Early morning hike

4:15AM - My alarm went off. I hit snooze once, then roll out of bed when it goes off again. In my drowsiness, I get dressed, make a sandwich for lunch, grab my bags, and head out the door. I marvel that all the lights are green for me as I drive to my office building.

4:47AM - I get to the office and am disappointed that I was the only car in the parking lot. Neither Ron nor Chris, the two guys who were going to hike with me, are there yet. I take my laptop into the office and leave it there for safekeeping. I climb back in my car and try not to fall asleep.

4:57AM - My phone rings. It's one of the guys, Chris, calling to say he overslept and wouldn't be joining us. After hanging up with him I call the other guy, Ron, to see if he was on his way. He confirms it and pulls in next to me minutes later. I jump in the car with him and we drive off, both of us commenting on how great coffee would be just then.

5:22AM - We turn on our headlamps and start up the trail. Ron leads at first but after a few minutes lets me pass. Because of my long legs and our needing to train for a long hike next month, I set a very quick pace and we fly up the trail. My eyes don't leave the little circle of light on the trail so I won't trip over anything, but we occasionally look over our shoulders and see the lights of Colorado Springs glimmering below us. It is beautiful, but we don't have time to stop. We have to keep moving. Soon it becomes light enough to turn off our lamps. My eyes play tricks on me with the rocks but we maintain our quick pace.

6:00AM - We reach the summit, and take a moment to catch our breaths. Ron tells me that this was the fastest he's ever gone on this trail. Normally it takes him more than an hour to come this far, and it's only been 38 minutes. The sun hasn't made it above the horizon yet, but it's getting close. My eyes go back to the trail and we continue our rapid pace, grateful that it the next four miles are all down hill.

6:15AM - I look to my left and see the sun. It is an amazing sunrise, and we take a few moments to absorb the beauty of it. I snap a quick picture, and it's back to the trail again.

We aren't breathing nearly as hard since we're going downhill so we talk about a wide variety of topics: our spouses, refinancing, camping, hiking, and saving for vacations to name a few. The day is getting brighter and brighter, and we pause to let a runner pass us. As we get closer to end of the trail, we are amazed at how quickly we hiked it. We talk of how we could do it faster and what sort of time-goal to set for the next time. Thirty minutes to the top and an hour back down sound about right.

7:08AM - We arrive back at the car. We had just traversed 5.3 miles in an hour and forty-five minutes. We went thirty minutes faster than we had expected, so we decide to stop at Starbucks to get our coffee before going to work. All I can think about is, "Let's do that again!"