 Good morning, YouTube. Here we are. We are in Aspen, Colorado, a place called Aspen. A place called Aspen. This is 8,000 feet above sea level, so 2,400 meters. I looked it up ahead of time. This is a true vertical K running route, and they do races here. Actually, this is gonna be my first race of 2019, and my brother's Joseph. He's over there getting ready. It's basically to be a vertical K race. It needs to be 1,000 meters of climbing in less than three miles of distance. So we're talking straight up the mountain, and yes, when we do the race, we will be racing against skiers. So people that are skinning up the mountain, and we will be running, but people will be skiing up, and it actually, depending on the snow conditions, can determine who has the advantage. So anyway, that'll be March 9th, and we're here just doing a little course preview, and it tops out at 11, what does it top out at? 11, 212 is the top, so 3,400 meters, so that 1,000 meters of climbing, and it's like 22 degrees, it's perfect out, and we're just gonna go get a nice morning workout. It's gonna hurt, it's gonna hurt. Oh yeah, and I'll bring the GoPro. Oh man, can you see it behind me? All right, here we go. Butter my bread, butter my bread. These guys, I'm telling you, I think I'm almost getting to 40 miles in these shoes, so four of you coming very soon for the SpeedCross 5s. Oh, let's go climbing. They came in sections. All right, we're at the bottom of the mountain. This is the America's uphill course, straight up. Straight up. Oh my goodness, look at this. Yeah, it doesn't get much more straight up. This is Joseph's stomping ground, so how's the snow? What are you thinking? It's gonna be hard. He's all man-made, and yes, it's gonna be hard. So, yeah, it's gonna be hard not having skis on. Ooh, there's a skinner, somebody's skinning. Is that what you, as I you say it? Yep. Skinning up. All right, folks, 1,000 meters up, right? Yep. 1,000 meters up, and this is the starting line of the America's uphill, which we will be doing in about six weeks, and all right, shall we? Oh, man, yeah. Holy schnikeys, quads, baby. Frankly, frankly, YouTube, I gotta put you away. I gotta use both arms. This is gonna be way, way too hard with one arm. We'll see you about halfway up the mountain. All right, we're approaching the halfway point. This is a doozy. I'd say this is a lot harder than running greys and tories, you know? It feels, we're talking about a quad burn. Why take the chairlift when you can run? I think I've seen you take a few insta, yeah, photos here. I've been up to 400 meters in a line. That looks pretty sweet. There's a sun coming through. Oh, is that what it is? There's coffee on top. Here it is on the map, you wanna point it out? Yeah. The orange there. So we will be doing America's uphill. We're gonna give it a shot in the snow, but I think we're definitely, what are we gonna use during the race? Definitely poles. Yeah. Yeah, maybe micro-spice should definitely poles. Yeah, poles would help, so, yeah. So, anyway, I'm gonna give you a thought on the speed cross fives back at the house, break down how they did in the snow. So, let's see, let's flip this over. Get a, man, if you wanna work out, if you're looking to do a workout, come here and run up this mountain. Holy smokes, all right. And we're back in Denver, we're back in Denver. All right, something arrived in the mail today. I don't remember ordering anything. Let's just see what this might be. Oh, sticky dots. Definitely not, nothing running related. Actually, you know what sticky dots are? I use sticky dots, it is running related. I use the sticky dots to hang up the shoe boxes on the wall. So, I'm actually very happy these arrived. I was like, wait a minute, I didn't order anything. So, anyway, thank you, thank you, Amazon. Appreciate it, appreciate it. All right, let's dive into today's run in Aspen. And yes, you better believe it. The key word is Aspen for the Aspen trees. And I've already said this before on the vlog, but what is the largest living organism in the entire world as far as mass? It's an Aspen Grove. It's an Aspen Grove, that's right. All of those Aspins, when you see a huge Aspen Grove, they are all connected underneath, like with the same root system. Isn't that amazing? And I actually, I think they have found the largest Aspen Grove somewhere. I don't know where it's at. I think it's in Colorado. I could be wrong if somebody knows. Let me know down in the comments. But anyway, that is the largest living organism in the world, the Aspen Grove trees. Kinda cool, kinda cool. Okay, today's run started at 8,000 feet. I already mentioned that, 2,400 meters. We did 1,000 meters of climbing. So 3,200 feet of climbing ended up at 11,200 feet above sea level. So 4,200, no, 3,400 meters above sea level. And you're testing my math here. You're testing my math here. Okay, and I just have a quick note here about what is a vertical K race? Because even though I grew up running cross country, training in the mountains as a teenager, and then even growing up pretty close to the Leadville 100 course, I had never heard of a vertical K race. And I think it's really, really, it's a fascinating concept for trail racing. It's very challenging, very difficult, but just like I had never known about these types of races until about three years ago. So if you are strong like at speed and climbing and you're just like a strong runner, like almost like an 800 meter runner that has that aerobic development, like that good endurance, that's like a good combo, like good strength. So the vertical K is 1,000 meters of climbing or one kilometer of elevation gain in less than basically 5K of total distance. So today we went two and a half miles of distance, but 1,000 meters of climbing. So that was technically a vertical K race. And in fact, that's what we will be doing on March 9th back there at that course. And so anyway, that's my little tidbit for your, because running and racing is so diverse. You can go run through the Gobi Desert or maybe it's the Sahara. Like you can go run the Boston Marathon. You can go run across, you can go do FKT attempts where you run over the mountains in a non-race environment, but you're going for the FKT, the fastest known time. All I'm saying is like, if you are feeling maybe a little like burned out at a certain type of racing or a certain distance, I would like, there's so many opportunities out there to diversify your racing lineup. And anyway, it just gets me excited because I was all in on like ultra running. And listen, ran up against some brick walls in 2018, trying to run a 50 mile race, DNF, tried to run a 100 mile race, DNF. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. Okay, let's change it up a little bit in 2019. Boom, Cleveland Marathon, Cleveland Marathon and this vertical K race. Like I've actually never raced a vertical K. So I digress. Oh my goodness. And in that vertical K race in Aspen on March 9th, I will, I was probably wrong. I told you last week that you should not race in this shoe. You should not race in this shoe unless you're doing a vertical K race in snow. This shoe probably is going to be the best bet unless, unless Innovate sends me some mud claws, unless Innovate sends me some mud claws. But for now, this is probably going to be the best option because of the log action on the bottom is just deeper and a better grip compared to the Solomon S lab since seven SG. And this heel is a little built up. And so it'll actually provide just a little bit of support when you're starting to get tired toward the top of the mountain. So there's a really, it performed well today. We slipped a little bit at certain points where it got really steep or the snow got really soft. And on that note, if it snows the night before the race, like we are, we are going to be in for a tough, tough situation. But we will do our best in these shoes and it'll be interesting to see the percentage, the percentage of skiers versus the percentage of runners. And we'll definitely be using poles and going up that mountain. So they performed well today. Ah, love these shoes, love these shoes. And last point, I'm almost, I'm getting close to like 35 miles in the shoes already. So I expect to get you a full review in the next week. So if you are a big fan of Solomon and the speed cross lineup and mountain running, that's coming very soon. Okay. And lastly, the question of the day, here we go. It's actually, I'm going back to the archive thanks to all of you for asking questions. I think it was six days ago and this is from Robert and I love this and this is where we're going to lean into the wisdom of the marathon community, especially. So all the veteran marathon runners out there, we need your help. This is what Robert asked and this is the question of the day. Shout out to Robert. Thank you for this. He asked, one related question would be to marathon vets. What's the one thing you wish you had known before running your first marathon? Just one thing that you wish you would have known that's the question of the day. And if you are not racing a marathon in 2019, if you're in high school or college or maybe you're, you know, in your 60s, it's like maybe you have aspirations to run a marathon, go down into the comments and just start chiming in and asking questions back because I know I will be, because yeah, this is it. This is like, I'm trying to figure out what's the marathon experience, like what's the best way to run a marathon without making, you know, those teeny tiny little mistakes that actually can turn into big mistakes, as you well know, in long distance running. All right, what a great day. Up at the Vertical K, experience in Aspen in the Solomon Speedcross Fives. Shout out to Joseph for leading the charge up the mountain and can't wait to get back up there for a little racing, a little snow racing. Oh, man, it's gonna be fun. Let's see beauty, work hard, and love each other. Let's do this. Sticky dots. See you tomorrow.