"Run Forrest! I'll whoop your ass in the mileage count next year..."

There's a fun little challenge brewing between my (cyber) buddy Brownie in Colorado, and myself.  On December 31, 2008, I posted my year end stats of running, and he graciously commented: 

"Run Forrest! I'll whoop your ass in the mileage count next year..."

And so it began - a friendly challenge between an almost exclusive Colorado Trail Runner and a Hybrid Road/Trail runner. 

I took a nice lead on him early in the year as I trained for Boston, and I think i had up to about a 150 mile lead on him at one point. (I think).  The week leading up to Boston was low for me, as were the next 3.  Brownie got really nervous and decided to run three or four 50km and/or 50 mile races within 6 weeks, and he has now taken a nice lead on me.  

He will further extend that lead over the next couple of weeks, since he's running another 50 mile trail race (Jemez) next weekend, and my next upcoming 3 week will slowly wind down for my Stockholm marathon on May 30. 

He'll then really stretch his lead as I take June completely off from real training and will only run 20-30 miles a week that will consist of fun runs in the greenbelt and maybe a couple of road runs. 

Then it gets real interesting...

• I'll restart my high mileage build towards-and-through the Portland Marathon in early October then train towards January 9th, Bandera 100km trail race. 
  
• Brownie has many of 50km and 50mile races, as well as two BIG race of his season in the summer...  Hardrock 100 miler on July 10th, then Leadville 100miler on August 22. 
  

After that, it'll come down to my mileage skyrocketing, and his mileage slowly winding down a bit, then if it's a very snowy fall in Manitou Springs, he may be slowed down and I may be able to win in what may be a photo finish on Dec 31!

As it stands today...

Brownie: 1167.9

Mike :      1117.8

Brownie lead : 50.1 miles.

In other news, I ran a fun 8.5 miles with Jo Dee, Steve, Ken and Muz on the greenbelt this morning.