Freeze Your Cookies Off #1 (Race Recap)

Sunday, January 29
Denver, CO
Half marathon #158
Weather - Warm, sunny

Months ago, a few of us brainstormed and came up with the "Freeze Your Cookies Off" race series. A grassroots half marathon series to 1). get some longer miles in during winter months and 2). to help A offload more Girl Scout cookies (by including two boxes with each registration).

We had the assistance of race director Bill Morton (who organizes Runs With Scissors that I ran in 2014), Daniel (who did the timing) and Ang and Maureen for volunteers. Months of planning and emailing and messaging and finally, the day was here for the first race in the series!

We were "blessed" to have some warmer weather, and it is CRAZY to be running in short sleeves and a tee in January and still feel warm. Anyway, we had planned on the races all starting at noon, because we were expecting colder temperatures, and wanted to give people the chance to go to church first.

We arrived at the start area at 10:30, which was plenty of time to set up a canopy and table and and wait for people to arrive. Bill had secured a private parking lot at the church which would prevent us from having to run across the parking lot to get to the trail, PLUS, we were given permission to use the bathrooms inside.

The first runner arrived around 11 and we started the process of checking in and handing out cookies. While I have assisted with registration and check in before, definitely a new respect for it when there are only two of you, even though the race was super small (I think we had about 20 runners). We sent the volunteers (Mo and Ang) to the aid station at the turnaround and it was decided that I would run with Colfax for the first half of the race.

Just before the race started we took a group picture, which was fun, and right at noon we headed out to the trail. The Highline Canal is a 70ish mile long dirt multi-use trail that I have run a handful of times in the past. Heather, Colfax and I headed out for what I hoped would be a nice, long run.

The trail was unfortunately a lot more icy than I expected. Even with it being almost 60 degrees, there were areas that were shaded enough that it was crazy icy - and with it being warmer, the areas where the sun was hitting was melting that ice and making it muddy.

We stopped about a half hour in to give Colfax some water. I could tell it was going to be a long day. The first runner, Brandon (the local Hoka rep) was the first runner we saw coming back, when we were about 4.5 miles out. When we got closer to maybe 6 miles, we saw a group of runners who told us the volunteers were not at the turn around. WHAT. OH SHIT. I immediately call them and they say that they ARE set up at the Highline and Orchard. And yet every single person coming back said no one was there. Luckily I had an extra water bottle on me and I was able to fill some people's bottles and had some snacks on me... I called Ang back and she said, no, we are set up on Highline and Orchard. WHAT.

Turns out (which I didn't know, and SHOULD have known), that there are THREE places where Orchard and the Highline Canal cross. Damn it!!!!! Luckily, I was able to ping our location to Maureen and Ang and they packed up and met up with us at the correct spot so I could hand off Colfax. There were still a handful of runners out that were able to get the aid they needed, but I was HORRIFIED that this had happened. Maureen and Ang were also super upset and once we confirmed the last runner was headed their way they packed up and did an impromptu aid station a few miles from the finish.

Due to the aid station fiasco, we had a mile that took us almost a half hour and our 3ish hour finish time was very unimpressive. Most of the runners were still hanging around at the finish and thankfully, they were all very understanding about the situation. I was apologizing right and left, but everyone assured me that they were fine. Ugh. At least for the next one, we know for sure the right place to go, and we have secured a traffic cone for a turnaround so no one runs long.

Definitely a learning experience!

Garmin time - 3:02:56
Official time - 3:02:52
Garmin distance - 13.34 miles (we knew it would be long, simply because of where the aid station would have to be placed)
Mile 1 - 11:55
Mile 2 - 12:54
Mile 3 - 12:25
Mile 4 - 11:42
Mile 5 - 12:46
Mile 6 - 12:21
Mile 7 - 27:44 (aid station nonsense)
Mile 8 - 12:31
Mile 9 - 12:27
Mile 10 - 12:19
Mile 11 - 12:48
Mile 12 - 13:41
Mile 13 - 13:05
Mile 13.34 - 12:35

This is what the "medal" looked like

Thoughts:

• I've been super unmotivated ever since I got back from Arizona. I had not run longer than 7-8 miles all month, and it showed. I had barely been running ANYTHING. So distance-wise, this was tough. I'm also used to running in early morning or at sunset, and it's been on average about 40 degrees cooler. So the temps were warmer than I'm used to.
• I am still bummed about the aid station not being where it should have been. I can't really blame it on anyone, we should have gone out and marked it or something - chalk it up to being SUPER inexperienced.
• Our entry fee was $18. That included snacks/drinks at the start (and aid station for those that were able to get to it), 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies per person and a handmade medal. All proceeds from this first event are being donated to Girls on the Run.

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!