I don’t know about y’all, but I am dying for the work week to end. I have some big plans this weekend that I am slightly excited about, and I’m very ready to get this show on the road!
This Sunday, I’m going to attempt a comeback run. Awhile back, Columbia Sportswear offered to register myself and a friend for any race in the Vail Trail Running Series. Columbia is one of the larger sponsors of this race series, and because Adam and the rest of the gang are fantastically nice, they offered to hook me up. Naturally, I said yes, and Angel and I chose the Evergold Trail 5k. Cindy and Craig jumped on board and registered also, so we have a mini-posse heading up to Vail!
Originally, I had thought this weekend was going to be the last weekend before my Denver Rock ‘n Roll marathon, so I only registered for the 5k trail race instead of the 11k. Wisdom at the time dictated a 5k as my maximum run 7 days before a marathon, you know? However, next week’s marathon isn’t happening, but I still consider the shorter distance a good thing. After all, my knee has not been able to run more than 2.5 miles over the last six weeks, so a 5k will still be pushing it for me. Guess we’ll see how that one turns out, eh?
However, a trail race is not the only thing I have to look forward to this weekend! Because of the supreme Colorado drought this summer, the aspen in the high country are already changing colors. According to reports, the fall color is 4-6 weeks ahead of schedule even! This means that the brilliant gold aspen trees are already approaching their prime colors, and I really want to see it. Additionally, elevations above 12k feet already received a dusting of snow, so my backpacking days are winding to a close. In short, we needed to cram in a mini-backpacking trip.
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| Photo Cred to Jon Kedrowski who texted this image to me last weekend |
Tomorrow morning, we’re heading up to Lost Lake outside of Vail. Lost Lake is a beautiful lake located at 10,000 feet, so we’ll still be camping below tree line. The pack in is super easy and short with almost zero elevation gain,but I think that’s perfect for this weekend. This will be my first trip post-injury and I want to make sure I don’t do anything stupid like re-injure myself. Additionally, we have to wake up early Sunday morning to pack out AND arrive at the Evergold trail race starting line by 10am. A longer trek would be almost impossible!
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| Tally is psyched 🙂 |
Of course, Tals and the rest of the pups will be coming along for the ride, so I’m excited for my baby girl to continue testing out some new Ruffwear backpacking gear that she received. Most spoiled dog ever, no?!