Run, run, run!

Matt and I did our first half marathon in Estes Park this morning, the Estes Park Marathon!  I'd been wanting to do one for quite a while and finally just bit the bullet and signed up for one.  Matt was kind enough to join me and I am very grateful to him for that.  Estes Park is an absolutely gorgeous town so we couldn't have chosen a better race as far as scenery goes.  We were unfamiliar with the race route but had read that it wasn't too bad so we figured why not, and registered.  There were a few hills that were killer, specifically one about three and half miles in that lasted through mile six.  Oy!  That hill really drained my energy and my legs and put my time way off.  Overall, I felt pretty good, my knees are pretty painful right now but other than that not too much to complain about.  Poor Matt has blisters all over his feet--he wore his barefoot running shoes which were not the greatest for running 13.1 miles.  My goal was to finish in roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes, unfortunately my actual finish time was a bit longer than that.  It just means I've got a goal to work towards for the next one.

And yes, we've already signed up for the next one...we'll be running the Rock n' Roll half marathon in Denver on September 22.  I think I'll change up my training for that one and Matt will probably train more than he did for this one and wear different shoes.  The course for the next one runs through downtown Denver and has bands performing at each check point so it should be pretty fun!  I've heard good things about the Rock n' Roll marathon series (there's one in St. Louis this October for all you back home!) so I'm excited to see what it's all about.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed before the race!

I did it!!

Matt sad foot...heck of a blister!

We both were pretty exhausted.

So proud that we did it!

Hope all is well with everyone, can't wait to see some of you in roughly two weeks!!