A Mile High

Greetings from Denver. I've been in town for a couple of days to take care of some personal business. I had a free day today and looked for the perfect place to run six miles. Nothing went as planned, but I did get my run in.

I had a light breakfast at the hotel, and left at 9:30. I was going to go to a state park, which I envisioned as being miles of trails with large green trees to provide shade. It took a while to get there and then it wasn't what I expected so I left. I found a map that showed bike trails through downtown, so I switched plans and headed back north. By the time I parked and actually got going, it was 11:30 and hot, hot, hot! I know better than to run at high noon in the middle of summer, but I didn't want to put this off. So I ran along a bike trail aside Cherry Creek. It was not very pretty, but very few places are in the middle of a scorching day. It got better as I headed north, and the creek converged with the South Platte river. There was a nice park there and kids were playing in the water. I confess that I wanted to join them, but I kept going. I did take note that there was a Starbucks there and after 3 miles I turned around and stopped for water at Starbucks. It was adjacent to REI, so I went in there to use the bathroom and bought a GU.

It was hard going, but I don't think I can blame it on the altitude. I'll blame the heat! I thought I'd do some 30 second intervals, but I didn't last more than 20 seconds--once! At the start I took walking breaks at every mile, but after the third mile I was struggling. That was discouraging, but I made it the full six miles. I carried the refrigerated bottle of water that I bought at Starbucks and by the end of the run it was as warm as bath water. I never saw a weather report, but I was easily in the 90s and I wouldn't be surprised if it broke 100.

Afterwards I went back to the Starbucks and had a sandwich and latte. Then I shopped at REI. They were having a clearance sale, so I bought a bike jersey for SD and a long sleeved jersey for me (for when the weather gets cooler), plus some cute bike socks. :-)

When I got back to my hotel I went into the fitness room to refill my water bottles. I spotted an elliptical machines and since I was still in my running clothes, I hopped on for 20 minutes. Don't ask me what got into me. Then I sat outside by the pool. I was exhausted, but some people were in the pool and it looked so inviting that I put on my suit and jumped in. It was the absolute perfect thing to do; the swimming loosened up my muscles and the water invigorated me. Then I showered and went out to dinner. I went to a nice little neighborhood restaurant named Duo--I highly recommend it if you're in the Denver area. Started with a roasted beet salad and had gnocchi con pesto for my entree. The entire dinner was only $25 and it was delicious. I went to Oceanaire the night before and spent more than that on just the salmon, but I was familiar with Oceanaire since it was started in Minneapolis. I actually went there because a guy that worked at the Starbucks I used to camp out at in Minneapolis, moved to Denver a year ago and worked there. So I went to see him; he was surprised to see me of course, but knew who I was. The maitre d' introduced himself to me, and then the executive chef came over! I guess they were impressed that I would look up N., but it's just a Minnesota thing.

While I've been in Denver, SD has been in Minneapolis. It's been weird for me to be alone in a strange town. And to have a hotel room all to myself! I had all three drawers to myself, and the king size bed. We both get home tomorrow, where we'll resume getting in each other's way. :-)