Manitou Springs is a great little city right outside of Colorado Springs.  I highly recommend checking it out if you are in that area.  The main strip is a vintage piece of Americana, filled with a classic arcade, quaint shopping experiences, a variety of restaurants and all within 15 minutes of many exciting things to see and do.  Manitou Springs has a little thing called “the incline”.  Ha, more like a big thing, really.  All told, you just need to climb 2,768 steps.  Easy peasy, right?  Shaw, right.  You can do the incline or you can climb the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building….twice.  

I’ve had me mind set on conquering this thing for a while.  I heard that it takes most people close to 2 hours to complete.  I also heard that elite athletes have completed it in 30 minutes.  I set my goal for 1 hour.  I love working out at altitude as it brings a whole other set of challenges to the experience that I won’t find in Kansas.  

I kissed my wife and daughter on the way out when leaving the hotel at 7am.  I drove out to Manitou Springs from Colorado Springs and then drove around for another 30 more minutes in search of a parking spot.  I wasn’t expecting it to take so long, this place is popular.  I should have preplanned, which was fail #1. I jumped on a shuttle as my parking spot looked to be quite a ways away from the start of the incline. Finally, I stood at the first stair, looking  upwards and said, “let’s do this!  One hour”.  

I started out very slow in an effort to pace myself.  The incline is on the east side of the mountain and it was already 8:30am.  The sky was sunny with a temperature of 79 degrees and I instantly felt the sun rays pounding down on me.  Oh wow it was a blast.  Everyone was having fun.  Everyone was friendly.  I passed several people, several people passed me and in some cases, multiple times back and forth.  The heat picked up some steam and I had to take a few quick breaks.  I brought just one bottle of water with me.  Yeah, that 16 ounces was going to be slowly rationed while I dreamed of having my Camelback that was sitting at home.  Big miss, Matty.  Fail #2. 

The scenery was awesome.  Look up, look down, look left, look right.  Wow.  Breathtaking.  I tried doing one of them live Instagram sharing things that you cool kids do.  Fail #3. 

As time went on, the steps go steeper.  And some shorter.  Some wider.  Some narrow.  Very few steps were exactly the same.  It was a straight line upwards without any left/right turning or switchbacks.   There was a marker for each 100 steps.  Step 700 came pretty quick, but each step was a little tougher.  I loved the challenge and began to plan future experiences on this giant stair case.  I was also glad that I went on my own—my 8 year old is not ready for this yet.  

Somewhere past that half way point of my journey I see a sign that says “1 hour to incline summit”.  This is where I had to set my second goal of breaking 30 minutes from that point. I was already 28 minutes in my journey and felt confident, but I was also starting to get fatigued while low on water.

Finally, I am at the top.  It took a total of 47 minutes and 29 seconds and only 20 minutes from that sign.  Both goals broken.  I had to snap a few selfies while enjoying the breathtaking views, but I didn’t spend much time at the crest.  My water bottle was gone and I was hungry.  My average heart rate during the climb was 136bpm with a peak of 162.  To put this I perspective, I need to run at a 6.5 minute per mile pace for 5-6 minutes to get to 162.  I burned 520 calories on a light breakfast and was visualizing a “Beyond Meat” cheeseburger from Carl’s Jr.  (We don’t have Carl’s Jr. in Wichita).  I expected to start earlier than I did, so I was in a hurry to get back to my family.  

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According to my AppleWatch, it was 1.29 miles of climbing to the top.  The way down would be 3.14 miles, but was almost as challenging with the steep grades downhill.  The path was a trail, with switchbacks all the way down instead of the staircase to the heavens that I had just climbed.  I felt like an out of control train while gravity pulled me down the hill, yet it took me over 1 hour, 6 minutes.

I’m ready to do it again. I am trying to justify a trip back there this year as I think I can break 40 minutes. Wait, I know I can. I can’t wait to tell you about it when I do.

Manitou Beast