Garden of the Gods Run

Julie has been doing most of the blogging work for us recently, and I couldn't stand to let her have all of the fun. I thought it might be a good idea to document some of the routes that we run around town, both to show off how cool the town is, and to remember where we've been running.

Despite the warnings of every article I've ever read and my loving wife, I thought it was a great idea to run 14 or 15 miles. Just to recap, I took a week off when the high was in the negative digits, then two weeks off for being sick, and in the middle of that I gave a pint of blood. So, it was probably a bad idea to jump back into 30 miles/week. Turns out, it was a bad idea, I hurt my knee after about 6 miles, and generally felt terrible for the last few miles. Dang.

Other than that, it was a lovely time, a bit breezy and hazy, which created some nice views. To start off, I ran over some of the hills by my house and saw some of the local wildlife enjoying a morning snack.



Running from my house, this is one of the first views of the Garden of the Gods. Pikes Peak poking out behind the rocks, even despite the haze.



Rounding the upper corner of the park about 5 miles in, comes to this great view of the park looking south.



My turnaround point was the Balanced Rock, a rock which looks to be sitting in a very compromising spot, and seems to be only a strong breeze away from crushing some unsuspecting tourist. Fortunately, this has been here for quite some time, and isn't really in danger of making pancakes from Texans!



Because it was a loop, the views are pretty much the same on the way back, and due to the injury and how bad I felt, there weren't many pictures.



While there was a fair bit of belly-aching in this post, this was a great run, and I continue to love the available runs we have just outside out door. If I remember the camera, and feel better at some point, there will be more pictures, and hopefully more remote and scenic locations!