Week in Review (September 15 - September 21)

Tuesday (17,084 steps) - Work in the office. I had an incredibly frustrating day trying to deal with AT&T trying to move A from the prepaid plan she has been on for years to my regular plan. It had all started the day before when I was in my account and saw a promo for $1 a month for an iPhone XS when you added a line to your account. Long story short, after TWO DAYS, I could not get an order to go through and apparently I finally hit the threshold for frustration I'm willing to deal with. I stopped at T-Mobile on my way to run club and switched us over. I didn't leave with phones because A would have to bring hers in to trade, and mine had to be ordered.

Green Mountain Brewery run club!! I met up with Maureen and Lisa to run some easy miles. Well, the miles *should* have been easy, but it felt relatively hard with the aches and pains I've had lately.

I stuck around long enough to have a beer. There were a lot of people from the Belmar run club there, so it was nice to see people that I haven't seen in a long time!

Wednesday (20,450 steps) - Work from home. Smoky walk with Pika at lunch. Some running around in the afternoon getting A's phone transferred over and set up. It's been a long time since I have had to do that, and wow, it is soooo complicated now. But at least one of us is gone, and one to go! Back to Boulder with Tyler for an "easy" loop. Crazy to see the leaves changing already.

Ben surprised me with my favorite, sunflowers, for our two year anniversary. He's so sweet!

Thursday (17,143 steps) - Work in the office. Literally don't think anything else happened, other than we had happy hour with Tyler and he gave us an early wedding present - a GoPro!!

Friday (16,926  steps) - Work from home. Ariel actually invited me to go with her for her one mile shake out run. I haven't run with her in MANY months, and I'm just glad that her shake out pace is something I can do, haha. My new phone finally showed up, and I was able to get to T-Mobile to get everything transferred over. Unfortunately, getting the stupid thing set up was very annoying and time consuming, so I wasn't able to use it initially.

iOS 14 update takes FOREVER and I couldn't skip it. Grrr.

I had to leave work early so that we could make the drive to Wiggins for another cross country meet for Ariel. Where is Wiggins, you ask? Well, about an hour away in the middle of nowhere. She had to be there by 5:30, on a Friday, and of course we had rush hour we had to battle to get her there. The air quality was horrid, but she had a good race, finally!

By the time we got home it was LATE, but Ben still made burgers - because of National Cheeseburger Day, of course!

Saturday (33,640 steps) - Snow Mountain Ranch half marathon.

After the race, Maureen and I met up with Greg at Cabin Creek for lunch and a beer. Even though the weather had been pretty mild in Granby, it was quite chilly sitting on the patio in Georgetown.

When we got back into town, we all met up with Ben (and Pika) at Over Yonder for a beer.

Another Pika walk and watching Netflix.

Sunday (18,785 steps) - Ariel and I were up pretty early to go to Brighton to meet up with friends for a virtual "Beat the Blerch" race. We had no intention of racing, but we thought it would be fun to join people for some miles, since the weather was nice and it was a small loop course (about 1.3 miles). First, we walked a loop with Ang:

We had some snacks, and I ended up running three loops with the group, which was a lot of fun, especially since they were doing a run/walk - and I loooove walking. 

Headed home around noon. By the way, it's Robin Sparkles' birthday! We adopted her five years ago and were told she was 5, so we assume this was her 10th birthday.

Took Pika for a sunset walk.

Monday (14,117 steps) - Work from home. Walks at lunch and after dinner, and apparently nothing else.

Stats:

• 138,145 steps
• 26.4 miles run
• No cross training, again.

Snow Mountain Ranch Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Granby, CO

Saturday, September 19

Weather - Perfect!

I'll start by saying that I LOVE THIS RACE. This was my 5th time running this event and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. Even though Endurance Race Series has added 50K distance, I think I'll just stick with the half marathon. I love the course even more now that it is a non-repetitive big loop (outside of a very small section).

Initially I had hoped to volunteer at a race earlier in the season to earn a comp entry, but with COVID putting so many restrictions on the number of people at events, I actually couldn't even volunteer because they had too many people. But, since I like the race, I signed up anyway.

Race Day

Alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 4:35 am. I had all my gear laid out so all I had to do was get dressed, braid my hair, take Pika for a short walk, grab my stuff and coffee and head out. I managed to get out the door by 5:15 and headed to Golden to meet up with Maureen. She really wanted to run but doesn't see well at night, so I offered to drive her car (so she could bring Colfax). It was REALLY weird driving such a big vehicle (ok, she drives a Honda CRV, but that's huge compared to my Mini).

There was zero traffic on the way up and we arrived at the start at 7:10. As an aside, they have added a TON of parking since I was last there two years ago. Previously it used to be a small dirt lot, and now it's a rather large paved lot. We ran in to get our bibs, and I left Maureen so I had time to use the bathroom before my 7:30 start. 

My standard pre-race picture for this race

COVID rules had no more than 25 people starting per wave, with waves 10 minutes apart. I really wanted to be in the first wave since obviously I would be taking much longer than Maureen.

I think I made it 5 minutes into the race before everything started to hurt. I've been nursing calf tightness (again) and some hamstring issues. Not to mention I absolutely don't want to do anything stupid before Moab, so I decided to just enjoy the day and take my time. (And spoiler, take my time I did, this was about 10 minutes slower than I've ever raced here...) But how can you have a bad day/race when these are your views??

The big climbing starts pretty early, and I started getting passed by people in the second wave before I even hit mile two. Oh wellllll....

The first aid station was around mile 3, then we had a nice downhill section where I made up some time before climbing back and looping around to hit the aid station one more time before heading out towards the biggest climb.

In my head, I thought that the biggest climbing section wasn't until mile 7 or 8. So imagine my surprise when it showed up at mile 5.5... It was also my favorite section of the course, so I didn't mind taking it slow and took a BUNCH of pictures.

I had hoped that my lower half would start feeling better once I got to the downhill section, but it really didn't. I was on the heels of a gal for most of the mile-ish descent and never felt great. I guess I also never really felt HORRIBLE, I just didn't have any "oomph."

Hit the next aid station around mile 8.5 (?) and still didn't take anything, but it was spaced well for people who did. 

The last few miles were pretty much a sufferfest. I really wanted to be done, but my legs were just not cooperative with the running. I did see Maureen, Greg and Dave when they were heading into their finish, so that was fun. The biggest successes were running up the (cruel) last hill to the finish and finishing under 3 hours. 

After crossing the line I got my individually wrapped medal, and then we spent a few minutes socializing in the parking lot. Definitely different than previous years!

Maureen, Colfax and Greg

Official Time - 2:52:21 (About 11 minutes slower than my next slowest time...)

Garmin Time - 2:52:53

Garmin Distance - 13.13 miles

Garmin Pace - 13:10

Elevation Gain - 1,568'

Mile 1 - 12:33

Mile 2 - 13:34

Mile 3 - 14:32

Mile 4 - 12:45

Mile 5 - 12:58

Mile 6 - 14:32

Mile 7 - 17:10

Mile 8 - 10:10

Mile 9 - 12:30

Mile 10 - 11:12

Mile 11 - 14:16

Mile 12 - 12:59

Mile 13 - 12:20

Mile 13.13 - 10:48

Thoughts:

• As I've said, I love this race. It's so pretty, and not a ton of people run it, so it's not crowded.
• The early miles are less technical and wider, so there are not issues with crowding or trying to pass.
• Fall colors EVERY TIME, it's soooo pretty!
• The race starts at just under 9000', so it's decent elevation to start, and at over 1500' of climbing, it's no slouch of a race.
• I think there were race shirts, but I didn't see them. Years ago they switched to adding them to a base registration for a fee, but I'm not sure they did that this race.
• The medal is HUGE. And HEAVY. Plus, the center spins, so that's neat.
• I'll run this again. It's been a tradition every year (except last year because it was right after Tahoe).

Also, fun fact, this was apparently my first half marathon since JULY 2019 and the 188th half marathon I've run. Remember when I used to run a million half marathons all year long?? Craziness. 

Week in Review (September 8 - September 14)

Tuesday (15,561 steps) - Work in the office. Also, the first snow of the year. Yes, I know, that seems crazy since it's been over 100 degrees in the VERY recent past. However, it was about 30 degrees when I got up to go into the office. Luckily the snow hadn't yet started, so it wasn't a total nightmare getting to work. I was not prepared mentally for a 60 degree temperature drop, so I didn't leave the office all day. After work I took Pika for a walk. 

Then I found out Ben had been hit by a car while he was working!! He will be ok, but pretty shaken up and worried about whether Moab 240 will even be able to happen now. UGH!!!!

Wednesday (19,415 steps) - Work from home. Snow continued in the morning and it was pretty cold again all day.

Took Pika for walks at lunch and after work. Nothing else!

Thursday (19,794 steps) - Work in the office. It finally warmed up a little bit, and I actually went for a run during lunch!! I haven't done that since 2018 winter when I was doing that 5K a day challenge between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a pretty pleasant and fast (for me) run.

Walked Pika after work.

Friday (15,874 steps) - Work from home. Dog walks and some new beer. The end.

Saturday (32,065 steps) - Up early-ish to meet Tyler for a run around Superior and Boulder. The run started off exciting when I had to call the police about a crazy guy that was pacing up and down the trail threatening to stab people. Yikes! Jeramiah met us at the trail head but only ran with us for a few miles. He had started at 5 am and was almost done with his loop, so he was moving a bit slower. I'm not used to seeing so many people on the trails, but the weather was great and the skies were finally clear.

Took Pika for a walk and then met Josephine at Wonderland Brewing. I'm glad we are finally at the COVID stage where we can meet up with people again!

Ariel was running a XC meet, but since it was pre-state they were not allowing any spectators so that they could have all the runners and coaches there (a numbers thing, I guess).

Ariel had asked to be picked up late, and unfortunately I had taken a nap and missed the call that she got back hours earlier than anticipated. I made it up to her by taking her to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. We stayed up late and watched a cheesy movie on Lifetime.

Sunday (14,624 steps) - Had thought about running, but since Ben is still not able to do anything I figured I would stay at home. We went to the store and finally picked up all the beverages we will need for the wedding, did a bunch of cleaning, had Bloody Marys and watched TV. Outside of dog walks, I don't think we actually did anything.

I actually saw a snake for the first time in ages!!

Monday (22,062 steps) - Work from home, more cleaning and dog walk during lunch. Even though Ben can't run we went to New Terrain for run club at North Table. I figured he could walk Pika while I did a small loop. It's been a while since I ran this trail with a group, and I'm by FAR still super slow and sucky on the climbs. I was able to make up some time on the descents, so that was nice. As an aside, my calves were SUPER angry again.

It's not going to be long before we enter headlamp season again... boo. Stuck around to chat and have one beer. It was REALLY good to see people again. It's been so long since we all ran together.

Stats:

• 139,395 steps
• 23.2 miles run
• No cross training :(