Sandia Crest Trail

I started writing this blog post several months ago, but finishing it hasn't been a priority until now. I haven't had much energy with this pregnancy, and when I have had energy there have always more important things that needed to be done. In the last two weeks, though, I have handed over both of my volunteer jobs (as the Treasurer for our church and as the Treasurer for the NM Parents of Multiples club), so I finally feel like I have a little time to do things that aren't 'work.'

On July 31st of last year, Micah and I hiked / ran the 26.5 mile Sandia Crest Trail. Although I had first heard about this trail when we moved to Albuquerque in the fall of 2010, I had forgotten about it after becoming pregnant with our triplets. Running and accomplishing fitness related goals has been a big part of my life since high school, but it has been easy for me to push my own training and goals aside since having a family. It's not that I don't value these things anymore, but it's hard to find the time and energy when caring for three kids.

Last spring, though, I decided that I wanted to set another goal for myself since I knew that we were planning on transferring our last embryo from our original IVF cycle at the end of the summer. I did a half marathon in May 2015 when Alexis, Jack, and Faith were almost 2-years-old (you can read about that here), but other than that I hadn't trained consistently since before my first pregnancy. Originally I thought I wanted to run another half marathon, but I was having trouble finding one that fit in my schedule. One day I was talking with an acquaintance who mentioned that she had hiked the 26+ mile Sandia Crest Trail from Placitas, NM to Tijeras, NM, and that's when I realized that I wanted to do that with Micah instead of running another half.

I asked my friend Val if she would watch our kids for an entire day so that Micah and I could do the trail. Val is a wonderful friend, and she understands that one must start an endeavor like the Sandia Crest Trail early in the morning in case of inclement weather, so she agreed to come to our house at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 31st.

We packed our running vests the night before with snacks, which included a variety of energy bars, energy chews, crackers, salami, and Gatorade (I added up the calories from my wrappers when we finished the hike and I ate 1,620 calories from the energy bars and chews alone that day!).

Micah and I drove the 40 minutes to the trailhead in Placitas and started hiking at 6:00 a.m.

At the Tunnel Springs Trailhead in Placitas, NM

Originally I thought we would run more than hike, but I'm not a huge trail runner, there is a lot of elevation gain along the trail, and it's just plain hard to run at 10,000 feet. Other than hiking more than running, the first part of our day went great and it felt like we reached the Sandia Crest House, which is about 12 miles from the Tunnel Springs trailhead in Placitas, quite quickly.

At the lookout near the Sandia Crest House

It's possible that the last time Micah and I were up there together was when I was 29 weeks pregnant with our trio. We had to take a photo in memory of that event as it's hard to believe I was at least 60 lbs heavier at that time.

29+ weeks pregnant in May 2013. A man actually made a comment about me looking like I was going to go into labor up there and he hoped there was a doctor nearby! Luckily I made it two more weeks after that, but I think my body was done.

On the second part of the trail we saw fewer people, the trail was overgrown with bushes, there wasn't much of a view, and the fatigue started setting in. Since I originally thought I was training for a half marathon I was in shape for a 13 mile run, not a marathon. But Micah was a good sport despite my going much slower than he had anticipated. We really enjoyed being able to talk ALL DAY without kids around, or anyone else for that matter.

Unfortunately, we didn't plan as well as we thought we had and we ran out of Gatorade with hours left in our hike. In hindsight, we could have easily refilled our drinks at the Crest House, but we were feeling so good at that point that we didn't even think about it.

Once we hit the downhill portion of the trail, the time and miles dragged. We were both thirsty and tired, and downhill hiking / running is much more difficult than one would think, especially when your legs are already beat.

As we got closer to the Canyon Estates Trailhead in Tijeras, we texted Val to let her know so Dan could come pick us up. We requested water since we were both pretty dehydrated at this point, so we were overjoyed when Dan and their two oldest boys met us a little ways up on the trail with a gallon of ice cold water.

I was happy to have completed the Sandia Crest Trail in 10 hours, which was actually my original estimate. Although I was incredibly sore afterwards due to my lack of training and getting dehydrated on the trail, it was worth it as I was able to check something off of my bucket list and spend an entire day with Micah.

At the Canyon Estates Trailhead in Tijeras, NM and SOOOO glad to be done

The stats from the morning. The Fitbit isn't 100% accurate when it comes to distance, but look at the number of steps I took and the number of "floors" we climbed!

The intramuscular progesterone shots I started the next day for our IVF transfer were literally like salt in the wound for my sore muscles since the needle is huge!