I’ve been catching up on everyone’s blogs and just read on Cassie’s blog about the trail run she did with Jon, Rick, and Dave. Fun! It reminded me that I should mention the one “run” that I did while in Patagonia. Last Saturday we were hiking towards Gray Glacier, and no one else felt as up for the hike as me, so at one point they turned around to head back to the refugio while I pressed ahead to get a little closer to the glacier.
About an hour later the weather began to look really nasty up ahead, so I made the decision to turn around and head back. I climbed back up the ~150 meters I had descended, which took a little while because 1) it was uphill and 2) I kept stopping to take pictures. By the time I reached the top, the sun was out again and it was beautiful. Stupid unpredictable Patagonia weather! Rather than turn around again, I decided to just head back to the refugio since I guessed (correctly) that the Cuernos del Paine were probably finally in sunshine and would make for a great photo.
The rest of the way back was mostly downhill, and I was feeling good, so (and here’s where the HRBers can be proud) I ran a lot of it. Yup. Ran down the trail, feeling good, in my hiking boots. It was a lot of fun, and got me down to the bottom with lots of time to take photos of the Cuernos.
For the future, though, I don’t recommend running in hiking boots. I had some very interesting blisters the next day and my knees had been replaced by those of a 90-year-old.
