Lofty Goals

If you didn't get my elevation pun, we can't be friends any more [okay but seriously living in Colorado has made me obsessed with altitude and I feel like I always need to know what elevation I'm at] 

I've recently started getting visitors that have not been hassled into reading my blog via Facebook or Instagram or familial ties, so I decided to update my about me page in case they were curious, you know, about me. So if you have read that page recently, you may have noticed that one of my goals is to run a half-marathon in the spring. This has long been a goal of mine, and I was probably closest to achieving it senior year of high school, but then college came and my dorm was a 2 minute walk from 7Eleven, so I quickly got out of shape and that goal hasn't really been within sight until recently.  

Moving to Colorado has quickly gotten me back in shape [!], and I'm sure there are lots of factors that have gone into that:

1. I work at a preschool and am constantly running around after rogue toddlers, a typical work-day consists of 8,000 steps for me.
2. Have you noticed where I live? It's basically impossible to stay indoors on the couch when there are mountains to be explored. Hiking has helped me lose 12 pounds since moving, and while the season has basically come to an end, we already have some pretty epic hikes planned for the spring.
3. It's literally always sunny here. I can't use the poor weather as an excuse to stay inside anymore because Colorado averages 300 days of sunshine [though we did just get two days of rain and I loved it].
4. Map My Run/Sam Baker. I'm friends with my brother on there and he's currently in the middle of marathon training. Nothing is more motivational than getting a notification on my phone saying "Sam Baker just ran 7 miles." Plus, he's really great at giving me advice on what runs I should do and training programs I should follow. 
5. Fitbit challenges. Logan and a few of our friends do a Workweek Hustle challenge almost every other week. It's hard to be inactive when I'm getting constantly taunted by an app telling me that "Kenna has met her step goal" or "Claire has stolen the lead" or "Chalk up another 2,000 steps for Logan."

But back to the point: Colorado has been fantastic for my health, and I'm super motivated [right now] to reach my goal. To help keep me motivated, I've been signing up for 5k races, knowing that in the past they've held me pretty accountable for training. A few weeks back I ran a race at Red Rocks, but it being the toughest 5k in Colorado and having a last 1.1 miles of straight uphill and 76 flights of stairs, my time [54:51 or something like that] is not representative of my abilities. I convinced Logan to run a Halloween-themed race with me this weekend, thinking that we would motivate each other to train and I would be well on my way to 10k's again. 

Our training for this race consisted of one run in the park where we both forgot our inhalers and ended up spending half an hour catching up on our lives instead of running [work + school means it's hard to talk about the little things each day]. Even though we were totally unprepared for the race & Logan threatened to hide in the closet again to avoid going [see Mid-October Mountains for context], I was incredibly excited to see how it would go.  

We were both filled with nervous jitters, but we managed to leave the apartment early [for once]. We dressed up - the race is called Kooky-Spooky, after all - and headed to the starting line. Logan did absolutely amazing, this was his first 5k in almost 10 years, and he kicked my butt. I did much better than the Run the Rocks 5k, if only because the elevation gain was spread out over the whole course. Logan finished with a time of 35:49  and I finished in 42:49 - knee problems and asthma can't stop us! 

So basically I'm incredibly proud of myself and can't wait for the Pumpkin Pie 5k in November!