We’re on the bus ride out to Buena
Vista and decided to quickly catch up on the blog. Obviously, life was pretty
crazy over the summer between school, races, and kids on vacation. We did
manage to keep up on the running though! At the end of June, Tamaria and I
ventured up Mt. Si twice…in a row…on the same day. We picked a Friday morning,
hoping to avoid large crowds, and managed to hike the 4000 elevation up and
back down, twice, for a total time under 5 hours. Ironically, Tamaria and I
happened to dress like twins that day; with matching black shorts, pink tanks
and compression socks. We heard many
times “You’re doing this again? Followed by - Are you guys twins?” We felt a
little more comfortable about attempting the overall elevation gain
TransRockies had ready for us.
Towards
the end of July we hit a milestone: the day neither of us felt like running.
Somehow we had managed to offset days – Tamaria would be up for the run when I
wanted to lie down on the trail and vice versa.
We made it 6 miles into our Tiger mountain loop and called it a day – 12
miles and breakfast at Denny’s sounded so much better than being on the dark
damp trail. (And it was; breakfast at Denny’s was AWESOME).
The
next weekend we were back at Tiger Mountain to once again attempt our 23 mile
loop. We did it…with many curse words mixed in along Poo Poo Trail. This is
definitely NOT our favorite loop despite what the books call it. Our
celebration was pie at Sherri’s….lots of pie at Sherri’s. We had one more
weekend of long runs and then it was taper time!
That
next weekend happened to be Ragnar. For those of you that haven’t discovered or
heard us talk about Ragnar, it’s a 200 mile race from Blaine to Langley. Teams
start in the morning and one person runs to an exchange where another team
member takes over…and you keep this up until you finish 200 miles later. Sounds
awesome, right? With all this distance running we decided to do an ultra team
this year (6 instead of 12 runners). I wasn’t able to start with the team
because of a school conflict but I was VERY EXCITED to see them that afternoon
and start my 16 miles of night running. We had some injuries, upset stomachs,
muscle aches and a possible case of the flu but 30 hours after the start, we conquered
another Ragnar.
After Ragnar
we focused on enjoying the taper with a few sets of stairs, one more trip up
Mt. Si (in a record time for us of 2 hours), and one very hot run in the 90’s
before leaving for Colorado. And the adventure continues….. J
Friday
August 10th we shoved all but the kitchen sink in bags and headed to
the airport. We boarded our flight at
5:30pm for Denver, CO. Laura had
homework to finish up her quarter and I had a very important magazine to read
during the 2 hour flight. Once we
arrived in Denver, we headed to Avis car rental to check in and pick up the
compact car. To our amazement, a compact
car in Denver is not what a compact car is in Seattle; Parking spot U22 held a
Ford Flex. (Laura and I loved our Ford
Flex for 3 days!!) Laura navigated as I
drove us to Castle Rock, CO where Susan and Patrick Malone opened their home to
us. Good thing the only place we got
lost was in their neighborhood. Humming
Bird Drive, we will conquer you someday…..
Saturday
August 11th – Laura and I slept in a bit, thoroughly enjoying the
Tempurpedic bed that was ours for our stay.
After getting a slow start, we headed to Pikes Peak to see what 14+
thousand feet had to offer. Upon our
arrival to the base of Pikes Peak, there was a ton of trucks and campers…..what
was going on? We asked the Ranger, WTF?,
and found out it was the Pikes Peak Hill Climb; a motorcycle and sports car
race. Wow, some very expensive toys!
After making it to the top, car sick and all, we ran to the
gift shop…..dizzy, fuzzy headed, holy sh*t!
The cure - a 14+thousand feet fresh made donut. Another few laps around the parking lot, a
mile hike and a lot of panting – time for another donut and to head back to
8,000ft. Amazing how 12 hours after
arrival, 8,000ft felt great. Later that
night, Laura and I treated ourselves to a movie – The Bourne Legacy. We are ready to fight any bears that come our
way!!
Sunday
August 12th – Mt. Evans and highest highway in the US. We got up and headed out for our second day
of acclimation training – 14+thousand feet.
Beautiful is the word to describe the drive up to the summit. The road; narrow and no guard rails to stop
you from the STEEP drop offs if your car……
We saw a couple running up the last 5miles to the top, ugh, we bow
down! Mountain goats and marmots greeted
us at the summit. Breathtaking is the
word to describe the views. Did you know
it smells like bacon up there!? Yup, it
does! Three people made breakfast while
enjoying the views. After taking some
pictures and talking with people, it was time to head back down. We felt a bit more confident that maybe we
could take on the TransRockies!
Monday
August 13th – Here we are on the bus heading to Buena Vista. We have met some other teams and some of them
are from home – B’ham is in the house!!
