Week in Review (August 13 - August 19)

Tuesday (19,445 steps) - Strength class during lunch. REI was having a big sale, so I finally picked up my Micro Puff (that will hopefully get me a). through Tahoe and b). Through winter in general).

Forgot my running shoes, so I was only going to be walking again at Milk Market. I did do a few sections of jogging to break up the monotony of walking, however. Food was random and delicious (pesto & peaches on bread?).

Wednesday (21,856 steps) - Core class during lunch. Runners Roost Boulder!

Super hot night again. Run was hard (is it ever NOT?), but still managed a fairly decent pace. First time I've actually run the whole route in a while.

Meant to start packing, and didn't (really).
Thursday (15,278 steps) - First day of 8th grade for A!

Left work early for volunteering with BMA & OSMP. A decided that she was too tired to go, so I drove alone to Boulder and met Chelsea at the free lot. We then drove back down to the Flatirons lot, where we were transported by truck most of the way. We still had to carry pickaxes and water, but it wasn't nearly as far as if we'd walked all the way from the lot. Work was a lot harder this time - pickaxes are heavy! We were gathering huge rocks and then digging holes for them to create "rumble strips" on a downhill to help with erosion and bikes going to fast. Late night.

Chelsea is having an awfully good time watching this guy play Tetris with rocks

Friday (10,967 steps) - Core class during lunch. After work rushed home to grab A and a handful of things to head up the mountain. Heavy traffic again, and we decided on Noodles for dinner. A bit of a headache trying to find Velcro for Ben's gaiters, but we managed to get some from Lowe's, and got to his house around 8. In bed way too late for an early wake up.
Saturday (26,149 steps) - Up at 1:00 am. Yes, 1. Initially I told Ben to wake me up around 2:15, but once he was up, I was too. He is really... slow moving on a race morning. We enjoyed coffee and breakfast, and then he finalized all his packing. Still had to get gas on the way up to Leadville. Crazy that we still were parked (only a few blocks from the start line) with about 20 minutes to spare. Plenty of time for the bathroom and a pre-race pic.

I ran into quite a few friends at the start, but at 4 am, I wasn't too keen on sticking around for a long time. Grabbed Oza's info on the house, then drove BACK to Ben's house. Had hoped to get a few more hours of sleep, but I was too cold. Up before my alarm, showered, had breakfast, and then A and I grabbed the last of our things and headed into Silverthorne for some coffee. Not more than a minute after leaving, I got a text from Ben - "I'm hurt. Lost some blood. Moving. Running. 911 called but I kept running." AND THEN HE DIDN'T RESPOND TO ANY FURTHER MESSAGES. "Luckily, he made it to the next aid station and a mutual friend of ours was working the medical tent, and she sent me a pic and message. He certainly did eff himself up.

He wanted to continue running and insisted he was fine - so I messaged him that we would see him at Twin. Now of course THAT was also an ordeal. By 9:30 the line was so long for parking that I opted to drive all the way to the road to drop Ariel off with Ben's giant 400 pound bag. Ended up having to park nearly two miles away.

Found A with no problem at Becki Lynn's tent. Socialized with everyone while waiting for runners to come in. Everyone seemed to be coming in later than expected. Ben was in good spirits when I finally saw him, and he looked a lot better once we took a few minutes to clean him up and get him into a clean shirt.

I walked him out to the road and told him we would be at Winfield. WHICH WAS ALSO AN ORDEAL. New this year, was needing to take a bus. As a conservative guess, we waited nearly two hours for a bus. We hadn't had a chance to go to the car (since it was two miles away), so we didn't have water, snacks or sunscreen. By the time we did get on a bus, they were overfilling them, so I had to share a seat with 2 people and A had to stand. FOR AN HOUR.

We finally arrived at Winfield. Hot & sunny. Chatted with Jeramiah, Andrew, Lisa A. and Koltin, while waiting. They really had us worried, but everyone came in about a half hour before cutoff. I actually got Ben out of the aid station pretty quickly, and Becki said she would take good care of him on Hope Pass.

Ben looks happy and I look like I have a double chin - walking him out of Winfield for his second trip up Hope Pass

We were there to watch all the people get cut that didn't make the cutoff, and I surprisingly emotional watching athletes get their bracelets cut and not being allowed to finish. Shockingly, the bus back was no better. We waited well over an hour for one, and when we got on, there were hundreds of others behind us. (Rumor has it some were still there at 9 pm!!)

Luckily, the bus driver was pretty helpful and stopped along the road near Twin and dropped us off, so we didn't have to walk as far to get back to the car. This time, we were only a little over a half mile away. Went back to BPCO's tent and thankfully Margo was there and made us some food. We were starving!!

As it got darker, we obviously got more concerned. Becki had sent her husband a text asking to give me Tylenol for Ben when he came in. Shortly after that, A got a text that Tyler wanted to drop and they probably wouldn't make the cutoff.

Once we were getting down to the wire (about 9:40 pm) - we walked over to the road and watched as runners were rushing to make the 10:00 pm cutoff. Yet none of them happened to be Ben. Once our watches read 9:55, we knew there was no way that he could be in and out of an aid station in that amount of time (we were probably at least a quarter mile from then aid station by now). Ugh. After all that work, Ben was going to miss a cutoff. A decided to go back to the tent to wait for everyone, and I planned on hanging out until I saw them.

It would be a while, nearly 45 minutes, before I would see them (and they were only minutes behind Jeramiah and Tyler). For missing a major cutoff and now a DNF, he seemed ok with it. We headed to the aid station to check in with medical and tell a race official that he was done (but accounted for). Both Becki and Ben were freezing, so we stayed in the tent a while for them to warm up. Probably around 11:30, we finally headed out. I had offered to give people a ride to their car because the thought they were about three miles away.

Ben after 64ish miles & Becki still adorable after 14+ and 8(?) water crossings

Thankfully, we had enough service to map to Tyler's place in Twin, as the thought of trying to get down to Ben's was daunting. His parents welcomed us in, and we were treated to some beer, pizza, and most importantly, a shower and a bed to sleep in. Lights out after midnight - but still earlier than any of us planned.
Sunday (5,071 steps) - Clearly, I did nothing. We were up early. Had coffee and decided to go into Leadville to watch the last of the finishers come in. By the time we go there, we only saw the last two official finishers. Spent some time at the Roost tent, congratulated Lexa, then went over to PB, where we remained with various groups of friends for a while. Went to Safeway to pick up some last minute food, then headed back up to Tyler's place at Twin Lakes.

Monday  (7,669 steps) - Made the decision at 3:30 am that there was no way I could drive to Denver at that hour. Slept a little later, helped Tyler clean up, then drove into Frisco to take Ben to have his head looked at. A even got to go back with him for his catscan. 

Actually looks worse than it was, X-ray didn't pick up anything. Just a bruise.

Thankfully, he did not sustain "serious" injuries from his fall (no brain bleed, breaks or fractures), although he was diagnosed with his second concussion of the year. We went back to his house for a few snacks and some relaxation before heading to Denver late afternoon. 

Took A to her Scout meeting, went home to shower & do laundry. After her meeting we went to Outback (thanks, Sharon, for the gift card). 

In bed early-ish.

Stats:

• 106,435 steps
• 6.6 miles run (huh. Well, I was supposed to pace Ben, so I guess I'm missing those miles, but wow, I didn't realize I didn't run.... at all.)
• Three gym classes

RMRR Trophy Series - Twin Lakes 10k (Race Recap)

Sunday, January 8
Weather - Chilly, cloudy

A week out from Across the Years and I again decided it was a great idea to run a 10K with Rocky Mountain Road Runners. A was finally back from Texas and Maureen was planning on walking the 5K. A decided she would rather walk with Maureen than run.

With the handicap start, I would be starting 2:50 after the gun. I had the same plan as last year when I ran - start slow, and hopefully not have a terrible time. I was coming off a high mileage weekend and had run a fairly hilly (and icy/snowy) 7 miles the day before with Runners Edge, so my expectations were not very high.

There was only only person starting at my same time:

This cracks me up. We are dressed for two very different forecasts.

I was taking it very easy and caught up to Ang (also walking) pretty early on. I started passing the "faster" walkers around .75 miles in and caught up to A and Maureen around .85 or .9 miles in (they were walking pretty quick!) and A got a few pictures of me from Maureen's phone.

I was perfectly comfortable in my thin long sleeve top and skirt, the only part of me that was cold were my toes! They didn't warm up until probably 2 miles in. I was feeling pretty good on the outbound part of the course, but I remembered from last year that it was a gradual downhill on the way out. I took a very brief walk break after turning around at the only aid station - long enough only to take a drink of nice, cold, ice water.

I continued with the plan to "push through" the tired legs, and it appeared to be working. I did start to have some pain in my right ankle (STILL!) even though I had taped it before the run, but I didn't notice my gait being off and figured I would run through it if I could. I was finally starting to get passed by runners, although I'm pretty happy it didn't happen until the second half of my race!

Remembering how much I struggled once I hit mile 5, I held back a bit and took it super easy on the small underpass hills. Rob passed me around mile 5.5 and his enthusiasm helped me get through my desire to walk. FINALLY, I could see the loop around to the finish. I passed Ang shortly before the bridge and then did my best to hang until I was through the shoot.

Didn't see A and Maureen at the finish, I assumed that was because they were taking Colfax for a walk. Got some pictures with teammates, stuck around for awards (none for me this time!) and then went to Torchy's with A and Maureen. A very fun morning, and INCREDIBLY pleased that I made it through the entire run without a walk break (outside of the aid station).

Of COURSE all the shadows are on MY face

Maureen, A and Ang - mid-race

Garmin time - 1:08:12
Garmin distance - 6.31 miles
Garmin pace - 10:48 (?!?!)
Mile 1 - 11:01
Mile 2 - 10:46
Mile 3 - 10:34
Mile 4 - 10:46
Mile 5 - 10:56
Mile 6 - 10:54
Mile 6.31 - 10:25

Thoughts:

• These races are so fun and so inexpensive! I always have a good time at them - very happy I tried them out last year!

RMRR Trophy Series - Twin Lakes 10k (Race Recap)

Sunday, January 3
Weather - sunny

I had NO business running a 10k so soon after Across the Years. But Saturday night I was up late... on Facebook... and saw that Maureen was attending. I looked at the website and it was $10 for race day registration at the first RMRR Trophy Series race of the season.

The race was scheduled to start at 9, and after some quick messaging with Maureen she said it was easy to find, registration was quick and I should come. (They also had a 5k option that I was considering).

So I got up just before 8 and drove to the start, only about 15 minutes away. There was a decent number of people there. When I went to register Maureen convinced me to sign up for the whole year since it was only $35 (and I can do a family add on for A of only $10)! So I got my bib and then sat in the car for a few minutes until the race started.

The series does some sort of handicap that I don't really understand, other than trying to remember my days of league bowling. Anyway. I guessed (optimistically) that I would run around 13 minute miles. That meant that I would be starting in the first wave (with the race walkers).

Can you spot me at the start?

The course is an out and back, and I planned on going SUPER slow. I started jogging. Felt ok. Kept going... and going... (saw my buddy Ross at the 5k turnaround, but not sure he recognized me) and going... and going...

I had not run this path before, although it is a branch of the Clear Creek trail I have run in other places. We had the creek on one side and then some industrial areas on the other. But, it was pretty. It was a nice cool day, but I started to heat up around the half way point. The miles ticked by, and by the turn around I still had not taken a break.

I stopped briefly at the water stop and then kept going. I felt really good until about mile 4. Mile 4-5 I slowed down a bit and it felt harder. Maureen passed me somewhere after mile 5. In fact, quite a few people passed me then. I finally had to take a walk break only about a half mile before the finish. I swear the whole way back was uphill. My legs finally had enough!

I crossed the finish, found Maureen and my other Roost teammates, and then we socialized (with coffee and snacks) until awards. Even though this was probably a dumb idea, I had a great time and look forward to future events!

This might be one of my favorite pics ever - we all look so happy!! (Maureen, me and Lisa)

Teammates (Sabine - women's overall winner, Bill, Lisa, some guy (sorry guy!), Sara, Maureen and me)

Official time - 1:10:27
Garmin time - 1:10:21
Garmin distance - 6.24 miles
Garmin pace - 11:16
Mile 1 - 11:32
Mile 2 - 11:11
Mile 3 - 10:57
Mile 4 - 11:01
Mile 5 - 11:08
Mile 6 - 11:55
Mile 6.24 - 10:48