Mailbox Peak Summit Record attempt

The season is coming into full blast now. The World Mountain Running Championships are in two weeks or so and I have been through a lot since my last post. An injury being the most notable. I missed a few weeks of training and a few big races I had planned to attend, but I see it as a blessing in disguise and I will work from here. Today I ventured back to one of my favorite peaks to attempt a summit record. Mailbox peak although not the most notable mountain in the area is pretty nice and interesting being that there is a random mailbox at the peak. You can find an occasional shot of whiskey or even a book in the mailbox left by summit seekers. The mountain climbs about 4,000 feet in around 4-4.3k or so. As you can imagine its steep. Not very fun to go down and very difficult to go up. Many people look at you as if you are insane when they see you moving quickly up the mountain being that nearly everyone who summits this peak has hiking poles to help with the steep +40% grades as you near the peak!

There are two starting points that locals mention when going for a record ascent. There is the blue gate (parking lot) and then about 3-4 mins shorter where the actual trail head to the peak is where hikers refer to as the yellow gate. A fellow ascender of mine recorded a time of 58:58 from the blue gate. I heard another local Ultra phenom known only as "The Uli" recorded a time of 54 mins and some change. Both times are very legit. A few weeks back when I was uninjured and in great shape I ran 53 mins...from the yellow gate. I guess you could say that would be about 58 mins flat or so. Pretty good time I thought. What I found out was that there are in fact different ways of going up. No short cuts however. You must choose what is best for you. Taking the more direct routes are much steeper and thus, raise your heart rate rapidly and cause you to go into oxygen debt early. The more gradual paths are longer in distance, but much easier on the heart. My first time up the mountain I chose to go up the more direct route near the top. Big mistake I found as I was caught walking the majority of the wooded section before the tree line abruptly ends. I think a mixture of the direct trails and longer trails are the best way to get a fast time on the mountain. Sometimes you need a rest so the gradual trail allows you to recover.

I stuck to this routine this time up and found my self way ahead of "record" pace. I was a little above where the tree line breaks and had about ten minutes to spare until I would be at 51 minutes so I cranked it up in an attempt to go sub 51. I ended up getting 50:34, which surprised me being that I didn't think I was fit. Honestly I'm probably not that fit I think I just ran it smarter this time around. I'm thinking of holding an official race and gathering some of the top mountain runners in the area to go for a record up the peak as I feel sub 50 is quite possible considering multiple variables.

Don't ask me what happened to the distance on my GPS. I lost signal a couple of times so I think the distance smoothing mechanism over-calculated a bit. Check out my GPS mapping and data below on Mapmyrun!

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/48158956

So far here is the list for Mailbox peak that I know of. I will update it on this post as time goes on. These records are run from the parking lot (blue gate) not the shorter course from the yellow gate.

1. Joseph Gray 50:34

2. Uli Steidl 54 mins?

3. Kevin Crossman 58:58