Ft Collins racing and hiking

I am getting really good at going from clinical to the airport, changing in the airport bathroom out of my scrubs and into my "civilian" outfit. People look a little funny, but I have to maximize my time off :-)

Last week I flew to Ft Collins again. Veterans Day weekend meant lots of running events around the Ft Collins area. We decided to run the local CSU Veterans 5k and had a ton of fun. The course is flat and fast. I wanted to go out conservative but the competitive me just had to stay behind this girl who took off fast. We went through mile 1 in 5:45, mile 2 in 11:40. I tried to move ahead at mile 1.5 but she left me in the dust. With one mile to go I tried again and was successful :-) YAY. I finished in 18:30 and was super happy to take the win, but a little confused about the time. After some research we found out that the course was long...3.25 miles instead of 3.1. That made me feel much better about effort/pace/time. JR took the W as the first veteran. 

I don't know what is in the Ft Collins air, but the next day I ran 14 miles at probably my best training pace ever, with 5 miles sub 7 and an average of 7:06 - for a "going by feel" run, this was a great start to the day!!!

 In the afternoon we met up with our friends Pam and Jason. Jack was waiting for Scout and Aidra.

We hiked Arthur's Rock in Lori state park. Tons of great running and mnt biking trails around that park!!! I am so excited to explore more. The hike is around 4 miles, so it was a perfect afternoon hike. The puppies had fun and really enjoyed playing.

 Made it to the top :-) Horsetooth Lake in the background.

 The crew at the top of the rock.

One more month and I will be in Ft Collins over Christmas break, exploring the routes and racing some more. Until then it is a little more studying, some yoga and strength, a lot of running.