Week in Review (May 19 - May 25)

Tuesday (12,940 steps) - Peloton ride and Olive walk before going to work. I had a staff meeting at lunch which took longer than I would have liked, but at least we got catered lunch. Headed to the gym for stairs, strength training and a treadmill hike. 

Solid workout! Walked Olive again when I got home. Ben picked up pizza for dinner. When I was feeding the cats I noticed Robin looked a little off and when I looked closer at her jaw she had a major injury of some kind so we ended up taking her to the emergency vet. Turns out she had an abscess (not sure what caused it) that had to be lanced and drained - which was messy and smelled awful. 

She spent the night in the cone but seemingly still has an appetite, which is good. Good Wife.

Wednesday (19,251 steps) - Olive early walk and a bonus work from home day since I initially wasn't sure if I would need to take Robin back to the vet. Picked up my free birthday drink from Ziggi's.

Attempted to take Olive for a longer walk at lunch but it started to rain on us and I am just over being wet so we headed back home. Robin is still in the cone but seems to be doing ok.

After I got off work I headed up to Louisville to get my workout in. Dressed for winter and for the first half hour or so it was pretty perfect. I had a very long warm up and then some faster downhill sprints. Ended up with over a 10k for distance which was more than I expected. 

Stopped at the store to say hi but didn't recognize anyone so didn't stay long. Ben made dinner, Good Wife. More cleaning of Robin's jaw and giving her meds that she didn't want.

Thursday (17,350 steps) - Work from home. Went for my run early since I had a busy day planned. Run actually was really good and the trails by the lake (at least on the north side) were pretty dry. Strength training and a shower before I took Olive for a walk to the lake. 

Took Robin back to the vet where they prescribed additional anti-inflammatories, a pain reliever injection and did blood work. Found out her kidneys are not doing wonderful, so she also was prescribed some special food and kidney medication. The vet said she didn't need to keep the cone on, but she still is trying to scratch at her jawline, so we are going to leave it on overnight for a few more days to hopefully aid in healing. Met Ben at Torchy's for dinner and then took Olive for a walk. Good Wife.

Friday (11,306 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Another walk late morning. We actually had an early release of noon, which is unheard of! I kept my app on in case any good offers came through (none did) and read while I waited for Ben to get off. He also got off work early, but not until 3. We met up at 4 Noses for an early happy hour. Olive walk, Panda for dinner and Good Wife.

Saturday (30,763 steps) - Took Olive for a walk and then drove down to Highlands Ranch for a run with Jandy and Christina in the backcountry! It was relatively warm, there were a lot of bikes and I seemed to be working pretty hard for lots of walk breaks. BUT, it was wonderful to run with friends, which is not something I get to do too much these days.

MATCHY MATCHY

There was a horrific accident that had I-70 closed on the way home and I got stuck in a pretty annoying detour that had tons of traffic. I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a few things and of course ended up spending about ten times what I planned - the Target Effect!! Took Olive for a long walk to the lake. Robin hasn't been eating much her second vet visit, so after trying a few things that she had zero interest in, I took her back to the emergency vet. She had lost nearly another half-pound in the last week, and as a tiny cat that was worrisome. The vet suggested we stop the additional kidney medicines, give her a fluid injection, an anti-nausea injection and then just let her eat whatever she wants for now.  Thankfully that seemed to kickstart her appetite and she ate a decent amount when we got back home. Ben ordered in pizza for dinner. We watched the new Jack Ryan Ghost War movie and part of a Good Wife episode.

Sunday (21,000 steps) - Ben opted to stay home for the run today, so I went to Rock Creek for what was supposed to be a very easy run. Most of it was, I didn't get close to Z3 until I was nearly back to the car. 

Ben went to Costco while I was running and after we got everything unpacked we went for a walk with Olive to the lake.

Ariel came back to hang out for a few hours and we took Olive for a short walk before the next round of storms came though. Cheese for dinner and Good Wife.

Monday (17,136 steps) - Took Olive for a quick walk in the morning while we were figuring out our morning. Went up to Broomfield to visit with Ben's friend for a bit before going back home to prep for yet another run with friends! We went to Boulder to meet up with Kristin and Jeramiah for a 45ish minute run at Marshall Mesa. A great run, but probably not as "easy" as my coach would like.

Went to Illegal Pete's after for lunch and it was a zoo since the Bolder Boulder was earlier and there were still a ton of people in town. Picked up Olive and went to Rails End for a late afternoon happy hour before going home for the day - too many nuts out on Memorial Day! Robin thankfully is eating more so hopefully no more ER visits for her this week. Good Wife.

Stats:

• 129,746 steps
• 30.12 miles run
• 17.71 miles walked
• 40 minutes of cardio
• 50 minutes of strength
• 0 minutes of sauna

Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Highlands Ranch, CO

Saturday, November 2

Half Marathon #196

Weather - Sunny, nice

For the last few years, I hit October and I dream about running shorter races again. I happened to post on Facebook asking what races everyone had coming up. I still want to hit 200 (official) lifetime half marathons - a task that's been moving at a snails pace over the last few years since I only have been running one or two a year. I remembered that I'd run Backcountry again, and signed up to run again (right before a price increase) and convinced Jandy, Christina, and eventually Ben, to also sign up.

Race Day

This was my 7th time running the race. I told Ben we needed to leave by 7:15 because I wanted to be parked by 8 since we still had to get our bibs and I'd need to use the bathroom, etc. We headed out on time, but had to turn back shortly after leaving because I forgot my sunglasses. No one wants to listen to me complain because I forgot those!

We still arrived shortly after 8 am and parked almost exactly where I had parked last year. We immediately headed over to get our bibs and saw Jandy along the way. We were in line for our bibs when Christina joined us. Had to head back to the car to drop off our swag and get our packs. Ben was taking forever so I left him at the truck so I could get in the bathroom line - which ended up taking a decent amount of time.

We got some pictures at the start and finally found Ben. I told him that he should go into an earlier wave since he is definitely faster than we are. None of us had a wave number on the back of our bibs, so we ended up jumping into the 4th wave. I had hoped to have "at least as good" a race as last year - when I race right after Katy. Probably 6 or 7 minutes into the race, however, I could tell it was going to be a long day.

I had to take my first walk break relatively early. The pace wasn't even that fast, but I was breathing insanely hard and my heart rate felt really fast. Christina and Jandy got ahead of me pretty early. I definitely had plans to just hang on. We ran within a close proximity for a few miles. Sean was photographing again and got a ton of pictures of us somewhere between maybe 2 and 3 miles in.

Christina fell back at some point around the first aid station (which I can't remember what mile that was). Jandy and I stayed together for probably at leas 6-7 miles. At some point I had to stop and take off my long sleeve layer because I was soooo hot. I ended up losing Jandy on the big climb (that I thankfully remembered from last year). 

This race kicks my ass every time! I stopped at the aid station when I got to the road and hoped to run it in, but I was just so tired. I did a lot of run/walk (no set intervals). Knowing the last mile was all downhill helped. 

I ran the whole last mile for my fastest pace of the race. I saw Ben near the finish line and he was poised with his phone to take pictures. I remember shouting "I don't especially want my grimace coming into this last hill."

Definitely was disappointed with the time on this one. Out of all the years that I have run, this was actually my slowest. I have had a few big races recently, so trying to cut myself some slack. 

Official Time - 2:52:32

Overall Place - 387/453

Division Place - 39/53

Garmin Time - 2:52:42

Garmin Pace - 13:09

Elevation Gain - 1,333'

Mile 1 - 12:43

Mile 2 - 13:09

Mile 3 - 13:48

Mile 4 - 12:07

Mile 5 - 12:00

Mile 6 - 13:13

Mile 7 - 14:24

Mile 8 - 14:57

Mile 9 - 14:48

Mile 10 - 13:36

Mile 11 - 13:06

Mile 12 - 12:54

Mile 13 - 10:35

Mile 13.13 pace - 10:20

We found where to get our finisher mugs and I filled mine up with water. For some reason, I thought chocolate milk might taste good, but it was weird to drink. Saw Jandy coming in and ran to get pictures of her crossing, and Christina was just a few minutes behind her.

We stayed at the finish line for a bit talking. Somehow we all forgot to get the pancakes though. 

Thoughts:

• I have run this event a lot, and I will likely run it again next year. It's well organized, relatively inexpensive, and good swag.

Week in Review (June 11 - June 17)

Tuesday (13,780 steps) - Work in the office. Took Olive for a walk after work. Nothing else? Went to 4 Noses.

Wednesday (15,137 steps) - Work in the office. Did some strength work at lunch. Hurried home to meet Ben so we could go to "run" club. Met up with Larry and Terri and walked with Olive. We had just gotten to Murphy's for a beer and snack when we finally heard from Chuck (AC guy) that he was at the house and was able to fix our unit. Thankfully he had the part in his truck and we didn't need to be there.

Thursday (13,578 steps) - Work from home. Drove to the north side of the lake so that we could see the goats and take Olive for a walk. 

It's been a while since we headed towards the dog park, but there is now a paved path on the south end by 100th. That's interesting. We ended up working from 4 Noses in the afternoon because even with the AC working it was still insanely hot and miserable. 

Friday (19,713 steps) - Wash Park and Stella's! Ben and Olive joined since it was Ben's last day of freedom and he was bringing Pete back the canopies and tables we borrowed for Ariel's graduation party. Work in the office and then had a pretty good evening of driving.  

Saturday (31,175 steps) - Up early to go to Highlands Ranch to meet Christina and Jandy for a run at 6:30. I only had 90 minutes on schedule, but we ended up running 10 miles. Oops. The run was actually fine, except I wore a skirt I haven't worn in a bit and I got some chafing on my inner thighs. Sad.

We went to #hashtag for mimosas (I only had one) and breakfast (which was delicious, Ben and I shared an entree and it was plenty for both of us). Headed home to take Olive out. Sweltering. 

Went to Torchy's for dinner.

Sunday (20,233 steps) - Slept in as much as we ever do. Came up with a plan to go to lake near Guanella Pass to avoid another day of horrible heat. Went with Ariel to get Dutch Bros. before she went to work and then we headed home to pack for a day in the mountains. We had planned on a route to Shelf Lake, which looked to be 3.5 miles (each way), with the promise of hitting 12,000' and a lake. Neither of us had been there before, and it turns out the last few miles getting to the trail head were a bit sporty (dirt road). There didn't seem to be any actual trail head, but we had Gaia open and found our way up. We didn't see very many people all day, so it was funny that the second people we saw were Ryan and Kelly. The first mile was a sporty climb and felt really hot.

The weather was gorgeous, and the views were so pretty!

We were promised snow fields as we got closer to the lake. We didn't realize how many water crossings there would be even lower. About 3/4 of a mile up was the first crossing. There was a "bridge" of logs that Olive didn't seem to want to cross. At this point we were still trying to keep our feet dry, so Ben was going to carry her over, but she was flailing, so he tossed her to the shore. That made her panic and then she turned around and went back into the water and we ended up having to leash her and walk through the water (which wasn't even that big a deal).

Did I mention there were REALLY pretty views?

The lower snow fields were nothing compared to what we found when we got up higher. We were thankfully not post holing, but it wasn't the easiest to walk across.

Finally, we were almost there!!

We saw a couple with a dog that told us the lake was right over the ridge. There was NO ONE ELSE THERE, which was quite lovely.

Olive and I investigated a bit, but she seemed wary about getting in the water. Crazy to still see so much ice and snow in mid June.

We didn't stick around too long, and thankfully it took a lot less time to go down the mountain than up.

My knee was bothering me a bit on the way down, hope it's nothing I have to worry about. By the time we got back to the truck, Olive was mostly dry, but still muddy. We gave her some food and water and then loaded up to go into town to get some food. We finally saw some sheep on the drive down the pass.

We are not super fans of Cabin Creek, but we wanted a beer and we hadn't eaten anything all day (other than a waffle and an applesauce). Their food is good, the beer is marginal and the service is pretty terrible.

We made a second stop at Parry's on the way home for some better, less expensive beer. Goodbye, weekend.

Monday (21,511 steps) - Ben's first day at his new job. I got up early so I could run before work since a). it was supposed to be hot and b). because I had lunch plans. Work from home and Ariel and I got coffee before she went to work. Took Olive for a walk. Went to Torchy's for lunch so I could be there when Ariel did her dorm room selection. Did laundry and finished up the work day before going out to drive, but didn't stay out too long because it was slow and hot. Ben picked up pizza for dinner and we took Olive for a walk. 4 Noses for a beer and then home to watch TV. Power went out about 15 minutes before we would normally go to bed. Unfortunately, it didn't come back on until after midnight, so I spent a lot of time flopping around because I was hot. Ugh.

Stats:

• 135,127 steps
• 22.65 miles run
• 24.77 miles walked
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 15 minutes of strength

Backcountry Wilderness Trail 1/2 Marathon (Race Recap)

Highlands Ranch, CO

Saturday, November 4

Half Marathon #193

Weather - Perfect!

I had signed up for this race a few months ago, back when running a half marathon a week after a 225 mile race sounded like a good idea. (Haha). Ben was able to pick up my packet a few days early at Living the Dream since it's literally right behind his office. It was nice that he did that because reading my previous race reports, this probably saved a TON of time. 

Following my coach's instructions, I hadn't run all week. I had grabbed brand new shoes and figured what's the worst that can happen?

Race Day

I had actually slept decent and got up on time and headed out the door right at 7:30, hoping to arrive and be parked by 8:15. I didn't even bother trying to get in the closer lot, and parked at the end of an aisle so I would be able to find my car easier. As I was walking towards the start I texted Jandy to let her know that I had arrived. I found her without any issues, and walked back to her car so she could drop off her swag bag. From there, we headed BACK to the start area and got in a bathroom line. By the time all that was done, there was only about 10 minutes to the start. We had found Janet as well, and for some reason I was the only one that had a corral listed on the back of my bib, so we all decided to start in my corral, 7.

I think it's great they do the corrals to break up the runners since there are seemingly a thousand people participating. In reality, when I checked results later, there were something around 670 finishers.

The race started at 9, but our wave was maybe 8-9 minutes after. Jandy and I had planned to run together, and I think I stuck with her for... 2/3 of a mile. That was fine with me, I definitely didn't want her slowing down for me. Pretty sure I made it at least a mile before I had to walk for the first time.

Photo: Sean McNeil

There was a long hill towards a road crossing where they had a port-o-potty (but not an aid station? I can't remember now). I settled in for what I expected to be a VERY long day. I didn't have to walk a "ton" in this section, but I definitely took some breaks as when we got to the single track there was somewhat of a conga line. 

Janet was running right behind me and we chatted a bit, but mostly I was concentrating on trying to take it easy and running as much as I could. I do remember telling Janet that the course was way more windy (like twisty) than I remembered and it was actually making me feel like I was getting motion sickness.

I know there were a two water stations, but I can't remember the mileage now. It was supposed to be a cup-free race, but they had little paper cups at them. Even though I had my pack I still took extra water.

Things were going seemingly really well until I hit about mile 7.5 That's when all the uphill I didn't remember started. I walked a lot more than I thought I would need to. But I also ran very short sections and did pass people. Especially somewhere right before maybe mile 9? There was some mud (because it was in the shade and it had snowed a week earlier) and people were being weirdly cautious about running through it.

Finally we got to the top, another aid station. This section is not single track, more of a dirt road and I ran a decent amount here. Crossed the road and then we had the long sweeping (gradual uphill) that most races in this area use. 

I passed a lot of people here too, just by running short sections. Finally, maybe around mile 11.5 there was a decently steep hill, but I knew once that was done it was basically all downhill from there. My big toes were burning (I'm sure some residual weirdo stuff from Katy) but I did not allow myself to walk and had my fastest mile of the day (just over 10 minutes, haha). 

There was a sneaky incline to get to the finish, and I was soooo glad to be done (and only a few minutes slower than Jandy). Lisa was volunteering and I got my medal from her, but had to immediately sit down because I felt sick. Jandy and I grabbed our free beers and then headed back to the finish line to watch everyone else come in. 

Photo: Sean McNeil

Official Time - 2:45:56

Official Pace - 12:31

Overall Place - 514/675

Gender Place - 64/103

Garmin Time - 2:44:01

Garmin Distance - 13.14 miles

Elevation Gain - 1,419'

Mile 1- 12:15

Mile 2 - 12:45

Mile 3 - 13:05

Mile 4 - 11:27

Mile 5 - 11:26

Mile 6 - 12:14

Mile 7 - 12:38

Mile 8 - 14:29

Mile 9 - 14:29

Mile 10 - 12:56

Mile 11 - 12:40

Mile 12 - 12:05

Mile 13 - 10:13

Mile 13.14 - 9:43

Thoughts:

• This was my 6th timing running (although I hadn't run since 2017) and I really DO like this race. It's not crazy expensive - I paid $60 a few months out. Swag includes a nice medal, long sleeve shirt, plus we got a soft flask with race logo on it. Finish line has Flappin' Flapjacks (which I LOVE but I wasn't feel up to eating this time) and beer from Living the Dream. 
• This is a challenging trail race with over 1400' of gain, but it's difficulty is the "big" hills being at the end after you have burned out your legs running some of the flats and downs - it is nice with a downhill finish though.
• Race is early November, and the weather is actually usually pretty good. Only the first year I ran (2012) was it snowy and really cold.
• Of note - I wore my new Javelina sun shirt, and I really like fabric - it's different than my other shirts and it kept me nice and cool while protecting my tattoo!
• I was glad to have my pack on me since the aid stations are not especially frequent OR close together.
• Would I recommend and/or run again? Yes and yes.