Francophile in the West

The month of May was full of more crazy Colorado spring weather, and me running my second half-marathon! I spent the late winter and early spring training hard for another race. So far this year, I've run 175 miles, and it's only the end of May. Wahoo! It was fun to prepare and challenge myself again for this race, similar to last year's big run in October.  A beautiful surprise bouquet of peonies from O - my favorite flowers! Looking down the Manitou Incline and out over Colorado Springs. 2,000 feet of vertical gain in 0.9 miles - Yay, training! This year, I decided to take on the Colfax Half-Marathon, Denver's major road race that goes through parts of downtown Denver, starting in City Park (the marathon route even goes through the Broncos' stadium!). It was a great race; a well-routed course, you got to run through the Denver Zoo and the Aurora Fire Station, lots of free goodies at the end of the race, and of course a sweet finisher's medal!

The month of April positively flew  by! It started off with a friend's wedding, included 40 miles of running, a four-day work trip to the East Coast, an 8-day trip home to visit my family and meet my niece, rocking out to the Cave Singers at the Larimer Lounge, and lots of great dates with my boyfriend!  Friends, meet O. :) He is beyond a doubt the kindest, most incredible man I have ever met. I am completely smitten!! With O at the Cave Singers show The night before I headed for home toward the end of April, O and I went to see the Colorado Rockies play the LA Dodgers at Coors Field. We had fun watching the sunset, half-paying attention to the game while chatting and cracking each other up. Spring has definitely hit Colorado, and it's beautiful!  It was such a treat to take a week off of work to return to Washington State to visit my family and meet my sister's newborn baby girl! The flight into the Pacific Northwest was perfect. You could see Mount Hood fro