Yesterday I did my first ever Pikes Peak Ascent.  It has been looming ominously over my summer fitness program, daunting as a winged bear and ever present as the scent of asparagus in pee (or so I hear).

It was an interesting experience.

Basically, it is a leisurely jaunt up 13.3 miles of smooth then rocky terrain, that covers a vertical distance of about 7,800 feet to a summit at an elevation of greater than 14,000 feet.  I am a rockstar.  Just kidding!  An awe-inspiring 1162 men, and 485 women completed this task yesterday, and a fair few of them are doing twice that today during the marathon (up and down).  I am so impressed by the level of fitness, training, and dedication that it must have taken for all of these people to do this.  I know that it dominated my summer evenings, and I didn’t do that well in the grand scheme of things.

My race overall was swell, no bad weather and no serious digestive problems to be had.  I spent my morning running when possible, dodging tree roots, scaling rocky stairs, and trying to figure out the optimal food consumption that would get me up the mountain in as good a time and shape as possible, while passing as many spandex and hot-short clad commrades as possbile.  I was doing pretty well for the first seven miles up to Barr camp- I shimmied up in about two hours, but my unpreparedness for the second half of the course, as well as O2 deprivation didn’t do me any favors.  I ended up doing some serious walking up to the top, clocking in at 4:39:41 ish.  Unfortunately, this was quite a far cry from my original goal of 3 hours and my revised goal of 4 hours.  Maybe next year…

Overall though, I was very psyched that I did indeed finish the race without stopping, except to grab oranges, and that I didn’t get last place, hooray! It felt great (mostly) to push my body and see that it could at least accomplish that mountain.  The only thing I would have changed were the crowds of walkers and allowing them to influence me for the slower.  Another highlight was running away from event staff like a renegade- I will keep my headphones thank-you-very-much.  I will put up more photos when I get them.

Now I find myself somewhat confused, without running goals.  My focus for the whole summer, and even since March when I registered, is gone.  I need a new challenge now! Suggestions, as always, are welcome.