Whitesnake

I think the last record I bought was the Whitesnake album 1987.  I'm not one of those toolbags who still buys records because they think it's cool, records were just the way we listened to music back in the late 80s.

Shit, look at these guys from back then.  Holy hair!

Anywho, not long ago Whitesnake announced a show at the Pikes Peak Center.  I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and see 'em.  Hell, it's not like we have a lot to do here on Monday nights in the Springs anyways.  But then I saw the ticket price and said, "thanks, but no thanks."

Guess a lot of folks had the same thoughts, and a week before the show tix became buy-one-get-one.  So I took the bait.

Good show, good way to blow two hours on a school night.  They played all of their hits, plus some stuff from a recent Deep Purple tribute album.  I was hoping this would happen, but no such luck:

Some pics from the gig:

And even a few videos:

Friday

Thurs PM - Six miles on the Section 16 loop with the dog.

Fri AM - Easy 40 minutes on the Garden roads.  Saw a ton of cops there, and I was hoping it was related to the big prison break fugitives I've been obsessed with.  But it looks like some drunk in a mini cooper drove off the road last night and ended up in the middle of some bushes and trees.

Off for some camping this weekend, with the Bailey Hundo tomorrow.  They've really had to change the course due to flood concerns and as of now I'm not even sure how far I have to ride.  Might just end up doing the 60 mile Hundito course, we'll see.

I read in the gazette that on Monday we surpassed 17 inches of rain for the year, and we're not even halfway done.  We average 17 inches per year here in the Springs.

Good luck to those at Bighorn and the Leadman wannabes this weekend!

Had to go to the east side of town this morning, which I hate doing.  At least the views are nice over there.

Track

Wed PM - $100 didn't get the chance to run the Garden on Sunday, so she wanted a good effort on the course.  Ran the ten miles with her in 1:53, including a negative split.  Very good time for her.  Post run celebration (and another stamp in the passport challenge with Timko) at Kinfolk's.

Thurs AM - 5 x 800m, 400m RBI.  3:06, 3:02, 2:58, 2:56, 2:52.

Took this at the corner of 31st and Colorado.  Yes, Vanilla Ice has taken up residence in Pleasant Valley.

dog!

Ended up riding almost 30 miles on Tuesday, including the quick jaunt to work and a longer ride home.  Assuming I finish Bailey on Saturday, I'll finally be on pace to finish 2015 with 3K miles of biking.  Well on pace for 2K of running.

Dropped by Marc & Amanda's (she cooks for me - I had a bacon cheesburger yesterday - and I raid his beer fridge) last night to meet my newest buddy:

Cooper is a six year old weim who seems pretty awesome.  Mr. & Mrs. Ewing are fostering him, which means they will either find someone to adopt him, or they will end up keeping him.

Wed AM - finally starting to feel normal after the race on Sunday.  Easy hour on the Garden roads.

whiskey

My in-laws will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year, and we are planning to meet them in Madison to celebrate.  They are big, big fans of whiskey, specifically Stranahan's.  Last time they visited the Springs, they took back two cases of the stuff.  And on one of the tours we did, they seemed really interested in the special edition snowflake whiskey Stranahan's puts out. 

$100 thought this would make a killer gift.  So on Saturday morning, at 2:30AM, I got out of bed and headed up to the distillery to grab a bottle of the latest snowflake release, Longs Peak.  I arrived at 4:30AM and there were several hundred people ahead of me in line, waiting until 8AM when the booze went on sale.  Anything for a good anniversary gift.  And you could buy two bottles, so I grabbed one for our liquor cabinet.  So expensive that we won't open it until the next natural disaster.  Which, given all the rain lately, should be within the next week or so.

 

Ended up spending almost eight hours at the distillery.  Dropped by Roxborough State Park for a two hour run afterwards, followed by some brews at Living The Dream.  And when I got back to the Springs, $100 and I jumped on the bikes for a trip to Fieldhouse Brewing.  Not a bad way to blow a Saturday. 

sore

Monday - super sore from the Garden, so I took the dog over to the Garden trails for an easy four miles.

Tuesday AM - still sore, but I went to bed still planning on hitting the track.  But we got a ton of rain, and that makes the old school cinder track I run on a mess.  So I did an easy five miles on the Garden roads instead.

66:51

Thanks to Ryan for the pic.

66:51 at the Garden Ten Miler.  Fastest I've ever gone on this course by about a minute.  Felt like I struggled on the second half, but looking at the splits I wasn't too bad.  33:27 for the first half, 33:23 on the back half.  Mentally it was difficult for me over the final miles, but being that this is my backyard and Brooks was lurking not too far back I pushed through it.  Definitely a solid visit to the pain cave though. 

60

Commute #60 on the year on Friday, with a nice 23 miler on the ride home.

I typically have good things to say about the Academy and our Air Force, but it's about time they open this trail back up.  If you're unable to defend against ISIS launching an attack via the Santa Fe trail, perhaps you should ask your local Army buddies for some help.  The length of time they've had this closed has risen to bullshit levels.

hey, it's raining again!

AM - Easy seven on the Garden roads.

Got in my 60th bike ride to work today.  In a driving rain.  Even got to do a few stream crossings on the streets.

But even more awesome than that?  Here's what I had for breakfast when I got to the office:

Sometimes it's awesome being an adult!

Garden

AM - Drank a few too many beers last night and overslept, so only had time for a quick five miler in the Garden.

Half hour in the gym at lunch.

PM - Hour bike ride home from work.  Was going to run after this, but as I stepped out onto the porch the clouds looked like some shitty weather was about to break loose.  Of course right after I ate dinner everything cleared up.  So I went over to Fossil and had their newest SMaSH release, a collaboration with Front Range BBQ.  Delicious!

Picked up my schwag for the Garden Ten Miler.  Think I'm in pretty good shape for this, but I'm going to sabotage my race on Sunday with a long run on Saturday.

Some awesome pics of my backyard, the Garden of the Gods, can be seen here.  I'm there most days of the week and it never gets old.

Canon/Incline 13

Tues PM - Awesome ride home from work.  Shooks Run to downtown, up Cheyenne Canon, up High Drive, down Capt Jacks, then the screaming downhill home.  20 miles, 2K feet of climbing.  1:28 from the office to the top of High Drive, eleven miles and 1800 feet of climbing.  First time I've ever gone sub 20 on Capt Jacks, with strava telling me today was 16:23.  That's good for 954th overall (out of 1330) if you're scoring at home.  But every time I ride up the Canon I see tons of expensive mountain bikes on top of cars or in the back of a truck.  Pussies.  You should have to earn your trip down Buckhorn and/or Capt Jacks.

Next goal will be to go sub 15 on that section.  Incorporates a lot of stuff I'm not good at - fast downhill, tight turns, some technical stuff at a high rate of speed, lots of gravel that makes it hard to control the bike, and a high percentage of crashing.

Wed AM - Incline number 13 on the year with the dog.

Tuesday Track

I was still really stiff and sore when I woke up this morning and was about to bail on the track.  But I thought about how I really need to get some continuity at the oval, and I thought that even if I just went there and ran a few 800m at four minutes, it would still be better than slogging out some ten minute miles on the Garden roads.  So off to the track it was.  5 x 800m with 400m RBI.  3:16, 3:12, 3:09, 3:03, 2:58.

These are the most delicious things in the universe. 

Got some yesterday thanks to #Amy.  I hear you can get them in Denver now, and they are easily acquired on the interwebs,  but for some reason I treat these almost with as much pleasure as when I get some Yuengling out here.  As an adult I'm supposed to be all like, "well, there's six packs of Krimpets, and if I eat one pack a day they will last almost a full week..." but I picked them up at noon and they were all gone by 5PM.  Same for the Kandy Kakes.

Local blues dude Grant Sabin rocked out with Blue Frog Sunday night at Front Range.  Good times!

weekend update

Solid weekend of training and beer drinking.

Saturday was the ERock Sunrise to Sunset, an eleven hour mountain bike race.  The thing used to be held at Greenland Open Space, though they now have it at the new $30 billion dollar park in Castle Rock.  I was fairly hungover from a late night at Red Leg, so I didn't have the ride I wanted.  Made it 57 miles.  No way would I have made my goal of a century on this slow course, but I would have liked to get in another lap or two.  Had a ton of fun though, so the day wasn't a total loss. 

Here's me and $100 completing a lap.  She rode a 29er for the first time.

On Sunday I met up with Shad, Kircher, Rob, and Crystal to head up Barr Trail.  This run went much better than I was expecting.  We got up to the Bottomless Pitt sign, absolutely no snow.  Reports have things clear up to A-Frame.  Still a ton of snow above treeline, but it's melting quick.

Sore as hell after the weekend, so I'm taking today off.  Hoping for a good rest of the week though. 
Going to try to get a 20 miler up Barr Trail on Saturday, followed by the Garden Ten Miler on Sunday.

I also signed up for the Barr Trail Mountain Race.  Been a while since I've ran that, looking forward to returning.

lunch

They now make cheeseburger flavored chips.  We live in amazing times.

Friday

Went to a public meeting for the Springs bike master plan Wednesday night.  There are some decent ideas about how to make this town a more bike friendly place, we'll see if those ideas can be put into action.

One of the more exciting things I learned about was a possible 60 mile loop of gravel and concrete bike paths around the city.  A good chunk of this is already complete, there are just some connection issues to figure out before making this whole thing work.

Thurs AM - back to the track.  2 x 1 mile.  6:04, 5:56.  Yes, that's quite the improvement from the first mile to the next, but trust me it was due to me finally waking up, not any PEDs or TUEs.  (Disclaimer: I do sometimes take a one-a-day knock off gummy bear multivitamin at the request of my wife.  I'm supposed to take this daily, but I usually forget.  I think she's more worried about my diet which consists mainly of red meat and dairy with almost no fruits and veggies than she is about my running performances).

I loved Nick Symmonds' tweet: "All I take is a multivitamin and beer."  But he's a professional athlete, and those guys have no benefit of the doubt anymore.  He's probably taking whatever he can.

Thurs PM - Barr Trail.  Ran up to the point where the new(ish) top of the Incline trail hits Barr.  Solid workout.

Shad and Rob are in town this weekend and we'll be heading up America's mountain on Sunday if anyone wants to join us.  Thinking we'll start at 8AM with the Incline Club.  Word is you can get slightly higher than Barr Camp before snow becomes an issue.  Post run grub and brews at Manitou Brewing Company.

Speaking of MBC, we had a meeting of the minds there last night as Jeff, Carson, and I got together to drink beers and figure out how we're going to get Tom C through Hardrock.  I'll be pacing him from Ouray to Telluride, as that's probably the easiest section to get lost on, and it's the only section of the course that includes a full service tequila bar.  Tom hates tequila, as do I, but I told him I'd pull him from the race if he doesn't do a shot with me at Kroger's.

say it ain't so!

This is a really hard day for me.

hump day

Tuesday PM - Took off on the bike after work and it was a glorious day for Cheyenne Canon.  My strongest climb this year, which included adding on the extra mile up High Drive, returning via Cap't Jacks.  20 miles, 2.5 hours, convenient ending at Fossil Brewing for some Mammoth IPA.  FYI, Fossil is currently out of the Elevation Ale but are working on that.

Wednesday AM - Incline #12 with the dog.  Dog sure is loving the early morning hump day trips up and down the mountain.

I have mentioned (with disgust) Green Man tap room here before, and there will be no more of that now that they are closed.  The owner got evicted, then trashed the place as he was on his way out.  Classy.  He says he will be back with a new bar, hopefully it's somewhere far away from Colorado.  I've heard lots of rumors about how shady the owners are, so this situation isn't much of a surprise.  Sad that such a great idea could go to such shit though.  Fun fact: the owners were actually kicked off yelp for writing too many reviews about themselves under fake names.

Headed to the east side tonight, to Library 21C for a meeting about the bike master plan for the city.  While I'm over there I'll hit up Nano 108 to see what's on tap there and to make up some ground on Timko in our passport challenge.  Last one to fill up their passport buys the winner a passport next year.

Tuesday Track

Monday - was going to take a rest day as I'm still pretty banged up from the GJOR, but the weather was too nice.  Due to laziness and the shitty weather, I had only done ten Inclines on the year.  Monday was number eleven.

Tues AM - 4 x 800m on the track.  Been wanting to get to the track for a while, but again the recent rains had the cinder track all jacked up.  1.5 mile warm up, then 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, and 2:54 with a quarter mile in between each one.  1.5 mile cool down.  Six miles on the workout.  Love this time of year, as it was warm and sunny at 5:15AM when I started.

If you're in for the Leadville Marathon, get ready to run a different course.  No way they're getting up to Mosquito Pass anytime soon, there's still a ton of snow on the mountains surrounding Pb.  I have already informed Shad and JP that they're not "real" Leadmen if they don't get up to Mosquito Pass during the series.

Big month ahead for me.  Hoping to get 100+ miles on the bike this weekend at ERock Sunrise to Sunset.  Then the Bailey Hundo two weeks later.  And San Juan Solstice looming at the end of June.

Grand Junction Off Road

Incredible time out in Grand Junction over the weekend.  Didn't do so well in the ride - it was way too technical for my abilities - but I survived.  Really great trails out there.  We will definitely be returning to this event next year, and we're pretty much decided on heading back out to GJ over Thanksgiving.

On Friday I got to demo a super expensive fat bike.  I used it to roll out and meet $100 and Amanda as they were riding the 15 miler.

That evening we got to see Big Sam's Funky Nation.

A few years ago this band came through the Springs and I got to meet them.  They didn't remember me this time around.

On Saturday I started the race riding as hard as I could, but after an hour I knew I was in way over my head and if I continued to push that hard I'd end up in the hospital due to a crash.  So I decided to have my first beer of the day and wait for some friends who were taking things at a much more leisurely pace.

The day got much more enjoyable once I slowed down.  Though it certainly didn't get easy.  Super hard, technical course.  Took me almost eight hours to do the 40 miler.  For reference, I rode Leadville at a much easier effort and that hundred miler took me less than three more hours.

We got a wine glass for finishing.  Which we used to drink Fireball at Rockslide Brewing right after the ride.

My phone died early Saturday evening, so no pics of the Shakey Graves show, but it was awesome.  Pro tip: we bought a growler at Rockslde for $10 and drank that, much better than paying $5 per pint at the beer tent.

Sunday morning I went for a run along the Colorado river and watched the pro guys and gals take off.  Then we hit the Colorado National Monument and took the dog hiking in McInnis Canyon.

We were sad to leave, and it seemed to take forever to drive home, but we made time to drop by Leadville and see an old friend.  Dooper seems to be doing really great.

May

Computer has been on the fritz, so a little less blogging than usual.  Ordered a new one and it will arrive today, just in time for me to toss it in the corner so I can go drink beers and ride bikes.

Assuming I don't wreck at the Grand Junction Off Road, I'll hit 200 miles running and 300 miles biking this month.  I like that combo and I'll keep it during the summer months, as it allows me to get into decent shape without wrecking my body.  Been running mostly roads due to the messy trails, but it's time to start getting in some climbing if a sub three at Pikes is going to be possible.

Went camping down at Lake Pueblo over the holiday weekend.  Nice to see the sun again.  Got in a good 40 mile ride on the trails down there, and drank a bottle of Stranahan's and a ton of beer with $100 and some friends.  Good times!  Days two and three of the Semi-Rad camping challenge.

I'll end the month with 12 bike commutes to work, 53 total on the year.

Pikes

I should take a photography lesson from Timko or Boyak on how to shoot Pikes from my yard. Despite the shitty pic, you can see the mountain has a ton of snow on her for late May.

it's raining

Wed PM - Easy 10K on the way to Fossil Brewing.  It was raining.

Thurs AM - Easy 10K on the Garden roads.  It was raining.

Bike commute numbero 50 today, halfway to my goal of 100 on the year.

Wednesday

It's been raining here.  A lot.  Only one day this month where the airport (where we get our official city tally) hasn't recorded any rain.  How the hell do people in Seattle live like this?  We have received six inches of rain so far in May.  Camp Creek has held up well, and our basement is bone dry.  Red Rock Canyon, however, took a beating.  A retaining wall on a pond broke and all the water rolled downhill.  Going to take some time to clean that up.  Part of the Garden is wrecked, and a good chunk of the Midland Trail that I ride to work everyday is pretty jacked.  Ugh.

My routine has been messed up lately due to my office moving.  I'm no longer downtown, but about 2.5 miles north of my old office.  An extra ten or so minutes on the bike.  Doesn't sound like much, but I had my old routine dialed down.  Did ride to the new office for the first time today, number eight on the month and 49 on the year.  Not sure if I'll keep riding as much, as now we have access to a shower and I might bring back the run commute.

Ran the Run To The Shrine on Saturday and I am definitely not in climbing shape.  Would like to work on that, but Barr Trail is either a sloppy mess or covered in snow right now.  Was feeling pretty bummed about my fitness until Sunday when I opened the Colfax relay running 40 flat for a 10K and having it feel super easy.

Hoping to sleep outside this weekend as I have accepted semi-rad's camping challenge.  I was able to sleep out on our back porch last Thursday. 

Add caption

We were planning to go to Buff Creek but I hear that's under snow.  We're now looking at either Lake Pueblo or Canon City.

Such a depressing post, but I'm having fun despite the shitty weather.

 
Tues PM - Five miles through the rain on the Garden roads.

Wed AM - Easy 10K on the Garden roads, 5.5 mile bike to work.

Tuesday

Cheyenne Canon on Sunday.  It was like January at the top.  Cold, with snow everywhere.  Wanted to go up and down twice but when I got down the first time, I didn't want to visit the arctic conditions again so I bailed.  6.4 miles.

Pulled off a double on Monday with 6.4 miles in the morning and five in the evening, all on the Garden roads.  First day in a long time we really didn't have any rain.

Seven miles on the Garden roads on Tuesday morning.  Threw in a few 3 x 3 minute fartleks.  Wanted to hit the track but I'm sure it's a mess.  After the run was the first time I've seen Pikes since I got back from NOLA last Monday night.  Lots of snow up there for mid-May.

Some shots of the damage to the hike & bike trails that run between the Garden and 30th street.  My commute home uses these trails.  As does my ride to/from Red Leg. 

Today was bike commute #46 on the year.

Tried a new place for lunch to celebrate American Craft Beer Week.  The Cheese Grill opened a few weeks ago and I've been looking to try it.  I had a Mac & Cheese Grilled Cheese and it was quite tasty.

They also had a special maple bacon beer from The Occasional Brew to go along with the meal.

In other news, I never thought Geico would come close to topping the hump day camel commercial.  But this one is pretty good.

HAIL HAIL

Finally had a weather window this morning.  I took the first part of it to take the dog for a nice hike, it's been a while since she's left the block.  After that I took off for what I thought would be a road 20 miler.  Nice tour of some of the local creeks, they're very high but not terribly close to overflowing the banks.  Through the Garden, through Manitou, out to Rainbow Falls.  So nice to see the sun.  On the way home as I turned back into the Garden for some bonus miles some freak rain/hail storm came out of nowhere and caught me completely off guard.  Within an instant, I was soaked, and pea sized hail was nailing me.  Each piece felt like a bee sting.  I had to run a good quarter mile to find a good enough tree to provide cover, so I was pretty beat up by that time.  Took cover for about eight minutes until the hail slowed, then bailed on the run and headed straight home.  14 miles on the day.



Here's a pic I stole, this was the hail storm I was caught in.  I love my cotton t-shirts, but they don't do shit to protect against this.

The wife just asked me when it's supposed to stop raining.  I said tomorrow.  "Really?"  Yes, but it's actually supposed to snow.

rain

Back and finally sobered up from NOLA.  Incredible time, I'll get a post up on that soon.  It hasn't stopped raining since we returned late Monday night.  No major flooding so far, though Camp Creek started rising last night.  Might snow tonight.

The running/biking is in a funk due to the trip and the weather.  Did get a five miler in along the Mississippi River through the French Quarter last Friday.  Was looking to go further, but I randomly ran into my neighbor Carson, who was also out running, and at 9AM we just hit the first bar on Bourbon Street we could find.  Ran a drunk 18:26 in the Big Easy Big Heart 5K on Saturday.  Hit halfway with a shot at going sub 18, but couldn't hold that over the second half.

Staying off the trails due to the weather, just hanging out on the Garden roads.  Tuesday AM and PM was an easy five miler, both in drenching rains.  Wednesday was a morning 10K.  Thursday was a morning seven miler.  And five miles after work on Friday, where I finished looking like I had sat in the shower for 45 minutes.

Biking has been mostly restricted to work and back.  We did rent bikes in NOLA and took an awesome 20 mile pub crawl on some cruisers.  And I did manage to get up Cheyenne Canon on Wednesday, first time all year I made it up without having to push my bike at some point.  44 bike commutes on the year, three so far for May.

April

Easy seven miler on the Garden Roads after work on Wednesday.  Five miler up to Carson Pass with the wife and dog this morning.  Allowed me to sneak over 200 miles for the month.

41 bike commutes to work on the year, including 15 this month.  Most of my miles on the bike came on the ride to/from the office, 165 total for April.

Caught the Bonamassa show last night.  I remember first hearing that name when he was 13 years old, way back when I still lived in Austin.  The guy still kills it.

Monday

The days will get less and less fitness oriented as the week goes on.  Got in two decent runs today, an easy 7 miler in the AM, and an easy 8.5 miler in the PM.  Both on the Garden roads.  Bit sore from the race.  Bike commute #39 to and from work as well.

Looks like we got quite a bit of snow up high (over 9K) with the most recent storm.

dope

Colorado's other favorite baseball team.

weekend

Worked aid station #1 at the Cheyenne Mountain 25/50K on Saturday.  Always nice to sit around and watch others run.  But shit, I was pretty tired when I got home.  Instead of heading out for a planned 15 miler, I took a nap and hit Manitou Brewing instead.

Ran Tonia's Run 5K this morning.  Nice 30 minute warm up followed by the race.  Not a great race for me, but I'm OK with the time.  Slightly less than a world class field, I caught the leader shortly after the mile marker (5:57 first mile for me).  I didn't want things to come down to a kick, so at the halfway point of the race I made a decisive move and put a good gap between me and second place.  Was going well until a very short but very steep climb put me in the hole.  Second mile in 5:59.  The last mile I was running scared and just waiting to get passed, but I guess the dude behind me was in pretty rough shape as well.  Official time was 18:27.  Only six of the 88 finishers broke 20 minutes, again not exactly an Olympic final, but it's always fun to be in the mix up front.  Happy with the time but still feel I have a lot more in me at this distance.

More important than the win was crushing Brooks.  He ended up third.

Thanks to RD Tonia Smith for the pics.

After the race it was off to the annual Taste of Old Colorado City.  And man did it rain this year.  At least it kept the crowds down.  Sampled brews from Red Leg, Bristol, Ska, Big Choice, High Hops, Odell, and Oskar Blues.  Had some food too, mostly different variations of mac & cheese.  Good times other than the cold and rain.

Found this pic on the FB feed the other day, brought back some memories.  Back in the first few months of Iraq, I slept on the ground.  Moving on up, I eventually got my own cot in this shithole of a burnt out, abandoned building, in the town of Bayji.  About half an hour from Tikrit.  The Bayji refinery has been in the news lately, with various groups of folks trying to blow up everything.

Friday

Down couple of days due to other commitments (beer drinking) but I should still hit 40 miles for the week.  Five miles up to Carson Pass on Monday, seven mile road runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a rest day on Thursday.  Will be hitting the trails in Red Rock Canyon after work today for a few miles, then dropping by Fossil Brewing to help them celebrate their six month anniversary.

Doing two morning classes per week at CityRock nowadays.  Building strength.  Once I decide to commit to becoming a better rock climber this will pay huge dividends.

Also biked to work every day this week and hope to hit 40 bike commutes on the year before I leave for New Orleans on Thursday.

I'm running a 5K on Sunday and looking forward to that.  I want to take a shot at a sub 18 soon, but this probably isn't the course to do it on.  Might cheat and go for that mark in NOLA, but after two days at Jazzfest who knows what the result will be.  I do have a history of drunken running miracles in that city though.

Lots of work still left to do, but the basement bar is coming together quite nicely.  Not sure if I've mentioned it here, but The Red Rock Lounge closed her doors on March 1st.  They were nice enough to let me have a table and four chairs from the place.

50k

Meandered over to Palmer Park on Saturday to run Justin's 50K.  I wondered how anyone could squeeze a 31 mile run into two loops there, but he sure pulled it off.  Great event, and a great long run for me for the third straight week.  Ran (hiked) most of the second loop with Shad, who was gracious enough to not drop me.  I returned the favor by crushing him over the final half mile of the race, securing the cheap win over the Leadman wannabe.  Was hoping to run around 5:30, finished in 5:50ish, all in all a great day on the trails.  My only gripe about the race is that there weren't enough slow people and I would have finished damn near in last place if Shad had any kind of leg speed over the short distances.

Will be trying my best over the next two weeks to remain somewhat active.  Lots of events coming up that will play havoc with that.  Hops For Heroes up at Dry Dock Brewing on Thursday, volunteering at the Cheyenne Mountain race on Saturday, Taste of OCC on Sunday, Joe Bonamassa on Tuesday, and of course the upcoming trip to Jazzfest.  I'm also running a 5K each of the next two weekends - Tonia's Run here in the Springs on Sunday, and the Big Easy Big Heart 5K down in NOLA next week.  Good times!