Aspen: Aspen Valley Half Marathon [updated with humor]

Things I signed up for today: the Aspen Valley Half Marathon.

Things I haven’t trained for: the Aspen Valley Half Marathon.

Things I am nonetheless excited about? You got it. The race is almost all downhill, on easy gravel terrain, and it’s going to be a gorgeous, cool Saturday morning (at the ungodly hour of 7am, but I digress). I’ve been itching to run lately, so I figured why not? The most I’ve ever run before is 12 miles, and that was in crazy hilly Austin, so surely I can do 13, right?

This is the inaugural event for the Aspen Valley Marathon, a 13.1 mile half marathon from Woody Creek to Basalt following the beautiful paved Rio Grande Trail. The organizers intend to host a full marathon and half marathon on the same weekend in 2011 and it is hoped that the 2011 Aspen Valley Marathon will be a ‘Boston qualifying event’. Times should be super fast with the downhill!

Deets:

Saturday, July 10, 2010 @ 7:00am (ha!) / Jaffee Junior Park to Basalt Lions Park.

Fees: $50 until July 8th, 2010, $60 thereafter.

Course:

The course starts at the Jaffee Jnr. Park on the banks of the Roaring Fork river one mile South of Woody Creek just outside Aspen. The start of the course takes runners up an incline and out of Woody Creek Canyon for approximately the first half mile where the course meets the paved Rio Grande Trail and heads steadily down valley towards the town of Basalt. Please note that you should park at the Intercept Lot at Brush Creek & 82. We will bus all participants from intercept lot to start of event.

Um, is anyone else crazy enough in Aspen to join me in a random half marathon?!

[UPDATE] A gchat with my friend Lisa revealed that I’ve actually run 12 miles TWICE!
Lisa: your blog made me laugh….i wanted to post “do you remember what happened when you ran those 12 hilly austin miles??!!!”
but i know the situation was way different
me: hahaha
what happened?
I remember it being fine!
Lisa: you almost died!
me: (selective memory)
Lisa: you were on that cleanse
me: oh that was a different 12 miles!
I totally forgot about that!!

It was a terrible, awful, no-good cleanse where I couldn’t eat any carbs, not even veggie carbs, so I was grouchy as all get out, lethargic, and when I tried to run 12 miles, I had to stop and sit down by the side of Town Lake, then walk like three miles home. I tried to hitchhike home it was so bad. That won’t happen again!!