Waldo Canyon Fire

This past week has been a lesson that I will never forget. Even as I write this on a Sunday evening, still currently displaced with Christie from our home at Grand Centennial, the Waldo Canyon Fire is still burning and you can smell the smoke practically anywhere you go in Colorado Springs. The lesson I learned this past week is to never take anything for granted, even your own home. I've never before been affected by a natural disaster and to experience the Waldo Canyon Fire and how it affected not just me, but well over a hundred thousand of other citizens in the Pike's Peak region, it's something that I will never forget. This article isn't about my training and progression in the sport of running, but one ironic aspect of this story is that I somehow managed to run the most miles in a week for the 2012 year. I ended up running over 120 miles this past week while dealing with smoke inhaled lungs, displacement, relocation, more displacement, followed by more relocating, all while continuing my work and daily job in the Army. I believe that it is experiences such as this that develops and humbles you as a person. I haven't quite had an opportunity to yet look back on this experience, but it's easy to say that this will be one I remember for the rest of my life.

Saturday, June 23rd - 85 minute recovery run (13 miles)

This all begins last Saturday, which wasn’t apart of my most current training week, but is when the Waldo Canyon Fire first began. That Saturday, June 23rd, began with me sleeping in and opting not to run in the morning prior to my friend, Tommy Neal’s and Adrian Chouinard’s wedding. I had just completed my first of many tempo runs to come the day before in training for the upcoming marathon season and decided I needed a little extra rest.

The wedding started at 10 a.m. and Christie and I ended up arriving frustrated because we were unable to find a parking spot at Garden of the Gods. It was a perfectly normal day, but extremely hot at over 100 degrees, with lots of tourists checking out the beautiful site in the Garden. Below is a picture of Tommy and Adrian after they had said their vows and congratulations to you both!! It was such a beautiful day for a wedding and Christie and I had an amazing time! 

After the wedding we all headed over to the reception. It was a very cool experience and basically like a who’s who of American Distance Running in celebration of holy matrimony for Tommy and Adrian. Matt Williams, who is a 3000m Steeplechaser for the Air Force, had amazing taste in clothing that day and obviously we had to take a picture together. 

As we headed over to the reception we were all asking each other about the past track season and how it went for everyone and we were all excited for many of the athletes in the area who were competing at the Olympic Trials up in Eugene, Oregon. At some point between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday we noticed a smoke bloom up in the air across from where we were all gathered within Garden of the Gods. We had heard of the fire up north in Fort Collins and with it being as hot as it has been lately with not precipitation, of course we were all concerned, concerned enough as my friend and teammate, Robby Young, called 9-1-1, only to hear a “uh, yeah we know, you’re  caller #20.” Unfortunately, Robby didn’t win a prize that day, but we did have our first golf outing scheduled for later that afternoon/evening.

This is what we saw and the first picture I snapped of the Waldo Canyon Fire. 

We ended up leaving the reception shortly after 12 that day after Tommy and Adrian had cut the cake. Christie and I were able to get a picture with the bride and groom before we left. 

After Christie and I left the wedding we went home and could not believe how much the fire had grown in the amount of time it took us to drive from the Garden of the Gods to Grand Centennial, which is only about 3 miles. I snapped this shot right before I left for my recovery run.

Christie and I were obviously concerned so we decided that one would stay at the apartment while the other runs. So I just ran from the apartment that day and went on an 85 minute recovery jog and made my way back over to the Garden to see if and how much the fire was spreading. By the time I was on my way back to the apartment, fire marshals were clearing everyone out of the Garden. I decided that golfing was not a good idea that day and had to cancel my golf outing with Robby. I think that was probably a good decision considering how the smoke looked on my return. 

Sunday, June 24th – 20 1/2 miles

Although there was an ever growing fire practically in our back yard, Sunday was just another normal day. Christie and I decided that we would both do a long run and head up to Gold Camp Road. I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea and maybe we’d be able to get some good glimpses of the fire. I was scheduled for 18 miles or 2 hours of running that day, but I ended up running over 10 miles up Gold Camp Road to almost the peak of the mountain because from the vantage point of the peak you could see down and get a fairly clear view of exactly where the fire was at. By the time I got back to my original starting point, Christie was waiting with a fire marshal. They were kicking people out of Gold Camp Road as well and evidently I was the last one to leave. As Sunday progressed and the temperature again began to rise, the fire worsened, but Monday was going to be another day on the job and a normal week continued.

Monday, June 25th - AM – 3 1/2 miles

Monday morning was still somewhat normal except you could really start to begin smelling smoke from where we were at in Grand Centennial. I was pretty tired from my mountain climb up Gold Camp the day before and only ran for 25 minutes in the morning. I try to run at least 25 minutes in the morning before work, even if I’m exhausted because it helps flush out my lactic acid from the day before.


PM - 12 miles

I spent a full day at work on Monday and even though I could clearly see the fire growing from Fort Carson, I still decided to do my evening run on the Monument Valley Trail. My next speed work was scheduled on Tuesday, but by Monday night the smoke was getting to an almost unbearable point.

Tuesday, June 26th - AM - 12 x 800m repeats + 3 x 200m repeats (13 miles total)

Monday would end up being the last “normal” day of the week. Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45 a.m. smelling like I had been to a bon fire the night before. I put on my go-fast clothes and track spikes and headed over Cheyenne Mountain High School for our morning workout. I met up with Robby Young, Sean Brown and one of Coach Simmons’s college athletes from Queens, NC who was spending the summer out in Colorado Springs. Upon arrival at CMHS we originally decided that we were going to cancel the workout because the smoke was just too much. We then decided that we would travel up north to higher elevation and see if could still nab the scheduled speed workout in. We ended up driving 30 minutes up to Briargate near Sean’s home and did 12 x 800m repeats on the Classical Academy track. Needless to say, we were slow on our repeats. We typically hit our 800’s in between 2:15 and 2:20 and averaged about 2:21-2:23. Not sure if this was a result of the smoke in the area, although it was tolerable from where we were at, but at least we got the work in. We decided since our 800’s were slow, we’d run some extra 200’s at 30 seconds or under to make up the difference. 

After the workout, I put on my ACU’s (Army Combat Uniform) and headed into work at Fort Carson. I was worried all day because Christie was up in Denver for her medical rotations and I was about 25 minutes south of where we lived. Wynn, our little pup, was all alone in our apartment. 

I broke for lunch at noon and although the fire looked worse than ever, I still had not seen any flames up until this point and it didn’t look threatening at that point to where we lived in Colorado Springs. If given another opportunity, I would’ve taken work off the rest of the day and packed everything I possibly could have, but decided that I would just leave a little early. Below is a picture I snapped from work on Tuesday afternoon. 

The rest of the day at work I was nervous and checking for updates about the fire on my computer. I ended up leaving Fort Carson at 4:30 that evening to see the fire like never before. This time I didn’t even take a photo of the fire on I-25 and just tried getting to Grand Centennial as soon as possible. Flames were easily visible and traffic was horrific on the drive up and by the time I arrived, smoke consumed everything so much that you couldn’t see any further than 50 feet from where you were standing.

Considering how much smoke enveloped the area, I figured that the fire was across from us. Turns out I was right. Reported 65 mph winds didn’t help that day and the fire raced down the ridge across the street from our apartment in the Mt. Shadows neighborhood and along the Flying W Ranch Road. I didn’t give myself any time to pack. I grabbed Wynn, a safe with our social security numbers, my book bag and lap top and left. I didn’t even think to have locked the door on my way out. By the time I got in my car and up on Centennial Boulevard, traffic was at a standstill and you could barely see anything in front other than car lights. I took this picture on my drive out of Grand Centennial.

During this time, Christie was still on I-25 headed south from Denver on her way home from her clinical rotations. I told her that I got Wynn, but nothing else other than our wedding photos and a safe with our personal information. As she told me that she was going to drive up and attempt to gather as much of our stuff as possible, we both hear on the radio that Centennial Blvd had become a one-way traffic street headed outbound.

PM – 4 miles easy

Luckily, I had talked to my American Distance Project teammate, Sean Brown, at Tommy and Adrian’s wedding and he told me that if the fire had gotten any worse, he would gladly provide a place for Christie and me to stay at for the night. It took roughly 2 hours to drive up to Sean’s from Centennial Blvd which is no less than 15 miles from where I live. Once Christie and I got situated at Sean’s, we headed over to Target to buy a few supplies for the next couple days.  That night I did a nice and easy 4 mile jog with Sean and Christie to try and relieve the overwhelming stress from earlier in the day. This isn't my picture, but similar to what we saw Tuesday night. 

Wednesday, June 27th - AM – 80 minute recovery run – 11 ½ miles

Sleeping that night was not the greatest, not because we were uncomfortable at Sean’s, but because we didn’t know whether or not we still had a home or if everything we’d ever owned had been burned in the fire. Sean and I decided to get our morning run out of the way early that day and run outside of his apartment. When we initially started our 80 minute recovery run, the air was smoke-free with helicopters and planes all flying over to the fire to help contain it. By the time we got to our turn around point the smoke was getting almost unbearable. We figured that it would get better once we turned around but the wind was with us on the way back so the smoke just stayed with us the entire time. That might have been one of the few days where running actually negatively impacted my fitness rather than hinder it.

After the run was completed, I left Christie and Wynn at Sean’s and traveled down to Ft. Carson for work. I still had not heard of anything regarding our apartment, but from the news channel, we learned that the Mt. Shadows neighborhood directly across from Grand Centennial had be decimated by the fire. I don’t think it was confirmed until later that evening that approximately 346 homes had been lost.

Once I arrived at Ft. Carson, work just carried on like nothing had happened. There were a few other Soldiers displaced as well, but other than a few conversations regarding the fire the night before, work just carried on.

PM – 60 minute recovery run – 7 miles

That night after work I headed back up to Sean’s and did a very light recovery run with Christie and Sean. I could really feel the stress from the day before on my legs, not to mention a speed workout on top of everything. Probably one of the slowest recovery runs I have done in a long time, but it was what I needed. I figured that night I didn’t need to strain my body any more. After the run, we got some quick showers and then Christie and I decided to head over to UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) where they were providing free housing for 3 nights to evacuees. It didn’t take long for us to gather our things and get situated in the dorm room. One piece of information we learned that night was that Grand Centennial was still standing. We didn’t know if there was significant smoke damage or not, but at least our home was still there.

That night we checked in at UCCS and got the keys to our new home for a few days. I hadn’t slept in a dorm room since my Freshman year of college at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania and I forgot how hard the mattresses are for students. In addition to sleeping on a rock, there was no air conditioning as well. Regardless, it was a free place to stay at for 3 nights and we figured that by Friday afternoon we would possibly be able to head back to Grand Centennial.

Thursday, June 28th - 12 mile trail run

Thursday morning I woke up so exhausted that I opted to try and catch up on a few hours of sleep before heading into work. Christie and Wynn spent the day monitoring the news trying to find out when we would be lifted from evacuation, but the fire was still burning and containment on the fire was only at 10%. Christie would've rather had gone up to Denver for her medical rotations, but the physician she was shadowing told her to take the rest of the week off. After resting the legs all day at work I decided to go exploring during my run and find out how close I could get to my apartment and not infiltrate the evacuation zone. UCCS is less than 3 miles from Grand Centennial, but I only got about a mile and half before I would run into a police road block. Each road block I would come to I would go down a different street to see if I could get any closer, but I never even got close to visible sight of Grand Centennial. 

Friday, June 29^th – AM – 7 miles easy

Friday morning Christie and I woke up hoping that Friday would be the day we would no longer be evacuated. Little did we know that we were still quite a ways out from that.  Friday’s are typically my “Predator” run days. I’ll describe what a “Predator” run is later, but I decided not to do a workout that morning and give my body one more day of recovery before I strained it again in a workout. That morning though I could tell my legs were starting to bounce back as I was easily running under my 7-minute recovery pace.

PM – 7 miles easy

As soon as I was finished with work that night I called Christie to see if the evacuation had been lifted on our area. No luck. There was a scheduled 8 o’clock press conference that night, so I went ahead and completed my evening run to hurry back and listen to the press conference. During the press conference we started to lose any sort of confidence in returning home shortly because the evacuations weren’t even mentioned. Frustrated with not knowing how long we would be displaced, we decided to grab to our favorite late night snack at Yo-Yogurt. The one encouraging aspect was that the week was over and we could just spend the weekend trying to relax in the dorm at UCCS, but we only had one more free day left to spend. 

Saturday, June 30^th – AM – 8 mile Predator Run (14 miles total)

A “Predator” run is something like a tempo run where you start off at below threshold pace, which for me at altitude is somewhere between 5:20 – 5:30 pace. During the Predator run, you gradually pick up the pace as you go along. Training at altitude you have less oxygen to work with, so your body isn’t capable of running as fast as it does at sea level. I think the percentage is somewhere around up to 75-85% of your original VO2 max capacity. So the idea of a Predator run is to start off controlled and relaxed, then gradually pick up the pace, without going into oxygen 10 minutes into the workout. The 8 mile course Sean and I had mapped out would take us uphill gradually for the first 4 miles, turn around, and then use the downhill to assist in picking up the pace on the way back.

By this time, the smoke was starting to clear south of Colorado Springs, so fortunately we no longer had to suffer through fire smoke. The course we run is fairly challenging. It’s definitely not what I would consider a “fast” course and my best average pace on the course was 5:17 per mile for 6 miles when training for the 10k back in the winter and spring. I would be nowhere near that pace today. I was able to stay with Sean for the first 2 miles only. The first mile felt surprisingly fast and when I looked down at my watch and saw 5:34, I knew today it was going to be a battle to even maintain that pace. By the time I hit 4 miles I was just over 22 minutes. One thing about running at altitude in Colorado Springs, it definitely humbles you. Even with the slight downhill on the way back, I managed only to run 44:19 for the 8 mile course. Not my best effort, but I figured considering the week I had just experienced, it was still some money in the bank. After the predator run was finished, Sean and I completed an easy 3 mile cool down and I headed back to UCCS dorm. 

Once I returned to UCCS, I found out that we had to be out of the dorm by 1:00 p.m. or Christie and I would be charged $50 to stay for an additional day. Christie had a free hotel stay for one night at a Hilton hotel, once again up by Briargate, which she had won at local 5k road race earlier in the year, so we decided that now was the right time to use it. The one thing Christie and I didn’t understand upon leaving from UCCS, was that there was a 3-day time stamp for evacuees at UCCS, whereas after those 3 days were up and if you were still evacuated, I guess you just had to find someone else to take you in. Luckily in our case, we were fortunate enough to have a free hotel for a night, but I guess if you were evacuated for any longer, you were just out of luck. 

PM – 7 ½ miles easy 

That night Christie and I checked into the Hilton at Briargate and sleeping on a real bed that night was amazing. I ended up waking that morning at 4:30 with an unquenchable thirst so I ended up driving to a local gas station, picking up a gallon of orange juice, a liter of water, as well as two 32-ounce vitamin waters. After that, I didn’t get out of bed that morning until after 9 a.m. Christie had woken up at 8 a.m. for the news press conference and once again, they didn’t even mention anything about Grand Centennial and whether or not or when we would be let back into our home.

Sunday, July 1^st – AM – 2 hours easy (18 1/2 miles total)

That morning after I woke up I met up with Sean and we did 2 hours easy on the Air Force Academy trail, which is roughly above 7,000 feet. The legs surprisingly felt pretty good and I was to hit a few sub-6 minute miles in the last quarter of the run. After the run I hurried back to the Hilton because we had to check out by 1:30 p.m. Christie and I didn’t have much belongings to pack up so we checked out and went over to the Starbucks across the street, where I am now typing up this story. At 2 p.m. we listened to the news conference and they had finally mentioned about the over 10,000 evacuees still displaced in Colorado Springs. We never quite heard anything regarding Grand Centennial, but on the evacuation map it looks as if we are no longer on the evacuated portion. It looks like we’ll finally be able to return home tonight at 8 p.m!

When we arrived in Grand Centennial that night, there was very little smoke damage. Across the street from us, much of the ground was black. I was surprised to look across the street to see how many of the homes had been saved by the fire. That night I did an easy 4 mile jog around our area. It never felt so good to run around Zachary Grove, Centennial Blvd and around Vindicator Road back to Grand Centennial. During my run, although it was getting dark outside, I was able to see firsthand some of the devastation. One home I saw looked as if a sledge hammer had been taken to it for a few days. You could tell that the firefighters had attempted to save the home, but I’m sure the fire was too severe where the home was located. As I continued on my run, all I could imagine was that the Colorado Springs Firefighters did as much as they could have possibly done. Although 346 homes were lost, I’m certain that well over a thousand probably would have perished had it not been for them, including perhaps our own. Finally, here is photo (not mine) that was taken of the Mt. Shadows neighborhood shortly after the devastation of Tuesday into Wednesday morning. 

ASICS Men's GEL-Nimbus 13 Running Shoes, Lightning/White/Fire - 8.0