Colorado!

Just got back from Colorado. The entire trip from the time I left to the time i got back was 47 hours long. In that time, I:

1. Explored downtown Denver 
2. Drove a scooter to Red Rocks Amphitheater,
3. Saw Buffalo Bill Cody's grave site on Lookout Mountain
4. Explored Golden, Colorado
5. Ran a marathon
6. Explored Estes Park
7. Drove a Jeep through EXTREME mountain trails all the way up 10,000 feet to Storm Mountain,
8. Explored Boulder.

It was an extreme trip with little sleep. After landing and getting my 2 stroke Taiwanese scooter (that could hit 44 MPH) I headed out to Red Rocks. The scenery was amazing. The trip turned into an adventure when I took a right hand turn on a dirt road and went all the way up to the top of Prospect mountain. 

This is a shot on my way up the mountain:

After I returned the scooter, I headed up to Loveland, Colorado. This is where the marathon would finish. The race logistics were a little difficult but the organization was pretty good. They bused us up to Estes Park, elevation 7600 feet. The finish was at 5000 feet. We lost most of our elevation in the first 13 miles. The second half of the marathon was very exposed to the sun and (apparently unusual for the area) heat. I think my miles were slowed between 10 and 15 seconds per mile due to the elevation. My breathing was ok, my legs were ok, but I just couldn't get as much out of them per breath. I didn't fall over gasping or anything. It was noticeable though.

After the race, I went back up to Estes Park. I rented a Jeep and took on what has to be some of the world's finest Jeep trail riding in the world. I had NO IDEA what i was getting myself into. I have never done anything like this with my Jeep. Here is a little video snippet:

It took about 90 minutes to get up the 10k feet to the top of Storm Mountain.