Gnarly

     The brand of sports drink provided at the Rocky Mountain 5k and half was called "Gnarly Hydrate."  It was an appropriate product to serve at this half.  Gnarly=difficult, dangerous, challenging.  This course was challenging....lots of hills, almost 1000 feet of elevation gain per my gps, and higher altitude than I am used to.  I would call it beautifully gnarly.  We had views of Rocky Mountain National Park on most of the run, and ran past the famous Stanley Hotel (remember the movie "The Shining"?) at mile 9 on the way back to town. Like most of the runners, you learn to start walking all the uphills, and running the downs to save your energy.  I had my slowest results times ever!
     So here is a picture of my race bling....which is why people run, right?

     I got the Elk Double campers mug, the tee shirt, medal on left is for the Friday night 5 k, 2nd medal is for being 4th in my age group for 5 k, 3rd medal is for the Saturday am half, 4th is for doing the Elk Double (5 k plus half).  I will also be getting a 5th medal in the mail for coming in 5th in my age group for the half. I guess if you live and run long enough even slow runners like me will get to stand on a podium.  (I loved that).
     The weird blue item on the right is a silicone hydro-pouch given to all runners.  It clips on your belt and you can fill it at all the water stops.  This was a cup-free race, so you either carry your own hydration or use this hydro-pouch system.  Actually it worked great.  I had feared there would be lines at the water coolers/gnarly sports drink coolers every 2 miles, with runners waiting to fill up, but that never happened, and there were no cups wasted and littering the ground either, and I didn't have to worry about lugging a couple of liters of extra water and sports drinks around for 13+ miles.