Happy Memorial Day! What a lovely weekend for Pikes Peak Ascent training. If you're curious: Read about last year's Memorial Day Elk Park run here.
Yesterday, I set out with Sharon, J'ne, and a couple of her friends from Denver. Sharon and I set out on the Incline.
I did 38:36 today, which isn't the best, but I'm glad to be under 40 minutes.
The clouds from the top were so cool! Sharon was right behind me.
We power hiked all the way to Barr Camp, and got there in 2:07 total. I'm actually quite happy with that time! I'll have to be faster when running the race, but for a power hiking time that's good. We saw J'ne at camp, she had run a 2:01.
The caretakers said that Elk Park trail was pretty deep in snow near the top still, so Sharon was going to turn around at Camp. But I wasn't ready to turn in the towel yet and I wanted to go further than Barr Camp.
So we convinced ourselves it might be possible to do Elk Park, and set out. The first part of the trail was clear.
We took photos by a rock like last year!
The moss growing on the rocks was so thick and pretty from all the rain lately!
The trail was clear up until the meadow. And there was a super cool view of the ridgeline leading to the Pikes summit, with the moon setting in the background.
Unfortunately, past this point, the snow quickly and thoroughly covered the trail. We didn't go much past the meadow.
Still, we went over 2 miles onto the Elk Park trail before turning around, making our total for the day 16 miles!
The fresh air was wonderful and this was such a fulfilling day, even if we didn't go all the way to the top of Elk Park. I'm certainly glad we got as far as we did, and didn't just turn around at Camp.
Plus I saw many friends along the way, including catching up with Jim and his family.
Memorial day weekend is the traditional start to the summer season. Just as I enjoy a long run on each Sunday to set up my week for success, I love having a Memorial day weekend adventure to set up my whole summer for fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment