Springtime in the Rockies

There is a tree right outside our window that we see all the time. It's just there, taunting us. We have watched calmly it as it lay dormant all winter. About a month or so ago, we noticed a tiny bit of green on the branches. Oh no! Then a couple weeks ago, those green spots turned into buds. NOOOOOOO! Now, those green buds have turned into full-on flowers. There's no mistaking it. Spring is here. Winnie the Pooh had the Honey Tree, Shel Silverstein had the Giving Tree. We have the "Oh crap. It's blooming. That means spring is here. That means only one more season until IM!" tree. To us, this tree has been like the hour glass the Wicked Witch of the West gave to Dorothy in her castle. Slowly ticking away, reminding us that while we thought we had all the time in the world, Aug. 3 will be here before we know it!

After several days of gorgeous spring time weather, we woke up Sunday morning (at the butt crack of dawn) to a nasty snow storm. You know, those spring snow storms that bring wind, sleet, snow, snain, just all-around nasty. It was Horsetooth Half Marathon day in Ft. Collins, and boy howdy, was it a different experience than the first time I did it two years ago! We loaded all our winter gear into the car and headed up to Ft. Collins, white-knuckle gripping it the entire trip (well, Freddy was driving and he loved it. I had to close my eyes a few times). When we got to Horsetooth Reservoir, the wind was howling, sleet was blowing sideways and it was just frigid. We both just kept cracking up that while normal people were hunkered down with some hot cocoa in their pj's, we were bundling up to go run in this crap for a couple hours.

Once we started, we had a great time! It was perfect running weather and the conditions made the course even prettier than the clear, hot day I had in 2012. Plus, the best part of those conditions is we were guaranteed not to see any snakes! In 2012, a rattlesnake decided he wanted to join in the fun and made his way onto the street while we were running. Luckily, I was too busy taking in the scenery to notice him-I just heard people around me commenting on the snake that joined the race. Some days it pays to gawk-had I seen it, I would have died. And that would have made for a bad day!
I stopped many times along the course to take pictures which slowed my time, but I didn't care. This was a training run and it was just so pretty, I wanted to take it all in.

I crossed the finish line within 30 seconds of my time from 2012, 2:22 (which was an average pace of 10:48/mi/mi. EXACTLY the pace Coach Marco had predicted for me. Kind of freaked me out). Freddy was waiting for me at the finish line with a time of 2:13-a new PR for him! I couldn't be more proud of him. That is a monster of a course and only the second half marathon he's ever done!

I got home and was so excited to download all the photos I had taken only to find out that NONE of them turned out. Not one! Then I was mad-had I known none of them would have turned out, my pace would have been way better. Alas, the photos below are all I've got for ya!

The view from our car. Yeah, it was THAT cold!!! But goodie, we get to climb that hill in front of us!

I was super excited about the pint glass at the end. I would have been more excited if a shirtless fireman gave it to me after he filled it with a margarita. But we can't always get what we want all the time. 

Freddy, on the other hand, was most un-happy with his lack of medal. I felt sorry for the volunteer who handed him an empty pint glass instead of a medal. 

Freddy and I at the finish. Weather was great until we stopped. We are freezing our tushies off!

We are coming off our biggest training week so far, topping out at just over 11 hours of training since last Sunday. My legs will tell you they have trained at least 20 hours more, but my mind says "get ready, this 'aint nothin!" We did two time trials this week: one in the pool followed by the bike the next day. I actually enjoy time trials. For me, they are more mental than physical. I'm used to running time trials, I've been doing these for years with my running group, Runners Edge. The pool and bike are way different though and while I feel these trials went much better than last time, I clearly have a long way to go!  This weekend, we are looking forward to much better weather for our ride and runs. I'm ready to pull out my warm-weather running duds!