Western Adventures - The Morning

I haven't posted in a while because I escaped Wisconsin for an extended weekend in Colorado. Many people would consider a "vacation" time spent doing a lot of nothing...sleeping in, relaxing on a beach, napping...you know--rest.
I took a slightly different approach.
I flew out Wednesday night and was picked up at the airport by a pal of mine from Chiropractic school who is now practicing in Fort Collins. I arrived in Denver around 9 and headed with him to his place, about an hour away. Thursday morning, we were up by 5 AM and on the road to the Blue Sky Trail outside Fort Collins. We arrived at the trailhead at just after 6 AM, and I was a bit dissappointed to find it a bit chilly outside--26 degrees to be exact. Still, this wasn't going to dampen the mood. After getting out of the car, I looked at all the stars still out and even caught a shooting star. "This is gonna be good..." I thought.

The fact it was still pitch dark out also helped to keep our pace a bit slow starting out. We couldn't see much, let alone a root or rock.
As the sun slowly crept up, the environment I was running in began to reveal itself. It was absolutely gorgeous. We didn't stop talking the entire run, catching up on life in general--family, practice, running--stopping only for photos and Gu's but still keeping a pace right around 8 minutes.
We ran through a valley for the majority of the run (you can see the trail in the valley in the pictures below) before making the climb up the Eastern bluffs, eventually reaching the 7 mile point, a distance that happened to be marked by mule deer (again, see pictures below).




While I love running in the country in Wisconsin, it's tough to compete with the Front Range of Colorado...absoulutely amazing.
You can see a satellite image of our run by clicking below, then choosing "satellite" in the corner...


We weren't done that day yet, however. We also ran 12 miles in the afternoon. Check back for that tomorrow.