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| For some reason Olive wanted to stand and watch me ride this morning |
No recollection of anything after that.
I had multiple meetings but got the clearance to head out right after the early afternoon one. Ben picked us up around 2:15 and we started the LONG drive to/past Moab! The forecast was crap, it was supposed to rain most of the weekend. I was working on my laptop using my hot spot and kept losing coverage, which was ANNOYING. Ben wanted a beer at Outer Range and I still couldn't use their WiFi since it wasn't secure. At least I was able to log out before we got back on the road. It started raining while we were there and it proceeded to rain for the next 6 or so hours.
We were getting hangry and had originally planned to stop in Grand Junction to get food but stopped at the brewery in Palisade instead. Even though they were busy, thankfully the food came out pretty quick. Delicious!
We got our coffee made and Olive realized that inside the food tent was dry.
It was pretty much a nightmare trying to get the canopies up with it pouring rain, but there were enough of us there that it didn't take too long. We set up chairs and the fire pit - mostly for us volunteers since we were already chilled. By 9:30 we still hadn't seen the first runner and it seemed like it was going to be a bit before he got there, so I took Olive for a walk - thankfully it had stopped raining by this point. It was too muddy to go on the dirt, so we just walked on the side of the road.
I still had to do my run, and I figured I should get it done before we got busy. I changed clothes and went to head out and Olive was NOT having me leaving her at the aid station, so I took her with me. Hoped for the best since I was supposed to get a mid-length run in and she isn't much of a runner. I still set my watch up for intervals.
She was about 50% interested in running on the way out. Finally gave up on trying to get all my miles in and turned around. On the way back she did much better, which is normal for her once she knows where she is going. Honestly this was probably her longest actual run - most of our mountain activities are more hiking anyway.
Wednesday (16,250 steps) - Olive walk before going to work in the office. Went for my run at lunch - speed work. Blah. It actually wasn't terrible and thankfully a bit warmer. Ben was home early enough that he joined for the afternoon Olive walk. We randomly had Chili's delivered for dinner. The loaded mac & cheese was fantastic!
I *think* we watched Murders, but can't remember this far out.
Thursday (16,172 steps) - Definitely was an annoying day. So many many months ago Ariel started to have issues where her horn would just honk when she was turning. Some days worse than others. We have spent months calling around and trying to figure out what it is, checked fuses, etc. We really wanted to get this taken care of before she went back to school. Well, a few weeks ago (like the day before I left for Divide) the honking got MUCH worse - like every single time she turned the wheel it would honk, so Ben & I actually disconnected the horn. We called the local shop that has worked on her car before to get something scheduled and all our research led back to a clock spring - which is an unusual part to replace. The guy asked "has this vehicle been in an accident" - and yes, it had. He suggested we push harder on the shop that did the repair work from when she was hit last April. LO AND BEHOLD, we had taken her car in last week and found that yes, that was the part that needed to be replaced AND they submitted everything to the insurance company and they were going to take care of it. ANYWAY, the shop is in Aurora, which is on the opposite side of the city where we are AND I had to meet Ariel there at EIGHT (on my remote day!!) so that she didn't have to sit there all day while it was getting worked on. We picked up coffee on our way back to the house. I went for an early run, which wasn't awful, and then we went to Chili's for their lunch special (ironic to eat Chili's two days in a row when I don't think I've been there in 3-4 years). We were JUST getting ready to get an update when we got the call her car was done. It was one jillion hours of driving back to Aurora and home. I never want to go there again. Met Ben at Torchy's for our usual Thursday night dinner. Took Olive for another walk. Watched... something. Finished up all our packing for the weekend!
Friday (15,722 steps) - Up much earlier than normal for a Friday! Took Olive for a walk and then Ben drove me and Olive to my office. Olive broke out her bee costume for the month!
We still had to stop in Grand Junction to get gas and to do some last minute shopping at Walmart. We had not been to Moab since we raced the 240 in 2020 (outside of driving through in 2022 to go to Antelope Canyon) so we were "excited" to be back. The aid station that we were going to be volunteering at was closer to Canyonlands, so we had to drive through Moab and then go another 45ish (maybe an hour) past town. We arrived around 11:30 pm, and thankfully Makinsie was there to show us where to set up and park. By the time we got everything unloaded and the bed made in the back of the truck it was nearly 1 am!! What a LONG day.
Saturday (22,751 steps) - We were awoken by the pouring rain just before 5 am. We didn't realize that it had started to rain again and we had the side windows cracked and poor Olive was getting rained on - and didn't even let us know! We closed everything up and then got up to head over to the "beginnings" of the aid station in hopes of finding hot water to make coffee. It was pouring rain and we still had the canopies that needed to be set up, the sleeping tents, and we had to move the drop bags PLUS start making all the food. Luckily, no one was upset about Olive being there - she was kind of a hit, to be honest.
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| The first set of volunteers - we had many people join on/off all weekend |
The first hours back to the aid station it was actually pleasant weather! Sun came out and dare I say, it was even slightly warm. The first runner, Kilian Korth, came through and only was there a few minutes. It would be at least 3.5 hours before anyone else came through. Thor, the medic that I had met in person for the first time at Monster showed up with her new puppy, Athena. Isn't she the (second) cutest??
The rain unfortunately came back, although it was on/off for a while and we kept getting amazing rainbows!
It was unfortunate that the runners didn't have an indoor sleep station, it was so cold and rainy! We had a lull in both the rain and the number of runners, so I decided to take a 2 hour nap with Olive around 11 pm. It took a bit to fall asleep and it was rough getting up just after 1, but I didn't want to be away for too long.
We saw a herd of deer, which was super fascinating to Olive. It was also funny because the deer clearly saw HER and they were doing the "sneaky" walk.
Since we both had to work on Monday, we were going to have to leave before the aid station closed, which was sad. We were having a good time getting to know runners. Around noon a runner and her pacer came in, and as I try to do, I chased down the pacer and asked if she had put in a food order and she looked like she was about ready to burst into tears. I gave her a quick hug and asked her what was going on. Well turns out she is vegan and has been hungry for 50+ miles because the aid stations didn't have the vegan food as promised. Went out of my way to get hot food for both her and the runner (who ended up being the DFL runner of the whole event, Christine #225!!). They were both really appreciate of the personal attention and help and it was a great way to end our volunteering sending them happy and fed back onto the course. We stopped at the start/finish so we could get some swag. I was delighted to see that there were stickers from other races, as I really do want to put a Tahoe sticker on my car! Talked to Candice and Brian for a bit and then we really did have to get out before it got too late. Olive was exhausted after the weekend!!
I definitely was the slowest one in the group, but since Jenny was sorta doing intervals I didn't get left behind. Which would have been "ok" since I know the area, but I'm glad it didn't happen. Headed home and we made dinner. Still had some unpacking to do, but we really just wanted to sit on the couch and recover (yes, still) from the weekend.
We had a TON of volunteers, but we didn't have a ton to do without there being that many runners out. I offered to take charge of the parking monitor on the road (only half the runners were allowed to have crew at this aid station, so we had to check for parking passes). Candice stopped to talk to me on the way to the aid station and got a cute picture of me and Olive "working."
It finally started to get busier once the sun set. Ben was mostly assisting with medical since Thor and the other medic, Dawn, both also had to get sleep. They swapped duties so people could rest.
Sunday (12,950 steps) - The overnight had been ROUGH on people. It was rainy and muddy and cold. All in all, the athletes were in high spirits. I spent most of my shift getting food/drinks to runners so they could stay seated by the fire pit. We had a hard time having enough chairs for people and trying to find blankets, but I think we did a pretty good job of keeping people as warm as possible. Once we had a break in the rain (again) I took Olive for a quick walk.
We stopped in Frisco to grab a slice of pizza from Whole Foods and have a beer at Outer Range (my first one in weeks!). By the time we got home it was 10!!! We unpacked only what was necessary. After not having slept anything other than about 90 minutes on Saturday night I basically blacked out when I went to bed.
Monday (15,668 steps) - Thankfully, a work from home day. I saw a Facebook post in the morning about a Trail Sisters unofficial run/walk of 4-5 miles. Well, that's basically what I had on schedule for the day so I decided I would just take Olive for a long walk at lunch and meet up with STRANGERS for a run at 5. It has been MANY years since I have joined a run group and it's probably been at least a decade since I joined a new group without Ariel (waaaaah). Spoiler, the women were all really nice and I'm super glad I went!
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| Jenny, Sarah, Kate, me and Sadie |
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| Me, Jenny and Koda |
Stats:
- 110,376 steps
- 18.21 miles run
- 12.4 miles walked
- 20 minutes of cardio
- 40 minutes of strength
