Nothing was shaping up in my favor, as I road the bus to the starting line of the Colorado Marathon. The weather was snowy and cold to start. During the week, I had begun looking for other marathons that I could run to Boston Qualify, in the event that my time was affected by the impeding crappy weather. I'm not sure why I was so concerned, considering that some of my best racing has happened during the winter months. As I finally stepped off the bus, with only minutes to spare, I decided to…

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When I first started running, Duane would take me over to Palmer Park to run the Templeton Gap trail. You might be familiar with the trail. It's death in the form of some dirt and rocks. The terrain involves intense, short climbs that will leave you hating running, and your partner, at least it did for me. Duane is also very fast, and I'm pretty sure he could've hiked the 3.8 mile route faster than my beginner legs could run it.



I had a lot of special stops along this run "The…

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I spend a lot of the year watching kids run, as a high school cross country and track coach. I love passing on my love of running to young adults, in hopes that they will become life-long runners or college athletes. When I knew the baby was coming in February, I decided to take the spring season of track off. Being a great teacher, coach and mom is very difficult...and being a mom comes first.

Typically, my spring flies by and I jump into the summer feeling like a stranger in…

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The past two weeks of running have been pretty inexplicable. My abilities have changed, daily; and I'm grateful for the natural improvement. Truthfully, I haven't even been trying. It became noticeable a week ago, when I stood at the starting line of Take 5 in the Garden. I had decided to drag my butt off the couch and get moving, but my strategy was to walk every hill and generally take it easy with some 14 minute miles. I was certain that the race would take me over an hour to finish. But,…

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From Duane:

I'm twenty three days out today from the Fear the Deer half marathon, May 10. Quick history: in the inaugural running of the race three years ago I placed third. Then I was injured for a whole year--plantar, a whole other story--and then last year I went back and fell from first position to fifth in the last mile. Fast forward to this year. The race isn't getting any shorter, the competitors keep getting faster, and I keep getting older; nonetheless, I've really…

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Coming back to running is tough. Whether an injury, a baby, a major life change, a “break” in the normal pattern of training is difficult to come back…

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I completed my first trail run since having our son, Rowan. I pushed as hard as I could for as long as I could (no pun intended) and covered 4.4 miles. I felt really strong. But when I returned to the car and checked my new Garmin, I saw that my average mile was 13:41. I had two thoughts:

#1, Seriously? Fail.

#2, Seriously? Get over it. It's only been 6 weeks.

I'm running a lot slower than I did before having Rowan, and I guess I thought I would bounce back a lot…

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I had a goal to run the St. Patrick's Day 5K this past weekend. It was exactly 4 weeks after the birth of our second child, and I thought this would be my first race, getting back to normal. But, running has been tough this time. Maybe it's my older body or my 10 lb. 10 oz. baby, but more likely, it is my love of soaking up every little bit of baby time I can get. Because, this is it. This is our last little baby.

I'm not disappointed that I didn't run the race. I am a bit…

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Jaclyn writes:

 

The Rim Rock Marathon was an amazing experience, and probably one of my favorite races this year.  Having driven through Grand Junction and Fruita to raft Ruby Horse Thief or Westwater Canyon in the past, I hadn't thought much about the Colorado National Monument, until this race.  We anticipated doing well as a relay team and were hoping for first place.  Compared to the top marathon runners, we anticipated being in the top ten or twenty.  Up until this race,…

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Jaclyn writes:



Before I was ever thinking about having a baby, I remember working as a personal trainer for many women that came to me with one concern, baby weight.  After having a baby, up to five years prior, their weight had ballooned out of control and they had finally taken the time to reign in their health.  While this pattern is the product of many social issues revolving around pregnancy, I was determined to avoid this struggle.  Keeping weight off and staying healthy, are… Continue