On Sunday, May 10 I was in Boulder, CO to run the Title 9K+ race. (Sorry BlackBear, not Bolder Boulder!) Title 9K+ is a 9.9K women's only race sponsored by Title 9K clothing company.
What brought me to the race was a friend named Rachel from an online fitness forum that I belong to. There's a group of a few of us on the forum who are runners and Rachel invited me and another woman, Wendy, to come visit her and run the race. So I flew in on Friday evening, met my friends in person for the first time, and had a wonderful weekend!
On Saturday morning we went for a nice 4-mile run near Rachel's house. SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL to go for a run with the Rocky Mountains forming the backdrop. Gorgeous! I was concerned about how the high altitude would affect a midwest flat-lander like me, but it turned out to be okay. I felt it, and my heart rate was up a bit, but it was manageable.
After our run, we cleaned up and headed up to Cheyenne to visit the Sierra Trading Post outlet. Wow, what a huge store! I bought a few running shirts, which I totally don't need but who cares, right? And also a cute casual skirt. Wendy and Rachel found even more and better deals than I did. It's probably a good thing I didn't buy more, since I hate checking luggage and my carry-on was already stuffed to the point of bursting.
On Sunday morning, we were up early and off to Boulder for the race! Rachel's husband and kids came with us. (It was Mother's Day, after all!) The race as at the Boulder Reservoir - really lovely there. It had been raining while were en route but fortunately stopped by race time. It was still cold, though. But Wendy (who is from southern California) was wearing shorts while Rachel and I were more bundled up. She's a tough one, that Wendy. :)
Rachel is super fast, so she lined up well ahead of me and Wendy. Wendy is also faster than me, so I was left in the dust pretty early on. I was wearing my jacket from the RNR Arizona half marathon, so that was fun because it caused a couple of women to start conversations with me. The race was mostly along dirt roads. Man, there were a couple of killer hills. But I kept on running. Really the only thing that slowed me down was about half a mile from the end when they had big pieces of chocolate at the aid station. Had to stop for that! Mmmm, chocolate.
The end of the race was a downhill, so I was able to turn on a little speed and feel what Rachel must feel like all the time when she runs! Crossed the finish line and collected my medal, which is actually a pretty necklace with a little pendant that says "Fit to Run" along with the name of the race and the date. Very nice! I haven't done a 10K before so I don't have a good point of comparison, but I was happy enough with my time. Mostly was glad the altitude didn't cause me to gasp for air and pass out. :)
Then we headed into town, did a little shopping, and then Wendy and I headed off to the airport. The weekend was much too short. And the race was a lot of fun, but mostly I enjoyed meeting my friends and hope I get to see them again soon.
4 comments:
That's funny a whole race report without much discussion of the actual race! That's why I love destination races. Shopping, friends, sightseeing, and squeeze a race in somewhere.
That's really interesting too that the altitude didn't bother you much. I get sick for about a week, even in Denver.
Wow, sick for a week! That would be rough. I was worried about that but for some reason it didn't happen. I know my race reports usually don't have much detail about the race. I have the worst memory for races - I get into a zone when I run and I really don't retain the details. Plus this was more of a fun run for me so I had no goals and just kind of chugged along and enjoyed the view.
I love your weekend report! It was such a great couple of days, meeting you and Rachel. We sure packed a lot into a short amount of time.
Can't wait to do it again!
It really was a lot of fun. I hope the Beardsley thing in September works out. If not, maybe Detroit in October. :)
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