Colorado adventure cont...

We got stuck at DIA with a long flight delay on our way home last night. That was the only negative on an otherwise fantastic trip. But, getting in bed at 2:30am certainly killed all of the relaxed Colorado vibes that I had going from the weekend.

We had initially planned on spending yesterday at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park located just outside of Canon City. We rafted through the gorge the day before and caught our first glimpse of this famous bridge, one of the world's highest suspension bridges at just under 1,000 feet. The bridge is the focal point of a "tourist trap" which features many different rides and attractions, including a free fall tower over the gorge which K was planning to do yesterday. However, once we arrived we found out that the skycoaster was closed for the day due to high winds, and we couldn't justify the high admission fees otherwise. So, we lucked out and found a good vantage point located off the main parking lot for some scenic photos.

Look closely to see the rafts navigating the narrow gorge

A scenic train runs through the gorge

With the afternoon now free, we headed back to Colorado Springs to visit the U.S. Olympic Training Center. We got to tour the facilities and saw many of the athletes working out.

"Olympic Strength"

Irwin Belk Olympic Path through the complex

Gym for basketball, volleyball, etc.

Shooting Center

Weightlifting facility

Strength and Conditioning Gym

Wrestling center

Strength and Conditioning Gym

The wire barrier was added to keep athletes from sneaking into the gym at night to get extra workouts in

Swimming facilities

Athlete Center for dining and housing the resident athletes

One of the things that caught my eye as we toured the facilities were the inspirational quotes on the walls everywhere. Maybe that's what I need to do around our house to keep me positive and focused with my running!

Colorado adventure...

We've had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend so far in Colorado. We flew into Denver early Saturday morning, and within minutes of stepping outside of the airport and feeling the cool, crisp air I launched into my litany of reasons that we should move here. K has heard it before (and I like to remind him every chance I get that I turned down a possible job opportunity that would have brought us here a few years ago). Regardless, it's a fantastic place to visit with so many different seasonal activities to enjoy and quite easy in terms of traveling from Austin. I'm thankful that we are fortunate to make a couple of trips here each year.

Typically, we head West or North from Denver, but this time we opted to head South to Colorado Springs. As we left the Denver area and got our first glimpse of Pike's Peak in the distance, I was awestruck by it's size as it towers over everything else on the horizon. We arrived in Manitou Springs around 10:30am and had some time to kill before our noon train reservation on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. We stopped for a quick jaunt on the Paul Intemann Memorial Nature Trail from the Crystal Park Road trailhead to the Manitou Mesa Overlook about a half mile east. The entire trail is about 5 miles, but it's broken up a bit which makes it difficult to access the entire trail at once. I had wanted to check it out though to see how runnable it would be for me because I knew Barr Trail wasn't going to happen for me later.

Steps that led up to a series of switchbacks that led to the overlook

K at Manitou Mesa Overlook with Garden of the Gods in the distance

We then made our way through town in Manitou Springs to the Cog Railway Depot and hopped aboard the Leadville car that would take us the 1.5 hour ride to the summit of Pike's Peak (elevation 14,110 feet).

K & m at the summit of Pike's Peak - still plenty of snow up there!

Views from the summit

The temperature difference between the base and summit was incredible. It was sooo cold and windy at the top - temps in low 20's with the wind chill around 10 degrees. We stayed at the summit for about 40 minutes or so, which was enough time to take some pictures and munch on the High Altitude Doughnuts before heading back down to warmer temperatures! It takes approximately 3-hours for the roundtrip train ride while it takes 2-3 hours to make the drive on Pike's Peak Highway.

By this point (and well before, honestly) we were pretty exhausted from the limited amount of sleep we got on Friday night and early morning wake up to catch our 6:20am flight. K toughed it out though and decided to hit Barr Trail for a few miles, while I window-shopped in Manitou Springs.

K's experience on Barr Trail: So, having developed a sudden interest in running up Pike's Peak in the August race, I decided to give it a test run on the bottom section of Barr Trail. Since we were already at the top and knew how much snow was up there and how treacherous the path looked, I already had a good feel for what would be awaiting me further up, so I wanted to try to at least see what was runnable around the bottom. Coming up from the parking lot at the trailhead is a steep set of switchbacks to where it almost looks like you are on top of where you started after about a half mile to a mile. This pretty quickly took its toll on my lungs and leg strength and I found myself walking quite a bit of the starting section. Once I got around a little bend, the trail flattened out somewhat and although I was still climbing it felt like it was less rocky and more runnable with not as many big step-ups. I still found myself walking quite a bit because it was hard to run more than a couple of minutes without running out of breath. I stopped to catch my breath and stretch a little short of 2 miles and I was already going close to 30 minutes. I knew I was going to turn around soon, but I was hoping to get to a good stopping point or 3 miles up which I managed to reach in about 50 minutes. I passed one sign where the trail branched off to go to the top of the incline and then soon after decided to turn around. On the way back down, my legs were already spent so I definitely wasn't pushing it but it was nice to stretch them out and enjoy the ease of coming back down. I realized that if I do the race that I won't have that luxury. I reached about 8,000 feet from a starting point of approximately 6,400 feet. Based on what I did today, I feel like the race will definitely take all I've got, but I'm hoping that with a couple of months of training I can push through and make it all the way to the top.

After dinner, we then made a quick drive through Garden of the Gods featuring 300+ feet of sandstone rock formations before collapsing at our hotel from a fun-filled day.

Notice the people at the top!

View of Pike's Peak from Garden of the Gods

This morning had us making the hour drive southwest to Canon City for a day of white-water rafting on the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge. The weather was perfect for a day on the river with temps in the upper 70's and low 80's, but the water temp was cold enough that we had to wear a wetsuit. We started with a 9-mile run on relatively mild waters to get us warmed up for the 11-mile afternoon adventure of Class IV-V rapids through the gorge. With names like Boat Eater and Sledge Hammer, we were in for quite a ride. K even went overboard (although not fully) and nearly slammed into a wall of rock on a rapid aptly known as Wall Slammer. All in all, it was big fun.

We're staying overnight in Canon City and plan to visit the Royal Gorge Bridge tomorrow.

Back to basics...

We've had a great weekend of getting back to the basics in many ways.

On Saturday morning, I got up early with K as he headed out for his long run. After saying my hello's, I didn't run the workout with his group and headed off in my own direction on TLT. I started my weekends out there for several years, but this was the first time that I've been out there for a Saturday morning "long" run since Summer, 2009. That's a pretty incredible realization for someone who has the identity of a runner. It also marked my 5th day of running for the week (in addition to a gym workout), which was also a change back to old ways. Must mean the beginning of marathon training...

Yup, it's time.

I found out on Monday that I got into St. George after I very impulsively entered the lottery two weeks ago. I think the marathon Gods are giving me another chance to take care of unfinished business. I didn't get in the lottery in 2007, which is the year that I really wanted to get in. I reapplied in 2008 to keep hope alive for the guaranteed entry of "3rd time is a charm" because I really didn't want to get in that year as the race was shortly after our wedding and honeymoon. But, I got in. I deferred my entry to 2009 though so I didn't have to deal with the stress of marathon training while planning a wedding (nevermind the fact that I thought training for my first 50k during that period would be fine though). But, I didn't make it to the starting line in 2009 because 3 50k's, a marathon, and countless other shorter distance races in a 10 month period took it's toll on my body and forced me out 2 months before the race due to injury. 2010 was a wash from all running with the ankle fracture. So, that brings us to 2011. And, the hope that I can make it to the start line this year and get this damn St. George monkey off my back!

After our runs on Saturday morning, we quickly regrouped and headed over to Texas School for the Deaf to get our butts kicked by trainer extraordinaire Jillian Michaels. 30 minutes of pure butt kicking.

It was time for breakfast tacos and a nap afterwards then my weekly massage. Aaaahhh.

We topped off the day with the wedding of another running couple, Meg and Josh. After 2 traditional Catholic weddings in Ohio recently, this was such a nice change of pace. Everything was very low-key and unpretentious and a great reflection of them as a couple and the love they share. It also reminded me of how important the running community is in our lives. It is the foundation that brought us together 5 years ago.

Thankfully, we made it a relatively early night because I had another butt kicking in store for me this morning. This time in the form of Pure Barre, an intense workout fusing elements of ballet, pilates and weights. Thanks to a neighbor, I heard that they were offering free classes this weekend at their new Arboretum location so I thought I would give it a try. I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I will be saying "ouch." I think what I will take away from it is that it really exposed my areas of weakness - the dreaded core. My upper body is in pretty good shape thanks to weight work at the gym and my lower body is good thanks to running and other cardio, as well as weights. It's the area in between that is lacking. But, I already knew that going in. It's just so hard to find time to fit everything in - strength training, core, flexibility - once the weekly mileage starts increasing. We all know how important those things are (and will even make us better runners), but I struggle with how to fit it all in.

Uniquely Austin...

Last night we went to the West Texas Wildfire Relief Benefit featuring great local musicians at Hotel San Jose/Jo's. Great cause, great music, great venue, and great weather made for one of those experiences that makes me glad to live in Austin (especially coming off last weekend when my California dreams started kicking in).

Patti joined David Garza and Amy Cook for a song

Love Patti G.! We were so close that I could hear her stomping her boots on stage.

Patti joined by the other lovely ladies, including Shawn Colvin

Then, this morning it was off to our neighborhood 5k. The "new" Chuy's course starts about a mile from our house in the 'burbs of SW Austin, so K ran over to the start for his warm-up. I waited for him just before the 3-mile mark so I could cheer him on into the finish. K ran well, especially given the warm and humid May weather, and finished 6th overall and 1st in his age-group. Not a bad 5k season for him this year: 2 overall wins and 2 age-group wins.

K, Elvis, and the Chuy's fish.

Revisiting the Big Sur Marathon...

We ran the Big Sur Marathon in April 2008, and this past weekend we headed back for more (and less). As I was starting to get my act together with running again a few months ago, I managed to convince K that I needed a goal to get me going. That's not unreasonable. But, just any old local 5k or 10k wouldn't do. No, it needed to be a destination race. And, what better than the beautifully scenic (and awfully hilly) Big Sur Marathon? I was not delusional enough to think that I would be back in marathon shape that quickly, but they have a marathon relay option so the decision was made. We managed to convince one of Kurt's friends who lives in San Jose to do the race with us, so team "She made me do it" was born.

Big Sur is a point-to-point course along Highway 1 from Big Sur to Carmel. I was initially planning to run the first two relay legs (about 9-10 miles) because I was eager to run through the trees of Big Sur again then emerge onto the coastline (and be done before the massive hills began leading to Hurricane Point). However, in mid-March, a chunk of the road on Highway 1 where the race is held literally fell into the ocean due to a mudslide.

That obviously caused race organizers to scramble at the last minute to get an alternate course together - an out-and-back from Carmel with the turnaround point just before Rocky Point Bridge. I was disappointed about the course change, but understood that it was a necessity and was glad that the race wasn't canceled altogether.

So, that brings us to race weekend. We flew into San Jose on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a short visit to Palo Alto that evening. Um, yeah, I'd live there. Then, we headed down to Monterey on Saturday morning to take care of packet pickup and had a nice lunch on the wharf, as K enjoyed all the samples of chowder that he could get his hands on.

We made the short drive to Carmel (again, I would LOVE to live there) that evening to visit the beach and have an early dinner.

Ocean Avenue in Carmel

View of Pebble Beach from Carmel Beach

After dinner, we drove along the coast to catch the sunset on our way back to Monterey.

We had an early wake-up call on Sunday for the race. The logistics for this race are quite challenging on a typical year because there are multiple races (marathon + relay, 21 mile, 10.6 mile, 9 mile, 5k) being held simultaneously and runners have to be shuttled to their respective starting points on the course. As the race director noted, all of this is usually spread out along 26.2 miles of highway, but this year it was compressed into 12.1 miles of highway due to the out-and-back nature of the course. All of this meant a very early wake up for us on Sunday, as we had to be at the bus pickup at 4am for our first relay runner. Oy.

A very tired team "She made me do it" at 4am

We had all been pretty ambivalent about how we were going to divide up the 5 relays legs, particularly me since the legs that I had originally wanted to run were not part of the new out-and-back course. With no real rhyme or reason to it, our friend ended up running the first two legs then handed off to K for the next two legs which left me with the final, arguably hardest, leg of 6.5 miles through the Carmel Highlands. K ended up running into the finish with me, so he actually got to see the whole course, which included a 2-mile detour at the end in Point Lobos State Reserve which is not part of the regular course. 

I wasn't running this race too seriously because I wanted to enjoy the scenery and stop for pictures. Here's a few views of the section of course that I ran:

Strawberries at mile 21-ish! Yum!

View from Point Lobos State Reserve

Sassy K

Happy to be done.

While we all enjoyed the scenery and experience of running on Highway 1, we also realized just how much waiting around is involved in doing a relay race like this. Lots and lots of waiting - waiting to get shuttled to your respective starting point, waiting for your runner to come through so you can start running, and waiting to get shuttled back to the finish area.

But, it was worth it. :)