Day 27, Thursday, October 15th

Through Steamboat (Bald Eagle Lake to Hwy 129)

 

Dedicated to:

Jory Gomes, Elk Grove, CA

Mike Frabotta, Zimbabwe

 

On the schedule, today was supposed to be my final “rest day” of the entire trip. However, since I was 13 miles ahead of schedule and had to leave Saturday from CrossFit Steamboat, I only had 6.1 miles for the day. Officially the shortest day of the entire route. So we decided to get that done first thing and have 1.5 days of rest before the last 3 big days.

We woke without an alarm clock, wiped the sleep out of our eyes and got all geared up to drive ½ mile back on highway 40 to Bald Eagle Lake where I stopped yesterday. Because it was just a 6-mile run today, breakfast wasn’t needed, we could just get on the road. It was another frigid morning, but the sun was shining bright in the cloudless blue sky.   Pre-run we took our first and only group “selfie”, then I took off with gimping steps for that first ½ mile until my toes went numb enough to have a semi-normal looking gait. At that ½ mile mark I had another great surprise for the day…the Yampa River Core Trail was my route for the day. I didn’t have to beware of on-coming traffic and could enjoy the 6 miles of trail with Marcus by my side on his bike. 

I was being serenaded on my iPod by The Parks (one of our favorite country music bands), while I paralleled the Yampa River. I embraced the chill coming off the water (although freezing, it was so refreshing). I breathed in the smell of sulfur emanating from the hot springs (not quite as refreshing…ha!). I took in all the sounds of Steamboat coming to life this Thursday morning. Then, with about 2 miles left, I took my phone out to take a picture of a hawk flying over a soccer field. When I hit the “home” button, I saw the spinning wheel and then a black screen… starting the 30minute run with a full charge, it died. This was not ideal considering I had 3 more days left and my music source was literally kicking the bucket. The good news was that my dad was on his way up with a new iPhone 6S that Marcus intended to surprise me with before leaving Rifle last week, but there was an order mishap.

The final 2 miles of the day were a breeze. I ended at the intersection of highway 40 and 129 where I was to head north to the WY border the last 3 days. As I turned around to walk back to Big Blue, where Vaughn was patiently waiting, Tory and Marcus had cameras in my face to capture a happy ending to a short morning run. We realized when we got to the truck, we had ended at Steamboat Today (the local newspaper). Tory confidently led us into the building where she pitched my story to the front desk lady. They had already heard of us coming through and had a guy on it. We chatted a bit with editor, Lisa Schlichtman, about Move Mountains. She was impressed and was so generous about asking how we were feeling and how it was going. Her husband has just finished a month long bike ride so her empathy shone through. The next couple days proved that they were in fact in support as Move Mountains was well covered. (I will link to those on my media page).

We headed back to Freshies for a filling breakfast and then to CrossFit Steamboat to actually meet Sarah Coleman. Oh my gosh… she is mine and Tory’s long-lost sister. This girl’s energy is infectious. We hung around for an hour getting to know her, one of the other gym coaches, Ronnie, and owner, Mike. Their gym is adorable and yet again, another outstanding CF community opening up their doors to make us feel at home. As the 11:30 class got into the conditioning portion, I couldn’t help but jump in and coach a bit. It’s in my bones… it’s so hard to be in a gym and not coach. With a struggle to escape, because I wanted to stay in the positive environment all day, I knew it was time to get some down time.

Tory and Vaughn took off again to the pool to channel their inner fish, Marcus hit the mountain trails on his bike (where he came back to footage of moose), and I took the dogs to the ski lake for some playtime. I realized two things at this point… first, when I drove Big Blue to the lake, it was the first and only time that I had driven Big Blue the entire trip… and second, it was literally the first time I had gone somewhere by myself in almost a month. I am VERY much a person that needs her alone time. It was so healing to watch the excitement of Ziggy and Pogo as they sprinted, chasing balls for an hour. I was actually able to escape the constant chatter in my head of what I was doing… why I was doing this, who I was doing it for, how much my body “felt”, where do I have to be next, did I post on social media, how many blogs to I have left, I need to force feed myself, is the crew happy and getting everything they need… my mind was finally at ease for the first time since July when I decided to do this run.

Lesson Learned:

• It’s okay when you get ahead in life, to pull back the reins a bit.
• It’s necessary in life to pull back the reins before life gets ahead of you.