Aspen Golden Leaf Half Marathon!!

Well, we did it!!! We (meaning Gary, Hollie, Lindsey and I) ran the Golden Leaf Half Marathon! This run definitely goes down on the list of "things I totally did before I died"! Let's just start from the beginning...like the view and the changing Autumn leaves. It was absolutely gorgeous!!



We were supposed to run through the mountains, starting from Snowmass Ski resort and ending in Aspen. We checked out where the race was starting. Uhm, yeah, we are totally supposed to run...


...up this hill!!! A little nuts-O?! Ya think? I was scared.


This is Lindsey, Hollie, me and Gary right before the race. We were a little freaked out, but we were excited.

Which is why we totally jumped for JOY!!! Well, we tried, anyway!!!

The horn blew and off we went. We totally started to run until we decided to walk. Hello, it was up a freakin' ski resort!!!!!! So, pretty much we walked up the hill. What? We walked fast, please! Those crazy people running up that hill. Who do they think they are?

We are in this crowd somewhere.
Maybe, towards the back. But whatever, did YOU do it? Yeah, that's what I thought!

We were half way up the hill and I looked at my watch and I said, "Uh, Lindsey, we have been walking for like 20 minutes." She said, "Really? It doesn't seem like that long." By the time we got to the first aid station which was 1.5 miles we had been walking for 29 minutes!! It was crazy and it seemed like that hill would never end.

We started to run and then walk. Most of the trail was single track, so if someone was walking, you were walking. It was hard to pass or be passed. Also, if you looked up to check out the view when you were running then you were sure to trip. I almost tripped at least three of four times and every time I almost fell, I thought about the prayer that Hollie said that morning that we would be safe and protected, I think it worked. There were a few people that were pretty banged up along the trail.

There was also a time that I was really hurting and then the thought came to me of how lucky and blessed I was to be up in the mountains of Aspen, CO running through the Aspen trees upon the golden leaves on the ground. I thought about how there must be a lot of people in this world that would love to even have the ability to do what I was doing. Then the words of my good buddy Lance Armstrong came to mind..."Pain is temporary, quitting is forever!!!" So, we pushed through the pain and we kept going because...we can, can, can!

(To be continued...)