Brandy Erholtz smiles all the time, but she was extra happy when she won the Cheyenne Mountain Trail Race 25K on Saturday at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.
She made the decision there to tell the world that she's going to have a baby.
Erholtz - both of them - covered the twisty and sometimes technical singletrack course in 2:05:59.
"I haven't told all my friends and family this yet, but I'm three months pregnant, so really today's goal was just to run comfortably and to be out there and enjoy the trails," she said.
She and husband Matt are expected to welcome their first child into the world in early November. Though she ran powerfully, her days of competitive running are over for this year. She plans to enjoy running and exercising.
"Actually it will be good for me, because I kind of get uptight sometimes, so it's going to teach me to relax a little and just run with it and be a part of the atmosphere. So you'll be watching me slow down as the next few months come along."
But she isn't going to write off competitive running. She has goals for 2014 and plans to maintain some conditioning through her second and third trimesters.
"I'm actually reading a book right now about exercising during pregnancy and they say a lot of women can come back stronger if you can maintain a pretty solid level of fitness during."
The couple has listened to their baby's heartbeat, but they don't want to know if they're having a boy or a girl.
"We don't get that many surprises any more, so we're just going to wait and see what God gave us," she said.