In other news, I visited the beach in Saugatuck, MI on Friday (after stopping at the excellent Alpen Rose restaurant in Holland, MI for breakfast), kayak’d on Huron River on Saturday, and visited the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH on Sunday. Good times :).

I spent my evening trekking up Peak 9 in Breckenridge. I basically picked a chair lift to follow at the base of the peak and started walking up the mountain. It was awesome as I could see the whole valley after a 45 min walk. You should try that the next time you’re visiting a ski resort :). The tail end of the hike was pretty strenuous as I had picked one of the longer chair lifts that led you to where the black diamond runs start. Descending was a pain given that the ground still had snow on it (we’re talking ~1100 feet here) and that the incline was pretty steep! I made it back safe and once again kicked myself for forgetting my camera back in MI.

Today was the day of workshops affiliated with Mobisys. JonO presented our mobile/CloudAV paper and got peppered with a bunch of good questions. Also, I heard Satya deliver a excellent talk!

I got back to my room at the end of the day and was sorta beat. However, a simple peek out my window at the Breckenridge mountains was enough to convince me that I should capitalize on my time here. So, I decided to go out for a run. As chance would have it, I had left my watch back in AA. With no other options, I pocketed my cell phone, room key and headed out the door.

I walked outside Beaven Run Resort and realized that I hadn’t bothered to look up running trails. Instead of heading back in, I figured I could run up the scenic road that Dave had driven up the previous day. So I ran down Village Rd., up Main St., and turned left onto Boreas Pass. So far so good.

I started running up Boreas Pass and was surrounded by spectacular views and comforted by a cool breeze scented with Aspen & Juniper. I would stop running every so often and take a look around. As I gained altitude, the views grew increasingly spectacular and the houses along Boreas Pass grew larger and more fabulous. At several locations, I spotted a steam formed by snow runoff.

Given my regular breaks, I wasn’t too tired and eventually found myself at a point where Boreas Pass led to a dirt path — the head for the Baker’s Tank trail. This was the point where Dave had turned around the previous day, so I did the same. Suddenly, my phone beeped warning me that I was low on battery. That was when it hit me that I had a phone on me and that I should check the time. Nowadays, I nearly always run with Natasha who also minds our pace and distance—I have fallen out of the habit of keeping track of how long I’ve been running. Imagine my surprise when I look at my phone and realize that I’ve been running for 50 mins!

I turn around and start running back into town. I was running late for dinner and I was pretty famished. I stopped a couple times at some of the more spectacular viewpoints but otherwise, kept running downhill.

I got back to Beaven Run at 7:52pm. I had started running at 6:22pm! I got back to my room, pulled up Google Maps and mapped out my route. I was stunned to realize that I had run ~9.6 miles from an elevation of 9662 feet to 10463 feet! I ran 4.8 miles uphill in ~50 mins with ~5 short breaks. I had run dowhill in about 40 mins with a couple breaks.

I am ridiculously pumped that I could run ~10 miles at ~10,000 feet and not be in pain. I think I am comfortable enough with my fitness now to attempt a triathlon before heading to India. Good times :).

Check out the Flickr photo set.

Visit my Garden of the Gods set for more :).