The Wrath of the Cherry Picker

We just got back from our weekend in Vail with Dan's family, and we had a great time! We stayed in a 3BR condo at the 'Antlers' - great location, right on the river, next to the gondola...Missy brought Caley (her dog) and we brought Rylie - it was a houseful! We went to a great restaurant on Friday night, patio seating right along the river. Saturday Dan, Jon and I decided to rent mountain bikes and do the whole 'downhill mountain biking' experience....you rent the bikes and then take them up the gondola and ride down. This was all my bright idea (important note). We take the first half of our run 'easy' down the trails. Dan and Jon then decide to take me on a 'bike trail' which is VERY narrow and steep. Let me point out, I have never mountain biked...I road bike all of the time - so I thought I would figure out the mountain bike thing pretty easy. Let me tell you - the 2 are VERY different!!!! This first little challenge proved too hard for me....I was breaking at all of the wrong times, and I ended up taking a pretty bad fall on this little stretch. I decided I would stick to the 'easy' runs for the next 2 hours! I broke off from Dan and Jon - Jon ended up with a flat and we only got 2 full runs in. I am bruised and beat up from this experience!!

We went to the pool yesterday afternoon, and we had another great dinner last night right along the river. This morning, Dan and I did a 5K. This was not just ANY old 5K....I actually had no idea what I had signed us up for, I had signed us up a few weeks ago just knowing we would be there and thinking a 5K would be fun. The race is called the 'cherry picker' race....come one, how hard can a race that involves picking cherries be?! I checked out the times from last year before we left on Friday, I should have known it might be trouble when the best time in my AG was 50 minutes, and the best time overall was 35 minutes. When we picked up our numbers this morning, we looked at the course map and saw that we would be climbing 2,200 feet in 3 miles - uh oh!! We got up there and the first 1/4 mile was STRAIGHT uphill - like I couldn't run it if I tried. Everyone started off walking. I told Dan to go ahead, and he started running as soon as he could...I ended up doing most of it as a hike - running on some of the flats and downs. For those of you who know Vail, the course was from the base of the mountain all the way to the top of the gondola (afterwards you have the choice to ride the gondola down - or run back .... if you are a total whacko!!). I finished in 69 minutes - Dan finished about 10 minutes before me....we are still awaiting the final results. Normally 69 minutes would be a shame of a time - today, I am quite happy that I was able to even finish this alive! I ate a big mexican lunch and we just made it back home after a 3 hour drive home. Great weekend, I cannot wait to go back, I think we are camping again next weekend.

Big Brother is tonight, I broke down and ordered Showtime so I can watch BB after dark...sad I know. It's such pointless television!!