WARNING: LONG POST What a beautiful and fun course! It was a point to point course, so I parked in Idaho Springs, found the bus pick-up and waited in line for 30 minutes to catch the second to last bus to Georgetown. Arrived at the starting line 12 minutes before race start (would have preferred a little earlier, but I didn't arrive early enough to avoid the long bus line). There were hundreds of people in line for the potties so I jogged down the road a bit to find a tree to squat by. This guy had the same thought and started creeping into my secluded area as I was peeing, but then he saw me and politely turned around and waited his turn. Haha...long lines for the porta johns and even lines for the trees. :) The race started and I chatted with another girl named Bean who I met last fall (cool name, eh?) She said she was shooting for 1:25 so we ran together for the first mile or so. There was another girl who went out ahead of us in what must have been sub 6:00 pace, but didn't kill myself to keep up with her at first. Mile 1 - 6:11 pretty flat, actually a little bit of ascent according to the Garmin. Mile 2 - 6:22 rolling, one short steep climb and some descent, Bean slipped right behind me into her own groove and I and kept my own comfortable pace with my eye on the leader who was a good 25 seconds ahead. Had some water at the aid station. Mile 3 - 6:01 gradual descent on a dirt road Mile 4 - 6:01 more gradual descent on the dirt road that turned into a narrower path. Popped my first gu right before the water station and chased it with a cup of water. Getting into a nice groove, noticed I was creeping up on the leader. Mile 5 - 6:13 caught the leader, her name is Kara. Ran with her on the dirt trail, flat. Mile 6 - 5:54 descending a little more, Kara and I are pacing together. Took water again at the station. Mile 7 - 5:54 very gradual descending, Kara starts to run a half step behind me Mile 8 - 6:07 descending with one short somewhat steep climb where Kara seemed to slip off. Popped another gu right before the water station and chased it down, or almost breathed it down with what water I could get...for some reason they stopped the paper cups and started giving plastic cups at this point, which are much harder to sip from, so most of it ended up on my face and shirt, but at least I got enough water to tame the sticky gu mouth until mile 10 when I could fully wash it down. Mile 9 - 5:58 dropped off onto the road and it was nice to have a smoothe surface Mile 10 - 5:50 loving this road and the descent that is coming with it. Had some gatorade at the pit stop...had to slow down more so I could actually gulp it down, but it was worth it. Mile 11 - 5:46 more descending on the road while trying to catch some men. Mile 12 - 5:51 this smoothe surface is really helping my splits and the descent is nice too (about 100 feet of descent per mile). Had another sip of gatorade at the pit. Mile 13 - 5:44 getting excited to finish and starting to feel the energy of the crowd near the finish line Mile .2 - unsure about my pace here..probaby 5:40 pace or so. Ran across the finish mat and for some reason my time chip did not register, so a few seconds later as I was watching for my family the finish line attendant ran up to me quickly to say I needed to run across the mat again...what? So I ran back and finished for the second time by stepping on the mat more adamantly. Chip time was 1:19:07, but when I looked up at the finish clock as I came across the first time, it said 1:18:47. Whatever. At least no women came in between my two finishes. Just a couple of men who can feel good about the fact that they didn't get "chicked" (at least on paper). Overall I felt GREAT and had a wonderful time! I was really glad I took liquid at every pit stop and the two gu's helped me feel strong to the finish. The trophy is an aluminum gold-mining pan with some tinfoil looking runner scupted and glued to the pan. Woo. I got what I went for...a great race and confidence builder. And it was fun to see my kids afterwards...they were so excited. My husband is such a stud for bringing them up and supporting me. Garmin says total ascent: 1,072 ft, total descent: 1,974 ft, average pace: 5:59 (that is when I stopped my watch at 1:19:16 after all the double finish fiasco. If my real time was actually 1:18:47 like I saw when I crossed the line, my average pace would have been closer to 5:58. Wahoo! | 