The Great Mountain Climb

Here is a big Happy Birthday to the worlds best big brother! You know you really love your brother when you are willing to climb from 10,000 ft. to 13,000 ft. just to celebrate the big 50 with him! Well not with him exactly, but for him is a better way to put it. Though he did give me his 5 and 0 from his cake so I could use them in 15 months!

We all enjoyed some really good times. Here we are all enjoying a laid back breakfast the morning after. The amazing thing is I was not too sore. The truth was I could not go up fast enough to get sore, and could not run down fast enough to get sore. Going up it was all I could do to stay upright, man does that altitude make you nauseaus. Coming down the rocks were killers and I was just trying to not fall on my face!

I have to say Leadvlle Colorado is a beautiful spot. Here are the bros and significant others and I enjoying the park with the kiddos. The weather was pleasant, except at the top of the mountain where wind and more wind prevailed.

Pretty cool medals they got ha? Once again I worked my butt off to complete a race and ended up with no medal. As soon as I crossed the line the lady apologized to me that they messed up their order and sent them too many full marathon medals. That is the second race in a row with no medal. What is the lesson in this for me? Get faster so I can actually get a medal! I was 17th in my age group out of 20, not too bad. And I finished in 4:58, under the five hour goal I had for myself.

Here I am coming down the home stretch. Thank goodness the last three miles is all down hill and on dirt road. It was so good to see hubby waiting there and waving to me. I just wanted to cry, I was really wiped out.I could not eat anything the whole climb as the altitude made me really sick. So just lots of water and gatorade, took some real recovery for that one.

We all lined up together. Only three of us completed the race, but my other brother was a great help in getting me to run on the downhill when I really did not want to. He helped me make up enough time that I could go with my goal. Aren't brothers the best?

Summer Fun

Well as if we weren't busy enough, we added the Tamarindo Marathon again. I know, I know we complained bitterly about it, but that actually played in our favor. My daughter left a comment on their fb today and the director finally responded to her complaints. He apologized profusely for us not receiving our medals, and my plaque from last year. Then he offered us free entry if we wanted to race this year.

How could we say no? That is like someone giving you a hundred bucks. Of course that means we have to run a lot of miles, but hey it will be worth it. Of course I say that because I have been training for my half in July, but my daughter is a little more panicked. She has not been able to run much because of knee problems.

She has some IT band issues and it looks like I will have to work on her and get her better so she will be ready for the race September 12th. That also means some really early mornings for me as we will be having class the last six weeks before the race.

We do love a challenge and I am excited that we get to have a do over on this race. It should be a better race this time since we know what to expect. Hot, really hot, and humid and hilly. The three h's. Of course after doing Leadville it will probably feel like a walk in the park, at least there will be oxygen!