Running

Sunday, May 3rd, I completed my first ever half marathon. The Colorado Marathon starts up the Poudre (pronounced "Poo-der") Canyon and follows the Cache La Poudre River into the Old Town of Fort Collins. State Highway 14 was closed upstream of Ted's Place (intersection with US 287) during the run and we rode chartered buses from the City bus terminal to the starting line before dawn.

My time: 1:52:41. 13 minutes faster than my final 13 mile training run! I think I may have become a runner. I'm hardly sore at all today and am looking forward to splashing down the trail again tomorrow.

Tracking my training with a mobile app has been surprisingly fun. For no reason other than that it's a Mapbox customer, I've been using Runkeeper. I like it. The charts make sense, the data export works, and it is perfectly adequate for tracking mileage. I can't say how useful it is for real sports physiology. Since February 15, when I started training for the race, I've run 215 miles.

Next race: a 10k on the Devil's Backbone Trail outside Loveland, May 17. I'm looking forward to more rocks and dirt and less pavement.