fallMaybe it’s because winter went away, and fall arrived.  Or perhaps Monday’s self pep talk put a spring in my step … either way, I’ve had a pretty good week.  It helped that the weather in Colorado has been delightful all week – some days warmer, some cooler but all sunny and nice!  Week started with a Sunday Oktoberfest  10K run in Denver in the Larimer Square area. 

(it’s fall in my front yard)

My mini race report on this one:

 This race had more participants than I expected with over 650 finishers between the 5K/10K races – the races started at the same time.  I was happy that the run was chip-timed because it took me over a minute to cross the start.  There were also a variety of participants that made the early part of the race a bit of a challenge to navigate – in particular the kids on scooters… after about the first ½ mile, I was running obstacle free :-) .  The weather was nice, a bit on the hot side.  The course was interesting – mainly flat with one rather long hill toward the end.  Not a PR 10K for me, but I wasn’t really expecting it.  Good time nonetheless: 53:23 with a pace of 8:37.  29th out of all female runners (221 total) – I didn’t see an age group break down.  My Garmin tells me I ran 6.28 miles giving me closer to an 8:30 pace – but whatevs, it was a good time.   We also met up with some great old friends and caught up over a beer.  And post – race, I received an email from the organizers telling me that I have won a beer stein (raffle-thing) – sweet!  shirt

I had some lovely Colorado running days this week.  I ran under sunny skies and hot temps early in the week only to be rewarded with cooler (wind chill in the 20s-30s-style) weather later in the week.  Over 31 lovely miles logged this week without sacrificing too much of my cross training! October is going to bring all kinds of variety … and I know I need to break out the snowy running gear soon!

cool race shirt (back)

 

Be the change you wish to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi

2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948