Wednesday (14,965 steps) - Up before my alarm. Took a shower and then Ben and I took Olive for a longer walk. Finished packing and then I drove Olive down to Tami's house. Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad - just a LOT of lights. The Lyft showed up shortly after I got home. We were a little nervous for security - ONLY because we were going to try taking our poles through TSA for the first time (it is only recently that the verbiage has changed and that poles are now allowed - per TSA discretion - so not guaranteed). Both of our bags DID get flagged but the agent was nice and spent a minute talking to us about best practices for getting through with minimal hassle on our end (since these are not sharp-tipped poles). ANYWAY. There was basically zero line and we were through in a few minutes. We found a place for Ben to get a pre-flight beer and I got a coffee. The only "bad" thing about this trip is that we were going to have a connection both ways. If it was just me traveling I probably would have paid more for the direct flight, but with two plane tickets it was a substantial savings.
First flight to Salt Lake City was about an hour and very turbulent. We actually did a "touch and go" and had to circle the airport to try landing again. Coupled with the fact that we were in the very back of the plane, we had to speed walk across the whole terminal and arrived at our next gate as boarding was already starting. The agent said that they were taking volunteers to gate check, and since this was the last leg of our journey, we opted to do that so we didn't have to carry them on. Also, this was probably one of the smallest commercial flights I have ever been on - teeny tiny plane! The flight to Butte was even shorter, maybe 45 minutes in the air. Also a very bouncy ride and we were happy to be on the ground.
I can't believe that neither of us actually got a picture of the airport. When we deplaned I looked over at Ben and said "I think this is it? Isn't that security over there?" It was about 30 steps to baggage claim so I walked over to the Hertz desk to get the rental car. That was also the quickest experience of my life. Gave my name and he handed over the keys and the contract "there are only ten parking spaces out there, you will see it." Got our bags and sure enough, found the car with no problems. We did have trouble again connecting to the Carplay - not sure why in 2026 we can't seem to figure out the true wireless Bluetooth, but I digress.
I had booked us a really cute Airbnb in uptown and it was only about ten minutes from the airport. We checked in and then it was time to walk around and find something to eat. If you haven't been to Butte, it is a very cute town, and VERY hilly.
Thursday (16,214 steps) - Woke up early. Again. I guess this is just my life now? I can't seem to sleep late at all, rarely even make it to 7:00 anymore. We walked up the street to a really cute coffee shop - and the coffee was AMAZING. If you are in Butte you should check it out - Orofino!
Well, welcome to our forecast for the weekend! At least it was mostly a light drizzle and not a complete downpour.
We had most of the morning to get pre-race things done. Showered first and then got my drop bags and pack items all figured out. We still needed to get a few groceries, so we drove to Walmart. Probably got way too much stuff, but we needed breakfast items, coffee, water and a handful of other things. Went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch (and apparently the restaurant had only been open a few weeks and the employees were very obviously still in training).
Last minute adjustments to our stuff before we loaded our bags in the car to head to the shake out run. The email had said it was at the start/finish - but it didn't give an address. I looked at the directions on ultrasignup and the coordinates took us up the hill - but we didn't see anyone and realized that we probably needed to go to where packet pick up was. Sure enough, everyone was at the Maroon Activity Center.
The run was going to be an out and back on the last section of the course - we got a tiny bit of a late start because we got distracted talking to Thor and Jason. The route seemed uphill, but that only meant the finish would be downhill! Did the back half of the run with Andrea - and ran much faster than I should have - got carried away!
We dropped off our bags and then we still had some time to kill so we went back into town and visited Slainte for Ben to get a beer. We decided we maybe didn't want to walk over to the mandatory meeting since we were planning on going to Butte Brewing/Pizza for dinner that was right by the meeting.
So the pre-race meeting was held outside and it was probably the only warm part of the whole weekend. We were in full sun. It was only supposed to last an hour and it was closer to 90 minutes. While I did appreciate learning some of the history of the race, we really just wanted to get dinner and get ready for bed since we had such an early start.
Friday (133,888 steps) - Copper Kings 100
Saturday (94,282 steps) - Copper Kings 100. We stuck around for the last finisher, who unfortunately crossed after the official cutoff time. It was pretty cold and windy so I wanted to get out of there and finally get something to eat and drink! Went to the bnb and had hoped to get food from Dairy Queen, but they were closed. I took a shower and Ben ended up ordering in food - I think I had a burger and fries. I think it was one of those situations where I was really hungry but then by the time the food came I wasn't as hungry as I thought. We initially had plans to sit up and unwind by watching tv but we fell asleep almost immediately.
Sunday (11,024 steps) - Up early and we didn't have a ton of time to get everything organized and packed up since the check-out time was EARLY - 10 am!! Had to sort through all the stuff, and with the accumulation of yet another hoodie, I seemingly was having a tough time fitting everything in my bag. Took a shower and got everything ready to go and out the door at 9:59. It had rained all night and was still raining when we drove up the street to the M&M for brunch. They were packed! We saw multiple other people wearing the race hoodie, so it was fun to talk about the race with others. Food was AMAZING.
This flight was short, also somewhat turbulent, but not awful. I realized I still had like 3,000 steps to hit my step goal so I was basically sprinting around the airport to get my steps in. We were not able to schedule our Lyft in advance and the app kept telling us it was only 6 minutes until our driver arrived. It wasn't the best drive home, but at least we didn't have to drive ourselves. After midnight when we got home and all the animals were insane. Basically let Olive out and then to bed.
We asked the waitress what "must do" things were open in Butte on a Sunday. She suggested we go to the Berkeley Pit viewing center. It ended up being just down the street from where the race was. It literally was just a gift shop with a tunnel leading to an overlook above the pit. Ben facetimed Ariel since this type of thing is right up her alley.
We didn't spend too long here - mainly because we were cold. We did talk to the guy in the gift shop for a bit though - lots of interesting things to learn about mining and the colonization of Butte! We still had many, many hours to kill until our flight, so we went to a few of the shops in town so I could get my magnet.
With it being Sunday, unfortunately a lot of places were closed. Finally we headed to the airport around 5, even though our flight didn't leave until 6:45 - just because we didn't have anything else to do and it was too cold to just walk around. Flight left on time, a little bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. We knew our connecting flight was a bit delayed, so we went to a restaurant across from the gate and got some dinner.
Monday (11,528 steps) - Day started around 4:30 with a power outage. There was another one around 6:30, so hooray for work from home day! Combined with being woken up a bunch and not sleeping great after racing, it was nice to not have to leave the house. Took Olive for a walk before clocking in for the day. I was all caught up on emails by 9:00. Another power outage when I was trying to do laundry. UGH. Took a shower and walked Olive at lunch.
Went out for a delivery after work. Ariel was over for dinner, Ben ordered in Little Caesars. Ariel and I took Olive for a walk and then we just sat around until going to bed a little earlier than normal.
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| Robin spent most of the day in the office with me |
Stats:
- 295,186 steps
- 2.82, 100.49 miles run
- 12.22 miles walked
- 10 minutes of cardio
- 20 minutes of strength
- 0 minutes of sauna
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