Map of Valmont Park Disc Golf Course in Boulder, Colorado

Valmont Park in Boulder now has a disc golf course!

The Valmont Park Interim Disc Golf Course is a temporary 18-hole disc golf course in northeast Boulder. It's east of Foothills Parkway and west of Valmont Butte and the Valmont Post Office. The course's uninformative government web page describes the course as temporary; there are somewhat vague plans for a better, bigger course. (Obviously, we should be thankful for the course and its government web pages. Thanks, Boulder, Mike Lamb, John Bird, and the Mile High Disc Golf Club!)

Volunteers laid the course in November and December, 2012 and I played it for the first time with a friend last weekend. Being a total nerd and obsessive-compulsive organizer, I took my GPS watch and smartphone so I could offer the first online map of the course (and of course now I've just discovered this earlier, less complete jpeg map on the discgolfcoursereview website forum).

You'll note that this is not a particularly accurate map, but I hope it communicates the general idea that this disc golf course is a lot of fun. The first 9 holes meander amusingly around a hill. The back 9 asks the question, "Can you throw straight?" You'll note that I cannot. (I'd never played disc golf on a course before and there was a 20 mph wind most of the day.)

We played for 1 hour 10 minutes and tied at 79 strokes. We weren't in a hurry and we had many throws get waylaid by wind gusts. I think someone could easily play this course during a lunch break. And the Front 9 would be totally fun to tackle in half that time.

There's space for maybe 20 cars in the parking lot just east of the park. And Valmont Bike Park, maybe 50 yards north and east along Airport Drive, has parking spots available as well.

Water is unavailable on the course, so consider bringing a bottle. There's a seasonal port-o-let conveniently positioned near tee 12, just about when you'd need it.

Enjoy!

Valmont Park Interim Disc Golf Course
South of the intersection of Valmont and Airport Drive in Boulder, CO
Uninformative government web page for the course

Valmont Park Interim Disc Golf Course

The Merry Pilgrim

Thanksgiving dinner calls for an American lager or pale ale or perhaps a mellow pinot noir and gewurztraminer, but sometimes it's prudent to begin America's best holiday with a warm and wonderful injection of holiday spirit: a well-mixed cocktail. 

But Thanksgiving has a unique palate: savory, roasty, warm, sweet yet sincere, and satisfying. It's a full day of cooking and ovens and friends, a holiday well herbed and spiced. So perhaps a drink to complement those flavors is preferable to one that piles onto them. 

To me, a great Thanksgiving drink highlights that complementary minority of flavors, the tart cranberry, that only bright fruit that could refresh the northernmost New England people. 

A cosmopolitan? Too sweet, too citrus, too breezy for a heartfelt holiday about giving thanks. To drink vodka on America's most American holiday would be unthinkable. 

But bourbon! That's an American drink as American as apple pie and moonshine. The leathery, woody, savory-sweet warm spirit of the South mingling amicably with Maine's clean-living coldwater berry? 

YES.

 

The Merry Pilgrim

16 cranberries, chopped
1 tsp simple syrup (Don't Google it! 1 cup hot water + 1 cup sugar, dissolve, chill)
1 oz cranberry juice

1 oz bourbon (Wild Turkey for budgetary and thematic reasons, or: Maker's Mark, Woodford Reserve)
soak 15 minutes

then add:
1 oz cranberry juice
1 oz bourbon
3 dashes angostura bitters
ice

stir (don't shake!)
strain with a fine strainer
pour and garnish with a few cranberries

A preview of Scott Jurek's upcoming book Eat & Run

For Scott Jurek, few things in life have come easily. And that’s why he’s the world’s best ultramarathoner. In his new book Eat & Run, Jurek reveals depth of character as he tells how sports offered a reprieve from a tough childhood spent as family caretaker in Minnesota’s backwoods. Running became his salvation, delivering him to the highest heights of a modernizing sport. Jurek’s journey shows him melding the best parts of those around him, grafting their toughness and attitudes about life, sports, and food onto his hardened athletic core.

The book’s race reports are its best feature as freelance writer Steve Friedman’s gritty, emotional writing style carries us along smoothly over the jagged terrain and rocky emotional struggles Jurek endures. Jurek puts us inside his head as he devours mammoth workouts in the mountains around Seattle and smashes course records at races like Western States and Badwater, often running brutal paces on torn ligaments and broken bones. Witnessing Jurek’s development as a person and philosopher-athlete transform his running performances into personal milestones more meaningful than any podium finish or new world record. Any runner will absorb Jurek’s subtle lessons about mental toughness and find invaluable his four-step process for handling crises.

Some readers might find the “Eat” parts of the book less fulfilling. While Jurek is clearly convinced that his vegan diet has carried him throughout his career, runners may find his workouts and racing more relatable than his clean-fuel diet. Jurek eats simply, yet the interjection of his somewhat involved recipes at the end of important chapters felt a little jarring.

Eat & Run is a fascinating and inspirational look at Scott Jurek, deepening the narrow portrait of him in Born to Run. Though many of us undoubtedly had an easier upbringing, Jurek’s inner fire and his transformation into the world’s best ultramarathoner are motivating reminders of why we run. Eat & Run will become a classic of ultrarunning lore. For runners and trailrunners, Jurek’s story is anthem.

Eat & Run will be available next week in bookstores and from its publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Learn more about Scott and his book at his brand-new website www.scottjurek.com.