In elementary and middle school, my family would often drive along Roller Coaster Road in Black Forest on our way to Fox Run Park. I remember that drive as a happy one, a peaceful one. Towards Fox Run from home - one of excitement - and from the park, one of satisfaction, peace, exhaustion, and occasional sunburn from a great day playing and running. Looking back at that drive now, going over what has been burned thus far in the beautiful forest that raised me, I can’t imagine the devastation of taking that drive. And how quickly it changed – going from the beautiful forest it has always been to a scorched one just within three days. 

How quickly the week itself changed from one with a happy start of the Garden of the Gods 10 Mile to one of frenzy and worry. From concerns of the gun time being official as opposed to chip time according to USATF rules, to worries of friends and family’s houses, along with the great community of Black Forest going up in flames, this week has been a roller coaster.

The Garden itself was a roller coaster, between the continual uphill and downhill course, and the waxing and waning of my energy and cramps. As the Garden ended with a final downhill to green numbers announcing my dream of running the course in sub-1:20, I could only see my week going cheerfully up. As Roller Coaster Road along that memorable drive has gradual ups and downs, with a gradual decline did I find out that a fire had started at Tahosa Rd and Shoup Rd near Pine Creek High School. Thinking that it was just a small grass fire that could be managed quickly, I didn’t think much more of it – until leaving Panera Bread and looking out the window, seeing a large plume of grey smoke and new black smoke billowing into the sky.

This smoke led to a memory I did not want to live over again – a Déjà vu to last year and evacuations with the Waldo Canyon fire – this time scavenging through belongings in my childhood home and Dad’s house, frantically searching for anything of emotional or monetary value, making an avalanche of items in cars.

After this frenzied packing of evacuation continued a less frenzied packing for Alaska, and soon afterwards a flight which offered a humbling outlook of the Black Forest fire.

View of the Black Forest fire from the east - Wednesday, June 12

So now, with family, friends, and a community evacuated, we wait – hopeful for more containment, hopeful for a continuous improvement opposed to a roller coaster of events, hopeful for no more homes burned or deaths, and wishing for safety of the first responders as they continue to be the heroes of our community.