In the bag

The mister and I have now made three summertime trips to Colorado.  During each of these trips, the goal was to summit a peak over 14,000 feet (a 14er for short).  The first attempt was foiled by weather--a steady rain had settled into the valley the day of our hike, which made the hike too dangerous to attempt.  The second trip occurred shortly after the diagnosis of Blood Clot 1.0 (I'm still working on clever names for my clots--feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!) and since I was on vicodin and limping throughout the trip, we decided a 14er was a bad idea.  To be honest, I wasn't sure we were going to bag our 14er this trip either--on our second day in Colorado we went on a 13 mile death march over a mountain pass that left me quite sore.  Plus there was Blood Clot 2.0 and we all know how coordinated I am--a fall on a mountaintop is generally bad, but especially bad for someone who (by design) does not have blood that clots.  Despite my doubts, we did it and hiked to the summit of Quandary Peak, just south of Breckenridge.

Photographic evidence of your favorite blogger at the summit of Quandary Peak

The view at the top was amazing and the feeling of accomplishment made the hike worthwhile, which I am sure was not at all related to the lack of oxygen at the top.  Seriously though, we had a beautiful day for a hike and were able to enjoy some time at the summit to soak up the view.  I'm never going to give up my insistence on the necessity for indoor plumbing, but there is something calming about spending time with nature.  To me, the majesty and beauty of it all is the ultimate sign of God's handiwork, although hot showers are a very close second!

In other news, Nickey asked in the comments for the last post which marathon I'm planning on running.  I wish I had an answer.  A lot will depend on how my fall training goes. I'm planning on running the KC half here in October, so I'll have a better idea how I'm doing at that point.  If everything goes great, I might try to run Disney or Miami in January.  If things don't go as well, I might look to run a marathon later in the year.  If that's the case, I might run St. Louis which has the advantage of being close and I hear the Clydesdales are out when you run by the brewery.  Of course it has the disadvantage of significant hills and even my adoration of cute work horses probably won't make those hills go away.  Watch this space for updates.