Rocky Mountain high...

Hello from Mt. Bross, 14,127 feet above sea level! What a wonderful week. I've been so busy enjoying myself that I haven't had time to post. So, to all of you checking weekly (I had been updating nearly every week), I apologize.

The good week (long weekend, actually) began on Friday. I took the day off of work to paint the blue oyster cult bathroom in the basement. For those of you whom we have had the pleasure of hosting in our home, you can't forget the blue blue blue bathroom (not to be confused with the flamingo pink on the main floor). Well, I hated it. Sargent and I had talked till we were blue in the face (yep, like the bathroom) about remodeling it, adding in a nice soaker tub (for me :), some heated tiles, redoing the shower, nice lighting, etc... Of course Sargent, the logical one in this partnership, always brings up money in this conversation and ruins it for me. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants sort of girl. If I decide I want to do something, my first instinct is to react and just do it, and then stop and think about it (and how to pay for it) later. For example, the Denver Dumb Friends League (dog shelter) was at my work last week with dogs for adoption. I knew they were going to be there, and had marked it on my calendar at work as a "meeting" so I could go outside and pet the dogs. The first dog they brought out was a 6 month old Cattle dog/Border Collie mix. He was adorable. I immediately named him "Jem", as in Scout's brother in To Kill a Mockingbird, took pictures on my phone and sent them to Sargent. At first he thought I was just kidding around, but then he realized I was seriously considering bringing this dog home. His response was "we need to talk". And talk we did. He brought up lots of really good points about why we can't have another dog right now. Jem didn't have any training and would take up lots of time. Both of us would be gone a lot in August and September, work is really busy in those months, I'm trying to train for a marathon, and of course the money thing about how much we have spent on Scout's no goose chasing training, and this dog's training would be even more extensive, etc. , etc., etc., Yes, Yes, I know. These are all really good points. But I want him! (Can you hear the whiny intonation in my voice?) This is how many things work in our relationship. I say I want something and Sargent goes and does a spreadsheet on it, running comps and analysis this way and that. Then three days later he tells me its a crazy idea. And you know what, his spreadsheet is usually right.

So anyway, after numerous conversations and 3 estimates from contractors, I have put down the bathroom remodel torch. A coat of primer and another two coats of paint have turned my blue bathroom into one of "Gray Frost". Now I'm on to the next thing I need...a new refrigerator. I wonder how many different ways you can run analysis on refrigerators...hmmm.

After I spent all day Friday painting the bathroom (ceiling and all), on Saturday I ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. I was all excited for this race. The training has been going well, I seem to be on track. Half-marathons are supposed to be good predictors of marathon finish times, especially if they are run 4-5 weeks prior to the marathon. The timing for this one was perfect. My strategy for this race was to make myself start out slowly, about 30 seconds per mile slower than my target finishing pace, and slowly get my average pace down to a reasonable race pace. If you remember, the last half marathon was a disaster because I ran much too fast in the first 5 miles. This time I wasn't about to make that mistake. So I ran the first mile in 8:28, mile 2 in 8:20. So far so good. A nice and steady pace increase is certainly something I can handle. I do it in training all the time. Yeah, well, that didn't happen. Looking back, I believe I can pinpoint the problem to how I had my Garmin set up. I had it set to show my average pace and not actual pace, so although the first two miles were right on pace, the next 5 were way to fast. I didn't know it at the time, but definitely felt it at mile 10 and 11. So in the end, my Garmin showed I ran a 1:48, but the posting time was 1:52. I'm not exactly sure why these times were so far apart, as I didn't start more than a minute from the front. So I'll split the difference and call it 1:50. Still, that's 5 minutes slower than I had anticipated.

I'm very frustrated with my races this year. Training has gone really well, but in races I suck. I'm going to have to pull my head out of my arse before I get to the starting line on Sept. 7th.

I'm going to end this blog now because I need to log in to work. I told you August is a busy time. Be sure to check back soon as I will post many more pictures from camping and hiking Mt. Bross.