To start though, I figured I’d post a link to a review I did on runcolo.com for the new watch I’ve been using. I’ll go ahead and ruin it by saying I LOVE the Garmin fenix and highly recommend it. Link is here.

Watch for a few more posts in the next few days!

Town Lake path

We stayed to the downtown side this year instead of having a hotel near the start of the race. It seemed last year that it was a pain getting back to the start area and this allowed us a chance to be in the middle of all the fun stuff we love about this city. Started out Saturday with some exploring with Sam and Jared at an amazing coffee cart and hit up Lance’s store, Mellow Johnny’s. We had some awesome food, hit the expo, went to dinner at Melissa and Brad, met Paula there and even got to see CC’s fam a bit more.

Courtney and Chelsea enjoying a warm day

Typical!

The bike shop!

Race morning, we were to the start an hour early and spent most of that time trying to stay warm. The race starts at 6:45 so you spend a good 30 minutes after the gun in the dark. It was also a very cold day for Texas but planning for mile 3, I went with my normal shorts, singlet, throw away gloves and even arm warmers. We hit the start line with about 10 minutes to go and CC and I went to our “waves” based on pace group signs. Crowded start line but I ran into Lauren, a former CO triathlete that just moved to Dallas with her husband. Always fun seeing people you know at these races, even out of state! 

The gun goes off and I immediately tuck into the line of guys in front since we are starting on a slight incline into a headwind. I had no idea what I was going to be able to run (my training since CIM has been 3-5 miles max except for one 10 miler, but quality was good) so I just concentrated on keeping it easy for the first half. I was glad to see the occasional clock on the mile markers so I could figure out if I was going to blow up or not! Mile one was a 5:33. Not bad, felt good.

Kept rolling with a few guys blowing by me at this point. I just wanted to stay even so I ignored them and figured if they are having that good of a day, no point in me messing up my pace. We wound through some business parks, hitting some hard crosswinds, and eventually made our way into the neighborhoods. This was much more scenic and I was glad to still be feeling good and even saw Rick (Court’s dad), Josh and Brittany around mile 4.5. About mile 5 or 6, I notice a bike hanging out right around me and realize the women’s leader is running about 3 strides behind. Great. Now I have to race! ha. It was Kelly WIlliamson, who won last year in 1:14:30ish. Really, it was a huge help to have her there since I knew what she ran a year ago. At least I knew my estimated finish time was reasonable since she was pushing for a similar time!

At 6.5 I see Jared and Sam and give a quick wave. I had been passed by Kelly and one other guy in this half mile so I’m sitting in 17th place. Surprisingly relaxed, I kept them in my sights. The first guy moved past the few in front of me and then pulled off to tie his shoe. He started again right as I was going by and he took off like crazy again! I never understood this approach. You have almost 6 miles to make up the 15 seconds you lost, don’t do it all at once!

Mile 6.5

 I cross the line with a 1:15:35 in 13th place. I hang out just past the line to see how the race unfolds. The 3 I passed stayed in their respective places and Kelly won for the 2nd year in a row. Less than a minute later, second place female came in and then shortly after, Lauren. She had a huge PR. Cool seeing your former teammates do well also! I felt awesome after finishing, that extra lung feeling is crazy awesome thanks to the altitude. It is hard work during the weeks but those few times at sea level are nice! I grab my gear to warm up a bit and hang with Sam + Jared to see Courtney finish. She ran 1:41:29 last year and I knew she’d beat that pretty well! I see her hitting that last hill (her arm warmers gave her away) and can tell she’s giving it everything she had. I kneel down at the last turn and yell but don’t know if she hears me. She crossed with 3.5 minute PR, 1:37:59. Amazing, especially with the rough training we’ve had the last few months.

Us!

Such good food at Abel’s

We eventually get grouped up and are waiting for Chelsea to finish and since we’re so close to the hotel, it’s an easy 2 block walk. I go back to the start with the family to get the car and we hit lunch at Able’s on the Lake. This place is awesome. We actually ate here Saturday too. A relaxing day and a night flight back home lead to a very long drive to get home but it was well worth it. I think we got home at 1 am Monday. Work was rough!

Overall, this race went about as well as I could have hoped. I split 35:51 for first 10k for 5:46 pace and with the hills in the second half, I finished the race at an overall pace of 5:46. About as even as I have ever been! Placed 13th overall and 7th in my age group. This was my 4th fastest half and my fastest since June of 2010. It’s time to get back into the training again and see if I can finally get a PR this year. I’d highly recommend this race next year but don’t expect an easy course, those hills will sneak up on you!

The crew!

We rode in style this trip. Loved the S60

It sucked.

Photo by Bret Stevens

Moving on.

Not really, the weekend was awesome and we met a ton of cool people we “knew” in the twitter/blog world. Also got to catch up with my friend Alex who now lives in San Francisco. I can introduce some of you SF blogger girls to him if you’re interested in the tall, runner, smart kinda guys! haha. Was great catching up with him and we had a great post race afternoon drinking beer and eating delicious food. I also got to show Courtney SF on Monday since our flight was later that day. She’d never been so I wanted to show her a few of my favorite areas. We stopped in Tiburon and saw a few sea lions playing there, then drove over the Golden Gate bridge and had a good time watching a few dolphins from up on the ramparts at Golden Gate Park. After a quick lunch down by pier 39, we made our way back to Sacramento to head home. We loved hanging out in the city though and will be back soon, you can count on that! Have our eyes on a few half marathons that Alex was telling us about. Healdsburg anyone??

Love this shot!

Other than that, life in Steamboat has been amazing. We are absolutely loving our somewhat extremely quick decision to drop everything and move up here. We’re not quite in town but since both of us work in town everyday, we’re kind of loving living out where it’s super quiet. We’re actually on an old ski mountain from the 70s and we have had a day of climbing up some of the slopes in the snow and look forward to more skiing/snowshoeing up there. We’re in the collecting gear process. We have our normal alpine skis but are in the process of getting some touring gear so we can skin up the mountains and enjoy a ride down. Our townhouse here is bigger than what we had in Denver and it even has a hot tub. My favorite activity so far is going outside at night just to look at the stars. You wouldn’t believe how many you can see. The Milky Way is unreal and the meteor shower the other day was amazing as well. Am I convincing any of you to visit us yet? That was my shameless plug. We have the room so let us know when to expect visitors!

Anyway, we’re both loving our jobs and everything up here has been amazing. We got almost 5 feet of snow in a five day period last week and another 10 or so inches last night. Pretty awesome. I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the last few months in Steamboat! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

After the race! @RunnersroostCO

I lined up a few rows back from the start line. It was a little tight since they had us all funnel under their arch at the start but soon enough we had the whole road to spread out on. I started near Ed, Pete, Chris, Sarah Pizzo, Paco and a few others. We talked a bit and joked around the first mile. According to Chris’s watch, we ran around a 5:30 and everything felt pretty good and easy. The next mile turned into a head wind and I made a surge to sit on the shoulder of the guy in front of me. Efficiency! Chris came back by me and I tried to stick on his shoulder. Ran pretty close to him through mile 3 and then Pete came by me with about a mile to go and I tried to roll with that move as well. Wasn’t interested in making too big of an effort but rather holding on to a steady pace. Seemed to work well! Finished with a 22:21 for 12th place overall and a 5:35 pace. Was a blast seeing all the Runners Roost crew out there!

The rest of the weekend was a blast. We were staying at my parent’s and had a few Thanksgiving dinners to go to. Also got out for a little black Friday shopping since there aren’t huge stores up here. Also got to see a few other friends as well. The weekend went fast but it was actually a very relaxing few days. It was nice knowing the only thing we had on the schedule was running and eating!

Just a short post for today but I’ll have a little preview of CIM Friday or Saturday. Marathon is Sunday in Sacramento! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Just a preview of what running in Steamboat has been like!

Our proposed route. Home > Sarvice Creek > Hwy 19 > Silver Creek > Home

Ryan and Whitney arrived at our place late Friday night and we started our official planning session on our run and figuring out exactly where everything was on the map. I have been scoping out the two trails for a month and was anxious to actually run them. The goal was to run from home, to Sarvis Creek Trail (12 miles) to County Highway 19, south to Silver Creek Trail (11 miles) and then back home for a total of 38-40 miles. Whitney was going to meet at the Silver Creek trailhead and have a refill of water and food for us and then join in for the last 18 miles. CC was doing her own run, go to cisforcourtney.com for that!

Herzog is organized when it comes to fuel

With the cooler temps and later sunrise, we opted for a 8:30 start but we all slept in until 8:30 and Ryan an I finally left around 10. We figured we’d be done with a few hours of light left so we weren’t worried. On the 7 mile run to Sarvice Creek, we ran by Stagecoach Reservoir and down a dirt road a ways and saw some huge moose prints in the mud. Moose is one of the few animals I haven’t seen in CO yet so I was hoping for that but didn’t this time. I can tell you a moose would wear a size 10 though if they ever needed a good pair of running shoes.

Moose!

4 miles in and loving it so far!

We start up the trail and aside from a little mud early on, everything was in great shape despite the snow we had the days prior. It was amazing running in 3 to 5 inches of snow and we were able to follow some tracks people had made on their horses without problem. We saw 3 people on the trail all day so the seclusion was pretty fun. The trail was a gradual climb along the river for about 3 or 4 miles and after that we were in some high mountain meadows following the elk tracks. This is where things get fun! We’re at mile 14 or so now.

Had to do some core work

The creek we ran by for 10ish miles. Gorgeous!

Enjoying the snow!

Charging thru the snow. Bright colors to avoid the hunters!

We see the “trail” heading across the small stream and up a hill so we follow it. The path along the river was headed to a narrow section so it seemed right to leave the river (we had seen this “break” from the trail on the map and were expecting something similar). After about a quarter mile though, the trail just stopped. We were going up a huge incline in the snow and both decided the trail must follow a small tributary down below so we stayed high on the ridge to see if it went anywhere. Well, it went somewhere, just not sure where that was. We had gone about 15.5 miles by this point and we figured the road we were trying to get to was just over the next ridge. We’re runners, we can just run over this small mountain and if the road isn’t there, at least we’ll see the trail or the road in the distance.

Following the elk. Too bad they don’t know how to follow a trail.

Got to do some rock climbing. Pretty crazy stuff! Ice made it hard

Only problem was that the top of the hill was completely covered in thick pine trees and the only thing we could see was another peak a half mile in front of us. What is the right decision? We decided to continue on and head toward the lowest side of the next peak and not try to follow the stream. This ended up being a great decision because it dead-ends in a pool with a cliff on three sides. Down some steep slopes, watching Herzog slip, me follow in the same footsteps and falling too. We did this for 5 straight miles. We’d pick the low point and head that way through fresh snow, sometimes following elk tracks, and we’d keep hoping to see the road.

Nothing.

more elk tracks!

“I can’t find my bacon cheeseburger!”

We finally got a beep on Herzog’s cell. A signal! Whitney was trying to find the road she was meeting us at. No luck on her end either! Where are we going to have to go before the run was done?? We were able to send a text that we were lost . . . I mean that the trail wasn’t where it was supposed to be. We knew where we were, that we were heading east according to the sun’s position in the sky. We’re both very practical and levelheaded in the wilderness so we just kept plugging along until Ryan ran out of water and we had to find a stream to refill. We had a Steripen but unfortunately it wasn’t working. Luckily, when we lost the trail, I went into conservation mode and had enough water for the two of us. I was able to get a call out to Courtney as well.

No clue where we are supposed to be. Just called Court with our “last resort” plan

Whitney was on her way back to our house to get C so they could take our Jeep down the snowy roads to try and find us. It was time for us to lay a plan out. We told them if they couldn’t find us by 9 pm, “Find people with snowmobiles and send them in. We’re heading to highway 19.” We later found out that 19 goes by another name, Hwy 100. Yeah, confusing.

It was also lucky I had packed enough food for 40 miles of running! We continued on our straight up and straight down journey through the snow. Every peak HAD to be the last one. We were losing hope quickly. How could our run go so off course? We finally got another signal and could see that we were a mile from the supposed Highway 19 (from my phone map) so we kept pushing. We had a few 52+ minute miles in there so this was taking a very long time to get to this point; approximately 4 hours later than we were supposed to meet Whitney!

We weren’t short on views. Just no idea where the road is in there! We took this picture to see if we could find this peak later for reference!

It was such a relief to see some trail signs again as we hit the other trail head and knew we were close. Only problem was, we were on Highway 19 and Whitney and Courtney were only able to find Highway 100. Luckily they found a snowplow parked on the side of the road and they were able to ask the driver if they knew where the Sarvice Creek trail head was and he was able to confirm that 100 and 19 were the same. We were running up this road, approximately 13 miles to Rabbit Ears Pass, not knowing if the girls would find us before we reached that highway. At this point we were at 21 miles already and had to keep moving. Every time we’d stop, we’d freeze. Temps were dropping, light was fading. We ran as much as we could and were both surprised at how tired that 27 felt. I was moving like I would after a hard paced 50 miler.

Usain Bolt aint got nothin on us! Found a road!

After we got word that the girls were able to find the road, we started celebrating. We downed every last bit of food we had. After rationing our remaining food for the last 13 miles and 5 hours, we were starving. I’ve never eaten so many sports beans, Honey Stinger gummies and gels in my life. We were starting to talk about the food we would have later that night. Hamburgers with bacon and french fries, milkshakes with liquor, beer, buffalo wings, desserts. It was going to be amazing.

The girls finally found us and we were extremely relieved. It was scary to see how easy you can get lost in the mountains with just a bit of snow covering the trails. Luckily, we could have run the rest of the night if we had to but if you were up there and unable to go another 15 miles and run through the night, you would have been done. The only reason we got out of there was that we were able to agree on a plan of action and keep our feet moving. Being runners saved us for sure! Be careful out there!

The rest of the night:
After we got back to the house and cleaned up, we headed into Steamboat for dinner at Carl’s.Those appetizers, burgers, beers and desserts were hard earned but so perfect! Since it was Halloween, we saw some of the most complex costumes ever from the window. Horses being ridden around town, full costumes at every booth and bar stool and more. The four of us were heading to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs though. What a perfect ending to the day. This hot springs is amazing and well worth the $10 to get in. Great way to celebrate Ryan’s birthday even though we didn’t quite get that 38ish miles!

If you remember the Death March post from last year, this was with Herzog as well. We had to warn the girls that when they let us run together, something is going to happen. Of course we told them that AFTER the run. Good think Kircher wasn’t there though, he would have made us finish the run I’m sure. Ha!

RACE1

Way back in June, we registered for the RnR Denver 1/2. I had run this race before it was a Rock n Roll race and then the marathon the first year after it was bought out. It’s a great race that makes it’s way around Downtown Denver and then up to City Park and Cheeseman Park and then back to Civic for the finish. Awesome and fast even though most of the course is uphill.

We were on the road by 5:30 to beat the road closures. Parking is easy in that area since it’s right next to my office. Makes it easy when I know where to find the free parking! Thanks to Bryan, we had 2 VIP passes for the race which got us into our own area. This was amazing. There were tents with all you can eat food and drinks, tons of table to relax at and our own bag drop and port o potties. This was key as we saw when we walked by the rest of the restroom lines that had hundreds of people in line. We made our way to the start line with about 15 minutes to go. Both of us were in the 1st corral so that was a perk. Time to race!

Saw a ton of people I knew at the start (surprised, right?) and got myself about 3 rows back. Talked with Eric G., Wendy and Paige a bit and got ready to go. At the gun, I just tried to stay relaxed. No 5:15 first miles for me this time. Since I have been on the trails so much this summer, I had no idea where I was with my fitness or speed. My goal was to just run whatever felt easy. Running without a watch makes this easy but this race had a clock every mile so I could kinda keep track anyway. Ran through mile 1 in 5:55. Sounds good to me! Was hoping to be near 1:17-1:18 so this was a good sign to start.

pic by Andy D.

The first few miles I kept bouncing around from group to group and talking and having a good time. The effort felt great and easy. Wasn’t breathing hard and was having a blast! Mile 2 had the first water station and it was ALL Runners Roost people. Such a fun sight making the turn and having about 30 people yelling at you. Great to see everyone out there and thanks for the support! Then next few miles were pretty uneventful. My miles kept right near 6 minute pace and my effort never felt hard. I worked  my way up on people and enjoyed the crowd support. Mitch definitely got the award for loudest cheer!

I ran some more and went through City Park. Not much happened. ha! Pretty straight forward. Came out of the park and could see a few people in front that I wanted to catch and since it was a long out and back on 17th, it would be a good time to do it. It ended up being a teammate, Cyrus and a fast female, Christie F. and we had a nice little pack for a few miles around mile 8.5 to 10. Going into Cheeseman is the “big” climb on the course and I knew I had the strength from the trails to get me up it quickly and I left the group and charged it. From 10 on, the tracking had me at a 5:39 pace. I wanted to finish strong and glad it worked. Cheeseman park and then a long shot down 13th back to Civic for the finish.  Made up some ground on a few people in front and just tried to keep it all together. No blowing up today!

Pic by Andy D.

Finished 28th overall, 23rd male, 7th age group with a 1:17:43. Was very happy with how the day went! Court had a great day too and I could tell before she told me. I could see her through the crowd after the finish and she just has the biggest smile on her face. She wasn’t even racing and ended up with a huge ‘altitude’ PR – 1:44:48 and only a few minutes off her sea level PR. Not bad for coming back from injury. She’s gotten really strong!

We hung out with the team for a bit in the VIP area and had a great time. Nice being able to relax and catch up with teammates we don’t see all the time!

RACE2

The second race was the Bear Chase Race on 9/30 at Bear Creek Lake by my parents house. Thanks to David, the RD for the free entries to the Roost Mountain/Ultra team! Great event that should be on your list for next year. Super organized and a great atmosphere around the start/finish!

We got to the start early and hung around a bit and watched the 50 mile and 50k starts since we knew a ton of people running (surprised again?). The weather was perfect. It was going to be a good day! Started at the front for the 1/2 with John and Sarah P. I love hitting the first hundred or two hundred meters hard and I did that today. Just like opening it up and letting the legs get ready for a beating. Josh, the eventual winner, quickly came around me and kept my hard effort going. I knew I wouldn’t be keeping up with that pace, my legs were heavy from the effort a week before. I settled into a reasonable pace and just enjoyed the early morning on the winding trails through the trees.

The pace wasn’t as easy to hold as it was a week ago but I tried to keep my effort even the whole time with small surges where they were advantageous. I started to catch 50k and 50 mile runners after a mile or two and would say on the left as I’d pass or just run through the tall grass on the side if they had headphones in. Worked well enough and didn’t lose much time I don’t think. The first big climb up Mt. Carbon was around mile 6 and allowed me to see where people were. Josh was already over the hill and I could see John in 3rd with 4th on his heels. I figured I had about a minute gap. Put my head down and ran the hill as best I could at an even effort so as not to waste energy and then when I crested the hill, I hit it hard and made up the lost time. I knew it was long gradual downhill and enjoyed the first descent of the day. I grew up a half mile from this side of the course so I had a bit of a home-field advantage.

Bear Chase!

The next section by Fox Hollow Golf Course was awesome. It was on a horse trail with 3 river crossings. I came up on a few 50 milers that were trying to keep from getting wet so early but I just bull rushed the water and ran through at normal pace. Can’t wait to see the pics from the photographer on the opposite bank of one crossing! The next aid station (mile 10) was a half mile up from the last crossing and I saw a bunch of people I knew and ran through and gave a wave of thanks for the support. There is a long climb after this and I needed to just keep the effort going. I figured John was making a move and hoped to counter it before he could get too close. Again, at the top, I through in a surge for good measure and tried settling in to the faster pace. At the last aid station, I caught Phil K who was running the 50 mile (11:30 finish! Nice job!) and said good luck and kept moving. Made my way around and saw Tyler O. as well and finally hit the last descent to the finish. I even had enough to sprint the last half mile and crossed in second. John came across shortly after and was able to gap 4th a bit. Roost ended up with a sweep of the podium in the men’s half! Finished with a 1:25:06 with about 900 feet of climb.

finish!

I see Court and ask how her 10k went. “I think I was 3rd or 4th.” I was thinking age group finish since she had checked the results from last year and was trying to figure out where should would be. She meant overall though! At the awards shortly after, she finds out she was 3rd female! Wow! Not bad for just coming back from injury and running her longest runs in over 4 months the week before. Just amazing.

Awards!

We hung out for a few hours after, talked with friends and watched the 50 milers and 50kers come through the start/finish area. The finish area was a huge party. Free breakfast with pancakes and sausage, drinks, Fort Collins Brewery beer and other goodies made for a great morning. Great job by all the Roost runners out there and everyone else. Awesome work all around.

Big thanks to Point6 again for their amazing socks. Wore my CO flag socks for Bear Chase and within steps of getting out of the water crossings, my feet felt dry. No problems at all and super comfy besides that. Check them out!

Best socks EVER

Our new home in the Aspens!

I’ll be starting work mid October and and the condo will be going up for sale shortly. We’ll still be around Denver probably once a month at minimum anyway but we hope to see everyone before we move up the mountain!

The break is over. It’s go time.

Racing Andy Ames at the Rattlesnake Ramble in Eldorado Canyon

During this break, I had a revelation. People tend to ask why you run. What makes runners do what they do. I’ve realized what my answer is. I can’t believe it’s taken this long to really figure it out. It’s because I LOVE to race. Not that I need the mental break after work, to stay in shape or whatever other reasons there are; just to go out and race. Put my body to it’s limits for as long as I can. Push until your muscles burn and the only thing you want to do is collapse, but you keep going. You know there’s something more. Doesn’t have to be a race against someone else, but against the part of your brain that says, “No more. Stop!”. That’s what I love.

Maybe I always knew it but never admitted it to myself? Does that make me selfish that my reason for running is such a competitive and personal thing? I love my group runs and running with my wife and friends but when it comes down to it, racing is what it is all about.  There is nothing like showing up early on a Saturday morning at the park with dew on the grass and a few other runners getting their warm-up in knowing that you’re about to push your body as hard as you can. I loved my high school and college racing days and I’m lucky to continue that now and it’s time to put that hard training in again.

Dan, me and Ryan leading the charge in Moab

I’ve got my plan ready and my calculations done on how my training runs should go. I’ve got 88 days until CIM and by then I’ll be ready to hit a huge marathon PR. I’ve got a few other races before then that will help me get in the shape I need to be. In high school, I used to cut out pop during cross country and track seasons but didn’t in college for whatever reason. I’m cutting it again and have not had a Dr. Pepper in 16 days. That’s huge for me. I calculated an estimated 100,000 calories over the last year in just Dr. Pepper (1x a day at 20 oz.) That made me sick when I realized that. I’ve already lost 4 pounds this past week. My caffeine intake is down to maybe 2 or 3 times the last week. It will eventually be zero. My food has been a variety of things, some desserts but mostly a healthy mix of food. I wasn’t joking when I said the break is over!

I’m off to the Runners Roost group run and will keep pushing towards the goal of a fast marathon at CIM. It’s time for me to do what needs to be done. Hope you’re all having a good training cycle!

Curious: why do you run?

First meeting and a shared birthday!

Some other fun news on the running front, I have done a few trail races the last two weekends. The first was at Eldora Ski Area west of Boulder on the 4th. It was only a 10k but had about a 1000′ of climb. Tough race but super fun. I think I ended up in 7th. My race wasn’t spectacular but I was happy enough with how it all went! My friend Charlie took the win and it was fun catching up with him after the race. It was a fun and challenging course but the area was gorgeous! One thing I love about these smaller trail races is the atmosphere. We all sat on the huge lawn after, talking and drinking beer. I really doubt anyone left before enjoying the post race festivities. It was such a relaxing and fun day. Time – 43:39 – 10k

The day started out super foggy!

Eldora Mt after the fog cleared

Trail and elevation profile for Eldora!

The more exciting news on the racing front was this past weekend at the Honey Stinger race, the Steamboat Stinger Marathon on Sunday. I had been looking forward to this race since our team told us we had a few entries to it. We love Honey Stinger and all their awesome delicious tastiness. It was easy to convince CC we needed to head to Steamboat Springs! We knew the timing was a little risky with the baby coming around this time but we figured we’d just stay home if it came down to it. We didn’t get to leave as early on Friday due to me having to work (on my birthday!) because of a big deadline on Monday but we were out of the house by 3 in the afternoon. Steamboat is about 3 hours away but it’s a great drive. Courtney even got her share of driving after the big mountains were out of the way. Quick check in to our awesome condo and we went to join up with a few people we had be excited to meet in real life! We got to Carl’s Tavern and met up with Katie from Point6 and her husband and a few friends. Katie has been awesome this year with setting us up with the BEST merino wool socks around. Steamboat sure does produce some awesome products (Point6, Honey Stinger, Big Agnes) and it was great to finally meet Katie! We had a great dinner and a few beers on the patio and just enjoyed the night. We left before the second stop because of the long day but knew we were going to love this trip!

On the road to Steamboat! Even caught the state patrol on camera. Sneaky.

The next morning we actually slept in! I honestly don’t remember the last time that happened. It was awesome. We eventually headed into town to grab some lunch at Backcountry Provisions and walked around the town for a while before heading to the finish area of the mountain bike race. The Stinger has a 25 and 50 mile bike race Saturday and the half and full marathons on Sunday. Some crazy people do both! It was a fun and relaxed atmosphere again so I was getting excited for the next day.

Runners Roost teammates (Katie, PG, me, Seth)

It was around this time we heard the big news . . . Lance Armstrong was going to be doing the marathon as well. What? 7 time Tour de France champion? Sweet! I immediately start dreaming of beating him. I know. Wishful thinking! We both grabbed our packets (Courtney was signed up for the half but couldn’t race because of her hip injury) and went back to the condo to relax. You know what was for dinner that night as well, starts with a Q and ends in heavenly flavors. Patrick Garcia was staying with us for the night since he was getting in at midnight. I opened the door when he got there and was a little scared at the moustache I was seeing! haha. Next morning we were up and out the door by 6:30. It’s nice being 5 minutes from the start line! As CC and I were leaving the condo complex though, we see this HUGE black bear running through the parking lot. He was the biggest black bear I’ve seen. Pretty cool way to start the day! CC’s first bear sighting even!

The start line was pretty uneventful until they start announcements and Seth comes over to me and says, “I wonder if Courtney knows Lance is about a foot away from her”. I point at her and twirl my finger to get her to turn but she just shakes her head quick and does a small glance. She already knew. Pretty funny though. We had four of the Roost Mountain/Ultra team here so we all got to talk for a bit. Katie, PG and me in the full and Seth in the half. We all line up and before long, we’re off!

Start of the marathon with Lance in yellow!

The trail was awesome. Lot’s of windy single track up the front side of Howelsen Ski Area and after the 2nd aid station, we had a nice rolling decent to the back half of the course. It was gorgeous! I was moving decently well at this point, going back and forth in fourth and fifth place and hit a dirt road with a gradual ascent around mile 12. It was warming up for sure but I was feeling pretty good still. We eventually left the road and hit the gradual single track climb through the aspen trees and ferns. I had kept hearing things scurrying off into the woods and saw hundreds of tiny chipmunks throughout the day. Then I heard a really loud crashing through the forest and I half expected to see a bear charging me. Luckily it was just a huge brown cow and I was able to run past before it hit the trail. This part of the trail was super runnable and I kept working up the hills. I haven’t had the best climbing legs this year so I expected people to be catching me. I got caught by one guy who ended up in 4th and just before the top of the climb, PG got me as well. I was definitely tired at this point but let him go by so I could try to key off him. It worked for about 30 seconds before I took a fall. Luckily I landed in some soft dirt but I cramped my leg bad while trying to catch myself. I kept going, hit the top aid station again and started down towards the front side again.

I was still able to run but my stride was a lot shorter than it had been pre-fall. It felt like I was always on the edge of it cramping. I had taken 6 gels (a ton for a marathon it seemed) and had plenty of fluid but probably not quite enough salt. As long as I kept moving I was ok. I make it to the last aid station and saw someone coming up behind me a little ways back but I just kept going as fast as my stunted stride would let me. The trail really wound around a lot those last three miles and there was a good half mile uphill dirt road section but I ran that fine. It was with just over a mile and a half left that things went bad. The trail was a lot lower and we could see the alpine slide right next to the finish but the trail made a U-turn and took us the other direction again. The trail here was exposed and HOT. I was out of water and definitely losing the mental battle. I let the person I saw behind me go by and realized it was the top female. She was moving well. I kept pushing but had to walk a few sections that should have been run. I just didn’t think I’d make it to the end without water! I luckily saw a few people that told me I was close and offered me a swig of water and I ran the rest of the way in. VERY SLOWLY. I’m just glad no one else was close enough to catch me. That last 6 or so miles from my fall onward lost me almost 13 minutes based on where PG finished. Just hard when you want to run and your body won’t let you open up your stride.

Just Lance and the bear. No relation

As I was crossing the line, seeing Courtney there made me happy. I knew I gave it everything I had but some things just happen that you can’t control. She was proud which is all I could ask for! I ended up in 8th overall and 3rd in my age group. Lance finished first by about 8 minutes. He is just a well rounded and insanely strong athlete. My time was 3:57:07 for 8th and 3rd age group.

I sat in the shade for a while with some ice and water before we went to the river to soak. It was amazing. We chatted with a few other runners and went back to grab a beer and talk with Katie and Jeremiah. We also saw Katie O’s family and talked with them a bit but had to get going. Remember that deadline on Monday I mentioned? Yeah, I had to be back in Denver and at work by 6 to get more done. Not the way I wanted to finish the weekend!

Overall it was an awesome time and Courtney and I figuring out how to spend more time in Steamboat. Quite possible it’s my favorite town in Colorado!

Pretty standard