Weekend of Awesome Part 2 (AKA, "Snowpocalypse 2012"

So I was JUST in SoCal last weekend for the most awesome half marathon EVER - and lucky me... this weekend Heather came to visit ME!

Of course a few days before she arrived, we started seeing some super sketchy weather reports... By the night before she was supposed to arrive, we really weren't 100% she would even be able to GET to Denver. We had a forecast of up to 2 FEET OF SNOW in 24-36 hours. Even for Denver, that's a bit much.

For whatever reason, Heather's flight was pretty much the only one NOT cancelled. YAY FOR US! So here is a brief rundown of my weekend.

Friday:

I had 26 miles to run today. Rough. When was I going to fit it all in??? Not to mention I'd run 16 miles on Thursday and 12 on Wednesday. I woke up at 4:15 to head to the gym. The snow had already begun and it wasn't ideal driving to the gym. It was 4:50ish before I even started running. I had a RAD workout. Seriously. I managed to squeeze in 14 pretty awesome miles before I had to head home to grab A before J left for work. Of note: A's 8:00 dentist appointment was cancelled AND the county had called a snow day the night before.

I (stupidly) had a bagel with PB and a small bowl of oatmeal because I was RAVENOUS. Heather had texted to tell me that her flight was delayed an hour. That gave me more time to run, and I was seriously thinking I'd get ALMOST all my miles in.

Arrive at the gym around 8:40. Immediately the run is NOT going as well as earlier. I am blah and my legs are tight. Then, I get the most massive side ache in the universe. I'm positive it's from my breakfast. Blah. I can only run a few minutes, then the pain is so intense I have to walk. This goes on for close to an hour. Needless to say, I didn't accomplish as much as I'd hoped. Grabbed A around 10:25, only managing to squeeze in another 8 miles. 4 miles to go. However, I decide to shower before I go to pick up Heather.

The roads to the airport are CRAP. Super scary drive. Grab Heather and head back home. Sidenote: People in Colorado drive like idiots. The roads were terrible and people were driving like maniacs. We were halfway to my house and came |*| this close to getting into an accident. We literally saw about 4 cars spin out. Unsure if anyone actually hit each other, but luckily we got missed. Lunch at Chipotle, then on to my house. Due to the weather, we were pretty restricted on what we would be able to do. Heather wasn't in the mood to run, I wasn't really either. We went shopping instead :D I managed to pick up a super cute, super purple Nike running skirt for... $4.56!!! After the mall, lunch with A, and then onto Boulder for the best part of the weekend, THE LEMONHEADS in concert! The drive to Boulder was also super scary, but we made it there.

NOT zoomed. Seriously THAT close. Awesome!!

So the concert was super loud and super fun. By the time we headed out, it was already after midnight, which is a super late night for me anyway, and since I'd 1). Been up since 4:15 and 2). Run 22 miles, I was EXHAUSTED. The drive took forever and I crashed.

Saturday:


No real plans. Got out of bed, feeling a bit hungover even though I hadn't drank. Decided to go run. Original plan was maybe to do 8 miles that Heather had on schedule for her long run. She wasn't psyched about the lack of oxygen, and we called it quits after about 45 minutes. At least I made up those extra 4 miles I skipped Friday.

Lunch of awesome at my favorite place... Sweet Tomatoes! More shopping (the mall and of course Target). Managed to waste most of the day, and then we headed back to my house to rest. For whatever reason, I was exhausted. Heather decided to walk on my treadmill, while I took a nap during an episode of Law and Order. I'm LAME.

Dinner at my favorite place... yes, Sweet Tomatoes again. But this time there was carrot cake lava cake, and I argue that just THAT is worth a second trip. Our adventure for the night? Heading to Central City to do a little gambling. I'm super dumb with cards, so I stick to slot machines where I can look at cute cartoons and listen to little songs when I win:

Heather was playing Blackjack and doing pretty well, we stayed until about midnight and then headed back to my house.

Sunday:


Up around 9:00 for BREAKFAST!! J joined me and A and Heather for food at Perkins. FYI, it is pretty dang hard to find something under a billion calories there. I somehow managed to avoid a mammoth muffin, but I won't lie, it was on my mind ALL.DAY.

Heather and A, BFF's

After breakfast, J headed home, and us girls headed back into the mountains for some touristy stuff and to take pictures. After a day of not snowing, there was little evidence of Snowpocalypse and we got some pretty decent pictures in Idaho Springs:

Visitor Center

I promise, this is a PRETEND mine

The mill

Clear Creek

Random Train

It was REALLY cold, but we walked around the town for about a half hour, then stopped at a tiny coffee shop and had pretty much the best coffee EVER. A sure does enjoy her hot chocolate:

Heading back down the mountain, we stopped at Red Rocks and took a few more pictures:

I took the scenic way home, and after a quick stop at Sports Authority (looking for a Nathan hydration vest to wear for my 100 miler) and lunch at Ruby Tuesdays, it was UNFORTUNATELY time to take Heather to the airport :(

What I take from this weekend.

• Snow is the worst. It's cold, gross, and scary to drive in.
• It is SUPER fun to have a girl's weekend and do things like sightsee and shop and gamble and go to a concert, all while not really spending any money.
• I really want to move to SoCal :-/

Anyway, weekend of awesome 2 was great. Too bad we didn't get a chance to run outside and had to suffer YET AGAIN on the treadmill.