Where did the summer go?!?!

Looking back now that it is almost September, it seems like we didn't do that much this summer! Some nagging injuries, trouble getting the team at the same place at the same time, family issues, etc, it just seems like we didn't race near as much as we are used to! Although we have missed racing, we certainly have enjoyed a slightly slower pace, even though we have still been really busy. After the sudden, untimely death of my stepdad in July, we have slowly tried to get back to a more normal schedule. We had a great time at a long distance orienteering meet near Woodland Park with the RMOC. 6 hours of long distance orienteering proved to be critical for some of the races we have done since then, not to mention that getting 6 hours on foot bushwacking is always good for the body! Looking to get more time on the feet, we decided to get a few folks together and go for a long run. We realized that we always travel and go places to get on our mountain bikes, but we always are content to run right by the house! With over 100 miles of amazing hiking trails within 5 minutes of our front door here in Boulder, it is pretty hard to get motivated to get in the car to go running. However, Tiff and I rounded up Boyd, our friend Brian Corff(Congrats on 5th overall at the Xterra Brian!) and Dan Brillon (Good luck at Transrockies Dan!). We headed up to Estes Park, CO and the gates of Rocky Mountain National Park. The twin owls loop is an 11 mile loop around a rock massif called lumpy ridge. the run starts just behind the Stanley Hotel (the backdrop from "The Shining") and immediately heads uphill into RMNP. After running a few miles STEEPLY uphill, we finally reached the saddle on the Northwest edge of Lumpy Ridge and let the fun begin. A gorgeous gentle downhill into the valley with the wildflowers going off was incredible! Freewheeling down the valley we were all laughing at how lucky we were to be running in such a lovely place. The laughter soon stopped when we had to turn up another REALLY steep climb. Fortunately, the climb was rewarded with the arrival at the top at Gem Lake. Gem Lake is a small little pond in a giant granite bowl on the top of Lumpy ridge. After a few minutes of relaxing and taking the views at gem lake, we headed back down the last stairstep descent to the car.

Plenty more to come! We'll have a few more updates in the next few days!