Flagstaff Fall and the kick off of the AZ running season

Fall in Flagstaff is beautiful. There is about a one week window where the trees look like they have golden leaves. The weather here is mostly sunny in the first place, but the combination of sun and golden aspens seems almost magical. 

 There are many great spots to check out the beauty, but my favorite is the inner basin at lockett meadows, especially on a wednesday or thursday when no one else is there.

 I went on the hike with my friend from nursing school and my other friend, Joy, who is most likely going through the program next year. Funny how we ended up in the same place: we went to Black Hills State University at the same time, then ventured off into different directions and now we are both in Flagstaff.

 We got to play in our fist snow of the season!!!

 JR said he didn't do it but apparently another JR had been here before :-)

Next week I will explore the newly opened Waterline trail on my Mnt bike, which should end up at lockett meadows again. About 30 miles of Mnt bike fun!!!

Yesterday after clinical I drove to Phoenix to participate in the first race of the season: AZ Xterra trail run. I had been running 50-60 miles/week, but not much over an hour at a time, so it was interesting to see what I could do in a 13 mile trail run. Last year I won the overall women's in 1:42:09. This year I felt great until mile 6 where my speediness literally left me in the desert. I switched to training mode and  just finished the day off with a 7 mile fun run, enjoying the surroundings. I thought my time would be much slower then last year, but to my surprise it was still 1:42:49. But I ended up 5th place overall women :-( After the race I met up with Coach B and we came up with a plan for the winter. I am excited to get in a lot of racing over the next 6 months, both in Ft Collins and in AZ.