Half Marathon

1 week ago today on Memorial Day, I completed my first ever Half Marathon aka 13.1 miles!!! About a year or less ago, my bestie & I decided to challenge ourselves & sign up for our first half. But as the time grew more and more near, we both were dreading the day. Unfortunately, I was not able travel to the race in Texas & actually run it with Samantha. But 2 states and 730 miles apart we ran this race together, at least in spirit & simultaneously.  

 

 

I wish that I could say that I trained well for this & did great. But I made it out alive & I finished it. Those were my main goals. I didn't care about the time it took, just the end result.  I was a little ill prepared come race day (aka running by myself here in CO) as I forgot my water bottle at home! Needless to say, I was parched. At mile 7-8 when I was at my turn around spot to head back home, it finally started to sink in how darn tired I was & just how far I had left to go. Overall I only walked on the strenuous uphills. My body would have liked me much better if I would have trained in the months leading up to this, instead of procrastinating & saying "ehhh, I don't know if I'm going do it after all".  I proved myself wrong- I did!!!  I very proud of both myself & Samantha for putting this hard task on our list & succeeding through the hurt.  2014 is halfway over, but so many great milestone have already been accomplished... I look forward to the other challenges that I set for myself to succeed with!

Boulder Trip

My friend Keron  & I went to Boulder, CO for a little sightseeing today. Boulder is home of University of Colorado, which is Keron's Alma Mater & old stomping grounds. So I let her be the tour guide for the day.  Boulder is nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountain National Park and the scenery is gorgeous. It's very eclectic town based around this university. So the populous is very young-middle aged people who have their own unique fashion sense. Definitely not my fashion sense but not really hippie village either.   Upon arriving, Keron told me that it was the Boulder Creek Festival this weekend for Memorial holiday. After we drove around for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot, we headed down to the festivities.  We walked through the most extravagant farmers market. where they had more produce & plants that I have ever seen in a small town market. I wish I could have taken more photos of all the booths, but the foot traffic was astonishingly busy & wouldn't allow for this.

After leaving the festival, we walked a few blocks further to the shopping/downtown district of Boulder.  Here we found lots of your normal outdoor mall stores, but we also found local entertainers juggling & performing their musical acts right there on the sidewalks. The atmosphere in Boulder is very laid back, but upscale with some many different stores geared to a younger crowd. And everywhere you look people walk & ride bikes. It's the preferred mode of transportation and easily accessible to do.  More bike lanes that one can imagine.  If the Springs wasn't so far from Boulder then I would defiantly  live here. I can't wait to show Jeffrey all of the sites here.

We had a quick bite to eat from a local Greek street vendor & then walked over to the campus. Due to the fact that it took us so long to find a parking spot in a residential area off the beaten path, we decided to leave the car there & walk everywhere. Note to self, I should have changed my shoes to the Toms I had in the car. Those sandals were not good walking shoes for the miles we put on them today.

The University of Colorado is a sprawling campus- with such green grass & tall willowy pine trees. It is a picturesque Colorado college.

 just look at how green that grass was. No photo editing here!

 I found myself stopping every few minutes to snap more pictures. Keron was a great tour guide & trooper for taking lots of pictures of me. I wish so badly that Jeffrey could have been here today to experience all the ooh & ahh moments with me over this campus.

 

Keron said that this little pond, with the turtles perched upon that log, was one of her favorite study areas. Very tranquil and serene.
The campus is so picturesque that we stumbled upon a couple getting their wedding pictures taken just right over this bridge.

 

 

 The wonderful thing about this campus, is that architecturally they truly embraced the new & modern features amongst the old & traditional buildings.

 

A quick picture of the CU Buffalo mascot in front of the massive stadium. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside the stadium as they were preparing for more Memorial day festivities on the field area and had closed everything off.  I was amazed at how large this campus was. Keron & I walked for well over an hour & didn't see every building.   After all that walking, we had worked up an appetite, so we heading back to Denver area. Once again, Keron was my tour guide & took me down the 16th Street shopping district in downtown Denver for some dinner. I had never been down there & didn't realize how great it was. It reminded me a lot of Austin, TX and San Antonio, TX with the open restaurant seating on the sidewalks & the outdoor shopping districts, and bicycle buggies to transport you everywhere. At a minimal fee of course.  While waiting for our meal, I began making a long list of  Adventure to share/have with Jeffrey upon his return back home. I can't wait to bring him back to Boulder, so we can cycle our way through this hip little town & college campus, and top of the evening with a stroll down 16th street in Denver. Counting the days until this happens....

Killough's Colorado Visit May 18th-20th

On Sunday the 18th, the Killough's & I got up early to catch the first Cog Train to Pikes Peak of the day.  With Colorado Springs at the base of this mountain, you can clearly see that the mountain was snowed covered. So I tried to brace the Killough's for the low temps & the close confinements of the cog train.  In Zoey's normal fashion she handled this trip up fantastically. 

I don't have many pictures for myself to display as I was playing photograph for the Killough's family camera. But I did manage to snap a few for myself.  The whole trip up there went pretty quickly, only an hour and ten minutes. When we left the depot the temps were in the 50's but the temperatures on Pikes Peak that day were in the 20's with a wind chill in the teens. (Not sure the exact numbers). But we all bundled up & took lots of scenic pictures with and for the Killoughs.  After coming back down off the cog, we had a quick bit to eat at  me & Jeffrey's favorite restaurant in Manitou Springs, PJ's Bistro. The Killough's got quite the entertaining view of the eclectic Manitou & all that it has to offer. It's a very quaint town full of very hippie people. So there is always something strange to see each time I visit.   On Monday May 19th, we chose to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Another day filled with ohh's & ahh's while we drove up to this wonderful zoo in the mountain side. I had the privilege of already going to the zoo with Jeffrey, so I knew that it would be a great site that the Killough's needed to visit.

 

Of course no trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo would be complete without feeding the giraffes, stopping for a panoramic picture of CS and the famous photo in front of the Elephant statue.  After leaving these sites, we got to see....

 After 3 trips, I finally go to see the Rhino. Although I couldn't tell you what the zookeeper said his name was. But he's a beaut.

. Again, I didn't get a lot of pictures for myself, but I really enjoyed getting to capture some photos for the Killough's & just enjoying their company. I had already seen all the animals in the zoo, I was just glad to get to see their expression while they experience this wonderful place.  I must say that this is one of my favorite zoos.

Although the Rhino sighting was a highlight for me, the best thing I saw at the zoo, was this Araucana Chicken. I want a pet chicken badly, as this chicken would have been perfect. After a wonderful day in the sun, Samantha & I dropped Brad & Zoey off at the house for Zo's afternoon nap and then we headed to get a mani/pedi & some more bonding time before the dreadful next day... when they flew back home!  The following morning Tues May 20th, the Killough's once again boarded their flight back to Texas and headed back to their lives' there.  It was a wonderful trip for them & as well as me. I enjoyed getting to see their expressions over the scenery. But most of all, I just enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with my dear friends.  I miss them already & I hope they come back very soon for more Colorado adventures with both me & Jeffrey!

 

Killough's Visit to Colorado May 15th -17th

After months of waiting, the time finally arrived for Samantha, Brad & little Zoey to come to Colorado for a visit with Aunt B.  Poor Samantha stressed over the trip- the flight with Zoey & the sleeping habits of Zo, but.... when it came time for it all Zoey was a big trooper!  I picked up the Killough's from the airport on Thursday May 15th and our adventures begin from there.  After leaving the airport, we stopped for a bit to eat. All the while, Samantha in constant disbelieve over the beautiful mountains & surrounding scenery.  After arriving back at my house, Zoey immediately began giving Berky some lovin'. Of course, Gretel stayed away but made herself very known with her barking & growling. AKA Fun Police.

 After getting accostumed to the puppies, I gave Zoey all of her presents that I had picked up for her. Mostly, for her birthday but with a few other entertaining toys for the next few days.

 The next day, Friday May 16th, after a trip to the grocery store & Target for some supplies- we went to Garden of the Gods for a little site seeing. Unfortunately, the weather  had cooled a bit and had started raining, so most of our site seeing was done from the car. But the ooh's and aah's that were received over the scenery were priceless nevertheless.   We got out of the car & braved the weather for a few necessary pics.

 

 

 

I failed a little at being hostess & didn't tell the Killoughs to put on some pants/warmer clothes or even closed toed shoes. Yikes on my part. But to my defense, I didn't know that we were going to be doing any climbing over the rocks. The photo ops just presented themselves & we had to take em! But the good hearted Killough's were up any challenge to get a good photo.

By this point, the time is just flying by for me & I realize that our few days together will soon end. The next day, Saturday May 17th, Samantha & I got to go for a much needed run together. Man, was that like the old times. Bringing us right back to 2009. Loved every moment of that!

Nothing is better than finding the perfect running partner to keep the same stride, distance & encourage you to keep moving.   After the run, we had a quick breakfast on the back patio, before heading off to Denver again for a afternoon picnic for us & then a quick stop at Trader Joe's.

We went to Pulaski Park in the Cherry Creek Area of Denver. Beautiful park that I personally had never been to either. But it was a great choice.

I'm not real sure if Samantha & I enjoyed the park more than Zoey or not. We did make sure to try out all of the playground equipment for ourselves though.  Overall was a great picnic. After leaving Denver area, and everyone sort of winding down for the evening. Zoey, Samantha and I seized the opportunity to play with more bubbles & sidewalk chalk while Bradley assembled a bbq grill. (sorry again Brad for that horrible task of putting grill together. You did a great job though).  

 

After Zoey went to bed, Samantha & I went out on the hunt for new suitcase for her. Thanks to the lovely airlines who damaged hers enroute. This of course gave us a little Bosom bonding time!

A fantastic first 2 days...