Success!!!

Sure, I'm smiling now... Here I am getting ready to start
the incline. It was a steep trail to even get to this point!

We're maybe almost halfway up at this point.
You can see the parking lot over my shoulder.
So exhausted at this point, the elevation change was evident.

A view up from that (almost halfway) point.
That is NOT the top, it's a false summit.
At some points the steps were so high, you had to climb it.

I did it!! 30 feels good. :)
The sweet success.

Another view from the top.
It's a looong way down, take my word for it!

This is about Sean's 10th time doing the Manitou Incline.
Another view from the top. See the parking lot below??

Getting ready to jog the 4 miles down Barr Trail. If we continued
up the trail another eleven miles, we would be at the top of Pikes Peak!
You can see the snow-capped mountains in the background.
When we started the hike, it was about 68* up here it was easily 55* with
really strong winds. We were freezing.

At the bottom of Barr Trail. I actually rolled my right ankle
twice on the rugged trail down. The last quarter mile was painful.
The gorgeous trail down made that intense hike up "the cog" worth it!
The trail was steep, had tons of switch backs and some parts were wet
from the melting snow. It was strange running by snow.

My 2010 Goal is now a success, I completed it with Sean Monday!! I am so proud of myself!! It feels so good to reach your challenging goals. :) Here is what we did...

• 1 mile up.
• 2744 railroad ties.
• 2000 feet of vertical.
• 4 mile jog back down on Barr Trail.
• 1700 calories burned!
• 53 minutes up.
• 50 minutes down.

Sean was the only person that told me I could do it. Several guys on his team didn't have faith that I could finish it and none of my girlfriends had finished it either. Sean normally completes the Incline in about 33 minutes, and he predicted I could do it in under an hour. He was right, in fact I finished it faster on my first time than one of the guys on his old team! I think the hardest part was the steep elevation change, it was so hard to breathe. Sean disagrees, he thinks the worst part is how it smokes your legs. A friend of ours wore a calorie burned counter and that's where the 1700 calories burned comes from. I believe it, I've never had such a total body workout in my life. After we finished, Sean and I went to The Loop in downtown Manitou for a much deserved snack of chips, guac, and chili con queso. Ohh, and I had a hearty piece of my Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake last night too. :)


Next goal of 2010 is running Waldo Canyon. Which will be difficult not only for the distance (6.8 miles) but because of the elevation changes (7100 ft to 8100 ft) too. This time I'm going to buy a pair of trail shoes to prevent another twisted ankle!