Big Horns and Blazeman

This may be the last time I can run at Red Rock in mid day. The cool breeze made the day much more comfortable. If that breeze hadn't of been there though, it would've been tough. Especially for the route I chose today which had a lot of steep uphill. Somehow I even managed to get on the wrong trail for about half a mile. This is twice now I've done this, reversing a path I normally take. I took too much water a month ago when I was out here, and today I just had 20oz (just enough). Looking up, feeling really hot and realizing, "Hey this is not where I'm suppsed to be!" can put a spring in your step for sure.

Others must've sensed the weather today because the trail was packed with hikers. I could barely find a parking spot. The flowers were much more active too. Lots of small clusters of yellow, orange, red, and even some purple. The macro on my small cam is not worth the effort, but I did snap a quick shot of a rather cool new cactus bloom.



At one point, I was going downhill and concentrating on my footing when I noticed something big moving to the side of me. Hello! Whoah, some Big Horn Sheep were fairly close to me. Glad those guys ran away and not towards me. This is all the way zoomed out too.





In the morning while eating, I watched a recording of the Ironman in Kona from 2005. About a quarter of the way into the show, I remembered watching this when it first came out. There was a man named John Blais , also known as Blazeman or the ALS Warrior Poet. His story is pure inspiration! Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, he was driven to complete the Iroman and he did. So I looked him up and found out that he passed on May 27th 2007. Seeing him roll across the finish line on tv really just made me sad. That sadness kind of stayed with me for the rest of the day even. I'm pretty sure I will contemplate the Blazeman many more times this month. I know he's still inspiring people, including me.

Here's a youtube snippet from Kona 2005