Week in Review (November 7 - November 13)

Tuesday (9,392 steps) - Nothing... walked on the treadmill and watched an episode of Game of Thrones.
Wednesday (19,114 steps) - Runners Roost Boulder! Once again, we arrived with like a minute until the trail runners headed out. A decided that she was just going to do the road run at 6:15, so I went out by myself.

I managed to start about 30 seconds after everyone else and that was just enough for me to not be able to catch up. I figured I could re-create a route we did a month or so ago. The trails were crazy muddy and the glowing eyes freaked me out. Plus, I never saw a single person out there. I managed to not get lost.

Got back to the store in time for pizza, beer and dessert. Criminal Minds when we got home.
Thursday (9,386 steps) - Belmar run club!

Friday (13,192 steps) - Barre with Sasha.
Saturday (31,769 steps) - Runners Edge. We were running out of Broomfield, which was nice because we didn't have to get up super early. Ran 6 with the group and the last 8 solo for 14 total.

Home to shower and then met up with Heather and Eric at her house so we could carpool to Lone Tree for our indoor skydiving! We got to iFly a few minutes early, which gave us time to do our waivers. We watched other people take their turns, took our "class," got our super snazzy suits and then a group of us headed in. I will say that it was pretty fun, but that I would never pay full price for it.

Went to California Pizza Kitchen for A's birthday dinner with Heather, Eric, Beth and James. Service was terrible, company was great.

Sunday (14,898 steps) - A was running the Great Candy Run with her Girls on the Run team. I didn't want to pay $40 to run a 5K, so after I dropped her off with her school I ran 3ish by myself and then headed to the start to watch. It's always fun to spectate!

After everyone was done we stayed at the finish eating candy and socializing. We went with Ang and her girls to Chipotle (50% of all proceeds were being donated to GOTR for the day) and then home. Walking/Talking Dead.
Monday (16,684 steps) - Last New Terrain run club of the year (sad face). Since Dulce was with us we told the group to not wait for us at the intersections. I felt pretty good and would run sections, then wait for Dulce and A. We ran the 4.5 mile loop and it took a long time, but the weather was really nice. We socialized for a bit with the group before heading home.

Stats:

• 114,435 steps
• 31.4 miles run
• 1 barre class

Week in Review (May 3 - May 9)

Tuesday (17,646 steps) - A had student council early in the morning, so I did a quick run by the lake after dinner. Tuesdays are clearly the most boring day of the week, which is totally fine. I was still exhausted after the Avenue of the Giants weekend, so we went to bed really early.

Wednesday (18,529 steps) - Slept in because we went to run club after work/school. Maureen ended up coming, so we ran about 3 miles with her. They ordered in pizza for Heather's birthday, so we decided not to go and get dinner. Because, free pizza.

When we got home we had Batman Sour's birthday paw-ty. Two years old!

Thursday (21,108 steps) - Finally managed to drag myself out of bed. Did 4ish miles near the lake. Temps were good, and I'm loving the sunshine!

Friday (14,343 steps) - Rest day!! Was hoping to get out of work early. Never quite works out that way and it was pure chaos and stress going to pick up A at school and then driving back down to Denver to drop her off at Heather's for a sleepover before driving out to Grand Junction. My friend and teammate, Kate, had graciously offered to let me stay at her house (since I had forgotten to book a hotel), and I was super stressed about my impending late arrival. Quick stop at Garbanzo's on the way out, and didn't get to Kate's until 10:45!! Thank you, Kate, and sorry for the late arrival. You're awesome!! Was woken up a few times in the night due to crazy thunderstorms.

Saturday (28,635 steps) - Rabbit Valley half marathon. The drive back to Denver was fairly uneventful, with the exception of on and off rain. Bee Rad got a PR with number of miles on a tank (566.7!) of gas.

Stopped in Silverthorne hoping to get food, but there was only fast food. I did, however, stop at the Banana Republic outlet store and got a super cute dress and sweater for $26!! I finally had to stop in Idaho Springs to gas up, and made a quick stop at Tommyknocker's for a beer and a bowl of chili to tide me over until dinner. While I was running Rabbit Valley and driving back to Denver, A was running Girls on the Run with Heather.

Arrived at Heather's around 3:30, giving me plenty of time to shower and get pretty for our dinner at The Palm, celebrating Heather's birthday with her family and other friends. Had an amazing time! Tons and tons of food, and always fun to get dressed up.

Sunday (10,067 steps) - I was DETERMINED to sleep in. I have so few opportunities for it! I kept waking up, but I managed to stay in bed until 9 am. 9!!! Batman Sour assisted in waking me up by sitting by my head and purring. A sneaked downstairs, making me coffee, eggs and pancakes! She also did all the dishes, making this the perfect Mother's Day breakfast. We sat on the couch and watched HOURS of TV. Around 1 we went over to the library to renew A's library books. We went for a 2 mile run along Little Dry Creek - love our runs together!

More TV. We went to lunch/dinner (not sure what meal you eat at 4 pm) at Old Chicago's. We ordered #allthefood - an appetizer sampler of pizza rolls, Italian nachos and cheesy garlic bread, A got a turkey/bacon sandwich, and I got the fancy mac & cheese.

Spent the remainder of the day on the couch in a food coma. BEST MOTHER'S DAY EVER!
Monday (15,848 steps) - I had my alarm set early with plans of running the big loop around my neighborhood. Turns out, I'm still recovering from my awesome Mother's Day of doing nothing. I barely had time to get 1.5 miles in. But the weather was perfect and the sun was shining. Yay spring!

We left the house a few minutes early so I could stop and get my depo shot. Wasn't as quick as usual, so A was a few minutes late to school. After work I did a video(!!!) while making dinner. Time to get back on track with building up my puny strength!

Stats:

• 126,176 steps
• 23 miles run (taking a few low mileage weeks before building back up)
• 32 minutes of cross training
• No strength/stretching

Everything Else:

• Blah. So I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been eating (obviously) and slowly but surely, the weight has crept back on. It's easy to pretend that running 40-60 miles a week means you can eat whatever you want, but that is obviously not true. Not planning on tracking calories or anything, but cutting back on all those things I can't seem to stop eating. Womp. I'm pretty much back to the weight I was on three years ago when I did the #noteatingallthethings - apparently maintaining hasn't gone that well.
• Nothing much else going on, just planning an out of town Memorial Day weekend with A and locking in the remainder of plans for the summer. HOW ARE THERE ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT OF SCHOOL?

The Great Candy Run (Race Recap)

Sunday, November 8
Denver, CO
Weather - Sunny and warm

I decided to sign up to be a "Running Buddy" for Girls on the Run at the The Great Candy Run. I signed up to run with Heather's school. A and I left the house early enough to meet Heather at her house and ride over to Wash Park with her and Dan. Thankfully, since I didn't realize this was pretty much the biggest 5k ever.

Took us a bit to park, and then we walked over to where her girls were. Turns out they all had buddies to run with, so I would just be running with Heather and A.

Heather with A and her GOTR

Me, A and Heather

We headed to the bathrooms and then got into the corrals. A decided at the last minute that she didn't want to run with us because we are "too old and slow." I managed to get back into the last corral with Heather. We didn't end up crossing the start line for almost 20 minutes! Apparently there were about 6,000 people running, according to the race director.

Somewhere WAY up there is the starting line

I was actually a bit sore from running the trail half the day before (and the lower body video the day before THAT), so I was happy that Heather wanted to run "just for fun." Which is what we did. For ME, I actually pushed the pace a bit and actually ran fast (again, for me).

I couldn't believe how warm and sunny it was during the race, I actually got pretty hot, even though I was only wearing a skirt and tee. We had arranged with A and Dan to meet up at the bouncy castles at the finish, and we found each other without any issues.

My times are fairly unimpressive.

Garmin time - 32:07 (seriously, I haven't run this pace in a while)
Garmin distance - 3.15 miles
Garmin pace - 10:11 (practically sprinting)
Mile 1 - 10:44
Mile 2 - 10:00
Mile 3 - 9:55
Mile 3.15 - 9:29

What WAS really impressive was A's performance! She told me she knew she was running fast because she must have passed two thousand people. She could have!

Thoughts:

• Wow, this would have been the most fun race EVER for a first time 5k! There were almost as many spectators as there were runners! The course starts on the road and then runs parallel to Wash park, with a loop inside the park. It was estimated that there were over 3,000 spectators. What a boost for these girls!!
• For a race this size it was extremely well organized. We picked up our packets the day before, but I could see exactly where I would have picked them up race day.
• Plenty of bathrooms. Even with around 10,000 people out for the event we only waited maybe 10 minutes.
• There was one aid station on the course with water and it was well stocked with friendly volunteers.
• There was a nice long sleeve tech tee (A is wearing it in the start picture). 
• And according to Heather, this was the first year the race gave out medals. And we all know how much I love medals.
• This was a really fun race, I would probably run again if I had the chance to be a "real" running buddy!