The Living Beauty of Waterton Canyon

(Originally wrote this on Sunday but I am just getting a chance to post now.)

In a little under 4 weeks - March 16th,  I will be heading to Moab, Utah to run in the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  Since the beginning of the year I have been slowly and steadily preparing myself for the physical stress and challenge I will put my body through on March 16th. 

This morning I undertook one of the longest runs/walks I have undertaken as part of my training regime.  My original plan was to cover 7 miles on the High Line Canal trail near Waterton Canyon.  Arriving at the parking lot for the trail, I found it closed due to construction.  Quickly deciding upon a fall back plan, I headed to the Waterton Canyon trail head a short distance away.  Instead of covering the 7 miles on the High Line Canal Trail - I would instead cover that distance in Waterton Canyon.

The parking lot for Waterton Canyon was dramatically fuller than the last time I had been there on New Years Day.  There were probably close to 100 cars there along with half a dozen horse trailers for people who were riding their horses into Chatfield State Park.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous so I expected the trail to be full of walkers, runners and bikers.  Due to the Denver Water restrictions dogs and horses are not allowed into the canyon so I didn't expect to see any pups or people on horseback.

Moving as quickly as I could, as I wanted to get back home to Zack who was doing "puppy poop" cleaning duty in the back yard, I hurried though my run/hike preparations.  GPS turned on and satellites acquired - check.  MapMyRun app running on my cell phone - check.  Keys, wallet and camera securely in my backpack - check.  Car locked - check.  And I was off into the canyon.

There were quite a number of people for the first mile or two into the canyon.  Despite the numbers of people there was still a herd of mule deer contentedly grazing at the side of the trail about 1/3 of mile into the canyon.  They were totally undisturbed by the constant stream of people going by and I stopped to take a few pictures of them.

Briskly hiking into the canyon, I moved at a very good clip to mimic the approach that I will need to take to successfully complete the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  Before I knew it, I had put over 3.5 miles behind me in well under an hour.

Arriving at one of the bigger diversion dams in the canyon, I decided to turn back and head for the car.  Running a good portion of the way back out of the canyon, I quickly covered 2 miles before I spied some sort of commotion ahead of me.  There were a number of people congregated ahead of me blocking the entire trail.  I couldn't figure out what they were doing.

It took me about 10 seconds to come to understand that all these people were there observing a very large group of big horn sheep.  It was a very large group of big horns.  There were about 15 of them milling around in the middle of trail and then there were another 10 or more over the hill standing on the ice that covered the South Platte River.  The remarkable thing about these sheep is that they were letting people get very close to them.  In some cases the people were being reckless coming with 5 feet or less of the sheep.  This seemed a little too close to me as the horns on some of the big males looked particularly fearsome.  Even the smaller horns on the females did not look like something with which you wanted to tangle.

For the next 10 minutes I stood there with about a dozen other people in absolute awe of these magnificent animals.  They were amazing!  What was even more amazing about them was how calm and content they were even with so many people right next to them.  Even if I had wanted to move forward I couldn't as the large number of sheep pretty much blocked the entire trail.

Since the sheep were blocking the way, I stood there snapping away with my camera.  The following pictures are the best that I captured.  The light wasn't particularly good and it was hard to get a shot without another person in it, but I did my best to capture the best shots I could.

For all the times I have hiked or biked into Waterton Canyon this is the first time I have every had such an experience with these number of Big Horn Sheep.  It is something that I will remember for a long time - but I do hope that I will see a herd of sheep like this again.

It's late Sunday night and before you know it another work week will be starting.  Zack is off of school on Monday and Tuesday.  He is off Monday because of the holiday and Tuesday is a teacher work day with no students.  He is happy to have only a 3 day week ahead.

The weekend was a great weekend as we had some did some relaxing and fun things.  On Friday night, Lisa and I went out to Brooks Steakhouse which is an upscale steak joint.  We had an enjoyable time, ate some good food and shared some good conversation.  Saturday Zack and I spent most of the day around the house doing things, however we did get out an got pedicures!  I know that may seem a little odd for guys, but it was wonderful.  Lisa got me the pedicure as a Valentine gift - and it was so worthwhile!  On Saturday evening a friend of mine from back on the east coast and her family stopped by.  They are here in Colorado on a winter vacation and are staying at our condo in the mountains.  It was nice to see Lynne and meet her family.  I am glad that I was able to loan them my condo for the coming week.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great start to the week tomorrow!

Thanks and peace to all ~ J.

(Originally wanted to post this on Sunday but I didn't get my photos "developed" in Lightroom in time.)

Finishing Some Unfinished Business

In November of 2010 I signed up for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team-in-Training fund raising effort.  It had only been 2 years since we had lost Patty to Acute Lymphocyte Leukemia and I wanted to do something that would help me raise money to fight that horrible disease and I also wanted to do something that involved me in an activity greater than myself.  When I signed up for Team-in-Training, my goal was to raise over $4000 and train hard enough to complete the Canyonlands Half Marathon on March 19, 2011 in Moab, Utah.  I accomplished one of those two goals.  Through a little bit of self promotion and bugging the hell out of people I managed to raise $4600 for the cause.  However I never finished the half-marathon.

In the weeks leading up to race day I had experienced some pretty significant pain in my left leg.  No caring to think that there could possibly be anything significantly wrong, I continued my training as normal and just ran through the pain.  The day of the race my leg felt pretty good, but that quickly changed as I began to run.  Within a mile and a half of starting the race I felt a pop in my leg and then an excruciating rush of pain.  Being the utter idiot that I am, I decided to continue to run through the pain.  I could only make it for another 2 miles before I had to stop as I couldn't even stand due to the severe muscle spasms and pain that was running through my left leg.  As I sat by the side of the road waiting for the "sweep van" to pick me up I had no idea of the damage I had done to my leg and the long journey of recovery that lay ahead.

 Self-portrait of me from race day 2011 - about 30 minutes before I broke my fibula.

 Of course for those who have followed this blog since then, you are aware that pop I felt was the second largest bone in my calf - "the fibula" snapping in half.  Due to a bio-mechanical issue with my running gait, I had put so much pressure on my left leg throughout my training that I caused a severe stress fracture that sheared the bone the whole way through.  The impact of this broken bone cascaded throughout my body and eventually caused two discs in my back to herniate.

Almost two years after this injury I am still in the process of putting my body back together.  But there is some unfinished business of which I must take care, regardless of the condition of my body.  The 2013 Canyonlands Half Marathon is approximately 100 days away and today I found out that I had been selected through their lottery process to be one of the 4000 runners who compete in the race.  I am going back to Moab on March 16, 2013 and I am going to finish my unfinished business and complete the race.

The Canyonlands Half Marathon is a very popular run and the number of prospective runners is in excess of the 4000 slots that are available.  To ensure a fair shake for everyone, a lottery process is used to determine who gets the 4000 spots.  I submitted my application a while a go and the lottery took place within the last 24 hours and I was one of those selected.  This time around I will be running the race on my own without the support of the Team-in-Training program.  (For whatever reason TnT is not working with Canyonlands this year.

Perhaps it is stupid that I am attempting to run this race again.  But for me it is an important step to prove to myself that I am on my way to recovery from the the pain and suffering of the last two years.  I will cross the finish line this time.  There is not one doubt in my mind that I will reach my goal!

I hope that everyone is having a great week and is starting to look forward to the holidays.  We might finally get some weather here in Colorado that makes you think the holidays and winter are coming.  For most of the last month the temperatures have been running in the sixties and we haven't had a trace of snow but this weekend there is the possibility we might see up to six inches of snow in the Denver area.  We can only hope, as the drought conditions here in Colorado are getting worse and worse!

As always - thanks and peace to all! ~J.