Moab For Wimps

There are certain moments in a lifetime that leave a mark.  Our 3 day trip mountain biking in Moab was one of them, even though mountain biking isn't exactly my forte; I tend to get a little freakish over things which can potentially land me on top of my head causing a spinal cord injury and leaving me paralyzed for life.  But maybe this heel injury for the past year made me step out of my box, my comfort zone, a little.  Runners are doers by nature and some days I feel like I have sat back and let life happen passively.  Despite my children yelling, "Mom, stop riding the brakes" constantly as we rode the infamously difficult Slickrock trails, despite my heel screaming in total agony, and despite driving home in a freak mountain snowstorm which left me over the top tense - I had a great time and learned I'm actually a little tougher than I thought - I might even now be a real mountain biker!?!?

I took about 4 million pictures of the incredible geological features found in this area of Utah - and our adventure exploring all we could cram in for our days there - but I'll just include a few of my favorites, in caption style.  Enjoy!!!:

Fisher Towers; on the scenic byway into the town of Moab

First of several dorky posed pic.  This whole landscape was
formed by that one tiny river, The Colorado River.  Amazing!

Hard to concentrate on driving with views like this surrounding you

My daredevil children

Dead Horse State Park - simply gorgeous!

Yep, it's THAT big!

I'm not sure why, but I just love this picture.  Brendan said,
"I feel so small...."

The infamous Slickrock bike trail, 11 miles of mountain
biking torture on fossilized sandstone rock.

Brave girl, that's me!  You can't get lost, exactly, as long
as you don't venture off the dashed lines.  Or fall into a crevasse,
or off the ledge into the canyon.

That's Brendan smack in the middle there.  Don't let that picture
fool you, this is a very tough ride!

Up and down and up and down up down up up up down down....

I DID IT!!  I'm alive AND I have no broken bones!

Canyonlands N.P.; Ryan and I rode our bikes from this spot
to the very bottom.  5 miles, 1500' down. 

Here we go!!

Ryan, about half way down.

This picture shows how miserable the trail was; VERY rocky and very
steep.  There is no way to navigate around the rocks so you just
go over them and your arms shake so bad.  Poor Ryan really
struggled with his arms hurting from all the rocks.  That thin line
in the background is the trail below us.

At the bottom - YAY! 

It felt so good to be off the 1500' cliff road where the protruding
rocks were aggravating my heel. 

Coming back up was challenging, to say the least.  The
park ranger at the bottom of the canyon told us it'd take us
2-3 times longer to go back up than it did to get down.  It took
us 1-hour on the dot to get down so I was hoping we could get up in
2-hours.  We had to walk a LOT because it was just SO incredibly
steep and this was causing my heel so so so much pain, but we
got to the top in 1:40!  Take THAT Mr. Park Ranger, we ROCKED IT!

Our last day we went to Arches N.P.  By this day, my heel
was absolutely killing me and my disposition was totally in
suckville.  But it was pretty, despite I could barely walk!

My running shoes badly wanted to run in this red dirt,
but alas, they could not :(

Arches N.P.

Bye, Moab - until next time!

Since my return home, I have been on a whirlwind going to appointments, and just catching up with life.  I may, or may not, have had a small melt-down with my physical therapist on Tuesday over how badly my heel behaved in Moab, and upon it's return - but I'm happy to report that it's now back to about a pain level 3 (on a 1-5 scale...about where it was when I left).  I will admit, there are many days where my disposition is just in the toilet with this whole fiasco and I wonder if I will ever run again...but I'm not giving up, I know I'll get there eventually....

....and if not, I can always go mountain biking!!!  :)

I am so behind in blogs and I apologize for that, but I will catch up - promise!

I can't close without mentioning quickly (and will touch more on this later) that my coaching website is now DONE!!  A HUGE thank you to my friend, Dave, for doing this for me.  It's been a project in thought for well over a year so it's awesome for me to see it come to life.  Please check it out and let me know what you think....I'd love the input (click on the icon/link on my sidebar).

Run strong!!