8/25/14 - Plan de l'Aiguille Challenge!

The first time Bucky ran from our apartment up to the Plan de l'Aiguille (4133 ft. elevation gain in 4.44 miles) he did it in 1:11.  I told him a goal of the summer (for him) should be to try and break 1:00.  Since then he has run it a couple more times and his fastest time is now 1:06.  My goal for the summer was to try and get to the top in under 2:00.  Now before you judge my lax goal setting too harshly keep in mind two things.  First, Bucky is a former Div. 1 collegiate x-country runner at Notre Dame and a former professional triathlete.  My competitive running career essentially ended after freshman year of high school when I started growing horizontally more than vertically.  Second, I have run once this summer, and it wasn't even for an hour, before that I can't even remember the last time I went for a run.  With Bucky out of town I figured now would be as good a time as any to make my first attempt at the run.  I didn't want him to feel obligated to wait for me, and I didn't want to feel pressured to keep up!  The sign at the trailhead says the average hiker should do it in 3:30.  When my watch said 0:32, I passed another sign that said the Plan de l'Aiguille was only 1:30 away!  At that point I knew for sure that I was going to break 2:00, but I kept the pace up to see just how fast I could go.  I got to the Refuge du Plan at about 1:08 and then I started thinking I might even match Bucky's time the first time up!  I underestimated how much longer I had by a little bit, but I still made it to the Plan in 1:15:23!  After walking around a little and cooling off I decided to run back down instead of taking the tram.  I figure, what's the point of struggling against gravity's clutches for so long if you can't turn around and run back down into her warm embrace?  After about 0:30 of descent my quads were screaming for a break, but I was so close to the bottom I couldn't stop.  I cruised back to the apartment and stopped the watch at 2:00:44.  Now my legs feel like jelly, but at least I can check off one summer goal!