80% Oxygen

Hiya!

I'm back from my MD/PhD Conference in Keystone, CO. It was a ton of fun, and very informative, too--always nice when you can share the research you have been doing and get some new ideas. Fortunately we had some free time to enjoy the surroundings as well.

My fellow MudPhud Kent and I made it out a little bit early to make sure that we would make it to the conference on time, and it's a good thing we took the precaution because everything was delayed on Thursday and Friday going east to west. Apparently, it's bad to fly in stormy weather. I know this has nothing to do with the purpose of this blog, but I just need to share how awful the morning that we flew out was. Here are the things that happened to me, in order: woke up to torrential rain, found front window leaking, went downstairs to leave and found basement flooding, tried to stop flooding by opening up drain, sliced finger open on metal drain cover, went to airport without precautionary tetanus shot (Eileen fixed me up in a jiff), boarded plane, stood on runway for 2.5 hours, gave up aisle seat to man so that he could sit next to his 5 year old son, got switched to middle seat with crying baby next to me instead. Could it possibly have been any worse?

Actually, no, it couldn't. So when we landed in Denver, I had a beer and realized that, in fact, I would not be training for the Urbanathon at any point that day. The rest of the day was actually lots of fun. And the story ends this way: I got a tetanus shot yesterday when we got back, and I'm not dead. Yay! (FYI: the symptoms of tetanus infection present themselves 5-15 days after initial infection. But my finger, despite its deep wound, never looked particularly infected to begin with, so Eileen assured me I would be OK).

So...in addition to engaging in some hardcore nerdness, I also found time to train while in Colorado. Can I just say that running at an altitude greater than a mile above sea level is really hard? I usually like to mix up my speed when I run, but I could just manage enough energy to plod along at a single pace at the Keystone Resort--especially because it was much more hilly than I am used to (also, see title of this post). But I definitely worked up a sweat! Needless to say, the huffing and puffing probably did me some good (running this morning felt pretty easy), and it was nice to have a change of scenery, too. Running along forests and over rivers is definitely a nice break from the regular (though scenic) Michigan Lakefront.

We also went on a hike to McCullough Gulch, somewhere outside Rocky Mountain National Park. Good times! It was advertised as an "intermediate" hike, but beyond a few stretches of steep elevation gain, it wasn't too bad. And it was cool--there was snow when we reached the top!

Unfortunately, the fitness center at the resort was under construction so I couldn't train for the in between stuff for the Urbanathlon. Hopefully my obstacle course scaling abilities haven't suffered too terribly for the lost time. Oh well.

Anyhoo, it's good to be back home and with my baby (don't get too excited, I'm talking about Eileen, not an actual child). It's hard to be away from your spouse for so long (plus Eileen had to work in the PICU the day after I got back. Bleh)! Don't people warn you about this stuff before you get married? Alas and alack, lessons to be learned...

And to Shnook: the Mile High Stadium is, in fact, NOT a mile high. Hehehe.