Living Color

It's been a colorful week.

The raspberries are still going crazy in the garden, it's been probably 6 weeks of having a cup or two of raspberries to harvest every day, they are starting to slow down at ripening just now.

The Buffaloes are keeping us busy in and out of the house, between playing outside in the cooler weather, and shedding a ton of hair every day.

And it's October, so the pink is everywhere. Today I went shopping to buy supplies for my upcoming run at 24 hours of Boulder and it was in the grocery store. Even the local paper is pink on Sundays this month. A bit much...

But the highlight of my week was my trip to Estes Park earlier when I hiked around Lily Lake and took pictures. It was low key, I didn't even run 30 miles this week, but I had a nice walk around the lake and took pictures of everything, the ground cover, tree bark, the rocks, trees, mountains, water, everything I could see that was colorful.

Here is a link to the photo album, there are 90+pictures.

I'm looking forward to Boulder, even though the weather could be anything. I ran almost 11 miles today and felt strong. I have so much left, it would be nice if I had a good running day at Boulder. But I want to have fun and enjoy it too, so I'm not going to stress about performance. It's mostly on dirt and there are some short trail sections so I will be doing well to keep my ankles intact.

All I can think of when I look at these pictures is how lucky I am to live here.

I have a busy week ahead of me with a lot of work-related activities. I'm hoping to take a nice 24 hour mental vacation in Boulder next weekend. I promise I won't be so anal that I don't take pictures if the scenery is nice there around the reservoir.

I really, truly, am going to rest after Boulder. I want to recharge my batteries and have a great year next year. I don't have any plans yet and I haven't even thought about any goals or races I want to do. They will come to me over the next few months, I'm sure. After Halloween I'll be hitting the pool and bike and yoga mat pretty hard, along with the weights, through the end of the year.

I intend to have fun at Boulder and I hope I feel good. My friend Eddie is running his first 24 hour race and I hope to see him succeed at his goals. Maybe we'll convince Wheaties Boy to meet us down there and do a bit of cheering from the sidelines. I stocked up on PBJ supplies, yogurt, and vitamin water zero today. I'm ready. Bring it on!!!!