HUMBLED AND NOT LIKING IT

This morning we decided to do The Incline. This is a trail that is 1 mile long, but you gain about 2,000 ft. in elevation. The trail is an old cog railway that went up to a restaurant. The entire way is steps made of railroad ties. It is a grueling hike. Below is the picture of us starting up. You cannot see the top from the bottom. What's more is that you appear to be getting close to the top; then you see that there is a rise and more steps and further to go.



When we first started, I was ahead. I was walking a pretty good pace---for me. I had to stop several times. The worst part was not the lack of air, but the lack of strength in my quads. The tops of my thighs felt like they were going to burst. Brian just kept trudging on and on. Then (me being the really nice one) stopped and waited for him to catch up. BAD mistake. From there he continued his steady pace, stopping here and there, but not for long. I could not keep the steady pace. I would have to stop and let my thighs rest. I have always said the Brian has those "tree trunk" legs. He proved it today. Brian has always been the machine when it comes to hiking the mountain trails. He beat me to the top by about 3 mins. , or so Brian says. It seemed a lot longer. At one point I made up my mind not to look up any more. Just keep the head down and get one foot in front to the other, one step at a time. That did help. The next picture is a view of looking down The Incline after reaching the top.



Here is me trudging up the last few yards. Below is the town of Manitou Springs.

Here is Brian looking at the picture he took of me and enjoying his victory. He is resting a bit before heading down Bar Trail.
Here is another picture from the top. Those at the top would yell encouragement to their friends still making their way up.



Then it was time to go down. We headed down, down, down...... This is where I excelled. I had to redeem myself some way. I decided to run down the trail to give my legs an opposite workout. This was the easy part for me. Brian was behind me, but at some point I left him behind. HA! Sweet revenge. I ran all the way back to the van. That is one of the bad things about Manitou. You have to park WAY down the street from the starting point. Brian came in about 5 mins. later ....I think.

It definitely was a huge workout. I did learn some things from our adventure today.

1) You need a decent breakfast. I had only a granola bar and a couple of strawberry newtons. Brian had an egg. Probably, one needs to eat a good breakfast, wait about an hour, and then start.
2) Hiking up The Incline is NOT the same as running.
3) I will NOT be running up the mountain at the Ascent. Not possible for me. I am now just hoping to finish and get to the top.
4) I am much more competitive than I thought. I has killed me all afternoon that I did not at least tie with Brian in reaching the top. "Pride goes before a fall". That is a TRUE proverb.
5) I am going to have to train a lot more if I am going to hit the top of Pikes Peak.

Overall it was a good experience, but it is definitely not something that I want to do every day.