Sherm, Breck, and a Bunch of Gals

So a friend of mine (Heather) asked who wanted to run the Breckenridge 10K.  Breck is a pretty cool place and so I signed up!  (Not really realizing it was four hours away . . . oh well.)  Then, Heather asked if we wanted to do a 14er (Colorado has a lot of mountains over 14,000 ft.) the day before.  It's not something I would have thought of, but it's totally Heather.  She's crazy 'n cool like that!

So four of us (myself, Heather, Sherri, and Kandace) left Montrose on Thursday evening and drove to Breck.  On Friday we woke up by 5:30 and headed out to hike Mt. Sherman.  The day was picture-perfect without a cloud in the sky.  The hike was difficult, as I think all 14ers are, but not too bad.  I actually felt pretty great hiking and summitting.  I think it was the easiest 14er I've done (I have only done 3).  Usually 14ers are really, really windy - but it was actually not windy at all.  And it was hot up there!  It was crazy - but really nice.  We sat up there for a while and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  It was an excellent hike!

 This was at the beginning (close to) of the hike.

 This shows: 1. My snot right below my nose and 2. The final ascent to the top of Mt. Sherman!

 Yay, at the top!

 Of course pictures don't do it justice.  It was a pretty awesome sight, though!

 The four of us:  me, Kandace, Sherri, and Heather!  Sherri and Heather have done oodles of 14ers, but not this particular one.  I think this might have been Kandace's 3rd one as well?

As we were driving back from our trek, we were on the look-out for moose - and we found one!  So cool!

Friday evening three more of our friends showed up at our condo:  Chris, Nichole, and Brittany.  We had a fun night of eating yummy homemade soup and bread and salad - as well as playing some fun card games.  These gals are a fun group to be around!

Saturday we got up and ready for our run.  I felt a little sore from the hike the day before, but nothing too bad.  There were a few hiccups at the race (not enough shuttles nor porta-potties, etc.), but that's okay.  The race also started a little later . . . about 8:30.  We ran down a canyon road for about 4.5 miles and then we were in Breck.  Those first miles were really steep and I had a good pace (although I would have liked it not quite so steep).  I was pretty much running 8:37 miles - with one time even getting down to 8:07.  That's like really fast for me - when I run around town, I'm usually at a nice 10 minute/mile pace.  :)  But by around mile 5 the path had flattened out with a few bumps/hills, too.  It was the hardest mile I have ever run!  I felt like I had hit "the wall" as people say - but usually when they are running a marathon or another long race.  (I ran a marathon way back when and I never felt like I had hit the wall!)  Anyways, it was an awful mile - I wanted to walk, but didn't.  I think my pace went up to about 11-minutes.  (I actually thought it was more around 12, but then I did the math and that sounds more correct.  But it felt like a 20-minute mile pace!!)

So it was good to finish and it was still a "fun" race!  :)

The fall colors were amazing!  This is the road we ran down and it really was beautiful!

 Free race photos - wow!

I'm not sure how I pulled off a double-thumbs up - this was during that awful last-mile stretch!

 Yay, all done with that awful last mile!  :)  My finish time was 53:18.  I was 13th overall out of 76 and the 7th female out of I don't know how many.  I was 3rd in my age-group - out of 21.

After the race we showered, packed up, and headed back home.  This picture shows some of the amazingness we saw on our drive! We stopped in Buena Vista for lunch and then made it home by 5.  It was a fun and perfect little get-away!

I did get a call from Lucy on Friday night . . . I guess she had been crying for me.  At least one of my kids missed me!