Pike’s Peak & Colorado Springs
Sean | August 20, 2012In August, I went to Colorado Springs to support my brother-in-law, Marc, as he ran in the Pike’s Peak Half Marathon with his Grad School roommate, Matt, who lives in the area.
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A few days before the race, Matt took us on a mini-tour of the area. Colorado springs is a beautiful town, literally bordering the Rocky Mountains. You could clearly see the areas that were devastated by the wild fires earlier this year. If you look in the picture, all the trees on the hill in the background have burned… The fire got pretty close to the city!
Nearby is Garden of the Gods, a free park, donated to the city by a railroad executive. With amazing sandstone formations, this area shows where the mountains meet the plains.
We also went to see the Air Force Academy. The campus was huge and gorgeous, right on the edge of the mountains. There were cadets learning basics of flight in gliders above us.
The highlight of the campus was the stunning chapel. It looks like some kind of mothership out of a scifi movie!
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Even the pews were designed to reflect aeronautics… like propellers and the leading edge of a wing.
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We then went back into town and toured the US Olympic Team headquarters. Very nice campus, but hard to photograph… However, I did perform amazing feats of strength, like my two finger dead lift!
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Finally, race day. Marc’s Parents were in town as well, so we saw off the athletes in Manitau Springs, and found a great sidewalk cafe for breakfast.
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I showed Marc’s parents the Garden of the Gods, then we made our way up the mountain to see the finish line at the top. We actually completely missed Marc & Matt up here, but it was a great view and a fun atmosphere (what little there was at 14,114 feet / 4,302 m).
It could have been the altitude getting to me, as I haven’t been this high up since hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but I started wondering if I could enter the race next year and tie a bunch of helium balloons to myself to ease my ascent. Hmmmm….
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The next day, Sunday, I was planning on seeing Great Sand Dunes national park, but could not get a rental car. Luckily, there was a ‘Good Guys’ car show in town where I saw some of my all time favorite cars:
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On the flight back to LA, I was treated to a stunning early morning view of the Grand Canyon from 30,000 ft.
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I love flying over the Grand Canyon because you get a real sense of how grand it really is. It takes nearly an hour…












































