back In The Bowl

I had another day on the Western State College track. One lap around the track equals 400 meters, approximately a quarter-mile. A warm-up for a few laps on the empty track loosened up my muscles and readied me for the strenuous workout ahead. The track session consisted of 4 sets of 3X300 meter lengths run nearly as fast as possible. I missed being with the team today because track can be a monotonous series of repeated laps. I prefer to look at the changing scenery on most runs, or talk up my fellow teammates. Without their presence, a track workout boils down to focus and counting-good for developing the mental toughness racers also need to achieve their potential. At the end of the workout, I cooled down by walking the hill at the end of the track where I could see the town of Gunnison below and it’s 5,000 residents. The sun was setting over the Palisades, a large cliff just west of town, and casting shadows upon the Taylor River wending its way down the valley from the mountains that surround Crested Butte, not far to the North. The comfortable August-evening temperatures gave no hint to the reality; that the Gunnison Valley is often one of the coldest places in the country when the snowy season comes to Colorado (average low in January is -7F). The surrounding sageland and cloudless sky, broken by the tall cottonwood trees that line the valley floors presented a classic frontier vision and its easy to understand why Western legends like Wyatt Earp would find Gunnison an agreeable place to settle. Hundreds  of miles of trails and gravel ranch roads reach out from and connect the surrounding cities of central Colorado and with places like the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Monarch Pass, Crested Butte, and the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness just a short trip away, I could also see how a committed runner could find Gunnison a worthy home too.