Pike's Peak - The Wife's Perspective

Ahhhh, Colorado. Land where I was born and, after moving around for the 14 years in between, where I started and graduated from high school. Not to mention the land of mountains and ski resorts and rafting and hiking and all other manner of fun things (no, I do not count running up a mountain one of those "fun" things).

When my husband told me he wanted to run the Pikes Peak Marathon, my initial reaction, of course, was "that's crazy" (this is my initial reaction to almost everything my husband tells me he wants to do... the man doesn't seem to ever want to do anything sane!). But I will take advantage of every possible excuse to go back to Colorado, which, prior to my move to Chicago for law school, was the only place I'd ever considered "home." So, after having a good laugh at him, I was fully on board.

Our first day was spent on a rented Harley, just relaxing and seeing sights (and lots of elk!) It was great, but with all the altitude changes and switchbacks through the passes, I was glad we had rented one bike instead of separate bikes for both of us. I let my husband crank up the CCR on the radio and take full driving control, while I relaxed.

On Thursday, we did the Denver Inside and Out tour. This is one of those times where the whole 50/50/50 thing has really worked out for me, because the deal is that I get to pick stuff that we do (other than running) while on trips. I really wanted to do this tour - I love cheesy educational stuff - but my husband was not quite sold. Too bad! My pick! In the end, I think he kind of loved it. It was just so interactive and over-the-top, and different from any other history tour I've ever done. It's a combination scavenger hunt/live performance, and the idea is that you follow clues to different historically significant parts of downtown, where live actors then "find" you to help give you enough information to solve the 1922 Denver Mint robbery. It was not all fun and games, however - we also visited several drinking establishments (I'm so glad Prohibition didn't stick!), including the Wynkoop Brewery and Steuben's Diner, and then had dinner with some high school friends of mine.

The rest of the trip was spent in Colorado Springs, my actual birthplace and site of my high school trouble-making years. I don't have too many friends around anymore (that's what happens when you grow up in a military community), but I still have a lot of emotional connections with local places. One of those is the Broadmoor Hotel, one of very few hotels in the country to have achieved both a 5 star (Forbes, formerly Mobil) and a 5 diamond (AAA) and the longest-running consecutive winner of both awards. I worked there when I was in college. It's a splurgy place to go, but it is absolutely beautiful, with top-notch service, and I figured that it might be one of the few chances I get to stay there and be waited on, after having worked there and been the one waiting on others. Plus, I used the run as an excuse - after such a trying race, my husband would need an extra-special place to recover! We loved everything about our stay, especially the Penrose Room. The food is exquisite, as you would expect, but my favorite part is that all of the tables are arranged in a square around the dance floor, with a live 3 piece band forming the last end of the square. Dancing is not only encouraged, but expected! There are extra waiters standing by to ensure that food is always timed with a return from the dance floor, so nothing is ever cold or waiting. It's perfection.

But we were here for a race. In my home town! I didn't even need to do a pre-race drive through for this one; I was ready!

The race is up the Barr Trail, which is a hiking-only trail that runs nowhere near the road, so I knew that the only places I'd be able to see him were at the start, at the peak, and at the finish. I figured I had a good few hours to get to the peak after the starting gun - after all, not even my superman of a husband could tackle that ascent in fewer than a couple of hours. I had a nice, leisurely breakfast and enjoyed my coffee and the morning paper, and then I headed for the peak in my rented yellow Volkswagen Beetle (which I rented based on fun factor alone... you should have seen my husband's face when I drove up to the Harley dealership to pick him up after he dropped off the bike... classic!). I knew I had plenty of time, but about halfway up the drive I started to get the panicky feeling that he would have somehow surprised both of us and ascended much more quickly than we expected (after all, we had no idea what to actually expect since he had no way to simulate a timed run before hand!) and my speed started to creep higher and higher. Well, I soon realized that I had no choice but to slow back down since the top of the Pikes Peak Roadway is not much more than several very steep and sharp switchbacks. When I finally reached the top, I leaped from my Bug and started running toward the Trail. And got about 3 steps before I almost collapsed. I had totally forgotten the altitude change, which my lungs, in their safe and quick ride in the car, had not had any time at all to process! I took it a lot more slowly after that. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion, but I begin to get accustomed after a few minutes,and I found a perch on which to sit while I waited for the marathoners. I had missed the first couple, but they were still coming up very few and far between.

Because of the switchbacks up the mountain, you can see people ascending for about a mile. It wasn't difficult to spot my husband, as he was wearing a bright green long-sleeved shirt (many other people had taken clothes off by this point, but he had a fresh tattoo to protect) and I got to watch him get closer and closer. As he reached the top, he smiled, gave me a kiss, and said "this is the stupidest thing I've ever done," and then turned around to do the same thing over again, but this time downhill while dodging the several hundred people who were still making their way uphill. I watched him for as long as I could make him out, and then headed back to the Bug for a slow coast down the mountain. I got to the finish time in plenty of time to see him, one of the first couple of residents living at sea level, cross the finish line. By that time, the heat was starting to get out of control, so we spent a good couple of hours in the free beer tent to cool ourselves down. That was my favorite part of the whole race.