One year ago tomorrow, on Halloween, I went on my first run. The intent was to give me an easy way to exercise over the winter from home, without spending as much time in the cold on my bike. It worked out pretty well, and I’ve come to enjoy running.
Since that day, I’ve logged 270 miles, 235 of it this calendar year. In May, I ran the Bolder Boulder, a 10k “race”. After that day, I didn’t run again for two months. (Though I spent lots of time on my bike.)
Since starting back up, I made a simple goal of running ten 10Ks, and doing at least one 10 mile run before the end of the year. (I was including the three 10Ks I did in the Spring in that goal, so I only needed to run seven more.) At this point, I’ve accomplished all that, including one run of 13.2 miles – a half marathon!
In the month of October, I’ve really picked it up, running three times each week, and totaling a bit over 80 miles. I’ve also tried to do a trail run each week (snow this past week foiled that plan) to help work on leg and foot strength. Hopefully, that will help prevent injuries….
Here are a couple of shots from my first trail run on October 5th, on Rabbit Mountain, about ten miles from home. It was a lot rockier than I expected (though the pictures don’t show it), and has a killer (for me) mile climb at the start.
It had a rather wonderful view to the west.
Sadly, shortly after returning back home to work I heard the news of the passing of Steve Jobs. It’s hard to imagine what my career and life would have been like without this man. I’ve worked at Apple the last twelve years, and spent about that long working on the Mac before that. I never met him, though I saw him many times on the Apple campus, and have many coworkers who have stories they could tell….
A week later, I ran around the Eagle/Sage Loop at Boulder Valley Ranch. This was a much easier run, though a bit longer. Here’s a nice view towards Boulder Reservoir to the East.
And looking back South from the little lake just visible at the left of the picture above.
And finally, some shots from my “half marathon” last weekend.
About three miles in, I began thinking I should have picked a less hilly route.
Here’s a view of Haystack mountain as I approach it from the North.
And here I am at the furthest point from home, 6.1 miles away. Haystack Mountain is right behind my head, to the East.
I couldn’t resist taking another shot of the Haystack, but this time the Flatirons are in view even further South.
These cows were not amused by my presence. At this point, I was a bout 3 miles from home, and passing the distance of my previous longest run. My legs weren’t so much tired as stiff. They really didn’t want to go any further, and had nearly locked up. Still, I made it home, “running” the whole way. I only stopped to take pictures, though I did linger a bit at the halfway point.
Of course, once I got home, I was completely spent. I stopped running when I hit my driveway, and had a very hard time walking the rest of the way into the garage. Lifting my legs to climb the two steps into the house was ridiculously hard.
As the day and evening wore on, I was able to move a bit better, though I limped around the house and couldn’t quite stand up straight. I was very glad that that didn’t continue over the next few days. I was only marginally sore, and played hockey the next night just fine.
And yeah, I haven’t signed up for one, but I’m thinking about running a marathon. The Colorado Marathon in May. If my training doesn’t go well, I can always do the half marathon or 10K instead….
over Fremont Pass and around Turquoise Lake. I managed to time my ride so that I met everyone again at the final BBQ in Leadville. Here’s Pat and Marjorie.
