Georgetown to Idaho Springs 1/2 Marathon

Last Saturday morning I ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon. It may count as the most beautiful race I've ever run...it starts at about 8,500 feet in the mountains and runs downhill to a neat little town. Jon, Spencer and Shoshana, my friend Kathy (in the white hat below) all went together in Jon's extra large vehicle (which I have come to really appreciate!). The scenery was amazing and it was so much fun to have the family at the end...Spencer jumped in and ran the last few yards with me (and nearly took out a few runners - thankfully no one got hurt!). I shaved about five minutes off my Steamboat half time which was a little less than I hoped but there's still a lot of running to do before the marathon. This race was an official training run for the group I train with so it was great to have lots of people I knew (and many I didn't but wearing the same shirts). The group's coach stood at various places with his megaphone...that was quite the inspiration!

We are an hour or so from heading to the airport for our late summer vacation with my family. We're headed to a house on a lake in PA. We also will celebrate my dad's 65th with a party next Saturday night.

Love and running...

I start several of my weekday runs at 5:45 am when I walk out my front door and meet up with Becky and Kathy (Andrea is currently on pregnancy hiatus). Yesterday morning at 5:43 I heard little footsteps walking downstairs as I was lacing up my sneakers. Spencer - holding his puppy and wearing a swimshirt and underwear on top of his pull-up (outfit courtesy of the prior night's babysitter) - looked so sweet and said "where are you going, mommy...are you going runing?". Jon and I spent the prior night (sans kids) at the botanic gardens watching Marc Cohen play in what is probably the best intimate music venue ever. Since I was missing my little guy I altered the plan, put some "running sneakers" on him, filled a sippy cup of milk and off we went on a jog. We chatted the whole way and stopped for a few minutes at the playground which so early in the morning Spency had all to himself.

Big news...

I am officially signed up for the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (yup...all 26.2 miles). I have been training with a local running group and was running all the mileage of my girlfriends training for Marine Corps. Since it's out east near my family and friends and Jon has never been to Washington DC I decided this is the year to re-enter the marathon world. I am so excited! If you're in the neighborhood, stop by on Oct. 31 and cheer me on.

In the meantime, here are a few pics from this past weekend. We had grandma Vonnie (Jon's mom) and his aunt Ruth Ann for a really fun couple of days.