Spring Cleaning = Memories of Colorado Springs

Today we were doing some spring cleaning & Steve came across a lone glove.  That lone glove brought back some fun memories.  Let me tell you about our trip to Colorado Springs earlier this year & why the glove is missing its mate.

We are super blessed in Lexington, KY.  Susan Bradley-Cox is our Master's Swim coach, the  Team in Training Tri coach & as of January 2011 a USAT Hall of Famer.  Steve & I and a whole bunch of other folks from Lexington made our way out to Colorado to watch her be inducted into the hall of fame.

Fittingly, the ceremony was held at the The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, the hot bed for the sport of triathlon.  Hands down this is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. When we first walked in on Friday night, I thought uh-oh, I may have under dressed for the weekend.  It didn't help that there were 2 black tie weddings in the hotel that night.   The way the hotel was set up we had to walk through the reception to get to our room.  Nothing like dragging our suitcases while wearing our ginormous snow parkas through a slew of people dressed to the nines.  Yep, that was fun.

 

We finally found our room & it was just amazing.  This was no ordinary hotel.  This was pure luxury!   This was such a treat because I really had no idea how nice the hotel was going to be.  It was the official hotel for the ceremony so I just booked our room & didn't think much of it after that.  

Saturday we got up & met up with our fellow Lexington friends to do a little sight seeing.  We spent the morning touring the Garden of the Gods followed by lunch.

We made our way back to the hotel to relax & get ready for the evenings festivities.

This years induction class included Susan Bradley-Cox, Dave McGillivray & Dave Scott .  The dinner started somewhere around 6PM & the award ceremony started around 7PM.    After some preliminary talk & introductions Susan was up to give her speech.   Susan's list of accomplishments are a mile long & still she is one of the most humbled athletes around.  Giving her speech, she was the epitome of grace & a true role model for all of us women in the sport of triathlon.

After Susan was Dave McGillivray.  I wasn't familiar with him but his speech left a lasting impression on most of us.  I really don't think I have ever heard someone talk as fast as Dave did.  I think I was out of breath by the time he was done with his speech.  It was a sight to see!  My favorite McGillivray quote of the night - "The ones who say it can't be done should not interrupt the ones doing it!"

Next up was Dave Scott.  He talked about his childhood & how he got into triathlon.  He mentioned his work as the National Triathlon Head coach for Team in Training.  The man is just amazing. 

It was a good thing only 3 were inducted this year because the ceremony went on & on. Afterwards we mingled with everyone and took lots & lots of pictures.  I think it was almost mid-night before we left the banquet room.

 

I think the coolest thing was to see Susan run into people she hadn't seen in years.  It was such a big day for her & we couldn't have been happier to be a small part of it.

On Sunday Steve & I decided to drive up to Pike's Peak.  We start our journey up the mountain.  Remember it is January & Pike's Peak Elevation is 14,110 feet.   I really cannot recall if I have ever been that high outside of an airplane.  As we make our way up the mountain you can see the weather start to change.  We stopped to take a few pictures & boy was it windy & cccccold!

We finally make it to the top & it is the weirdest experience I have ever had.  It was so crazy windy & cold plus the lack of oxygen made getting from the car to the little shop nearly impossible.  We managed to get to the shop & have some coffee & world famous donuts.   I got out of breath just eating a donut!

Afterwards we go wandering around.   I promise you I was not under the influence!  When you watch this video you will understand why I just said that :-)

Well, Steve decided to try to find that lost glove.  He drove over to the other side of the building.  When he opened the car door the wind caught it & about ripped the darn thing off!  It bent the hinges & it made it almost impossible to close.  I am not going to lie....I was a little mad that he wrecked the car all over a silly glove.  After that downer, we started our way back down the mountain.   We made another pit stop about a third of the way down.  When we were in the shop we heard that they just closed the summit.  Apparently 2 cars had their windows shattered while we were up there due to the high winds.  At this point I started to get over it & decided to find the humor in the situation.

When we got back the the Broadmoor the valet would not park it because they were afraid the door would fall off!  Really?  I think they just didn't want to be blamed for our stupidity.   After that though, I started envisioning the what if's.  What if the door blew completely off & went down the side of the mountain?  What if we had to drive back down the mountain without a door?  What if we drove up to the fancy smancy Broadmoor without a car door?  Now that would be funny!

Before losing glove

I'm not sure if Steve ended up throwing out the glove today or just putting it away somewhere.  I guess if he hadn't found it I wouldn't have thought about our trip to Colorado Springs & our crazy trek up Pike's Peak today.  Fun memories!