July and August

Once again...too much time has passed since my last blog post. Where should I start??? Hmmm...well at the end of July me and my friend Katie drove to Crested Butte to meet up with Elisabeth (Bethan) who was one of the founders of our running group at Crocs. She has now moved on to bigger and better things aka Patagonia. We weren't surprised but we were pretty bummed to see her go. Her boyfriend John has a house up in Crested Butte and we decided to get a group together for the weekend and to run the Grin & Bear It. The Grin and Bear it is a 9 mile trail run where the you gain 1600 feet in elevation during the first 4.5 miles up to a beautiful alpine lake above town. Needless to say the first half of the race is very steep and is definetly not where you feel the urge to grin. The race starts at 9000 feet and the turn around point is at 10600 feet. This burly run was difficult but extremly fun! The cost was $5 and the guy who started the race also ran with us. The starting line was drawn with with his foot about 5 minutes before the race and the results were never posted. There were about 40 people total and it was followed by a BBQ and free beer. This is a "race" that I highly recommend! Low key and tons of fun!


Me and Bethan grinning after the race.

In August we finally made it back up to RMNP to climb the route on Spearhead where my knee failed me about a month ago. We had a great trip but no pics as I foolishly left the camera on "night" mode the entire trip. You can look at Josh's blog for pics from the weekend. The route was fun and my knee did great. Another awesome weekend!

I also completed another triathlon. This one was the Steamboat Springs Triathlon and was slighltly longer than the Danskin I'd done earlier in the year. This was an 800m swim, 20m bike, and 4m run. I'd hoped to get in the top 5 for my age but came in at 7th. It was a great course and with the exception of swallowing water on the swim all went well. There was an unexpected headwind on the bike but those types of things just seem to happen. I plan to go back next year to do this race again and have one more triathlon for the season this coming weekend.


Before the race.


The beautiful scenery around lake Catamount. My wave is the one wearing purple caps.


Finishing up on the bike portion of the tri.


On the final portion of the run.


Cota and I after the race. He was very proud. Can't you tell?


This week Keith and I had the privilege to go to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to hear Obama speak. We arrived at 3pm and after seeing the LONG lines on the South entrance decided to walk around to see if there were shorter lines. Sure enough, we were able to find a less popular entrance where we walked right in and up to our seats! We saw Yonder Mountain String Band, Cherly Crow, AND Stevie Wonder who dedicated Signed, Sealed, Deliverd to Obama and running mate Biden. My favorite speakers of the evening included Bill Richardson, Al Gore, and of course, Obama. There was sooo much positive energy and hope in the stadium. It was an amazing evening and one I will never forget. I was texting my aunt the entire evening and wished she could have been with me. Obama's speach was incredible and anyone who hasn't taken the time to listen to it needs to! GO Obama!

Our future.