We left Cascade Village yesterday morning, and headed east through Pagosa Springs, over Wolf Creek Pass, and then turned north at South Fork and crossed Slumgullion Pass and stayed in Gunnison.

We've crossed the Continental Divide four times in two days.

Today we went east over Monarch Pass:

               

....and then went to Leadville, where we got into a fuss because Ethel wouldn't let me buy a house there, and went over Independence Pass (over 12,000 feet) and dropped down into Aspen.

I'm aware once again that I left Park City - being up here in the high country makes me panicky, wanting to get back what I lost, and aware that I never, ever will get that back. And driving through Aspen is a reminder that a lot of other people have made a lot better choices than I have made.

Now we're in Glenwood Springs, the city where Doc Holliday died in the sanitarium. Glenwoods Springs is a GREAT town - the only thing that I don't like it is that so many people here SMOKE. (Not just cigarettes - we passed a Medicinal Marijuna store, which just looked like a respectable head shop, to me). I think the smoking has to do with the fact that they are college students - you know, getting educated, therefore they smoke. (The benefits of public schooling).

This morning I went for a run at Hartford Rocks in Gunnison, and found out that something has happened to me - I can't run any more. I seem to have passed some point of overtraining while I've been tapering. I would cancel Saturday's little jaunt over Imogene, but Patrick is flying up here to do it, and he's already bought the ticket, so I might as well go ahead. I'm sure that I can beat the cutoffs, but it isn't going to be anything like what I trained for.