Sweet 16 w/ Dick Francis; The great escape

I was all alone for my 16 miler on Saturday, as Scout was still on paw rest (much to her dismay)and Nancy was running with her club. I again returned to the wide open spaces of the Colton and Doudy Draw trails. I like this trail because you begin running west, towards the mountains illuminated by the rising sun. The first mile is a killer, straight up right from the car. After that, the uphill becomes more manageable until about mile 3 when it becomes more or less rolling hills.

I began my run at 6am, knowing the heat was going to kick into overdrive that day. It was a gorgeous morning, and as I ran, Dick Francis told me a story about a race horse, some shady business deals at Cheltenham and New Market race tracks in England, and how his main character saved the day and won the lady. Sound familiar, Dick Francis fans? About 10 miles into my run, I was beginning to feel the heat of the day, and my water bottle showed that it was a bit on the low side. Hmmm....what would Dick Francis do? Knowing that there was no where to fill up, I did not delay, but high tailed it up the trail. I ended up on empty with about 3 miles to go, and now it was 8:00 and really getting hot. Lucky for me, the last 3 miles were all down hill, and I coasted in on fumes. All in all, I averaged 9:34 pace, about 10 seconds faster than the previous Saturday.

The rest of the day I was shot. I ate breakfast, took a nap, woke up, took in some fluids, slept some more, drank more liquids, relocated to the basement (too hot upstairs), continued my nap, and more of the same. I was clearly dehydrated and probably had a touch of heat exhaustion.

Today, Sunday, I said "enough of the heat", and escaped to the good ol' Rocky Mountains. Previously I had purchased some "Mushers Secret", an all-natural waxy type substance that "heals and protects" the paws of working and athletic dogs. Scout convinced me that the "Secret" had done the trick, and she was ready for a hike.

We loaded in the truck and headed up past Keystone to Chihuahua Gulch. We had done this trail before, last year with Sargent. I first read about it in Canine Colorado, a guide to great Colorado hiking trails for you and your dog. This trail makes its way along the backside of Grays and Torreys 14,000 foot peaks to a glacial lake at 12,200 feet. For the most part, the trail is an old jeep road cris-crossed numerous times by streams. Along the way, beaver ponds and rock scree keep the hike interesting. Scout had a blast, running, jumping, splashing, and cavorting all along the route. She often ran ahead, looking for critters to chase and good smells to follow, but frequently "checked in" to make sure I was still following along. At one point, she had run quite a distance ahead of me when I came to a stream crossing. As I slowly picked my way across the nearly knee deep, fast moving, glacially cold stream, she came galloping back for her check in and... SPLASH..."what's taking you so long?" The pictures in this posting are all of our hike today in Chihauhau Gulch.

Although I had escaped the heat for a while today, when I returned home at about 6:00 p.m., the indoor/outdoor themometer read 98 outside, and a cool 91 inside. Brick house = brick oven. I think I'll ask Sargent for an air conditioner for my birthday.