Hey, remember me?

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. "Where you been, tubby?" "How fat have you gotten?" "You even been outside since we last heard from you?" "And WTF with the two pictures of that pinche Incline?"

Well, been here in NM plodding along through the summer. May have gained a pound or two because I haven't been religious about running, but haven't completely slagged off, either, and have been getting most everything done that I'm supposed to be doing. And the double exposure of the Incline? Well, that's because this last Saturday, I was in CO and hit the Incline again. Twice.

I had planned all along on going up to see CS do the Pike's Peak Ascent for the 4th time, but I was also supposed to do 16 miles with the group back here in NM. Talking with CS, decided that what I should do is drop him off for his race and then do a double on the Incline (and yes, still illegal). So, at about 6:45 Saturday morning, we parked just up Main from the bottom of Ruxton, CS went to the Ascent starting line (I'll let him talk about that event), and I headed up Ruxton to revisit my nemesis.

The first climb went slower than I'd hoped, but I still did it in about the same time that I had before. My hope was to get back down the Incline to a spot where CS's racecourse brushes up against it, but I couldn't make it back down the roughly 1/3 of a mile in time. CS had already passed by the time I got there. And let me say this: going down the Incline is far less enjoyable than going up? Lookit that picture above. That's the view from the top looking down. Those are parking lots and rooftops you're seeing. Almost all of the ties from the old railway lean downhill so they're more precarious than regular stairs, plus many of them have a nice layer of dirt/small gravel on them making them extra slick. Add to that that yours truly is sporting size 13 sneaks, which means I have to side-step most of the way down. Wow, did that suck.

Anyway, once I realized I'd missed CS, hopped on to the Barr Trail, hiked back down the 2+ miles to the bottom and then did it all over again. Got back up the Incline to where Barr Trail meets it and had a crisis of confidence about doing the rest, but I fought through it and finally, after wayyyy too much time had passed, made it to the top of the Incline, where my left quad immediately locked tight in a cramp to the point I couldn't bend the leg. Since there ain't no elevator down the mountain, though, I hobbled down the shortcut back to the Barr Trail and to the car.

It was not pretty, it definitely wasn't fast, and even today, 3 days later, my legs are still sore, but I did it dammit. A double Incline. Not even CS can claim that.

(What he can claim, however, is a wicked good Ascent time this year. Hopefully he'll come in to talk about it soon.)

Now, on to the big race...