Garden of the Gods 10-miler, let's run it

Denver’s been very dry this spring; that is up until this weekend. Scattered rain moved into the state on Friday afternoon and continued to saturate us through the entire weekend. Along with the rain, cooler temps arrived and brought highs that looked a lot like February and early March, not mid-June.

Don’t be all jealous now, mid-90’s with wind and our famous sunshine are suppose to return by Wednesday….

...but living in a semi-arid climate where water is practically liquid gold (just look at my water bill each summer month!), we Coloradoans soak up this rainy weather (get it?? SOAK. Bahahaha) since it’s such a rarity we get it. At least we don’t have ungodly humidity! Just sayin'.

And what a perfect morning for a little hilly 10-mile race. And when I say HILLY, I mean HILLY!!!!.

Yes, that is the (crappy image) profile for the Garden of the God’s 10-miler I ran this morning. Which resembles a roller-coaster. And I felt like I was on one, only running it. I can honestly say there is not one level spot on this entire course.

Let’s recap last blog up Mt. Evans: I AM NOT A HILL CLIMBER! Yes, I insanely will run most things that will probably kill me; I’m a sucker for putting my body through physical punishment, but I do not do anything “up” fast. Today was evident of that.

A little geology lesson for y’all (I’ve been out of school for a week now, need to get my little fix here): Garden of the Gods is a little park in Colorado Springs full of really cool geological features called hogbacks. These hogbacks are ancient sedimentary sandstone beds which were once shallow ocean seas. The seas left our state, for whatever reason, a bazillion years ago, and in its place, the mud and sands of the once seafloor turned into sedimentary rock. Over time, another bazillon or two years, the once horizontal sedimentary rock was tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces, and then we add a little erosion to the mix and whaalaa, we’re left with these geological gems.

Yep, they be pretty all right – and mighty challenging if you want to run 10 miles through them. But that’s ok. I had no goal time, no desire to “race” this race, no ambitions of finishing anywhere high in my age group (this race brings out an insane number of very competitive hill climbers….I’m not sure where they all come from but they only show up for the really difficult hilly, altitude, races. And win them all!). No, my goal was to get some tough hill work in … and not walk. Mission accomplished (though I’m not sure you’d consider my slower than molasses shuffle up mile 7 any semblance of a “run”)!!! And what actually proved to be most difficult for me in this little race was the extreme downhill at mile 7.5 and 8.5 when my heel was totally revolting the sharp pounding (remember Mr. Agonizing Heel from Boston?? Yeah, he’s still not very happy. In fact, he’s pretty UNhappy on any run over 8ish miles). I finished somewhere around 1:32...I forget exactly and it doesn't really matter at all. I finished. I ran strong (for me right now) and I fought the hills and won (no matter how slow).

It was a great day and I’m totally glad I ended up registering late Thursday evening and running the beast. I was contemplating a couple different races this weekend but in the end, figured this was the one that would give me the most physical benefits. It definitely did not disappoint in that! I rode down with my friend, Bob, from the group I occasionally run with; he is super speedy and after he was done, he ran back to find me on the course and ran the last mile in with me. Which was really nice. I wasn’t exhausted or drained or dead (but I’m most likely going to ache tomorrow morning), I just ran in and got my medal and stuck around for Bob to get his AG win:

and then hooked up with Kathleen from Happy Trails for brunch at a yummy place called Pike Grille. It was so fun to see Kathleen all squeaky clean without running cap and ponytail; it’s interesting how we runners “clean up” and look so different (and cute!) than in our running attire. I’m certain I wouldn’t recognize any of you on the street out of your running clothes and sweat-less. Which reminds me of a story I’ll have to share with you at some time about a high school friend who recognized me at a local race, donning a race hat and ponytail, who I hadn’t seen in about 23 years. Another time, perhaps….

Though I still do not have the speed, still working on reducing my weight to marathon goal, still have pathetic uphill glutes, my sinuses still annoying as all get-out, and my heel still giving me a very difficult time - I have to say that I FINALLY am starting to mentally come around and am feeling better with my running. I think it's in large part a thanks for the physical challenges I have set for myself - and conquering them (however slow). I ran Garden of the Gods, one of the most challenging road races in this state – and I didn’t die! There’s beauty in that alone for me for I love anything that is a good physical challenge!!! I’m not sure what the future holds with my running, my heel seems to be pretty unhappy with any distance over the 8-10 mile range, which makes marathon training a wee-bit difficult. I’m just taking it one day at a time and we’ll see what we see but in the mean time, I’m trying to navigate my life (and my running) with a compass that points towards excitement about what lies ahead. If I can’t do a marathon right now, I can’t….there’s plenty of other adventures waiting out there for me.

Yep, that's me in my orange shorts. If you recall a blog from past, these orange shorts are deemed poor performers and are banned from all important running events. So why do I have them on for a race then?? Well, first, this wasn't an "important" race, it was a race to get a great physical workout in and second, a blogger friend, Augie, was running his first marathon today and he likes the orange shorts....so Augie, these shorts are for your race (and thanks, Bob, for getting a great pic of my eyes closed!). But the best part of orange shorts today? A FB friend, whom I've never met, was able to easily spot me. Imagine!