I spent a few hours of my afternoon sitting at my computer desk pecking away at the keyboard. After about 20 minutes of prancing around my desk, laying on my arms and literally nosing the thumb pad on my laptop {while I was trying to use the actual mouse…} he decided to lay by my feet. Like a dog. He gave me the stink eye every time I moved my chair!

He is such a weirdo. Over the few hours of “cat napping” he took on the poses of “The Sphinx”, “The Exhibitionist”, “Thumper The Rabbit” and “Dead Cat”. His foot was comically twitching in his “Thumper” pose – I think he was out to get that poor teddy bear head!

And all those GoPro parts laying on the floor? We had them out to GoPro the odd storm that came through early this afternoon. It was bright and sunny with fluffy clouds in the sky but lightning and thundering like crazy from one small, black cloud. Of course, we were not lucky enough to get a shot of the lightning {probably because we didn’t think to record anything until it was nearly past…} but the Denver Airport was just lucky enough to avoid a tornado today! That is one crazy looking tornado!

…this is what Fred thought of the thunder – he hated it…

PS – If you are really excited about summer and happen to be in the Denver area you can come celebrate with us on Friday night! We are getting a group of locals together for a trail run, pizza and goodie bags. It’s a great excuse to get outside, enjoy the longest day of the year, see what is bound to be a stellar sunset AND moonrise. Plus, we are using this event as a fundraiser for the Care & Share Food Bank of Colorado Springs – once again that region is getting hit hard with wildfires and thousands of people have lost homes. You can find all the details on the BlendsGiving website!

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Somehow this mindset has led to the weird delusion that running up a mountain is something to do for fun. It all started back in 1971 when the first group of crazy Coloradans decided to run up Mt Evans. It became a tradition and a well-known road race – the America’s Highest Road Race! This past Saturday I became a participant…and finisher!

…at the start with Lynne, Paula and Jason…

The Mt Evans Ascent is a 14.5 mile race that starts at the Echo Lake entrance and follows the road all the way up to the top of the mountain at 14,264 feet above sea level. So basically an uphill half marathon, right?! Ha. No. Not really.

I got roped into this race thanks to a few very convincing emails from Lynne. We’d hiked 14ers, we’d run half marathons…we could do this. We had time to train and the hills + altitude to train with. We were going to do this! Plus, I had the support of the Boulder Running Company race team and group training runs so how could I say no?!

Race day kind of crept up on me. I can’t say I felt at all prepared when my alarm went off at 3:41am on Saturday! I just pretended it was a regular old race. Nothing special. I met Lynne and Alex in Idaho Springs then we met Paula at packet pick up – she is even more insane than Lynne and I as she is signed up for the Pike Peak Marathon. Yes, a full marathon…13.1 miles up a 14er, 13.1 miles down a 14er. Seriously, she is insane! She also rocked at life on Evans so I think she has Pikes in the bag!

…within the first half mile, it only took a mile for everyone to spread out…

Lynne and I spent weeks training together – early morning runs, weekend long runs, trail runs, 14er hikes. But really, how the heck do you train for a run UP a mountain with 4,000 feet of gain when considering altitude!? I still don’t have an answer. However, whatever we did made it possible for us to survive…we made it.

We started out with one goal – get to the top alive without missing any time cut offs. We had absolutely no idea what to expect and the last thing we needed was a number hanging over our head. We both had our Garmin strapped to our wrists but mostly to keep track of cut off paces.

…Lynne running along the course…

I really wanted to run the first mile and then take it from there. In our only training run on Mt Evans we ran the first mile than broke into a power hike/slow run pattern based on distance. It started out like this on race day and we stuck to it for quite a while – the miles seemed to just tick by.

We made it to the Summit Lake cut off with 20-25 minutes to spare, took a bathroom break, refueled with Jelly Bellys and took off running on the last stretch of road that was not uphill. I have to say – I kind of loved the aid stations as they were stocked with M&M’s, Red Vines and Jelly Belly’s!

We had 5.5 miles to go…and running was becoming more painful. My hamstrings were not happy with me. While I was hiking they were fine but with every step I ran I could feel the dull pain radiate through my legs. It wasn’t killing me but it definitely was not making me love the idea of running. And when you are running only slightly faster than you are power hiking its easy enough to avoid running.

…around mile 3-4 I believe…

At this point we resolved to power hike the rest of the mountain with only a few random spurts of running – we had plenty of time before the summit cut off and decided to enjoy ourselves and the scenery the best we could! Besides, our legs greatly appreciated every single second of the occasional stretch stop!

As we made our way closer and closer to the finish I realized we had a shot at a sub 4 hour finish. I’d be ecstatic to get a sub 4 hour finish in a marathon…and this was beginning to feel a heck of a lot like a marathon. I decided I was going to make it in under 4 hours and somehow managed to pick up my hiking pace. I’m not sure how I did it – earlier in the day I was get out power hiked by people who were well over twice my age.

…up…up…up…

I kept on power hiking until the bend of the last switch back – then there were people. People encouraging me, people saying nice things, people telling me I was awesome. Well, with that kind of love from strangers I kind of had to run, right?! So I ran in the last few hundred yards and for the first time ever gave a happy fist pump as I crossed the mats!

Lynne was right behind me – I had just enough time to turn around and snap a few photos of her coming in before it was all over for both of us. We had done it – we finished the Mt Evans Ascent and only marginally hated our lives. Lynne and I both pulled off a sub 4 hour finish with my official time at 3:58:46 and Lynne’s at 3:59:50. Paula had an even better day on the mountain with a 3:17:07 finish!

…at the top – WE DID IT…

Surprisingly enough my legs are doing quite well. They were less than excited to walk up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment but they made it. And even now, with time for DOMS to set in they feel good. The only real discomfort I have right now is my neck and lower back. The lower back pain is definitely because of my weak hamstrings and I think the neck pain can be blamed on running with a pack while staring uphill for hours. So, I’d say my body once again surprised me!

My pace definitely put me near the back of the pack but, quite frankly, I don’t care. I ran up a freaking mountain! And the people who won are insanely talented runners!

The overall winner ran the 14.5 miles in 1:51:48, a pace of 7:43. The first female to finish completed the race in 2:11:34, a pace of 9:05. That is incredible. For perspective – the 7:43 pace would get me a 5K PR and until this spring the 9:05 pace would have gotten me a half marathon PR. Not only were the top finishers crazy enough to run up a mountain they managed to do it quickly!

To get a feel for what it felt like to actually run up the entire mountain check out Luke’s recap from last year’s race – he pulled of a top 3 AG finish and was in the top 10 guys across the finish line!

You can also check out Lynne’s recap – she did a much better job of actually explaining how she felt on the course, and what she plans to do different next year. Because, yes, we will be there next year for this race!

Paula’s recap is also up! She absolutely rocked at life while fighting her way up Mt Evans and managed to get her very own, handmade “Finisher’s Rock”…thanks to her boyfriend, Graham! Love this!

I’ll be back later this week with more details on how I approached training, what the elevation did to me, how I justified walking so much and if I’ll ever do it again. Some of those are easy answers, others I am still pondering…

Also, a very special THANK YOU to Boulder Running Company and their Brooks Racing Team for making this race happen for me. I could not have talked myself into it without their support and all of the amazing group runs with BRC!

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The Waterfalls of Yosemite
Bridalveil Falls, Lower Yosemite Falls & Vernal Falls

The Pacific Ocean & Whale Watching

Lake Tahoe

Utah’s Salt Flats

The best part of road tripping is the freedom you have to spontaneously change your plans. Like adding on the drive to the ocean and whale watching. Oh, and if there happen to be gusting winds and random raindrops at your scheduled campsite you can make a collective decision to just drive through the night! After days on the road one more night was worth it…for a comfy bed and stocked bathroom!

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Sequoia National Park

Yosemite National Park

So far we have had a great week…with a lot more to come! This is just a quick sneak peek of the gajillion photos we have taken and these photos will never do it justice! That being said, Chris’s phone does a great job of trying!

The post Out Exploring appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Out on the trails numbers don’t matter, walking the tough stuff is acceptable, hills are plentiful and the scenery is unbelievable. If you meet people they say hi and smile. Animals are all around you – usually it’s just birds, rabbits and squirrels but every once in a while you see something bigger like deer, elk or coyotes.

You can easily get lost in your own head. I usually make plans for my future. Sometimes I plan out my week, other times I fantasize about my far away future – like retirement or homeownership or something scary like that.

All of this is even more fun with friends. You get to share the views, you have someone to take photos of and there is a lot of chatting…on the down hill. As soon as you hit the uphill conversation usually gets put on hold with “can’t talk…must breath…”.

If you haven’t tried trail running you really go find a trail! It doesn’t require anything more than plain old running. Well, a little extra concentration and dexterity is helpful when dodging the rocks in the trail but that’s about it. On your next run skip the sidewalk and find a nearby tail! Just bring water – it’ll come in handy.

While you don’t need extra stuff for trail running there are a few things that I’ve added to my run bag {aka: gym bag for the great outdoors}. Definitely not required, but I like to think these little extras make my runs better:

• Garmin/GPS – to track distance/elevation and make me feel hardcore later, the pace never really matters on a trail
• Phone/Camera – to attempt to capture nature and take it home with me
• Trail Shoes – the stiff soles make the rocks less noticeable
• Water – always, always, always – sometimes a handheld, sometimes a water belt, sometimes the Camelbak
• Friends – see above…

If you are looking for trails near you check out singletracks.com. Technically its made for sharing trail information among mountain bikers but there is a lot of helpful information. You can also pull up a Google Map view of your area, make sure you are in “map” mode and look for green areas – this usually means it’s a park of some sort. Put Google to work and with a few clicks you’ll have a place to try out trail running!

All the photos in this post were taken last Saturday while running with Lynne and Amy at Centennial Cone – a great park west of Golden with miles of trails. Its multi-use on the weekdays but the weekends alternate between hiking and biking.

The post Running The Trails appeared first on run.around.aroo.

I ran a 5K on Friday evening with Lynne and Amy. I wanted to actually race it but wasn’t convinced I’d be happy with my time…I sucked it up and tried to run fast. I did run fast. Too fast in the first mile, as per usual. That made mile 2 and 3 feel horrible, also to be expected. But I survived and I PR’ed! Again! We celebrated by staring at zoo animals. It was a good night.

Long Story

As you may have guessed about my “Hiking with Friends…and Sunscreen” post my friend – Amy – is in town visiting. No one is allowed to have a nice, relaxing vacation when they visit us. We plan all sorts of stuff and make them get outside. We hiked and trail ran on Thursday but that wasn’t enough. On Friday night Amy and I met up with Lynne at City Park for the Underwearness Drop Your Drawers 5K. Yup, if you visit me I might make you run a race…and hike a 14er, but more on that later!

I was a little nervous about the race – I’ve been on a PR streak this year and I’m starting to feel the pressure. This would be the first distance repeat this year so I wasn’t chasing a 4 year old PR, I was going to have to take down a 3 week old PR. I’m not exactly training so the stars needed to align…or I just needed to race smart.

The stars must have aligned because I definitely did NOT race smart. The start line was kind of confusing and I ended up starting out way too fast. I decided to wear my Garmin for the race so I could control my speed. That didn’t exactly work. Instead I just freaked out the numbers I was seeing. In the first quarter mile I was 6:03. Not kidding. Now, I realize the Garmin time isn’t exactly spot on, but still, that is an insane number for me. And it was followed by a half mile of 6:xx. I tried to slow down. I swear. But at the moment I felt fairly comfortable.

That all changed way too soon. I finally slowed myself down as we started into Mile 2. But I slowed down more than I should have. My average time was getting closer and closer to my 7:45 pace goal. Then it went over. Shoot. This meant my last mile was spent playing catch up.

My Garmin gave me all sorts of fun data. Most days I’m not loving the data is spits out but maybe I can learn a thing or two from what it had to say about Friday’s race!

Mile 1: 7:30
Mile 2: 7:59
Mile 3: 7:52

Well, at least my feeling of too fast…too slow…ah, catch up…were spot on!

Fastest Mile: 5:36

Clearly that happened in the first mile of pure insanity. What was I thinking?!

The Garmin also said that the final distance was only 2.93. Oops…a short course. But it doesn’t matter, I’m still counting my 22:47 finish as a PR! If long courses count as a PR/not PR then I think short courses should count too. I’ll just have to race smarter and run faster next time…

Besides, my average Garmin pace of 7:47 would have put me at a PR even with a full 3.1 mile race. The “official pace” according to the timing site is just scary – its telling me I ran the 5K with a 7:21 pace. It actually feels awesome to say! Maybe someday I’ll even pull that off!

But enough race babble – let’s talk about the real fun stuff that went down on Friday night…the after party at the Denver Zoo! This is what drew us in last year but we failed to read all the details on the site and never went to the zoo. That wasn’t happening this year – we were going to the zoo! Mostly for the animals but also to partake in the free drink tickets we got…

…Annaliza, Amy, myself and Lynne…

They had Sierra Nevada and Barefoot available to trade for the drink tickets plus Wicked Hard samples. There was also a live band and food available to purchase. We snagged our drinks and were distracted by all the animals in the zoo, never making it back in time for music or food. Whoops. But we did manage to entertain the photographer for a few seconds…

…because its normal to chase down photographers…

The event was a huge success…for my 5K PR and for Underwearness. I’ve been working with them over the past year to keep their website and social media updated. This spring they put on a record-breaking event with over 900 participants that helped raise more than $25,000 for the Underwearness organization!

Underwearness raises awareness…for underwear! More specifically, they help get new underwear to children in need. Whatever the reason for the need Underwearness wants every child to have the luxury of new, clean underwear! Underwearness is making every effort to get new undies to the kids…one pair at a time! If you’d like more information please check out their website, follow them on Twitter or like their Facebook page!

Lynne rocked at life on Friday night and walked away with a fancy new PR. She questions whether it’s a valid PR since it was on a “short course” according to the Garmin…what are your thoughts?

All watermarked photos were taken by Focus Tree Photoraphy, the photographer at the race. A special thanks to them for being awesome photographers and playing along with the BRC crazies!

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I’d been smart that morning and lathered on some sunscreen before leaving for my early AM run…but only because I’ve made some big sunscreen mistakes in the past week or so. I didn’t forget the sunscreen, I just forgot a few patches of skin. So, if you are outside don’t forget to put sunscreen…

…under the tip of your nose, especially if you are going to hike over snow that will reflect sun back under your nose, otherwise you’ll have a little burnt nose tip and that hurts.

…on the sliver of skin that sticks out between your pack straps and your tank top or you’ll end up with a funny looking, painful tiger stripe.

…the patch of skin between your lower lip and goatee face fur or you’ll end up having a chin that looks like you drooled for hours on a windy day. {from Chris’s experience}

…along the part in your hair when you pull back your bangs, otherwise, over the course of a week you get multiple tiny lines of burnt scalp that make using a comb or brush painful.

…up to and under the seam of your clothes or you’ll have funny looking red finger marks along the edge of your tank top straps.

…between your ears and your side burns or the side of your face will start to peel awkwardly. {from Chris’s experience}

And those are just the stupid mistakes we’ve made this year…so far. They should something like a black light to wave over your body to determine if you’re fully covered.

Luckily I was smart enough to properly plaster myself with sunscreen for our “welcome to Colorado” adventure. We had a wonderful hike and we all managed to soak up just enough Vitamin D to keep us happy without become lobstery! All while staying on the ground, despite what the Colorado wind was trying to do. Its been crazy windy here lately…hopefully it dies done a bit before the Underwearness 5K tonight!

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…or I tried. Turns out fake jumping off a mountain isn’t the easiest thing ever. Especially when the snow gets squishy close to the edge and there really is a drop off! So I went for running instead…

It was actually a lot of fun being crazy up on the top of a 14er. There was only one other group up there for the majority of the time and the summit was eerily still. This was our 4th summit and the first one we didn’t feel like we were going to get blown off of it! It was so still and quiet.

Our ride down was even more fun then frolicking around on the summit. Since we had hiked about a mile up in the snow we had to get down all that snow. On the way up I was kind of dreading the downhill…lots of opportunities to slip and fall on my butt. Lynne had a better plan! Sliding! Or, more technically, glissading…

…or you can be cool like Chris and do the penguin slide. We all did a little glissading. It’s a lot of fun and much quicker than running down the mountain. But it is also cold and wet! I was just wearing running capris so after .02 seconds on my butt I was soaking wet! And unlike fluffy powder, this snow was not soft. It felt a lot like sliding down a hill of sand!

Lynne had the best glissading skills {and pants…?} so she plowed us some awesome trails on the way down. We literally slide our way down 97% of the snow covered parts of the mountain! This is only a small portion of our slide…

Looks pretty cool doesn’t it? Next time we should pack up a sled. Actually, considering our ability to just barely stay alive on very short sledding hills sledding down a 14er on a sheet of plastic probably isn’t a very good plan!

And to close out this post of silly photos…for the first time ever I’ve actually snipped and compiled the limited footage we have from our hike! Chris used the GoPro at the top and recorded a short bit of glissading.

On a side note – the site I usually get royalty free music from is now charging. If you make YouTube videos what do you use? I don’t download music in any other way so when I’m creative enough to add music I’m kind of at a loss now…

The post Fun on a 14er… appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Chris still had to work on Saturday so our weekend didn’t start until we packed everything into the car at 2am and started our drive toward Leadville. The drive was actually really peaceful. There are very few people on the road at that hour of the night and the moon was huge and so bright! Driving without headlights was actually possible…for about 30 seconds at a time…

We arrived at the campsite at 4am and took the term “car camping” very seriously as we did our best to catch some sleep in the car before the group got up to start our hike at 6am. Lynne and Alex were already at the campsite with their friends Josh and Kristy. It took us a while but eventually we got ambitious enough to get out of our sleeping bags and onto the trail.

Initially I was a little concerned about the hike. If we couldn’t make it up the 4WD road we’d be looking at a 12 mile hike, round trip. That didn’t sound all that appealing. Especially on minimal sleep. Sure, I had a 10+ mile run on my schedule for the weekend but that run would not have included 4,000 feet in elevation gain!

We lucked out again – the 4WD road was bone dry. We managed to drive all the way up to the South Elbert Trailhead which put us at about an 8 mile hike, round trip. Not bad. The road really wasn’t that bad either. A 2WD vehicle with clearance would have made it up there just fine.

…these birds are fearless – Chris held out his hand with a pinecone on it and the bird swooped down, perched on Chris’s hand, grabbed the pinecone then promptly spit it out as he flew away – Chris has this thing for feeding pinecones to wildlife…

We started out on the Colorado Trail which was deceptively easy. Before long we veered left and up the real 14er trail…immediate climbing. It may have been 36 degrees when we left the car but layers were stripped off in the first half mile of the hike. I spent the majority of the hike in capris, gaiters, a long sleeve base and a t-shirt. Depending upon the wind I’d alternate between a light zip up and my windbreaker, or neither.

The weather was perfect, the skies were beautiful, the animals were out and we were all in good spirits. We took our time with the hike averaging about a mile an hour. It was comfortable, it was fun and we had plenty of time to snack our way through our packs.

We knew this was going to be a rather snowy climb so we were prepared…at least in the gear department. We had waterproof shoes, gaiters and cold weather layers. We were ready. Well, I thought I was anyway. Climbing straight up hill in snow is not that much fun. Its actually kind of hard and rather discouraging.

Since the actual trail of switchbacks was snow covered we just headed straight up the mountain side. This ended up cutting off about a half mile, but there was a lot of steep up hill. We were basically on a long, snowy stair climber! Josh was kind enough to kick steps for us which made a huge difference but it was still a long climb nearly straight up! Those photos…are not exaggerated. We were really at that angle on the climb up, no wonder our calves are feeling it today!

Eventually we made it to the top! Oh, the glorious top of Mt Elbert. We were the highest people in the state of Colorado…which is saying a lot considering some recent changes in the laws! The hike was totally worth it. There is nothing quite as rewarding as sitting at the top of a mountain, eating a sandwich and looking out of a sea of mountain tops…that are all below your current elevation!

…Lynne, Alex, Josh, Kristy, me and Chris…

The summit was perfect. Very rarely do you have a chance to actually stand on the summit of a mountain 14,000 feet above sea level without battling the wind. There was barely a breeze at the top of Mt Elbert. It was a perfect day!

As soon as we had all fed our faces and took approximately 359 photos each we strapped on our spikes and headed down the mountain. Personally, I don’t think the spikes helped to much. I didn’t have the hardcore MicroSpikes like the others did but the snow was melting and slushy enough to just dig your heels into on the way down. Besides, everything below about 12,500 or so was mostly snow-free so spikes definitely were not needed there.

Usually the hike down sounds far more awesome than it is. You’d think downhill would be easier. It’s not. It does a serious number on your knees and quads. Any remotely flat ground becomes the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen, just because it gives you a minute or two to recovery. But this hike was different. There was snow. A snow covered slope has some advantages on the way down…like glissading. Which we definitely did! More on that tomorrow though…

We headed back to camp and ate our weight in chips while we waiting for 5pm to roll around – the time we deemed late enough to eat dinner without being considered “old”. Shortly after dinner Chris crashed into his sleeping bag – in the last 32 hours he had worked a 12 hour shift, slept 1 hour, hiked 8 miles up/down a 14er and only looked a little grumpy one time. I’m impressed! I stayed up for a while…until the sun was below the mountains – the time we deemed late enough to go to bed without being old. Apparently we are afraid of getting old!

It was a great weekend – we camped, we hiked, we summitted the tallest mountain in CO, we ate, we hung out with friends…and I spent two days away from my computer! I had my phone but it’s not quite smart enough to do much more than text, call and occasionally Google an interesting fact so it doesn’t really count. The computer thing alone is one reason I love escaping to the mountains!

The hike up Mt Elbert is considered to be one of the easiest 14ers – which is kind of an oxymoron because there is no such thing as an “easy 14er”. Even with the snow the East Route did not have any technical climbing or scrambling. The elevation gain was steady and not unbearable, especially if you actually took the switchbacks. Plus, the views from the top are amazing!

Check out Lynne’s version of our hike over at her blog: LGSmash!

The post The Highest Peak in CO {Mt Elbert} appeared first on run.around.aroo.

I got home from BLEND on Sunday, picked Chris’s brother, Ethan, up from the airport on Monday, escaped to the mountains on Tuesday, waved good-bye to Ethan and caught up on work stuff Wednesday, spent at least 10 hours working at Panera on Thursday, paid a little attention to the house and packing on Friday and played more work catch up today.

And now it’s officially the weekend – a long weekend! I am caught up with my random work just enough to justify leaving it all behind once again…this time for some quiet time in the mountains. Rough life, right?

Who are we kidding. My life is not rough. Thanks to Chris and his fantastic husbandry ways I’ve spent the last 6 months semi-employed and am about the spend the next month wandering the country. I can not complain. I will not complain. This is awesome. Eventually reality will have to kick in  and I’ll return to the workforce full-time, but for now – I’m going to use and abuse all my free time!

So, technically, my entire life is a long weekend…

We have some fun plans for this weekend…they don’t start until early, early Sunday morning and they involve very little sleep but sleep is overrated and Mt Dew is on sale! Plus, we’ll be waking up to views like this…

…photo from camping near La Plata last Memorial Day Weekend of 2012…

…and I will be one happy camper. Literally.

I’m even charging up my camera so I can taunt you will mountain views, snowscapes and just plain awesome. I’m rarely this responsible…I tend to pray for battery life!

If you happen to be one of the unfortunate people stuck at work over the weekend, I am sincerely sorry. That sucks. That used to be me…I feel your pain. For your entertainment you can read about our trip last Memorial Day weekend…when we hiked up the wrong freaking mountain: The almost, but not quite 14er.

Lastly, THANK YOU to every single veteran, in training and active duty person in the military. Our country would not be what it is today without you, your sacrifice and your families support. I truly thank you for that. You deserve so much more than one Monday a year…but I also thank you for this long weekend!

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