Traveling

Racing The States Is 8 Years Old!

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BTW, I’m still avoiding putting all my thoughts together on our global pandemic. Every day is different. Every day I feel different. Some days I’m calm and positive and others I’m in full-on panic mode, breaking down into tears.

For now, here’s another post I’ve been working on.

COVID-19, an empty, roped-off playground.

When our local municipalities decided to shut down schools and ban gatherings over 10 people, I ended up with a lot more free time on my hands since all of my jobs were impacted. I’ve been keeping busy with random, long put-off projects and one of those was going through my blog.

I went through all my posts to see what was online, in the interwebs. I deleted some, edited some, made sure links were still working, pictures were still there, etc. While doing so, I noticed my blog anniversary had just passed. My first post was 8 years ago, March 1st, 2012.

Looking back, I can see that my writing style is still relatively the same, I’ve just improved a bit. I used to use too many exclamation points and a ton of ellipses…

Okay, maybe I still do that!

This is a perfect representation of me at the time.

Some of my first posts were TERRIBLE; I deleted a few. Some posts I really liked and I’m still really proud of. But I really liked looking back through them all and reminiscing about where I was at those points in my life.

I went through some times of posting regularly and there were other times of barely posting anything.

I really liked that I used to be consistent in my “pre-race prep” and “post-race recap” posts and I used to do a lot more about updating on daily training and running. At one point I did a regular “Tuesday Newsday” which featured weekly recaps of my training. Maybe I’ll start this back up.

Probably not.

I love that my blog has really become a history keeper.  That’s why I didn’t delete a lot of them, even if some of them are embarrassing. It was cool to see my personal history… who I was friends with, who I was dating, things I did, my career changes, life milestones, etc. It’s also a history of what was going on in the world at times. I wrote about the movie theater shooting here in Colorado, the Boston bombings, and now there will be COVID-19 posts.

For those of you that may have not been here from the beginning, here are a few of my favorite posts, most popular posts and a few that I think you might enjoy!

 My most popular post (according to the stats): Conquering the Manitou Incline.
-I first did the incline in 2013 and then again in 2015. I wrote a review of my experience and it’s been my most viewed post.

 My 2nd most viewed post: Ragnar Relay, Snowmass – Post Race Recap
– This was a first-year event for the Ragnar Trail relay series and I got to run for free as a 3W Ambassador. It was a blast and I was hooked!

Least Views: NYRR Virtual Turkey Trot
– I don’t blame you, this isn’t my greatest work nor the best topic.

Here are a few of my personal favorites that I’ve written over the years:

My Rugged Maniac Review 
– I ran this race back in 2012 with my dear friend Shay. To this day, I have never, ever, EVER been colder in my life.

My First Marathon Review (series) 
– I ran my first and only marathon, the Vermont City Marathon, back in 2013. I loved everything about my training and experience. I was at a really weird place in my life at the time, but running was such a constant and controllable thing that I was very proud of my finish.

Wow! Look at that girl! 25 Years Old!

Ragnar Trail Colorado
– This is one of my personal favorite posts. I originally wrote it for a couple of different publications that fell through and left me pretty disappointed. But I ended up posting it to my blog anyway and I still love it.

CTM Band Review
– This was my first gear review after becoming a BibRave Pro and I got creative with the style and it ended up being one of my favorite pieces.

5 Tips for Making Your Bolder Boulder Experience the Best
– This is for people local to Colorado, but still one of my better posts.

Things I Didn’t Know About Running Postpartum
– By far the best post I think I’ve ever written and it’s relatively new.

Notable or historic posts:

Attaining the Runners’ High
– This was one of my first “research” type of pieces but I really just like the story of my pothead roommate getting his first runner’s high.

My First 3W Race, the Resolute Runner 5k … and the rest is history! (If you’re new, I now am a race director for 3W Races).

Boston Bombings – this happened a month before I was to run my first marathon.

Ben starts appearing in my posts…

And Layton was born! 🙂

Here are a few other posts that you might enjoy! 

Volunteering at the Leadville 100 

A collection of National Parks posts

My Running Story

I hope you enjoy these favorites of mine and they bring some joy into your day.

#60HikesDenverChallenge – Mt. Sanitas

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(In 2017, I had a goal of getting through all 60 trails in the book “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Denver.” I didn’t make it through all 60 that year (I only got about 18) or even in 2018…and now were into 2019. I still want to get through all the hikes in the book – eventually.  All the specific trail details can be found in the book or online, but I’ll highlight some things about each trail in addition to including my experience and opinion on the trail here. The numbers below are associated with how they are labeled in the book if you have it.)

I did this hike back in April when I was about six months pregnant (I just never got around to finishing this post).

Trail #3 – Mount Sanitas
Completed: 4/24/19 | Number Completed: 24/60
Mode: Hike with Ben, while pregnant
Location:  Boulder
Distance: 3.3 miles
Difficulty: Hard
Type of trail: Round trip; hard-packed dirt for half and very rocky on the other half.
Exposure: Half shady
Facilities: Pit toilets (pretty gross ones) and picnic tables. No water.

My Experience:
I actually really loved this trail, except for the crowds. This trail is known to have a ton of people and there is barely any parking. Despite that, this trail is actually quite nice! It has just the right amount of difficulty without being a gut buster. Ben and I did this hike when I was about six months pregnant and it took us a really long time. I had to stop and rest often, but we made it the whole way. We did the loop counter-clockwise and after seeing the side we went down on, I’m glad we did it this way. When you go clockwise, the uphill part is slightly shorter but way steeper!

Pros:
-Close to town; this trail is just outside of Boulder.
-Doesn’t feel close to town. Once you get away from the road, you don’t realize you’re that close to town until you get to lookout points and can see the city.
-There are a ton of other trails nearby as well.

Cons:
-Very busy! Even during a weekday, midday.
-No facilities. There is no water and the pit toilets are some of the worst I’ve seen.
-Not much parking; the little bit that is there fills up fast!

Tips:
-Bring Water!
-Hiking poles come in use for the steep downhill.
-Bring some cash! If you do manage to get a parking spot, it does cost ($5 I believe)!

Overall:
I would love to go back to this trail now that I’m not pregnant! It was pretty hard while being six months pregnant, but manageable. It’s a short enough hike that you could add this into your week for a training run or hike like the locals do. I do recommend this as a good trail for out-of-towners as well as a great example of a Colorado trail. Plus, the views from the top are worth it. To the east, you overlook Boulder and to the west, you can see mountainous landscapes!

Park Info

Get the book!

1st Third Of 2019 – Updates

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Well, my monthly update posts didn’t continue from 2018, but I’d like to keep my blog as updated as possible….

While this blog is supposed to a focus on my lifestyle with racing (running in general) and wandering (travel), this year hasn’t brought much of either of these things. However, 2019 is bringing a lot of different type of adventures, one in particular! This July we are expecting a baby boy to join us in this crazy household – whether we’re ready or not. 😉

If you missed my announcement from my end of the year post, SURPRISE! Yes, I am pregnant! We know it’s a boy and his due date is July 4th! We are busy preparing for this little one while stressing about what life will become and the changes to our jobs, finances and more. It has been quite a stressful start to the year trying to figure things out, get the house ready (yes, it’s still a construction zone around here), all while balancing my many jobs. With all that, I haven’t been writing in my blog, barely have been posting to social media, and haven’t had time to hang out with many of my friends socially.

As for running…
While there are tons of strong women out there that run all through pregnancy, that has NOT been in the cards for me. Frankly, it just feels weird for me and kinda hurts, plus my heart rate goes from 65 to 130 instantly (which isn’t a great thing for pregnancy)! So, as much as I imagined being that super cute, running pregnant lady, alas, I am not. I see lots of happy running women on my Instagram feed and they make it look so easy! But for me, it is just not working.

For the first half of pregnancy, I didn’t have much “morning sickness,” just a lot of nausea,  and was trying to exercise regularly between walking, the elliptical and weight training, but as pregnancy progressed (and my work schedule got 100x more busy with the start of track season) I have not been exercising as much and it has been hard to start back up. Nevermind the fact that I am SO TIRED and UNCOMFORTABLE! In the past few weeks I have been trying to walk more and get some hikes in to stay somewhat healthy and as to not have to start from ground zero after the baby comes (because I do want to get back to running as soon as I can – I miss it).

As for the travel part of this blog…
That has also not been in the cards for us for a while; since last year really. We haven’t been able to take much time off with all our jobs, and with home renovations, pregnancy, and finances, it’s been pretty tough to get in any type of travel, even small local trips. We did get a chance to go to Florida for a wedding (thanks to Ben’s family) and snuck in a trip to Epcot, Disney World.

And for the rest….
Yes, I am still working three jobs (helping Ben with our own business, Golden Mountain Guides, marketing and race directing for 3W Races, and coaching high school track and cross country.). It was a tough end of the year in 2018 and into 2019 for Golden Mountain Guides as we try some new pricing and marketing things, but we’re figuring it out. My other main job has some troubles I won’t get into on this blog and track has been a little more stressful this year than it should be….but we’re making it through! We still have our priorities in sight and our minds on our goals and are working every day to keep positive! No matter how stressful homelife is and finances are, we know that it will get better as long as we keep working on it and wont give up.

The first third of the year was not how we expected 2019 to start, but we’re working through!

January:
-I worked every weekend day this month.
-Between timing and race directing (sometimes both on the same day!), that was 9 separate running events I worked. Woof! That was tiring.
-Pre-Season Track also started this month.
-I also got to attend the CHSCA (Colorado High School Coaches Association) clinic and listen to some cool speakers.

And a lot of those races were FREEZING cold to work!

February:
-The weekend working streak keeps going through February until the last weekend.
-We do get to go to Florida! Ben’s family helped us travel so we could attend his cousin’s wedding!
-While we’re there, we get to sneak a day at Disney World and we went to Epcot! We also visited the beach, Disney Springs, the town of Celebration and play some putt-putt golf. It was a much need break after working so much the previous two months.
-The end of February marks the official start of the Track season!

March:
-The running job scene starts to slow down this month, and I only work four events this month.
-Track season is well under swing and the meets start to ramp up!
-I get to hang out with some of my family members that involve dinners and maternity clothes shopping!

Sometimes this is want coaching looks like

April:
-We like to call this “angry April” in track because there are a TON of track meets.
-I race direct one event this month.
-And have lots of Golden Mountain Guides meetings.
-We celebrate both my birthday and Ben’s birthday
-And we also get to celebrate Ben’s sister new addition with her baby shower!
-Then, right at the end, Ben and I are both a part of our friend’s wedding celebration. We get to be part of bachelorette and bachelor parties, a bridal hike, rehearsal dinner and a wedding ceremony in the snow!

As we get into May, I’m a little over two months from baby boy being born and growing more and more nervous (as well as literally growing more and more). We are working on finishing up the nursery and getting prepared at work for maternity leave.

As for the blog, for now, you can probably expect random, sporadic posts, info on how pregnancy, work, and our house is going and probably posts that I have started and never finished as I go through my drafts folder of this blog! I hope you all stay along for the ride, even as Racing and Wandering turns into Less Racing and Wandering and adventures with a kiddo!

1st Half of July Updates

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Like a lot of bloggers, I’d like to regularly do “updates” posts talking about what’s going on, keeping me active on the blog and doing general updates related to my blog. Ideally, weekly updates posts would be relatable for people, but that might be too ambitious for me. I have tried this in the past without much success. So, twice a month to start, I’m going to try to keep some updates including current likes, obsessions, books I’m reading, tv shows I’m getting into, updates with each job have, etc.

Kicking it off, here are some updates from the first half of July!

Where have I been?! That’s been the latest question people have been asking me. I have not been nearly as active on social media, blog posts or even emails. I have not been very good with texts, calls and being social… all for a great reason.

Right at the end of last month, Ben and I signed a new rental (home) lease! If anyone one knows us in person, you know that this has been much-needed and long-awaited. It’s been 3+ years in our grimy basement apartment and that’s 3 years too long in that place. We’ve been living with mold, asbestos coming out of the walls, rodents in the mudroom and a landlord that just doesn’t care and doesn’t take pride in his own property. But hey, you get what you pay for right?! We’ve got stories for days and hopefully, if this place hasn’t already doomed us health-wise, we’ll eventually be laughing about it.

Without going too far into our personal lives, we’ve been WANTING to move just haven’t been able to due to many factors. We have been trying and searching for a while now and finally found an opened door (literally?!?) and took a chance and huge leap.

We found a place that is both residential and a HUGE potential for our business, Golden Mountain Guides. We’re talking office, retail space, parking, storage, bathrooms for clients….it’s pretty amazing and perfect for us and in a prime location – I can literally wave to the people taking the Coors Brewery tour in Golden!

However, to make it affordable for us, we’ve made a deal with our NEW landlord to fix up the place. Essentially adding value to pay less per month. It didn’t need too much work, but due to our different personalities, the boyfriend decided to do ALL the projects at once and we haven’t been able to move our belongings over yet. Don’t worry, we are remodeling on a budget and using friends and family to help and taking advantage of the many area discount building/construction material places.

So…thats where I’ve been…every extra minute has been at the new place to get it liveable. Even in its pre-remodel condition, it was better than our old digs. We’ve been eager to get in there.

In addition to the new place, I’ve been keeping my time filled with work and a tiny bit of fun:

July, Week 1:
-Fourth of July week was pretty busy for me for the last few years because we have two races with 3W Races that we produce (job #1). I race directed the Longmont Half and we had packet pick up plus the race itself that week.
-That’s always an early morning (report time at 3am) and leaves me pretty beat for the rest of the day. But after a nap, we headed to my Dads’ house for dinner and fireworks viewing. He lives close to Mile High Stadium so the big fireworks display is easy to catch without going farther than the sidewalk out front.
-With the remaining hours of the week we spent, you guessed it, fixing up the new place.
-We did get to celebrate Ben’s brother in law’s birthday at the famous Casa Bonita!

July, Week 2:
-Sunday started off with a trip to the Renaissance festival with my oldest friend and then back to the grind of work and working on the house. That’s literally all I did that week.

July, Week 3:
-I got the opportunity to go on my first ever work conference! The running company I work for, 3W Races, use Run Sign Up for all their races’ registration platforms and we went to network and learn at the Run Sign Up Symposium in Philly!
-A got to do a TINY bit of sight-seeing and saw the Liberty Bell and ate my first ever, legit, traditional Philly Cheesesteak, with cheese whiz!
-As soon as we got back, we were in race mode as I had a race to direct on the weekend, the Summer Prairie Dog Half.

(I think my regular updates post will include stuff like the following…)

What I’m reading: I always have a lot of books on my “currently reading” shelf on Goodreads (follow me!) because I’ll start something and then get a book from the library that I need to return. Currently, I just finished “My Name is Memory” by Ann Brashares (Sisterhood of the traveling pants), a book I’ve had on my shelf from our local library’s book sale and I got it super cheap and it looked interesting. I’m also finishing up  “American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West” by Nate Blakeslee that was on the Outdoors Magazine Book Club for June (way behind). “My name is Memory” started out great, but ended very badly and left the story very open, without a sequel. “American Wolf” is a non-fiction book about the wolfs in Yellowstone National Park and the struggle between the hunters and the people trying to keep them protected. I have one chapter left and it is a fantastic book; I highly recommend it.

What I’m watching: I’ve been watching “Hemlock Grove” on Netflix. One of the original made for Netflix shows. It’s super creepy and has a lot of supernatural characters. I’m 5 episodes in and not sure if I like it! Ha!

What I’m Listening To: Every time I’ve been driving, I’ve been listening to the Game of Thrones audiobook. I’ve never read the book and reading the print version seemed daunting. I’ve only seen seasons 1 and 2 of the show and surprisingly, they’ve done a great job following the story (so far!).

What I’m loving: I’m LOVING my new shoes! Even though I haven’t been running as much, when I do run, I have been using my new Under Armor HOVR‘s that I got from being a Bib Rave Pro to test and review.

What I’m working on: The house. See above. 😉

New in the world of Golden Mountain Guides: As you read, the new house is a HUGE potential for the business. While we’ve been spending most of our time on the house, we’ve been allocating our guided trips to our employees and STILL have seen growth from last year!

New in the world of 3W: After the symposium, I feel pretty special that I got to go. I met a lot of the staff on Run Sign Up team, including the user experience staff and they asked me, personally, for my opinion on features and the appearance of the website. So cool! #geekingout

New in the world of coaching: Cross country camp is NEXT WEEK, marking the official start of the season! YAY! We’ll be up in Winter Park for four days running, talking about running, and dreaming about running with all the kiddos. I really enjoy this part of camp.

As always, Instagram is my go-to social media. So if you want to keep up with my life in semi-real time, that’s the place. Usually.

Follow me on Instagram: @RacingTheStates
Or on Twitter: @Racingthestates