So your friend sees this Half Marathon and checks out the bling.. it's cool AND has 2 free beers so she sends a message to your regular running buddies and says " we should do this " we all get super excited and say yes lets, lets carpool and celebrate our other friends birthday. We rush to sign up. 10 minutes later we get another message from same friend saying " you do realize we all just signed up for a Half Marathon in less than 4 weeks right ?" Um well ..... ah crap !!! The things I let them talk me into. Peer pressure is way worse when your a runner. Dang corrupt friends of mine. 13.1 miles... no problem, we got this. And did I mention there is beer at the end ? Oh and Clydesdales too !!
Bright and early we met up at Lois's house to carpool up to Fort Collins to the Anheuser Busch Brewery . It's always nice to travel with friends and this trip didn't disappoint at all. Lois had 6 in her car and Chris had 4 in hers. Let the party start. It was super cold out when we got there , as in 17 degrees cold. Thankfully they had an indoor area for waiting until the start. We warmed up, got in the ridiculously long bathroom line ( 6 stalls for woman .. never a good thing ) and then ran outside to snap some pictures.
Kara, Lois, Me, Melanie and Kelli ( my car pool peeps ) and check out our matching skirts.. heck yes !!
This was the whole gang of us
Kara, Lois, Me, Kelli, Denise, Melanie, Dray, Molly and Chris ( the birthday girl )
The race started about 15 minutes late but for good reason . This was the first time for this race ( they have a fall that they usually do ) and they didn't have outhouses at the start so the ladies bathroom line was ridiculously long. They decided to wait for the line to end so everyone started at the same time. Not a huge deal and they made sure that everyone was informed of what was happening. Job well done Spring Equinox crew.
The course was beautiful !! A mix of paved and dirt roads with the mountains in view. It was peaceful and stunning.
Mile 4 Endurance Way ... how perfect is that ?
I mean check out the view we had
I finished. Was this the best race ever for me ? Oh heck NO !!! This race sucked. This race pushed me hard. This race had me ready to quit at mile 4, I wanted to beg for a ride back to the start at mile 9 and I could have kissed the ground when we hit the finish but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up . Every step hurt, my legs felt like blocks of cement and every time our interval timer went off I wanted to punch it so it would stop. I finished though and for that I am proud of myself. I didn't miss a single run interval. I crossed both the start and the finish. Some races are just like that. Some days 13.1 feels like a breeze and other days 1 mile kills me. It's how you handle the situation that counts. I didn't quit, I didn't give up, I pushed through and I finished with a smile on my face and memories to keep always.
Time for some beer !!!
Okay probably one of the better post race food spreads I've seen in a long time. Pancakes, bacon, fruit, English muffins, cocoa, water and beer.
I keep it simple, Budlight Lime is my go to
And then finished with a Cranberry Lime A Rita .
One of the things I was SO excited about was the fact that the horses would be here today. They take off Monday so this was perfect timing. These beasts are beautiful. I'm a sucker for a horse.
They had a few out for pictures. The line was open to the public at this point ( we didn't drink our beer fast enough dang it ) so it was pretty long and we had to get back for some family events. So because we are crazy like that we just walked to the front of the line and took our own pictures. The backdrop was amazing too.
The whole group I went with was so awesome. We actually all knew more people there but this was the group I rode down with and ran with. They are always so much fun. Most of them are part of the RIOT ( running is our therapy ) group as well as MRTT ( moms run this town ) and Run Junkies groups. I feel blessed to call them friends. We had beers, we laughed, we told stores, we snapped pictures, we ate food and just had a wonderful time together.
The birthday girl
Cheers
By the time I got home they had uploaded the coolest race photos ever. They did such an awesome job at placing the photo people in the coolest places. I mean the mountains in the background. So amazing .
Always ALWAYS have fun
This race was mentally tough for me but even with it being hard I had the best time. I had wonderful friends to push me to the end, great food, good beer, beautiful views, free pictures, Clydesdales, race bling and laughs. What more could one ask for right .
No comments:
Post a Comment