Sunday, June 17, 2012

Father's Day

So this post is going to be dedicated to my Dad since he recommends my posts on Google+ and is one of my biggest supporters. Happy Father's Day Dad!

This picture was taken in middle school.

8th grade graduation



At the office working hard

On a hike

Trying to understand my guitar hero obsession 

Teaching my sister and I about hockey 

Always willing to pose for a picture

Christmas 

A random hike I made him go on


Celebrating 

Most recent family picture


Our second Bolder Boulder, both our first street race

Taking care of my busted knee

Treating him to the Maid of the Mist



Probably my favorite picture of us

Fueled my coffee obsession 


High school graduation

College graduation


Helps me cook while watching football

Always cheering me on from the side! 

Thanks for being the best dad ever! I love you!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sometimes I'm overzealous...

On twitter I follow Bart Yasso, the CRO (chief running officer of runner's world) and when I told my dad this, he lent me his book. My Life on the Run is Bart telling stories about races he ran. It's amazing and a good read. Bart has ran a marathon on every continent (including Antarctica). Reading all his stories inspired me to be a better runner.

At the end of the book, Bart posted different training schedules for 5ks up to a marathon. Since I felt inspired, I'm going all out, 26.2 miles of fun. The schedule perfectly fits for me to race the Rock n Roll Denver Marathon. I'm excited for this challenge and ready to embrace it!

The biggest challenge for me is finding time to fit in my runs. It's hard when you work full time and I'm outside all day since I'm running summer camp. It's been a rough start but getting a little better day by day. The kids are crazy but give me great stories to tell.

For instance, today we were walking through Garden of the Gods and they wanted to find benches to sit on. It motivated them to move faster through the park lol. They did think it was pretty cool that I raced through there a few times (twice).

Welp! Here is to my summer of training!


Monday, June 4, 2012

Running to the Shrine aka Running up a huge hill

I love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. You can feed giraffes, pet animals, and watch the hippos! So when I heard there was a race I was down. Most of it is uphill but that's NBD to me, Colorado is full of hills, but boy was this a tougher one then I thought...

The start of the race was sunny and warm. I thought about ditching my running hoodie but thought I keep it on just incase. My dad waited at the start with me and I was ready to go once I got all my race gear together. Best part, a tortoise was the race marshall!

Once the race started I was off! My dad gave me good advice about not starting out too fast. I took it slow since I knew I had a long hill ahead of me. I was passing people since most people were walking as families. However, a few people were using me to pace themselves. They would speed past me and then walk. Once I caught up to them they would start running again. I was getting frustrated but I kept going. Getting to the top at mile 2 was intense! I took a few seconds to take in the view and then ran downhill. I started passing people again and kept a steady pace. I passed a few of the people who paced with me. I almost caught the last girl but the finish came quicker then I expected.  If I only had 100 more meters!

Once I was finished, the rain started! I had to walk half way down the hill in the pouring rain! I went to the after party and grabbed chips and quesso, fruit, and a bagel. I was soaked by the time I found my dad.

Overall a fun race! I would do it again and maybe try the 10k.

Me before the race! (this is probably one of my favorite race outfits :))