Colorado Springs, Colorado (KKTV) – Either way, Rachel Jones’ resume is great.
She holds the world record for most elevations climbed by a woman in a single year, is the first woman ever to climb 1,000 Manitou Inclines in a single year, and is the 2022 Women’s Champion of the U.S. Max Vale Challenge. I am also a person.
The most amazing thing of all: She accomplished everything in this pregnancy.
Jones started his incline journey like everyone else. In a few weeks he would only do one lap or he would do two laps.
“I was at a place in my life where the idea of doing something existed. [hundreds of Inclines] It was a huge, impossible goal. I felt the need to improve my life in all aspects: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, financially, etc. At the time, I was a single mother of her 5-year-old. Reaching that incline over and over again and doing so many laps was exhausting. So it kind of became a goal: someday, when I finally got my life together, I would finally do this crazy thing.
As the years passed, Jones’ strength and stamina grew. For 2021, she has finally decided she is ready to tackle what is locally known as ‘The 500 Club’. Membership requirements: 500 Inclines in one year.
“To hit 500, you’d have to hike about 10 times a week.
Incredibly, it started to feel too easy.
“I was playing doubles constantly, I was getting stronger, and eventually I got to a point where I felt like I was reaching my goals, and I was going to get there early.”
So Jones decided to try something that few people have done before.
“We have a very small club called the 1,000 Club. Only three have ever made it to 1,000 in a year. All the men were phenomenal, incredibly strong men. I thought, ‘Why?
Much of her desire to pursue more is;
“I wanted something that pushed me more, something that stretched me more, something that I had to sacrifice more.”
She never guessed how much more.
So, at the end of December 2021, Jones officially launched the 1,000 Incline Challenge watch. She has 365 days to complete it. She faced the usual hurdles early on.
“I work full-time throughout this challenge and have a 16-year-old son, so dealing with this challenge was a challenge in itself.”
The Incline is a 1-mile (1.6 km) scar in the mountains overlooking Colorado Springs. With 2,768 steps, it was once a short vertical railroad that took tourists to Mount Manitou. Although the train closed decades ago, the track remained and soon saw a second life as an endurance challenge for locals and eventually for people around the world.1 It has over 2,000 feet of elevation within a mile, with an average grade of about 40% and a maximum grade of about 70%.
On his way to 1,000, Jones walked around Grew through a typical day at the incline.
“Of the 365 days I hiked, I was on the trail 239 days because I was working full time. , Sometimes it was two laps before, other times I was there all day on holidays.I did 13 laps in one day.”
The 13th lap was actually part of another challenge she had already done. Within 24 hours she is an incline attempting 13 laps of the incline. This is almost the equivalent of a marathon. So halfway through the challenge, Jones was doing multiple Incrinathons to get to 1,000.
She was stronger than ever, healthier than ever and her body was injury-free.It was no small feat for an endurance athlete.Her family was supportive.
Less than four months later:
“I noticed my heart rate increased and I realized I was more tired. I did it three times a week, actually.
“At the end of September, I found out I was pregnant.”
Jones was excited about the pregnancy.
“But obviously the timing wasn’t the best.”
Not sure if it was safe to head for the 1,000 Incline, Jones consulted a doctor.
“I spoke to my doctor and told him what I was doing and what was going on. Accustomed to continuing, she was fully onboard, saying she needed to avoid the symptoms of her first trimester, which were brutal.
When she started trying, she wanted something difficult. She wanted adversity. Now she has dug deep into herself to finish it.
“Some days I planned to hike, some days I planned to do 6, 8, 10 laps that day, but I didn’t because I couldn’t get out of bed. My baby and my health is always top priority…so it was actually a day, an hour, a lap, and I wasn’t even sure if I could finish, but ‘as long as I can do my best, let’s do it’. I thought.
“Like I said, the first trimester was tough. But it was okay because I started this challenge because I wanted to dig deep inside myself and overcome adversity and I wanted that fight.That’s why I did this, that’s why I started this. So even if this got harder, I was like, ‘Okay, this is what I wanted. I asked for something hard.
All the while, no one but her family knew she was climbing in two.
“And a lot of people didn’t say anything or realize, but I went from 10 to 13 laps a day, up to about six laps.”
It was frustrating at times for a woman who was like a machine.
“Before that, I could do a lap in about an hour, including ups and downs, but now some of these laps were taking two, two and a half hours to go through. The frustration of being here twice as long and doing half the laps was mentally frustrating.”
But it also reconnected me with the woman I had when I climbed the stairs for the first time many years ago.
“It was like I teleported out on day one. Doing these slow laps makes it harder. It’s really hard to finish like that so you don’t end up feeling like you’re the strongest and fastest. It was a neat and humbling experience.And on top of the world.Instead,it felt like when I first started.It was a really cool feeling.It’s like a full incline journey. bottom.”
December 31, 2022. It was the final day of the challenge and Jones had achieved her 998 her incline at the start of the day, but no one suspected she was pregnant.
“I took a kinesio tape and wrote 19 weeks on my belly with that tape. When I got to the top, I lifted my shirt up and showed everyone and said, ‘Hey, I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant.'”
She has completed 1,000 laps. Plus, she did three more laps in her honor to her mother, whom she calls her number one cheerleader.
“Her birthday is October 3rd, so I thought I could end up with 1,003 as a cool tribute to her.”
After all, the day celebrated three generations of women in her family. .
And her little incline princess is a climber even before she was born.
“When I hiked 1,003 laps, she was with me for 440 laps,” Jones said.
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