the golden leaf half marathon

All I can say is, YELLOW. well, that's not all I can say, and I will say a lot more, but I'll start with yellow. Parts of the trail were heavily blanketed with fallen aspen leaves, they were the cheeriest shade of bright yellow. The morning sun glowed through the leaves still on the trees, the scrub oaks were a deep orangy gold, and the sky was deep bright blue. A perfect day.

The race started at the bottom of Snowmass mountain, and the first mile was straight up the ski run. Boring, I walked. There were a bunch of insane people who ran up. There were 650 people entered. That's a lot! Especially once we got on the single track. I was waiting to hear a moo. The first maybe 2 or 3 miles of single track were so crowded. If somebody stopped to walk, we all had to stop. It was pretty annoying. I'm used to trail running with a few friends, and that has a whole other sense of peace and solitude. Mile 4 came quickly. Probably because I was so focused on not giving the runner in front of me a flat tire, or get one from the person behind me.

Somewhere around mile 5 things started to space out a bit. My friends Kristi and Kristina who I was running with stayed together, and that helped to have friends to talk to. It was during mile 6 that we ran through a big open meadow. I wished I had my camera. Grasshoppers were flying all over the place, everything was... well, yellow, and the air smelled like sweet grass and clouds. I was more than half done, and feeling pretty good.

I think I spaced out a bit then. The next thing I knew was we were all bunched up again in the herd, and pounding down steep switchbacks. Every once in a while you'd hear "oof", "shit", "wooow" or "aaagh". (those are the sounds a runner makes when they wipe out.) By then, mile 9 or 10, my knee was hurting, and my feet felt blistery, and I wasn't quite so peppy.

Then we came out of the woods and ran a short distance on the road. ouch. Luckily our friend Jim from work was there with big smiles and Gatorade. That helped. Than we crossed one of the most scenic foot bridges in Colorado, and were back on the dirt. We puttered through the open space outside town and eventually came to the 12 mile marker. One more mile to go. I could run one mile, right?

That last mile went quick, and before I knew it we were running down the sidewalk in town. That was kinda fun because there were people there cheering us on. When I got to the finish line, Gene, Poppie and Cody were there yahooing me through. I almost cried, but didn't.

Now I'm home, cleaned up and in my comfiest clothes, and really hoping both kids take good naps. Phew... that was a big accomplishment for me. I feel tired, and glad I survived