Week in Review (June 24 - June 30)

Tuesday (11,251 steps) - 30 minutes of strength training and 30 minute ride on the bike, plus walking Olive for heading back to court for jury duty. Walked with Olive and Ben after dinner.

Wednesday (19,485 steps) - Up early for speed work that I did NOT want to do. These early mornings just have me so blah and tired and unmotivated. I was supposed to do 5x (2 minutes easy, medium, hard). I came nowhere near the paces I was supposed to hit, but just felt good about at least attempting it and chalking it up to, next one will be better. Walked Olive, then back to court. Another walk after dinner.

Thursday (14,816 steps) - Thankfully a rest day from a run or cross training, so I took Olive for a longer walk to the lake before court. Yes again. Costco after work and then took Olive for a short walk after dinner.

Friday (14,210 steps) - Another long walk with Olive to the lake before court. 

We got out of court later and it was a horrible drive home. Ariel went on a walk with me and Olive and stayed for dinner.

Saturday (40,214 steps) - Leadville Heavy Half. 

We headed down the mountain shortly after 3:30, stopping at Outer Range. Some new beers on tap, which were delicious!

Got home just after 7. Leftovers for dinner.

Sunday (18,906 steps) - Took Olive for a longer walk in the morning around lunch while we debated buying tickets to go to the Pantera/Metallica concert. 

Finally we bit the bullet and picked up tickets, including one for Heather. We went to 4 Noses with Olive before heading down to Denver. Took a Lyft from my office to Raices for a beer and some random snacks at the food truck.

I completely misread what section our seats were in and we missed the opening band because we were walking all over the stadium. Finally found our seats shortly before Pantera took the stage.

It's been a long time, but they sounded AWESOME. I can't believe that I hadn't seen them in 25+ years, they sounded REALLY good. The weather was very pleasant, which also made for a good experience.

I had never seen Metallica in concert and I was a little underwhelmed by them. It was still fun to see them, but it really sounded more like "noise" to me and I didn't like it as much. Heather had left after a few songs since she had to work very early. I think Ben and I did start to head out a bit before the show was over, and unfortunately we had to walk all  the way back to my office since it was so chaotic - we had three Lyft drivers cancel on us and the rickshaw drivers wanted an obscene amount of money. We got home at MIDNIGHT.

Monday (11,163 steps) - I had a run on schedule, but due to getting home so late and not sleeping well, I opted to skip it and took Olive for a long walk instead. Went to court for THE LAST TIME!!! Finally, we came back with our verdict. After we returned our verdict we were told the prosecution were adding habitual criminal counts, which required a second "mini" trial. This law only went into effect the beginning of June, so according to the judge in our case, we were the first case in Colorado to apply this. Anyway, cool experience, but REALLY glad to be done. That was a very long time to be away from "normal" life. 

Stats:

• 130,045 steps
• 19.92 miles run
• 20.17 miles walked
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength

Leadville Heavy Half (Race Recap)

Leadville, CO

Saturday, June 28

Half Marathon #199

Weather - sunny and warm

I definitely do not love this race for a lot of reasons. I ran the marathon back in 2012 and hate Mosquito Pass - like A LOT. I said I would probably not run it again, but then signed up to run in 2019. There was a course re-route that did NOT have us going up Mosquito - which I was more than fine with - and I ran a pretty fast time (for me). ANYWAY, I signed up back in January to run the half again, but with the purpose of being IN a race at higher elevation. Since I am giving Summit 200 another go, I want to do some harder/faster paced activities above 12,000' - and this fit the bill. 

We had talked about hypothetically camping or staying in the mountains the night before, but since I was STILL in jury duty, we didn't get around to making any last minute plans - which meant we would have to drive up in the morning. With a 9 am start, it wasn't that early and actually was later than when I did the Sunset Trail 28k earlier in the week.

Race Day

Alarm was set for 5:00 am. I had pre-prepped my pack and all my gear, so I felt that an hour was plenty of time to braid my hair, eat breakfast and fill my bottles. Once I was mostly ready, I took Olive for a walk. Ariel had agreed to take her out at lunch so we wouldn't have to rush home right after I finished.

The drive was estimated to be 1:45, which also gave us time to stop in Frisco to get some gas and for me to use the bathroom. We were parked in town shortly before 8, which gave me plenty of time to wander around the start area and get my packet. The race shirt is nice, and I will keep it (along with my other two shirts that are still in rotation, years later). I pinned my bib on and used the bathroom before deciding I might as well get my pack and be ready to go. 

Christina, Josephine, Me

Met up with Josephine and Christina and chatted until about 10 minutes before the start, when I decided I wanted to use the bathroom one more time. The rest of our friends (Kristin, Doug, Janet and Alison) were nearby. I had planned to seed in for a sub 4:30 finish with Christina and Josephine. 

The starting corral was a disaster. It really reminded me of a road race where everyone is just packed in like sardines and the "self seeded" signage was so close together it was impossible to position where I wanted to be. 

After the national anthem, we started right on time (I think). The first half mile or so is a gradual climb up 6th street out of town. I ran for probably 2-3 minutes before I started my walk breaks. I have been working (again) on my faster walk/hike pace and it seemed like I had positioned myself pretty well. I also knew that there was no single track on the half course, so it didn't really matter how well I squeezed in on the course.

We turned right and began the long, hot climb on the dirt road out of town. I had taken an "early lead" from Josephine and Christina, although maybe 3/4 of a mile in Josephine got ahead of me for a bit. I ended up walking next to a lady for maybe 15 minutes. Turns out we live sorta close together and we have the same first name. It was REALLY warm when we were heading up. I had worn a sun shirt under my RAD tee because I remembered how sunburned I had gotten the last time I ran and I was mildly regretting wearing so many layers. Once I finally started to sweat more I cooled down. 

I was not doing any running at this point, just hiking at a brisk pace. The climbing stopped briefly at around 2.7 miles in and we had maybe a mile of downhill where I was able to pass people who were really cautious with the loose rocks. Maybe 4 miles in was when we hit a stretch of spectators - really had a lot of energy for the 1/3 of a mile or so that they lined the road to the aid station. I took a cup of coke and a packet of skratch chews. 

I made the mistake of not looking at any race information beforehand, so in my mind, I was relying on my memory from when I'd run the marathon and I thought we would have another aid station at the base of Mosquito Pass. Imagine my dismay when we had a long and rocky ascent and NO aid station :(

I definitely struggled on the climb and mildly regretted not bringing my poles. I decided since I don't normally use them in training I shouldn't use in this "training race" - and the year I ran the marathon I didn't have them either. Like the last time I ran this event, I took a lot of pictures on the way up to distract myself from how horrible it was.

Marmot!

Multiple times I had to stop and catch my breath and I even took a few breaks of sitting on a boulder on the side of the trail. I do think that my time climbing was less than the last time, however. I talked with a couple from Indiana that was worried about being too slow and I told them they were fine on the cutoffs. I was still chasing Janet up to the summit. With maybe a tenth of a mile to go I saw a mountain goat on the side of the trail! I'm also glad that I remembered that the last push to the summit wasn't as steep.

I grabbed Ginger Ale (since they were out of coke) and wanted some chips, but only crumbs were left. We were also told that they barely had any water left, so unless we REALLY needed it we had to run down for more. Wth...  I got my picture taken with the Mosquito Pass sign and headed down.

I have gotten a little more confident on technical downs, and even though I wasn't going very fast, I did some "running" on the descent. Saw lots of people I know! Jen, Jen (yes, a second Jen), Christina, Janet, Alison, Kristin, and probably more I can't remember.

Saw the goat again, which was fun! 

Also, the clouds finally came out, and thankfully things started to cool down. The further down the mountain I got, the faster I was able to run. I stopped at the aid station, knowing I had about 4.5 miles left and only grabbed a cup of coke. I had an arbitrary goal of going sub 4:30, and honestly, if the course had measured accurately, I think I could have gotten there. I ran my fastest miles of the day at the end (which makes sense) and up until the last mile I felt really good. I got a side cramp that had me taking a few walk breaks towards the end. Ben was waiting about 1/4 mile from the finish line and ran alongside me to the finish.

Garmin time - 4:32:26

Garmin pace - 17:26

Official time - 4:32:26

Overall Place - 486/738

Gender Place - 192/331

Elevation gain - 3,982'

Mile 1 - 15:09

Mile 2 - 17:49

Mile 3 - 17:32

Mile 4 - 12:36

Mile 5 - 19:25

Mile 6 - 26:45

Mile 7 - 34:31

Mile 8 - 28:38

Mile 9 - 16:19

Mile 10 - 13:51

Mile 11 - 14:43

Mile 12 - 14:36

Mile 13 - 14:36

Mile 14 - 9:31

Mile 15 - 10:07

Mile 15.63 - 10:06

I had to sit down immediately after finishing. Once I found Ben again we went to collect our free beer and find somewhere to sit in the shade. It was at least a half hour after finishing before I felt like eating anything. The race had BBQ, which was pretty good. We headed back to the finish line to watch everyone come in. Apparently lots of people were bamboozled by a weird time cutoff at the last aid station, Josephine and Christina almost got pulled there, even though they had a TON of time to finish the rest of the course.

We stuck around the finish socializing, and buying the limited edition Leadville rabbit button done, before we decided we needed to start heading down the mountain so we could take care of Olive.

Thoughts:

• I really have a love/hate with this race. I intentionally ran because I wanted some high elevation stuff to prepare (more, hopefully) for Summit, Round 2. But!! There are a zillion people on these trails, and the organization seems to really skimp on supplies. I was happy to see that there was medical on course, which was a concern leading up to the event.
• The medal is HUGE and the race shirt is nice.
• Will I run again? I mean, probably, at some point, but I don't feel like I "have" to.

Sunset Trail Festival 28K

Gold Hill, CO

Sunday, June 22

Weather - Sunny and warm

I won't do a long recap on this one.

I had heard about this race a year or two earlier and had talked about running it but since no one else committed we didn't sign up. This year, Terri brought it up in early June and Larry and I both followed suit by signing up. I had never run the loop near Gold Hill, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was all about.

There was a shuttle we needed to be on by 6 am, so we agreed to meet at the Justice Center in Boulder at 5:30, just to ensure we were there in plenty of time. Not only was it plenty of time, but we were the first people to get there. I'd rather not be stressed about it, so it was fine.

We rode in a bus that was maybe 20-25 minutes of windy roads to get to the start line. About halfway there, we lost phone service and would end up not having any service the rest of the day, which was fine.

Our race didn't start until 7:30, so that meant a LOT of standing around. We picked up our bibs and race shirt at the start line, and I used the bathroom 2-3 times. The race provided some bagels and cream cheese, and I think that after about 45 minutes I decided my breakfast had "worn off" and I grabbed a half a bagel. At some point, another busload of people got dropped off, for those that were running the shorter distances. Chelsea was running (and recognized me) and I briefly said hi to her. Finally, it was time to get going.

The race director gathered us all shortly before 7:30 to go over the course details. I barely listened but glad I caught some of the directions as there were ZERO course markings. Not one single flag or sign!!! The route was pretty straightforward, but it was still crazy.

We had to start in town and run up the hill before turning down a back road and going down the hill. Walked most of the hill on the way up and Larry, Terri and I were in the back of the back. I hate starting a race in the very back, but I wasn't sure I was even "racing" this race. The route started on a wide, dirt road. It was definitely a generous downhill, but I didn't want to run too hard. There was a funny sign that said "Private Sign, Don't Read" which I should have taken a picture of, but didn't. Terri edged just a little bit upfront and Larry and I were fairly close behind. At one point, Larry's shoe came untied and we stopped briefly for him to fix it. It was crazy to think that running a pace of low 10s had us the very back of the pack. It was just under 5 miles of dirt road before we came to the junction where we supposed to take a right turn. The aid station wasn't too far up the road and I just very quickly grabbed a cup of water. From here it was still a gradual uphill, some of the earlier parts were paved. I also liked this sign:

Even though it was a gradual uphill, I was trying to do some running intervals. While there was technically no cutoff for the course, there was a scheduled last shuttle back to Boulder which obviously we did not want to miss. Since I had never been in the area, I had no idea what to expect from the "Switzerland Trail." All the email and race info said was that it was rocky, and I wanted to move as quickly as possible on sections that were not technical. I also could not remember where the next aid station was. Terri and I had kind of ended up running together with Larry a little further back, and we both thought it was in mile 9-10. It was closer to 10.5 miles and right at the base of the Switzerland Trail. I stopped only long enough to drink some water and grab a couple packages of gummy bears, which I tried to eat while leaving the aid station. The trail was more like a rocky double track. We left right behind another gal and for a while me, her and Terri were all relatively close together. We came up behind a guy and I decided to run around him and the other girl and basically never saw him, the other girl or Terri again. 

Apparently, this is the Switzerland Trail

I realized I hadn't been taking any pictures, so on one of my walk breaks I took some pictures of the surrounding valleys we were in.

There was really only one section on the course that didn't have a trail marker and I really felt like it should have, but I'm just glad I stayed on what looked the MOST like the main road and didn't get lost. Came across some ATVs and a few bikes in this section, but other than dust, it was not an issue since we were more on a road than a trail. I also knew there was a THIRD aid station, but I didn't really know where that was either. Since I had no service I couldn't pull up any info or see the course map, but I vaguely remember that the last part of the course was downhill. I had put in music by this point but since there were bikes and such out I only used one ear bud. 

Finally, I saw the third aid station, over 14 miles in! If my math was correct, we were just about done with the uphill and we would just be coasting in. I topped off a flask and asked how many miles to the finish and the volunteer told me 3.5, which had me sooo mad! I didn't want to be closer to 18 miles. With the pace I was running I really hoped to finish under 4 hours. The road out of the aid station was the widest road yet, and it was really hot and exposed. I could see some people in front of me and as tired as I was, I decided that maybe I would race "just a little bit." I passed at least one lady right as we hit some of the downhill. Suddenly, I got to a volunteer and a stop sign - I asked where to go and she said to the right and then the finish was only 100 yards away. YAY!!!! I could see the race clock and I knew I would get in under 4 hours. As soon as I crossed the line I went into the garden area and grabbed a coke to drink while I waited for Larry and Terri to finish.

Distance - 17.46 miles

Garmin Time - 3:58:40

Official Time - 3:58:40

Garmin Pace - 13:40

Elevation Gain - 2,628'

Overall Place - 46/54

Mile 1 - 11:40

Mile 2 - 10:13

Mile 3 - 10:05

Mile 4 - 9:54

Mile 5 - 12:52

Mile 6 - 14:05

Mile 7 - 15:48

Mile 8 - 14:56

Mile 9 - 15:31

Mile 10 - 16:40

Mile 11 - 17:06

Mile 12 - 15:51

Mile 13 - 15:27

Mile 14 - 15:36

Mile 15 - 15:04

Mile 16 - 13:28

Mile 17 - 10:26

Mile 17.46 pace - 8:42

We had a beer and grabbed our free burritos. We found out while we were sitting there that we had somehow ALL misunderstood the last shuttle info - it was actually scheduled to leave at 12:30 and ARRIVE in Boulder at 1. At least we all made it?

Thoughts:

• We signed up only 3ish weeks out. The race is put on to benefit the Watershed and so it wasn't for profit and was $70 plus fees.
• Our registration included a shirt, a burrito and post race beer.
• The gpx was provided on the website, but I didn't add it to my watch or gaia since I naively assumed there would be at least minimal course markings. It ended up being fine, but I would have felt better with a flag or two.
• The aid stations were perfectly situated, I just forgot to mentally take a note of where they were on course. Minimal with fluids only for the first one and very minimal snacks with water/electrolytes at the last two.
• I would recommend this for a supported event with a "somewhat fun" finish line. Any festivities were unfortunately done by the time we finished, so it was a little underwhelming for us, but it was a nice area and the volunteers were very friendly.
• I would maybe run this one again, I think it was a good training run for heat and a bit higher elevation than I run around my house.

Week in Review (June 17 - June 23)

Tuesday (11,848 steps) - Up early for cross training. Did a 30 minutes of upper body/back strength training and 30 minutes on the bike before taking Olive for a walk. Yet another day of going to jury duty. Took a walk around the court house at lunch.

Took Olive for a walk when I got home. TV of some kind... maybe this was the night we watched The Accountant 2?

Wednesday (22,210 steps) - Still have jury duty and I had a decent workout on schedule. Since I am a slow runner, my coach normally gives me everything in time, but he had EIGHT miles on schedule. I figured I would just go for "a" run. I was not in the mood for it at all and was really taking it easy when I headed out. I ran into Tanessa and her daughter near the park and we ended up running together for about 20 minutes, which was really nice and made my run a lot better. The way back (alone) was faster because I was worried about having enough time to walk Olive and get ready. Another walk around the court house during lunch and took Olive for a longer walk when I got home.

Thursday (18,984 steps) - YAY for a federal holiday that gave me the day off from BOTH work and jury duty. I didn't set an alarm to get up early, but Olive and I had plans to go in the mountains and check out Square Top. I sent Ariel a text when I left the house to see if she wanted to meet at Dutch for a coffee, which she did. We ended up not taking the trek up until maybe 10 am - which was a HUGE mistake. I had completely forgotten about all the road construction on I-70. The traffic was horrible and it took probably twice as long to get to Idaho Springs. Once we got to town it was a normal drive up. We arrive around noon, which is pretty late and I was shocked to see so many people on the trail (and across the way at Bierstadt). 

The lower "pond" that's about a mile up was the lowest I have ever seen and it was barely a puddle for Olive to get in and get some water. 

There was a decent snow field in the typically muddy area and then at the junction for the lakes - which of course Olive loved playing in. 

The drive back down wasn't AS bad as the way up, but it still wasn't great. I had been messaging with Mo to see if she wanted to meet up for a beer or snack, but the brewery we normally meet at near Evergreen has seemingly gone out of business. (Side note - is anyone else noticing that a large number of established businesses have been suddenly shuttering as of late?) By the time we reconnected after getting phone service out of the mountains it was pretty much too late to do anything. I decided to stop at Over Yonder since they allow dogs inside and then planned to meet both Mo and Ben at Roost in Lakewood for a run club. 

I had wanted to go to run club since I knew that Topo was going to be there. They were doing demo shoes of the version 4 of the Ultraventure, which I wanted to try - and I am so glad I did! I found the sizing of the 3's to be off, and had to size down, while I found the 4's to be more true to size. We did not run, but we walked with Mo and Colfax, Erica and Dani - it was nice to catch up! Topo did a giveaway and Ben won! He doesn't wear Topo so he gave the free shoes to me. YAY!!

They did a fun taco relay, which I didn't participate in OR take any pictures, but Ben did and that was pretty fun.

Friday (11,147 steps) - I did NOT have jury duty, but had to go in to work instead. I took Olive for a long walk - and finally saw some owls!

Took Olive to work with me and it was a very busy day trying to get caught up after unexpectedly missing so much work. We headed straight to 4 Noses to meet up with Ben for a beer and some sushi tacos. Yum!

Saturday (20,250 steps) - Took Olive for a walk and then had to meet Ariel at Big O because now one of her rear tires seemed to be flat and she had to work all day. I had planned on it being a longer morning, so I wore my running shoes so that I could get my run out of the way before it got too hot. I didn't have too much of a route planned, but I knew I was going to be out for around 90 minutes. I headed down the road towards the path I have run many times - that was a bit sketchy for sure. 

I definitely needed to use the bathroom at one point and was really grateful that I remembered there were facilities at a rec center. At some point I had decided that I'd rather try to create a loop to head back rather than go back the way I came, and I ended up in a cute neighborhood that had some goats. Wish we could have goats...

I ended up on a major road and decided to stop and buy some water. For whatever reason, the drinking fountains in the park around the rec center were all shut off. Glad I had my wallet on me!

I somehow managed to time my route pretty good and basically got back in exactly the time I planned. I only had to wait maybe another 20 minutes for Ariel's car - we found out it was a sensor for the tire pressure and not a tire at all. Still costly, though. I was starving by this point since I hadn't had breakfast, so I went across the street for a burger. Yum.

Olive had her grooming appointment, so we headed up to 4 Noses. 

This may be one of my favorite new bandanas!

Sunday (39,359 steps) - Up around 4 am since I had to drive up to Boulder for the Sunset Trail festival race I was running with Terri and Larry. First, though, I had to get ready and take Olive for a walk. I was out the door shortly after 5 and got to the Justice Center in plenty of time. I'll recap this separately.

Finally got service when we were almost back to Boulder and Ben said that he would meet us at 4 Noses. Not sure what else we did after.

Monday (15,050 steps) - Another day that I didn't have jury duty since the judge had other cases he needed to tend to. I did, however, still need to work. It was nice not getting up early. Ariel had mentioned she was going to be coming by, so I hurried out the door to get my run in. It was a relatively blah run, but it was nice and cool out and not as awful as it could have been. She got to the house shortly after I did and while she was doing some other things I took Olive for a walk. We went to Dutch and picked up Torchy's for lunch. Finished out the day working and finishing an episode of You. Watching "The Waterfront."

Stats:

• 138,848 steps
• 37.65 miles run
• 11.53 miles walked
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength

Week in Review (June 10 - June 16)

Tuesday (11,399 steps) - Peloton and walked Olive before heading to the Jefferson County court house. I had to be there at 7:45 and traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had remembered to charge my Kindle and then promptly forgot to bring it with me. I ended up spending a few hours in the morning reading my my book on my phone and surfing the net. I did not get called in the first set of people. HOWEVER, I was called FOURTH in the second set of people of which 110 total people were given numbers. 

The 110 of us were then separated into groups, and since I was one of the lower numbers, I actually had to sit in the jury box for the first round of questioning and disqualifications. We were given a long lunch, and since I hadn't really planned on actually being called, I hadn't brought my water bottle (because I wasn't sure I could even bring through security) and I didn't have much to eat for lunch. I knew Ariel was working, so I stopped by to say hi before walking to Target to grab some shelf stable food and a bottle of water. 

Blue-C and Lucy being adorable together

I went back to Cheesecake for a quick lunch. It was expensive, but tasty.

I got back to the court house with a little bit of extra time, so I did a quick walk around the back of the building to get some extra steps in. I had no idea there were gardens back there!

The afternoon round of jury selection did not get me eliminated either, so I was going to have to plan on at least another day of jury duty. Ugh. Ariel came by after work. We took Olive for a walk and saw that one of the houses up the street had added some painted rocks to the base of their tree - which was cute!

We had not come up with a great plan for dinner, so Ben went to Costco to pick up a pizza. Ariel hung out with us for a bit before leaving to visit with a friend. Lioness.

Wednesday (15,228 steps) - Thanks to jury duty, I had to get up extra early to do my workout. Greg had scheduled me for 14x70s, which I have done a few times. I decided I would just run north to the bike path and do repeats back and forth so I didn't get too far from home  AND so I would have access to a bathroom. It was a good plan, since I had to stop after my second repeat. Over all I just felt really tired during these and walked almost all the recoveries. 

By the time I got home I had enough time to shower and barely enough time to take Olive for a short walk. Ariel had spent the night and said she could walk Olive at lunch. Court, day 2. This time it was even more jury selection. By lunch I found out that I would actually be serving on a criminal trial - FOR THREE WEEKS. I brought my lunch this time at least, and walked back into the garden area and read my book in the shade. Long day. I think we did a "just fend for yourself" for dinner since I was starving by the time I got home. Ran to the grocery store to find some food to take for lunch while I'm in jury duty that won't require a microwave. Lioness?

Thursday (17,860 steps) - Up early AGAIN to get my workouts in. I did a Peloton arms and shoulders class, but I still had to get a run in also. (Technically, I was supposed to do an hour of cross training, but I figured that twenty minutes was probably plenty).

Yes, it was a pretty morning, no, I was not happy to be out. I had planned on running to the lower pavilion and than cutting along the trail to get back. There has been so much rain that the grass and weeds have taken over and that section of trail is completely gone! I had to wander up the hill to find the higher up trail to run back down the way I wanted to go. Rushed home for a shower and then took Olive for a walk before going back to court, day 3. On my lunch hour I took a longer walk to see where all the bike paths connected and once again ate my lunch on a bench.

I will say, at least where I've been on my lunch hour, it's pretty. After work I went home to let Olive out before Ben and I went to Torchy's for dinner. We both took Olive for a walk when we got home. Lioness.

Friday (13,160 steps) - With it being a rest day, I just got up a little bit earlier so that I could take Olive for a longer walk, out to the lake. It was a beautiful morning and there were tons of people out.

Court, day 4. Same deal, walked around during lunch and had my lunch, this time at a picnic table and read my book on my phone. 

We unfortunately did not get released on time, which was my first BIG annoyance of the day. Then, I walked out to my car and noticed that my tired looked flat. Sure enough, when I turned my car on the front passenger tire was completely flat! Thankfully, I still drive with run flat tires, so I was able to go home. It looked MUCH worse by the time I got there.

Ben brought home sandwiches from Taste of Philly. Lioness.

Saturday (28,572 steps) - Took Olive for a long walk to the lake and got all my gear packed up for our afternoon adventure of course sweeping for Aravaipa at Barr Lake trail races. First, we had to drive to Big O so I could drop my car off for the new tire. Then, we drove up to Brighton. It was at least 85 degrees when we arrived - with full sun. We had been asked to arrive at 11:30, but they were not ready for us to start sweeping until closer to noon. We saw the last runner go by the start/finish of the 9ish mile loop we would be sweeping with another guy, Jay. For a loop course, I was really surprised by the amount of flagging and signage. There was really only about a mile long section that had a lot of trash, and that was near the boat ramp area. Most of that was not race-related trash, but I felt like we should collect it anyway. My pockets definitely got really gross and sticky. We passed the water only aid station that was the 5k turn around and the first real aid station was at about mile 3 - where we arrived right as the runner left. I suggested that we wait at LEAST 5 minutes for her to get a head start on us. I had some watermelon and coke with ice. By now, it had to be pushing 90 degrees. Thankfully, Ben still had his quiver on his pack, which turned out to be the perfect way to carry all the pin flags!

We were able to see the runner, who was now accompanied by the bike medic when we were still probably 1.5 miles away from the aid station. Jay thought she might want company, but I thought we should hang back, at least for a bit. As someone that has spent some time with sweepers, a lot of the time I do NOT enjoy the company.

The next aid station was another 3.5 miles away, so maybe around 6.5 miles into the loop. We arrived right after the runner, and I could tell just by how she reacted to the few things that were said to her that she was not in the mood to hang out with sweepers. We stayed much longer at this aid station, and learned the girl captaining the aid station was going to be running Ouray 100 as her first 100, and her and Ben had some animated conversations about the race. We assumed we only had about 2.5 miles to go and headed out. Definitely getting REALLY hot now. The runner was definitely slowing down, and at this point in the course there were a LOT more signs that had to be pulled. We also saw some deer!

Some clouds finally came out with maybe 2/3 of a mile to go. This was a blessing and a curse. A blessing since it finally seemed to cool things down, and a curse because every mosquito in the country swarmed us in this section. Even though we had applied a bug spray multiple times - it did not matter. These were murder mosquitos. I probably got at least 20 bites in maybe 6-7 minutes. We were all really happy to cross the finish line.

There was a taco truck at the finish line, and as volunteers, we were able to get a free plate. They were so good! Unfortunately, the mosquitos had followed us. We put on even MORE bug spray, but this was not a lot of fun.

We stuck around to help tear down the finish line and aid station for about 30 minutes before we had to leave and go pick up my car. When I dropped off the car, we picked up Olive and went to 4 Noses. Dinner was leftovers from Taste of Philly. Lioness.

Sunday (24,827 steps) - Tried to sleep in and failed. Took Olive for a walk relatively early and let Ben know it was already feeling insanely hot so we should head out for our workout ASAP. I had 3,000' of vert to do, and since we had made plans to have lunch with Ariel in Golden, I suggested going to the Quarry road at North Table to do repeats. Of course I "forgot" that there is basically no shade. Even on the first repeat, there were only a few tiny patches of shade, and those were probably only a tenth of a mile from the top. We grinded out the first three fairly quickly.

There were NO clouds and it was HOT. Like really hot. Ben does not do as well in the heat as I do and I think on the 4th repeat he stayed at the top to lower his heart rate while I ran down and came back up. He ran down with me, but chose to stop after that one. So, I had two more to do, alone.

I had multiple people ask me how many repeats I was doing and they were telling me I was "awesome." More like stupid. We should not have started this so late in the day!!

The last one was a struggle and I stopped multiple times on the way up and thought very hard about not finishing, but of course I did. When I got back down I took off my back and went into the bathroom to rinse all the dead bugs of my arms and face. Thankfully, the bathroom has very cold water. It was refreshing!! We headed into Golden and got on the wait list for Woody's. By the time Ariel arrived our table was ready. Unfortunately, we had asked for "first available" - which was outside. SO HOT! The food was good, and it was great (like always) to see Ariel. After lunch we walked around on the bike path. She had to go home to get ready for work, so we also went home. We both showered and then grabbed Olive and went up to 4 Noses. We ended up sitting there for a bit and got food from the food truck (Georgia Brothers) to take home for dinner. Lioness. Also, the shortest and hottest weekend ever.

Monday (20,272 steps) - UGH. Normally a work from home day for me and a day I usually sleep until after 7. NOPE. I had to get up early to get my run in. I was definitely sore and tired from the repeats and this was a struggle.

I turned around on a similar path to the one I "lost" the previous week, thinking that there would be a feeder trail up to the higher path. Once again, I couldn't find it, so I had to trek up the hill again.

Super happy to have this one done. Ben had gone to Dutch Bros. and got me a coffee while I was out running, which was so appreciated! Took Olive for a walk and had to rush out the door for jury duty, day 6. Long day, again. Once again, I took a long walk around the building before settling on a bench and having my lunch while reading my book. We got out late, again. Ben was able to let Olive out, so at least I wasn't stressed about that. Goosie's newest outfit came in the mail! I love her hat.

We had to go to Costco, but as we normally do, we picked up a pizza on our way out for dinner. Lioness.

Stats:

• 131,318 steps
• 29.3 miles run
• 14.17 miles walked
• 25 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength