Week in Review (October 24 - October 30)

Tuesday (9,727 steps) - Barre with Laura at lunch! Ugh, I wish I had more time to get to the lunch classes, but it just takes up too much time. I won't be able to do this very often, which is what I had feared. With no evening gymnastics we decided to go out to dinner and then went grocery shopping. Did a bit of cleaning, in bed early.
Wednesday (16,477 steps) - Run club! A is really close to hitting her 100 club miles for the year. We opted to recreate the Colfax pancake run route since she didn't have a chance to run it. We added on a little distance (since the weather was PHENOMENAL) to end up with just over 4 miles.

Thursday (6,885 steps) - Belmar Halloween run club! Only it was super cold and snowy/wet, so we opted to just hang out in the store and NOT run. I'm pretty sure I ate my body weight in candy though.

On our way home we stopped at Berkeley Park to say hi to Phil, then I spent an hour on a conference call with the ERS crew.
Friday (6,771 steps) - Picked up A right after school so that we could drive to Gunnison. We only stopped once for a selfie/bathroom break at the Collegiate Peaks overlook. A spent the remainder of the drive taking sunset pictures while I drove over the pass.

We arrived at High Alpine at 7 for pizza and a beer. Our hotel was just down the street. We were disappointed to find the pool closed - that was the whole reason I had picked this hotel!!
Saturday (68,929 steps) - Sage Burner 50K - recap to follow.

I wasn't hungry right after finishing, so we made plans with Rich to meet up in Salida to get something to eat before finishing the drive home. A was in charge of finding something and she picked an awesome pizza/microbrewery that was fantastic. Got home just after 9:15. Longest day ever.
Sunday (7,926 steps) - Stayed in bed as long as humanly possible. A made me breakfast (pancakes) in bed, so I managed to not get up until 10:30. We watched a LOT of TV, and finally went out for a walk around 3 because the weather was amazing (and the forecast for Monday was NOT amazing).

Monday (10,068 steps) - New Terrain run club! This was a fun Halloween costume themed run that A really wanted to attend, even thought it was REALLY cold and muddy. Thankfully, the brewery was closing early for an employee party and the run was only 2 miles.

The only brave people out there, apparently

Stats:

• 126,778 steps
• 37.4 miles run
• 1 barre class

Week in Review (October 17 - October 23)

Tuesday (9,228 steps) - Barre with Sasha. A had her last Tuesday night gymnastics class. They discontinued her class because of low enrollment. She is taking a break for a while and said she doesn't "see gymnastics in her future." LOL, ok. We may re-visit in the spring.
Wednesday (16,812 steps) - We had a LOT of options for run club. We had planned on FRXC at Mt. Falcon, but my calf has been a little wonky and I decided I'd rather not run a technical trail in the dark, especially one I'm not very familiar with. Instead, we decided to go to Runner's Roost in Louisville for THEIR run club. In all the years I've been running with the Roost, I had never been to theirs! We ran with a teammate on their mid-distance route, 4.7 miles on the Coal Creek trail and in the neighborhoods. It was also their "third Wednesday," which meant people brought in their home brews and bombers for tastings. Yum!

Thursday (16,858 steps) - Barre with Sasha. Belmar run club! Ran the big loop (slowly) with Dulce and Matilda. Finally, I didn't win a raffle.

Friday (10,693 steps) - Barre with Kelly. After work I picked up Lisa and Lucky and we headed to a new-to-us brewery near her house. Little Machine was pretty cute, but the patio was teeny tiny.

After having a beer we went back to her house where we gabbed until LATE.
Saturday (21,503 steps) - Since I ended up not having an aid station for Runners Edge, I went to the Denver Roost for the Colfax pancake run. I had never been to one of them and it was PACKED - I'd guess around 200 people!

I ended up running with Chris, stuck around long enough for pancakes, then went to Berkeley Park for THEIR Saturday run. I'm about 2 minutes per mile slower than everyone else, so it was a bit tough - plus it was the WINDIEST EVER. Either way, I managed to get in another 10K for the day.

I later met up with Lisa at Yak & Yeti / Spice Trade. We had a buffet lunch and a beer, and chatted again for a few hours.

All of a sudden it was after 4. I spent the evening watching the original "Saw" movie and catching up on reruns of the Walking Dead.
Sunday (11,103 steps) - Opted to NOT set an alarm. Woke up around 8, went out for a run around 8:30. I haven't run in my own neck of the wood in AGES. I thought maybe I would do somewhere around 4-6, and ended up running 5. The most exciting part was finding another egg! This one was off the trail a bit, and it was after 9 when I picked it up. Beautiful fall day, took it pretty easy.

Met up with Jackie (for the first time since MAY) for an early lunch. Per the norm, we ended up talking until about 5:30!! Headed home to watch the season premiere of the Walking Dead.
Monday (7,413 steps) - Nothing. This was A's last night of gymnastics for the foreseeable future. With the cancellation of her Tuesday class there really isn't a good night for her to attend. We were able to squeeze this one in as a make up. We'll see, I know of another gym that probably has class options, but we are taking a break for now.

Stats:

• 93,610 steps
• 21.6 miles run
• 3 barre classes

Week in Review (October 10 - October 16)

Tuesday (8,102 steps) - Nothing. A had student council so I couldn't go to barre before work. Related, A is the President of student council this year!

Wednesday (22,449 steps) - With the addition of the Runners Roost in Boulder, we now have yet ANOTHER run club that we need to try to work in. Even though it snowed on Monday, it was warm (like 70 degrees) and we wanted to hit the trails. We decided to go to Roost because they were doing a zombie themed run. We barely arrived in time to do the trail run (they start earlier, 5:45). I had never run the trails in Boulder, and were we in for a challenge! Over 900' of climbing, with some sections being incredibly muddy. We even saw a herd of deer! I had to use my headlamp for the last three miles - I miss running when it's light out.

We made it back in time for some pizza from Under the Sun and beer from Avery. Sadly, we did not win any of the big prizes (Roost gift cards) in the raffle. We stayed and talked to Kristen (who unfortunately was late and missed the trail run) for a few before heading home. Fun, dirty night. Those Boulder trails are no joke!!

Thursday (14,083 steps) - Belmar run club!

And you're never going to believe it, but I won the grand prize AGAIN. Yes, I won the indoor skydiving that Brooks raffled off. AGAIN. I could hardly believe it. I gave my winning ticket to Heather and Eric so they can join us - should be a ton of fun when we finally end up going.

Friday (9,722 steps) - Barre with Kelly. After work we went up to Heather's for some Halloween fun.

After that we went over to Lisa's. A finally watched her first horror movie - Freddy v. Jason (and she wasn't totally traumatized).
Saturday (19,972 steps) - Runners Edge! We had the start/finish aid station, so we had HOURS to run/sit. We decided on 6 easy miles.

It was actually nice that we started when we did. We sat in Einstein's until it was time to pick up our aid station and it got really cold and foggy. We picked up around 10 and then headed to the RnR expo. (Boo, hiss).

Amy, A and me

I ended up taking a nap for a few hours before we went to Amy's informal wedding reception. We only stayed about an hour because I was so exhausted.
Sunday (31,050 steps) - RnR Denver half marathon. Forced ourselves to go grocery shopping on the way home so that we wouldn't have to attempt to do it later. By the time we got home we were exhausted. Laundry and I think in bed early.
Monday (8,967 steps) - Skipped going to New Terrain so that we could go to Denver Roost for Ladies Night! The whole week is a big celebration of their 40th anniversary! There was food and shopping deals and a costume contest (which, apparently no one except A and I knew was happening). I actually won a raffle prize (pretty cool actually - a muscle sound body composition scan??) and I won the costume contest - a gift card to the store!

Almost everyone in this picture is a store employee

Dulce, Matilda, A and me

Raffle winners (and employees)

Stats:

• 114,345 steps
• 29.4 miles run
• 1 barre class

Rock n' Roll Denver half marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, October 15
Denver, CO
Half Marathon #175
Weather - chilly!!

Expo

Once again, the expo was held at the National Western Complex. And once again, they charged $5 to park (even though Hot Chocolate offered free parking at the same venue this year). I had almost gone Friday after work, but they expo closed early and the best way to get there has been under construction (and CLOSED) since the spring, so A and I went on Saturday morning. As I remembered, SUPER CROWDED. Nothing of particular interest at the expo, but we saw dozens of people we knew, so we ended up being there for close to an hour.

Race Day

A had decided to volunteer at the Roost aid station. She wasn't going to be close enough to the start line for me to walk her over, so I talked with a few people and the plan ended up being dropping her off at Union Station to walk over with Ang. I was assured that there would be no roads closing early. Since I had the VIP package, I was, however, concerned about closures since I had to be in my lot by 6 am. I left A at Union Station at 5:37 and headed out to 20th to get on I-25, since we were instructed that 25 to Colfax was the only route that would be open until 6.

First, Wazee was literally being closed while I was waiting at the light at 20th. At 5:40. I got onto 25 and took the Colfax exit. Right as I was approaching Speer, I could see that lanes were being closed from 3-4 to ONE. Technically not CLOSED, but slow for sure. Then, right as I'm only a few blocks away from my lot, Colfax completely closed at Court Pl, more than ten minutes early. Had to navigate down Broadway to circumvent closures and rolled into the lot at 5:57 am. Phew. I ended up being parked just a few cars away from Ty, so we ended up walking together the VIP tent where I was supposed to be meeting up with Heather.

The warmers didn't do much for me, since I'm a midget, but I appreciated having coffee, my own set of port-o-potties and bag check. Around 5:30 Heather shows up, but she isn't allowed in the VIP, so we just talk over the fence. Apparently Mo also had VIP and she joined us shortly after. Right around 7 (when the race started), I checked our sweatshirts and we headed over to the start. Dave managed to see me from his corral and we got a selfie together (only time I saw him all day).

I was supposed to be in corral 9, but we probably started earlier around 6. About a minute before we crossed the line I realized I had been so busy enjoying my VIP experience that I had forgotten to eat my Honey Stinger waffle, so I shoved it in my mouth right before we ran. Thankfully, I have a stomach of steel and it didn't bother me at all to eat 30 seconds before running.

Last year I had completely lost it around mile 6, so the goal was to keep it together the whole race. The first three miles went really well (and FAST for me). The course seemed just a little different, like it does every year.

Roost volunteers before the chaos!

We came up on the Roost aid station around mile 4 and I gave A a hug (and Carol and Nikki) and Lisa - who got this cute picture of us:

Maybe I'm biased, but it really is the best aid station! It was soooo cold, but my hands were finally warm enough that I took my gloves off. Any time we ran towards the west the wind blew in our faces and it was freezing.

Somewhere around mile 5 was when I finally had to take a walk break. Not for the "normal" reasons, but because my right ankle (the one that has been bothering me since Dirty 30) was aching a bit. Oh, and I was tired from running soooo fast.

We were running down Lincoln and saw Jeff and then we turned up 17th (the only "hill" on the course). This is always my favorite section because we are usually there in time to see all but the first few people running in to the finish. We saw Eric shortly before we turned onto York to head into City Park.

The park section seemed to go on FOREVER this year - probably because we didn't exit at the same part that we have in the past. We ran back onto 17th, this time running all the way to Colorado Blvd. The best part about THAT course change was that we no longer had to do the weird loop by East High School. I've always hated that part.

Unlike last year, I didn't need a break during the last mile and a half, although I really really really wanted one. We turned onto Sherman and did our little run past the capital (where we saw Andy and Melissa) before we finally had saw the chute. The course of course measured super long for me and I wasn't even super disappointed that I missed my goal of sub 2:20 by a minute.

Official time - 2:21:01
Official pace - 10:46
Garmin distance - 13.61 miles
Garmin time - 2:21:08
Garmin pace - 10:22
Mile 1 - 9:46
Mile 2 - 9:06
Mile 3 - 10:04
Mile 4 - 9:53
Mile 5 - 10:33
Mile 6 - 11:03
Mile 7 - 9:49
Mile 8 - 10:42
Mile 9 - 10:57
Mile 10 - 10:51
Mile 11 - 10:32
Mile 12 - 11:01
Mile 13 - 10:36
Mile 13.61 - 10:20

Weirdly, I was finally "hot" right after crossing the finish line (where we saw Ang and A). We socialized with groups of people on our way back to the VIP tent where there was tons of food waiting for us (and mimosas and "beer"). I would have been fine eating an going, but Mo and A talked me into staying "until they kick us out," which I finally put an end to around 11:45.

Thoughts:

• Every year I say I'm not going to run because it's expensive. And I always end up running it anyway. The race really is a well-oiled machine. It's easy to get to the start/finish (especially since I work downtown I am familiar with the area, and the aid stations are top notch. With all that said, it has been my fastest race each year, for the last three years.
• Expo sucks. I hate hate hate the venue.
• Shirt is usually fine. This year it is black, and I have a lot of black shirts so I probably won't wear it. The medal is good. Although, they did a "challenge" this year with the 5K on Saturday and the medal for that was REALLY cool.
• Will I run again? No! (Just kidding, I'm sure I will).