Yesterday morning I left Payson around 7am and drove to Flagstaff.  The drive was leisurely with a few laughs as I was listening to Howard Stern interview Richard Simmons.  I stopped for breakfast at my favorite coffee shop.  The weather was outstanding so I sat at an outside table and enjoyed the wonderful people watching that you can only get in Flagstaff.

I made it to the base of Humphrey’s around 10:30am and parked in the Snowbowl parking lot.  The plan for the day was to summit so I could build up some red blood cells at altitude.  However, my personal agenda was to see if I could break my personal summit record that I set over 20 years ago.  That record was 1 hour and 46 minutes from trailhead sign to summit sign.  There was no Strava, GPS watches, or cell phones when I went to school, but that number has been burned into my brain.   For my birthday, Tracy got me a new GPS watch, a Suunto Ambit.  It’s really cool that will last up to 50 hours plus 100% of the features are controlled via a web interface.   I had the watch charged and ready and pressed start.

To make my goal, I needed to average about 2.9mph for the 5 miles up the 3000 foot climb.  The climb is fairly easy during the approach but gets really steep when you near the saddle and beyond.  For the first 45 minutes, I was averaging about 3.2mph so I thought I was in good shape.  Once I neared the saddle, the reality of my pace hit me and I slowed to a crawl.  The watch is set on 60s intervals, to save battery life, so winding up the switchbacks in some places shows me moving 10 feet in a minute.  I kept pushing and once I cleared tree line, the cold breeze hit me and I took off.  As I rounded the false summit, I looked down and saw that I only had 8 minutes to go and at the pace I was going, I wouldn’t make it.  I hit the gas and with my legs trembling, I started to run in spots. As I sprinted to the crest, I looked down and saw I was at 1:44.  With a final push, I passed the sign, pressed stop and came in 8 seconds short of 1:45.

While this was my fastest, it’s only #5 on Strava, with #1 being 26 minutes faster than me (wow).  After a quick snack at the summit, I started down and finished about 8 minutes longer than it took me going up.  Once I hit the car, I cracked open the cooler and had a little picnic in the front seat.

Today I plan on taking it easy and doing no hiking; just a little yoga and stretching.  Tracy comes in tomorrow and we’ll do a short hike up the rim so she can acclimatize to the altitude.