Yesterday was the Pikes Peak Marathon and my first attempt at finishing it. It didn't exactly go as planned. The way I understood it, I was about 4 minutes late to the cut-off at Timberline aid station (about 12,500 feet) and that forced me to turn around there and go down. The higher and higher I went the more I was sick and couldn't catch my breath, suffering from what I believe was altitude sickness. It was 10 miles up and 10 miles down, so I did end up running 20 miles. Of course, I was very dissapointed to not finish the marathon (officially receiving another DNF - did not finish, my second of the year, see Rockin' K and third overall, Leadville last year) and never having made it to the Summit of beautiful Pikes Peak. When I turned around and started running downhill, I felt better step by step and ran really well. I know that in the future if I can make it to the Summit, coming down will definitely be the easy and fun part. I feel a bit of unfinished business and hope to return one day to finish what I started. Now it's time to rest up and re-build my confidence for next Saturday's Leadville Trail 100 mile run. Andrew came with me for the whole week of vacation and we are headed to our camping spot at Turquoise Lake, near Leadville now.NEW Video (8/26) Video of coming to the finish line (only 20 miles though):
And then when it was all over, sitting down on a bench, wondering, wait a minute, what happened? It seemed like a good idea at the time! Guess I have unfinished business on Pikes Peak for a future attempt!
