When Friends are Family...

Being in Boulder this week has been a whirlwind, but it ain't over yet.  I thought I was going to have time to read, do some hiking, catch up on my Facebooking/LinkedIning/Gmailing (Collectively referred to as inter-comming: Communicating with the internet).  But, oh, I was so wrong.  It seems that face-to-face friend time is still worth a thousand phone calls and emails. No matter how hard we try to embrace the digital age, there is something biologically important about the proximity of loved ones.  I call it Friendergy.

It started with my return from Crested Butte (it's really ugly there, never go for a visit).

See what I mean, just UGLY!  (Elizabeth 

and I ready to ride Snodgrass)

 

I hung out with Amber and Eric on Sunday evening.  I had gotten a brief glimpse of them when I came into town for the wedding three weeks ago, but brief glimpse is never enough of the BFFs.  Over grilled salmon and steamed broccoli with almonds, we talked about the week (The upside of this conversation:they are in the middle of a tightly regimented build to Ironman Canada and I had no idea how the week would unfold).

Monday:

I decided to make it a little bit about Sunny.  I headed into Boulder and took in a familiar trail loop that started at Chataqua Park, wound up along the Mesa Trail, dropped down along North Shanahan Ridge, hit Lehigh where I watered from the hose at my old house (I hope Steve doesn't mind), bounded up Skunk Canyon and finished up back in the parking lot in the foreground of the Flatirons.  Exchanging my running shoes for Teva flipflops, I was astounded at how torn-up my feet had gotten at Pac Crest.  In need of caffeine as well, I boogied over to Café Solé for latté and, just three doors down, Posh Nails for some foot-lovin'.  Afterward, with my toes transformed into "Flashbulb Fuchsia" awesomeness, I walked around town just drinking in the sites and sounds of my former hometown.  I also stopped by Colorado Multisport to say "what up?" to Ryan, Offersburg, and Hershey.  It was great being in the shop again and seeing how much things have grown and changed!  Later I spent the evening hanging with Vern and Joe grilling and watching Le Tour and Le Bachelorette.

Tuesday:

5:32 am.... time to swim with Wolfgang at Flatirons.  And surprisingly, many of the ladies that I used to welcome the dawn with were there.  I got a few "where have you been?"s and "Oh, Oregon"s.  But otherwise, it was just like old times.

Afterwards, I hopped on Amber's Green Dean and rode over to Amanda and Michael's house for some oatmeal with rasberries, coffee, and the best gossip around.  Amanda and I and my skirt even went for a great little short run around Wonderland Lake and over to the Frontage trail.  Finishing it off with a ginormous smoothy of Amanda's invention (think peaches and blackberries, etc.)

Showing some leg after our run.

In the afternoon, I got a little nap-action before trucking it to Fleet Feet to meet up with Matt and to say "yo, hommies" to the peeps at one of the greatest sponsors a girl could have.  I talked Olympic Trials, running, and triathlon with Jay and Lilly and a newbie customer that is doing his first tri ever in Leadville, CO this week-end (props for the 10,000 ft above sea-level) while Matt was out running.  Then he and I and Seth occupied a table at the Mountain Sun over beers and Jalapeno burgers.

To be continued....