I told you I needed a running goal, so I just went ahead and bit off a bit more than I could chew and chose this little race as my next endeavor. C’mon I only count 3 hills.
You maybe be wondering why I chose a course that starts at 10,000 feet and climbs to 13,200 feet where this is little oxygen and no trees (and therefore no place to hide and poop). You may be asking yourself why I decided it was a good idea to climb 3,720 feet in one single run. You might be questioning, “Why the hell is this called a half marathon when it is 15.5 miles long?”.
Or, maybe you don’t give a shit and have not pondered any of these things.
Aside from wanting a really tough goal, I wanted to reminisce a bit from when I was in 8th grade. You see, in this race we run over Mosquito Pass (which is the teeny nipple you see at the top of this “hill”). And, when I was in 8th grade, and a member of the (IBTC) Itty Bitty Titty Committee, I was often chided for having mosquito bites for breasts. I see this run as a way of conquering that time of my life and “passing over it.” Get it?
Or, maybe I just needed a race to sign up for and this looked fun. Who needs a real reason anyway?
The good news is I have done no training for this race in terms of altitude or vertical running. I am hoping that lack of conditioning gives me some good stories for this blog after the fact.
On that note, this was a great weekend for running. Saturday I blew off my run because I had a bit too much fun on Friday night and needed some extra sleep (you can interpret that any way you want).
Yesterday the sun finally came out after 21,234 days. I did a lovely 11 mile run with myself. We talked about all kinds of things including why the dentist talks to you when his/her hands are in your mouth and how come I always press harder on the remote buttons when the batteries are dead/dying? It was very profound.
Some scenes:
There must be a drop of GU on my lip I needed to lick off.
Like I said on Instagram, post-run coffee is the best (well so is pre-run coffee so you can get the pipes cleared and stuff):
Today was the infamous Bolder Boulder 10K, which I like to run with 52,000 of my closest friends. The biggest feat of the day is getting my two teenage children out of bed at 5;30 a.m and to the finish line. I just keep telling myself (lying to myself?) that one day they will look back on this as the best damn years of their lives!!
Then there is beer (a craft brew this year, no less!) and 10 a.m. and all is good.
At the start it was cold so I dressed like a trash bag.
We ran into my daughter’s teacher. He was dressed like a naked muscly man. I must wear this costume one day (well, not this ACTUAL one, but get my own) in a race if only to show off my mosquito bites.
I have been running this race with my friend Kathy and my daughter, Emma, for the past 5 years. It’s a fine tradition.
Happy Memorial Day!
Were you ever a member of the IBTC?
Did you race this weekend? If not, what kind of run did you do?
Are you going to come to Leadville with me?
SUAR