This weekend we flew up to Colorado Springs to run the Pike's Peak Ascent. This whole trip started as joke made by my mom. Aaron decided to take that joke seriously and get us all signed up to do the race so there we were! We flew in on Thursday. Tricia and I took an early flight and got in with Maddy about 1 and Aaron and Ben came in later that evening. The weather was perfect in Colorado Springs. It was so nice to have a break from the heat we've been dealing with in Dallas. And it was great to see my parents again. On Friday we went up to Manitou Springs to pick up our race packets.
Maddy playing on the bear chairs in the airport.
Hanging out at the race tent.
Our picnic in Manitou after we picked up our race packets. We also made a quick trip out to the ranch to see Aaron's grandparents for a couple of hours. They were making sauerkraut while we were there. Then we came back to my parents and had our pre-race spaghetti dinner topped off with some donuts from the Donut Mill in Woodland Park.
Here are the girls at the race start bright and early on Saturday morning. Hannah, a student from DBU, came and did the race with us as well. The weather was perfect for the race. Some thought it was too hot but it was perfect for me because I wasn't worried about my lungs shutting down from breathing air that was too cold.
Me and Aaron waiting for the race to start.So our wave started at 7:30 in the morning. We started out by the park in Manitou and ran about a mile up to the trail head. This was a part that almost everyone actually ran. Once you got to the trail head it was walking because the trail was steep and it was narrow so it was really tight and hard to pass the first three miles. My mom and I stayed together until Barr Camp. At Barr camp there was this crazy guy that was bowing down to us yelling at the top of his lungs about our "awesome powers". Strange because only me and Mom had this experience. After Barr Camp I was passing some people and I thought Mom was right behind me. When I looked back she was nowhere to be seen. I continued on but felt bad later because she started feeling funny at that point and got a bloody nose. If I knew she was feeling bad I wouldn't have kept going without her. The part between Barr Camp and the A frame is where I really did my best hiking I think. I just kind of got a second wind through that section and passed quite a few people. I did pretty well from Barr Camp to the Cirque as well. After that the going got tough. The air got thin and I was feeling pretty wiped out. About 2 miles from the top or so I looked up above me and was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see Tricia. I called her name and she heard me but didn't see me. Later she saw me and we waved to each other. I also thought I saw my Mom below me a little ways at one point. It gave me some encouragement to move on to know my race buddies were in close proximity and I would get to see them soon after reaching the top. The last mile was killer. I did not pass anyone. At the very end this very smelly man shoved in front of me. He stunk so bad I wanted to pass him just to get up wind but we seriously had maybe 400 ft. to go at this point and the trail was really narrow and steep. He slipped and kicked me in the hand right as we were coming up the last steep section to get to the finish line. I was so thankful to see the finish line I almost cried. I also almost cried because I forgot that we started thirty minutes later than the first wave and the clock at the finish said I was a little over 5 hours. I had another pleasant surprise at the top that Aaron and Ben hadn't gone down to the staging area like I thought they would. They were waiting to see us finish the race. They reminded me that my time was really 30 minutes faster than what the clock said. It really wasn't too bad on top. It was cold but not unbearable like it has been before when I've been up there and we had our sweat check so we could get our sweats and get warm. We were all getting really cold and I was starting to get the good ol' altitude cough so we decided to go down to the staging area to wait for Hannah. We felt bad later because by the time we went down we would have seen her at the top if we'd just have waited 20 more minutes or so. But we had a good time waiting for her at Glen Cove and got some water and coffee to warm up as well as some snacks. When Hannah got there we took a bus back down the rest of the mountain to the race tent.
Here we are back in Manitou with our finisher shirts. Dad came and picked us up. Cindy came down for the day to hang out with him and Maddy and she'd brought watermelon so we had that when we got home. Then we cleaned up and went to Red Robin for dinner. Yum! It was a great great weekend.
For those who are interested in the stats--from the Colorado Springs paper in order of finisher:Aaron--287th, 58 out of 163 in age group time: 3:42:35
Ben--459th 92-163 4:00:17
Tricia--255th 42-79 4:34:50
Me--258th 52-90 4:35:17
Estelle--313th 23-45 4:49:59
Hannah--385th 18-22 5:15:54
Everyone did awesome! I am so thankful that God has blessed me with the physical ability and financial ability to be able to do stuff like this and also very thankful for a supportive family who was willing to watch Maddy, give us all a place to stay, etc. I am truly blessed.
In other news: School starts at DBU today. Tammy moved down here and will start work and school at DBU this week. I will start my classes Friday. Maddy chewed her first piece of gum this morning, wrapper and all. Thankfully I caught her before she swallowed any of it.
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brittany