Labor Day Weekend

My last long run of the Top of Utah Marathon training cycle went well. I was fearing being unable to do the fast-finish bit, so Dan suggested I cheat a bit and make it a hill run instead, something that sort of mimicked Top of Utah's downhill-at-first-then-flat profile. So early on Saturday morning I drove my car to the western terminus of the Boulder Creek/Canyon trail--and left it there. I ran down the canyon and into town for eight miles, and then back up the trail, including the canyon climb, for the second eight miles.

I felt slow and pinched for the downhill part. But somehow, the turnaround revived me and I felt "in the zone" for the climb. It went by so much faster. I was really surprised and gratified. I felt high the rest of the day. My family went for a little hike that afternoon, and I was even up for some Fast Cory-style jumping:

Yeah, that twin tum....it's never going away.

Then the kids wanted to get into the act:

We couldn't get a good simultaneous jump photo.

Sunday was a work day for me. I went for a nice little recovery run on my break, the kind of run where you feel like you are flying and could keep going until you reach heaven, because that's the only place you could be going feeling like that.

When I got home, I knew for sure that fall was coming because Dan had baked bread for the first time since May. In the cool months, he bakes all of our sandwich bread from scratch. It's the best bread in the world, especially when it first comes out of the oven. And it makes the whole house smell good:

Yeah, the four of us had already consumed a lot of the first loaf by the end of lunchtime today. Fortunately there's another loaf in the freezer.

Today, Labor Day, was awesome.

First, we volunteered at Aid Station #9 at the Boulder Marathon. I've run the half three straight times, but this year that wasn't happening because of Top of Utah. I wanted to stay involved, and also expose the kids to some volunteer work, so we signed up. I had never volunteered like this before, but it was so much fun. We saw runners of all shapes and sizes, starting with the eventual men's and women's winners and ending with the last guy on the course. I was proud that two of these runners told me that ours was the best aid station out there.

Here we are just before I took the kids home--Will and Ruthie lasted a solid two hours, helped with filling cups and picking up trash. We're definitely doing this again next year.

After that, we went to Boulder's Hometown Festival. Again, it was a great time: the kids bounced in bouncy castles and hurtled down bouncy slides; they tried a climbing wall (as did I!); Will was in a Big Wheel race; they rode on Vern the Train Man's train; Ruth had a helicopter painted on her face; and Will had an airbrush train tattoo on his arm. Dan and I watched them and ate kettle corn.

Then we went over to old neighbors' house for a quick cookout. We got home about 30 minutes ago, got the kids in bed about 15 minutes ago--and I think they are already asleep.

I'm about to go to sleep too. My McMillan Plan has this to say about the next two weeks:


"You now enter the special Peaking Phase to rest the body/mind but keep the engine revved for racing! Reduce your life stress and focus on good sleep, proper nutrition and hydration."

I say, Amen to that!

I'm game for a little stress reduction. Ahhh!