~ 3 Summits, 3 Trailheads, 3 Days and 23 Miles Oh Yeah~

This past weekend my husband and I stayed in a small town called South Fork, CO and stayed in our friends little cabin. Our goal was to hike 3 14er's in the area. Every morning the alarm went off at 4:45 am and we drove to the Trailhead. Our first hike was Handies, our second was Wetterhorn and third was Uncompahgre all in the San Juan Mountain Range. What a trip! Wetterhorn was the most difficult since there was a section class 3 on it. It was scary for a moment but then it was pretty sweet.



First stop we got gas and there was a bar within the gas station!! They had happy hour so we decided to have a drink since this was a mini vacation weekend~

First up was Handies Peak. I chose this as our first since I read it would be the easiest. It was a great hike although a bit windy at the top. After we stopped in the town of Creede and shopped and ate. Since usually we are done with the hike around noon we still have most of the day to explore the towns nearby!

The Summit of Handies Peak

On the way up to the Summit. Gorgeous lake.

Next up was Wetterhorn. I was nervous for this hike as there is a class 3 section to get to the top. I read and watched youtube videos so I could make sure I could handle it. It was a little scary I am not going to lie. At one point I told David that I am good and will just wait for him to summit and I will stay back. However, I sucked it up and it was pretty cool to climb that last section.

Figuring out the route...

Posing after I had made the class 3 section

Wetterhorn Summit

Now at this point David was feeling good but my foot was killing me. Earlier that week I could not run on the dirt track due to flooding and had to run on the roads. Well I do my track workouts in my racing flats. I only ran 3 miles and it hurt my foot. This upsets me as I thought lightweight shoes and barefoot running is all the rage when in fact NOT FOR ME!!!!!! There was a route to hike 2 14er's in 1 day it would have been 15 miles round trip but my foot could not go. So we went to the car and decided to do the last one the following day. This was actually are original plan but thought we could do the double.

Onto Uncompahgre...

Instead of taking the standard road for this hike we decided to take the 4 wheel drive road in a Honda CR-V HA!! We made it though! This was great so we got to hike on a new trail. Otherwise the first 2 miles would have been the same as the day before. After icing my foot and taking a TON of Advil and wearing compression sock my foot managed and we summited!

Uncompahgre



Summit of Uncompahgre and you can see Wetterhorn in the background.

 What a weekend! I am addicted. Some of you may think hiking is boring like I used to, but 14er's are different. It's like running the whole time you are so out of breath because of the altitude. It's so fun and it helps my running! Sometimes I run down depending on the condition of the trail. I hope I can run/hike this weekend. I keep icing the foot......

Back Patio Baby!

Yes! We are finally finished with our back patio and have an outdoor living area!

When we moved into our fixxer upper we knew we would have do do something with the back patio. It was a huge cracked piece on concrete. So we had that removed.

Then we poured concrete and added another step.

We went to a rock place and picked up by ourselves over 4 ton of flagstone. We made several trips.

Then we had to lay out the stones and pour dirt in between them to create the patio. That actually was fun trying to get all the pieces in the best places.

As we were finishing up my husband had this idea to make a bar. He had this hunk of wood leftover from a job site so we added that too!

Went to Lowe's and got a clearance patio table and chairs that included cushions! Then we hung lights.  I feel like I am in downtown Denver at a fancy restaurant it's so nice back here!!!

Time to have some people over and drink some wine!!Love it!!

4k and Bierstadt!!

The 4k on the 4th was HOT!! The course had 3 turn arounds and was in Boulder, which means to you all FAST runners!!! I was 8th in my AG (35-39)  if you look at the other races that same day in the area I would have been in the top 3! I didn't look this up the coach for the running club did ;) I MAY just do it again next year and BEAT those Boulder women! I ran 18:44.

After I sweated everything out of me this was the BEST post race EVER! They had breakfast burritos catered, fresh fruit and AVERY beer. Since it was the Avery 4k. Remember how I said the winner wins their weight in beer? Well the had dollies right there so they could load up the cases in their car. Now I didn't win beer from racing however I noticed the announcer kept randomly calling out bib numbers. So at this time I had 1 beer in me and was feeling goooood. I kept trying to flirt with the guy so he would call my bib number and he did!! I won a 6 pack of delicious beer HA!!

So that was Monday then I attempted to do my track workout early Tuesday morning but my legs were still fried I

guess from racing so I did 5 X 800's pretty slow. I took Wed. off. Thursday I picked up my sister at 5:30 AM and we hiked Mt. Bierstadt! It was a great 14er. It got cloudy when we were almost to the top but it never rained on us! We were so blessed because a little while later there were major storms and hail. This was Tiffany's 2nd 14er and first of the year. She did soo good, I was so proud of her~

The Summit!

The Beginning

CLOUDS

I LOVE my dorky hiking only hat!

 
 
I have a long run tomorrow. I sure hope these hikes are helping me with my endurance. I have a half marathon August 13th!!

Missouri Mountain my 21st 14er!

Yesterday alarm went off at 3:45am. Got ready and drove to a park and ride to meet 2 others. Then drove to the trailhead, which was near Leadville, CO. We got started at 7:30am. The plan was to hike Missouri Mtn. and then also get to Oxford and Belford however there was still snow on the trail and since it was our first hike of the season and we were with a newbie we decided to just hike Missouri. The trail was gorgeous! We started out at 9,640 feet and the summit was 14, 067 so the hike went UP pretty quickly! I had done a track workout the day before so I started out a little stiff but after I warmed up I was kicking it!


When we arrived at the lot there were a ton of search and rescue people. I guess a father daughter had been missing since Tuesday. That was creepy. By the end of the day they did find them. Sadly they did not make it. It really got me thinking about life and taking things for granted. We saw this helicopter as we were hiking. They found them...

We made it to the summit in 3.5 hours, which isn't too bad for our group. It was great weather and hardly any wind, which is amazing for the summit!

We got down pretty quickly and headed home! What a great day! Rockies game today and the 4k tomorrow! What a FUN weekend!

Redemption... so sweet

I had a great track workout today!! I was mentally tough and even did an extra 400!! With running, if you have a bad workout it's always there the next day. Unlike for example Mt. Everest, if you don't summit it's a huge ordeal to get back to it...can you tell I am reading Running on Empty : )

Anyway I ran 7 400's on the same track as Tuesday and felt fine!
1:32, 1:32, 1:31, 1:30, 1:30 and what I thought was my last 1:24. Then coach said she was going to do a few more and I timed one of hers and then I was like screw it I can do another! So I did in 1:26!!YEAH!!

So lesson learned on mental toughness as it's a continuing battle for this runner here.

I am so excited first 14er hike is planned for tomorrow! My husband has hiked 30 and when we met he said he will not re-do the ones that I haven't with me. HA HA what a sweetie we are doing a triple and he has already done them.

We are going to hike Missouri Mtn. Belford and Oxford all in 1 day! Yes it can be done. 14.5 mile round trip! I have hiked 20 14er's so to get three in a day really is awesome for my list! 55 in Colorado.

Then I have a 4k on Monday. How fun 2.45 miles in Boulder. I guess a lot of elite runners run this. Since it's sponsored by a brewing company the winner (usually a skinny male) wins their weight in BEER! So trying for 7:00's on that....

Happy 4th weekend!!!!!