Pikes Peak Half Marathon/Colorado Trip

September 01, 2012

Pikes Peak Half Marathon/Colorado Trip

Colorado Springs, CO -> August 16, 2012-August 19, 2012

The trip:

What an amazing time! I flew into Colorado Springs on Thursday morning and met up with my dad, Christy, and my dad's friend Rob. We grabbed some lunch at PF Chang's and toured Rob's work. He works at an engineering company that works on 'hardening' buildings. After that, Christy and I just hung out and talked for a while and grabbed some sushi for dinner.

Reunited!

Dad and I, Pikes Peak in the background

The next morning we got up and headed up one of the mountains to ride horses. We took an hour ride along the trails up there. It was a little scary at first, my horse kept wanting to eat while I was riding (that's a big no-no). After that we grabbed my packet and then went over to Garden of the Gods to eat some lunch. From there we toured the Olympic training facility and the Air Force Academy. I then met up with the Kansas City people for dinner.

Horses

Horseback riding

Olympic training facility

Group after dinner

We raced Saturday morning. Ouch. After the race, I crashed for a while. We then had some pizza and beer and called it a night. I stayed with Emily and Shanna at their hotel so we could watch Ciro off the next morning for his marathon - he ran the Ascent and the Marathon, crazy!

KC Crew before the race

Sunday we watched Ciro off and then had some breakfast. We went to Garden of the Gods and took some pictures and did the tourist thing. My dad picked me up and took me to the airport and I headed back to Minneapolis. :)

Emily, Shanna and I at the Garden of the Gods

The race:

The race is ridiculous. I wasn't nervous at all to start. We started out at a nice easy jog. Immediately you start going uphill. It started on the streets of Manitou Springs. We were going at a 17 minute mile.

First mile, before the trail

At first I thought this was crazy slow. Once we hit the trail head, it bottlenecked and we were walking. This went on for a few miles (at this point, a mile is taking about 20 minutes).

Still running

Still enjoying the race

We hit one downhill and started to jog, but then it went right back to an uphill and I could feel my heart pounding in my throat! The altitude definitely was starting to kick in. I was feeling great with about 6 miles to go. This was about 2.5 hours in. Then it hit. My lower back started to KILL. I blame my terrible posture. It was excruciating. My 'brisk walk' then became a shuffle.


At the Barr Camp

I lost the Kansas City crew somewhere before the A-Frame. I started to wait for them, but if I stopped for too much longer, there would have been no way I would have been able to start again. After the A-Frame, the tree line ended. This is when I had to convince myself I had to finish. I have never in my life thought I wasn't going to finish a race - fortunately, there was no other choice. People were dropping like flies, everywhere you looked they were sprawled out on the rocks on the sides of the path. The last water stop finally came. 1.3 miles to go. On a normal race, that would be exciting - my thoughts OMG THERE'S STILL 1.3 MILES LEFT?!. You would glance up and all that you would see were people marching like ants, back and forth all the way up to the top. It looked like the longest 1.3 miles ever. This last 1.3 miles took around 45 minutes to finish. It is called the Golden Staircase. It is nothing but rock climbing to the finish. Just keep shuffling, you think you can slow down but if you do, you're not moving.

Golden Staircase

When you could finally see the finish, it was the biggest relief ever! Crossing the finish, you still had to go up a little farther.

Almost to the finish

I got to the aid station and the lady asked me what I would like - my response? "Everything.. please...". I finally found Christy and all I wanted to do was sit down.. but I couldn't. My legs could not remember how to do this. I collapsed down to the ground. We waited until the KC Crew finally crossed the line. We took a few pictures. At this point, my lips were turning blue and I never thought I would be warm again. We got shuttled to my dad's car and then drove down to the bottom to get the finisher's medal and some food. I crashed and slept most of the ride down and for the rest of the day. I'm glad I did it. Sometimes, it is really surprising what your body will allow you to do, no matter how much it is telling you not to do it.