Francophile in the West

What a summer! Sorry it's been a while since my last post... I know you know how life gets busy, especially in the summer! Allow me to skip much of my typical verbiage and catch you up mostly on photos of the past couple of months:  O and I, celebrating four months of togetherness in early June. End of May - BolderBoulder 10k - Year 2! I ran the race in memory of Owen's brother, a fallen Navy SEAL. As you'll recall, I had a great time running the BolderBoulder 10k last year with a couple of friends. This year, I ran it with my roommate and her boyfriend. We had a great time, Boulder is beautiful, the weather was perfect, and I dominated my personal record, running 6.2 miles in 59 minutes and 32 seconds. Wahoo! (Also, a side note, but with no photos - I ran another 10k in Denver in early July, the Sand Creek 10k, and ran that one in 59:12 - EVEN BETTER! 10k races are my jam!!).  June - wilderness weekends with Owen Rocky Mountain National Park - The L...

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! ...