2013 in Review: Part 3

Missed the other posts? Check out Part One and Part Two.

July

I had my first visitor to Park City! Katrina came out to visit and we had a great time wandering around everything Park City has to offer.

 I spent many a Sunday at the Park Silly Sunday Market enjoying Five Wives vodka lemonades.

I went home to Indianapolis for Aly's wedding shower and enjoyed sister time with these two lovely ladies.

Some family friends threw their annual summer bash while I was home, so I got to enjoy good company, lobsters and martinis.

Aly got some fun pre-wedding gifts.

Before heading back to Utah, I went to an Indianapolis Indians baseball game with the family! 

Family at the Indians game! 

August

Since half marathon month had arrived, I continued with the last bits of my training plan and saw some lovely sights on the trails in Park City.

I went to the Kimball Arts Festival.

Josh (aka my twin) drove through Salt Lake City on his way back to school in Arizona, so we got to get together and have a drink at Bar X before he had to leave.

A wildfire broke out near Park City. 

While the wildfire was scary, it did make for some very gorgeous sunsets.

 

Katie moved to town and we became fast friends!

 Half marathon #2 completed! Dad came out to Utah to run the race with me.

The next day, we went for a hot air balloon ride over Park City and it was gorgeous! 

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott came to work and did an athlete social with our staff. He's a wonderful guy!

And, finally, I volunteered with Hurricane for Hope, an event benefitting The Speedy Foundation.

September

I went shopping with Katie and got this awesome shirt.

I went to a sheepdog festival, which I never knew was a thing until...well, I went to one.

 I had a really good hair day.

I returned to Colorado Springs for the first time since moving away for the USOC Communications Workshop...even stayed at the Olympic Training Center!

Brandon, Jenny and I had a little intern reunion at The Finish Line, the dive bar across the street from the Olympic Training Center.

Afterwards, I headed up to Denver and visited with my friend and former roommate, Karen. Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos together, so here is a photo of her cat, Lucky.

I took a full week off from work to head back to Indiana for my brother's wedding! I started the week off with a 5k run, which I ran with my cousin Sarah.

For Aly's bachelorette party, we started the day with a wine and painting party.

And finally the big day rolled around! We got Starbucks for Aly that morning, but they butchered her name.

Wedding time!

And I officially have two sisters now!

Around the OTC

It's been a busy couple of days...I've worked two days, spent one day at Intern Assimilation, did the Incline again (cut my time down to an hour...and I ran all four miles down the Barr Trail to the bottom!), made friends with athletes and interns, and got my first taste of Colorado Springs nightlife.  I also managed to take a couple of pictures of the OTC for you guys!

The outside of my dorm...it's one of the older dorms

Courtyard where we spent a lot of today laying out

Back entrance of the Athlete Center...I ran into Michael Phelps right here yesterday!

The view...not bad, eh?

Me in my dorm room on move-in day

Life in the dorms is fine...everyone wants to be here, so they all take pretty good care of everything.  My roommate, Emily, is nice and we have pretty compatible sleep schedules fortunately.  Every night, there's usually a group of interns watching TV in the lounge...most of the time, they're watching sporting events but sometimes it's a movie.  The food in the Athlete Center is healthy and good...some of the other interns aren't big fans of it, but I like it.  

This weekend, I went out to two bars with most of the interns, the Thirsty Parrot and Cowboys.  The Thirsty Parrot is a pretty standard bar...Cowboys, on the other hand, is a three-story country bar with line dancing, a mechanical bull, and karaoke among other things.  It was certainly an interesting experience.

Now, I've got to get to bed cause I've got a long work week ahead of me!!

OTC and Manitou Incline

Today is my brother Jordan's last day in Colorado Springs...so he got to decide what we were doing today.  His decision?  The Manitou Incline.

Now, ever since I found out I would be spending my summer in Colorado Springs, I knew I wanted to tackle "The Incline" at some point.  However, I figured "at some point" would be after I'd had a few weeks to adjust to the altitude and get into a regular exercise routine...I certainly wasn't expecting to climb it on my second full day here!  But Jordan wanted to go for it, and Steven enthusiastically encouraged it.  Ruth and I were a little less optimistic but we still went for it...even though it meant waking up at 5:45am.

A little background on the Incline for those of you not familiar with it...it consists of the remnants of an old cog railway that closed in 1990.  Following the railway's close, hikers, athletes, and people looking for a unique workout took over, turning it into an unofficial hiking trail.  It is technically illegal to climb because it's private property (so hiking the Incline is trespassing), but you'd never know that by looking at it.  On any given day, there are plenty of people climbing up and down it.  The Barr Trail to Pikes Peak meets it twice, once about halfway up (providing the "bailout trail" for people who don't think they can make it up to the top) and then again at the top (so most people take the Incline up and the Barr Trail down).  The Incline ascends over 2,000ft in a mile and a half...so it's a very challenging workout but gives you a lot of personal satisfaction when you've reached the summit!

The Manitou Incline...and me regretting my decision to climb it

Believe it or not, this is the easy part.

Made it to the top!

Jordan, Ruth, and I made it to the top in just under an hour and a half, which surprised all of us, I think (we were half-expecting to have to use the bailout trail).  I'm already anxious for my next trip to the Incline...climbing stairs up the side of a mountain has to be a good workout for speedskating!

And, as promised...here are a a few pictures from our trip to the US Olympic Training Center yesterday!

Ruth and I imitating the short track speedskater statues behind us

Jordan hurt himself trying to imitate the above karate pose

This is for you, Hillary!

We mainly just goofed around with the statues, obviously...we drove back by the dorm that I'll be living in, but we weren't really sure if we were allowed back there or not.  So, after our exploratory drive and our goofing around, we headed back to Ruth and Steven's apartment!  

We ate dinner at Trinity Brewing Company, which was excellent...I unfortunately didn't take my camera, though.  We had cheesecake made with beer!  And more surprisingly...it was really good!  Jordan and Steven were more interested in the beer that Trinity brews themselves, though.

That's it for now...tomorrow probably won't be too interesting because I'll be recovering from the Incline!