Catching up and Park #4--Alderfer Three Sisters

Wednesday afternoon, I also got unofficial results from my actuarial exam.  I didn't pass.  It's hard to describe what it's like to put hundreds of hours of preparation into something and to feel like your ready for it and then to find out you failed.  Even though it's part of the process, it's still hard to not let it shake my confidence and let it get me down.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

-Theodore Roosevelt

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.-John Burroughs 

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

-C. S. Lewis 

Back over Memorial Day weekend, Mickey and I went running up in Evergreen at Alderfer Three Sisters Park.  This my first time at the park and it was a nice run, although shorter than I was planning.  We started running on the south side of the park on the Evergreen Mountain trail West and climbed up to the summit trail where we got some good views.  

Views from the summit trail

Mickey enjoying the run

The actual summit trail

a view on the way up

We were descending on the Evergreen Mtn trail east when I tripped on a rock and fell hard on my knees, left shoulder and back.  Instead of exploring the northern part of the park as planned, I just wanted to get back to the car as I was scraped up and bleeding.  So, we'll have to go back and explore more of the park another time.

The weeks following that run, I started to get a lot of lower back pain and finally went to the chiropractor last week for an initial visit.  I've actually never gone to a chiropractor for adjustments, only for ART.  I guess I was pretty out of whack, probably from this fall, and maybe from all my mountain bike falls over the last couple years. It seems to have alleviated my lower back pain so far and hopefully is helping me run a little better.  I certainly felt better when we were in Michigan.

I raced a 5k 2 weeks ago and it wasn't pretty.  I had a migraine the 3 days before and that and possibly my migraine medicine led to my legs becoming extremely sore, mainly in my calves.  I also still had the low back pain. I was planning to do a race on Saturday, but skipped it hoping my legs would feel better for Sunday.  Then we spent 3 hours at the Denver zoo on Saturday afternoon and my legs really felt like junk.  I told myself that no matter how bad I felt, I had to get out there and race, and if I did I could buy myself some new running clothes.

So I did the Apex Father's Day 5k in Arvada.  According to the race mile markers I did my race as follows:
Mile 1: 6:24 This felt hard but controlled
Mile 2: 7:50 Passed the second place female at around 8 minutes in, got passed by another female and one male at the "2 mile" mark.
Mile 3: 7:10 Got passed by another female running with a dog, and maybe one guy.
Final time:22:10
I think the mile markers and the total distance were off, but not too far off. I really didn't feel good and fell apart after the turn around.  I finished 4th overall and even though I ran poorly I'm glad I went but hope that I feel much better the next time that I race.

Since I did do my race I got to order some new running clothes. I got two new pairs of shorts (they were on sale!) and a new sports bra.

Showing off the new clothes

I'm racing a 5k tomorrow morning and a downhill mile on July 4th so I'm looking forward to see how those go.