Races 31 - 33

Late summer is one of my favorite times of the year. The days are warm, the nights are cool, and there are plenty of good races to take advantage of. I haven’t written a blog post in a while but, that doesn’t mean I haven’t done any races.

I’ve knocked out three more and have picked up some more men’s deodorant samples along the way. Some of these races happened a while ago. Here’s what I can remember:

Race 31: Eldorado Springs Run for the Cure

Date: August 27

Type: Run

Distance: 4 miles

Shwag: Race shirt + another shirt for trying on a pair of Newtons + some Noosa + some gross bacon-flavored pumpkin seeds (I guess they could not be gross. I dunno, I didn’t try them) + a Pasta Jay’s sticker + dinner (oh how I love a race that feeds me a solid meal!)  

Shwag

It was a lovely late-summer evening and I was honored to once again be joined by my good friend JenSki, who is on track to join me for 10 of my races. There were a few other Fast Forward people at the race too, including Jen Szabo, who didn’t run but was nice enough to hold my phone for me. And this is what you get when you ask Jen Szabo to hold your phone:

I had heard stories about this mid-week, Eldorado Springs race before but I never had a reason to do it. But this year, it was a great way to get in a race and dinner, and that’s a combination that can’t be beat. This is a mid-week sleeper race. There’s a great community vibe and the scenery is great. But, even with those pluses, there were only a few hundred participants for this four-mile race. Maybe that's because it's deceptively tough.

Me and the Jens

The first two miles are downhill, which means that the last two miles are uphill. Having ridden my bike to Eldo a bunch of times, I know just how uphill it is and, unlike a lot of those around me, I kept it in check for the first two miles because I knew I was going to suffer in the second half.

Newtons that I tried on and wore for the race.
I know they say "nothing new on race day"
but when you have 40 race days in a year,
you have to make some exceptions. 

I was a little nervous before the race began. I’ve been doing so much slow trail running all summer and I couldn’t remember the last time I ran four miles without walking at least half of it, due to rocks, mountains, whatever. But, when the gun went off, my instincts kicked in and aside from a brief walk at the aid station, I ran, like a regular runner, and that was a great feeling. While it wasn’t my swiftest race ever, it wasn’t so bad. And it’s nice to know that I’m still capable of running faster than 15 minutes a mile.

There’s a nice little post-race party at the Eldorado Springs pool, with food and beer, so I was pretty excited to get to the finish line. I was not, however, excited when the Avery guy refused to give me a beer because I didn’t have an ID. I told him I was 40 and he still said no way. Dude, please. If I’m going to lie about my age, am I really going to say I’m 40?

He still didn’t want to budge but, the older I get, the less willing I am to take no for an answer, especially when a free beer is on the line. Using my race bib as proof of my age, along with the help of the old guy in line behind me, I badgered the guy until he gave me a beer. All in all, I’d call it a successful race.   

Shwag

Race 32: The Bergen Peak Trail Half (aka, the race that broke me)

Date: August 29

Type: Trail run

Distance: 13.1 miles

Shwag: Tech shirt

Last year I did Bergen Peak on a whim. It was my first trail race ever and, in retrospect, it was a stupid choice. This is NOT an easy race and there were three distinct moments last year when I knew I was in trouble: 1. When I got out of the car and saw the mountain I was about to run up. 2. When I told people it was my first trail race and they said things like “This is your first trail race? Wow…” and then trailed off without looking me in the eye. 3. When, two minutes before the race started, Jen Szabo, whom I had also roped into my crazy race, said, “Is it just me, or is everyone here like really, really fit?” and I looked around and noticed that everyone was like really, really fit.

Bergen Peak. It looks smaller
than it really is.

Aside from the first mile, which is mostly downhill-ish, last year’s race was mostly a sufferfest. How bad was it it? After I had already been out there suffering for a few hours, I passed a guy who was running up the trail in the opposite direction. He said, “You’re doing great! Only two more miles to go!” And I cried.

So, of course, you can see why I wanted to do this race again.

The thing is, I had very little trail experience last year. And this year, I have way more. I was eager to see whether or not I had learned anything and/or gotten more fit. I had a five hour run on my schedule the day of the Bergen Peak so I decided to take the race slow and use it as a chance to have a lot of other people join me for the first three or so hours of my run. Even though I was pacing myself for a five-hour effort, not a half marathon, my goal was to see how close I could come to the previous year’s time, while keeping my effort at a significantly easier pace.

All in all, I was about 10 minutes slower this year, but I felt about 1000 times better, and I couldn’t have been happier about that. Not only did I feel better, I ran a really smart race, as opposed to last year’s really stupid race, and that was a big improvement. I took it easy, I chatted with people, I field properly, I offered encouragement, I have a water bottle to a guy who was wearing long pants and doing the race without water, I stopped to take pictures at the top, etc. etc. 

Me at the top. It was smoky because of
the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. 

Unlike last year, I was also happy the entire time. In fact, I was so happy with the race that when I crested the last hill and saw the finish line, I jumped for joy, which I think slightly infuriated those around me but, that's not my problem. I had a lot left in the tank after this one, which I should have, since I had a lot more to run. But, when I crossed the finish line last year, I was in a hole, physically and mentally, and I don’t think I crawled out of it for a long, long time.

I topped off my water at the finish line and then headed back out for a few more hours, garnering looks of “is this girl nuts?” from everyone at the finish line. As I was heading back up Bergen Peak, I passed some hikers who were heading down and remembered that I had passed them earlier in the race, as I was heading down from the peak. After I went by, I heard one of them say, “she did the race!” From the tone in the woman’s voice, I couldn’t tell if she was impressed or thought I was nuts. I like to think it was a little bit of both. 

I’d be lying if I said the rest of my run was as wonderful as the first three hours. Things got rough out there and I had a brief moment where I considered whether or not I wanted to do the 50k. If I was hurting that much at 20, how much will I hurt at 30? I kind of don’t want to know. But, in any long event, there will be dark moments and you just have to put your head down and work through them, knowing they won’t last. I used this rough patch as a chance to practice how I’ll handle the situation when (not if) it crops up during my race.

I took it one step at a time and thought about the amazing burger and fries I was going to have when I was done. Also, Jen Szabo joined me again this year, and we roped in Christie B. too.  Even though we didn’t run together, it helped to know that they were out there, somewhere, and would be waiting for me when I finally finished up my run.

Just as I was emerging from my darkness, I saw Jen and Christie on the trail ahead of me. It put a little more pep in my step to see them and I ran to meet up with then and then jogged back into the car. After lying around in the parking lot for a while, and then bathing in the sink at the Evergreen Rec Center, we made our way to Illegal Burger, which has become a Bergen Peak tradition.

Mark your calendars for next year, people. This is a good one!

So good it should be illegal! 

Race 33: The Big Gay 5k

Date: September 13

Type: Run

Distance: 5K

Shwag: Cotton/Poly Shirt + reusable bag + lots of stuff to eat + … men’s deodorant

Shwag

Now that I’m more than 30 races into this thing, I’m beginning to pick out a few trends in 2015 race shwag. A big one seems to be men’s deodorant. Not just any men’s deodorant. THE SAME mens’ deodorant. Over, and over, and over again. I even got this stuff at a women’s only race. What the heck is going on?

What’s even stranger is that, for some reason, I’ve saved most of the men’s deodorant that I’ve gotten. Why? I don’t know. Is this how hoarding starts? God, I hope not. Should I die suddenly and you come to clean out my house, please don’t think that I have some kind of problem.

Anyway…    

The Big Gay 5K was a really lovely race. The race was incredibly supportive, and was more about community than competition. That’s always a nice thing. It also took place in Boulder and started at 10:30. That was really nice as well. I’d also say that this was one of the most costumed races I’ve done, and that’s always entertaining, especially when there are people dressed like this…  

Very festive. 

Jen Ski joined me for what I think was race #7 or #8. She and I usually run at different paces but, since I had done a fairly lengthy trail run the day before, I wasn’t up for racing and was planning to run right around Jen’s speed. I say “right around Jen’s speed” because, unbeknownst to her, I was planning to run slightly faster than her push her to go a little faster. I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not so while Jen was taking care of some pre-race logistics (that’s a nice way of saying “using the port-a-potty”), I ran the plan by her partner, Teri. Teri gave me the go-ahead and so it was on.

Smiles before the race!

Jen and I have been friends for ten years now, which means that I’ve subjected that poor girl to some crazy things, like running in Wyoming in the middle of the night, doing this five-week bootcamp thing that started at the butt crack of dawn, and doing a meditation retreat where we slept in a tent while it snowed outside. Out of all the crazy things I’ve made Jen do, this was the first time I felt like she might really be mad at me. But, if Jen really wanted to go easier, she could have. And she didn’t. She hung in there like a trooper and, once we crossed the finish line and the pukey feeling passed, she stopped hating me. (But she really did hate me during the race, I think. And that’s okay.)  

I think this picture from the race sums it all up perfectly. I’m smiling, just a bit, and Jen looks… unsmiley.

Not as smiley at the finish line. 

Since the race started at 10:30, we were done around 11:00, which we all know is the perfect time for brunch! Jen, Teri and I wrapped up a lovely morning with some yumminess at Brasserie Ten Ten, and then I headed home with another race under my belt, and one more shirt to cram into my drawer.