After work yesterday Kim and I went out for a quick run before heading over to another couple’s house for dinner. We followed our normal route up to Washington Park and, due to our time constraints, decided to just run half of the park and then back home. Upon running into the park and toward the south side of Smith Lake I noticed something floating in the lake. No, what I saw wasn’t a paddle boat. It was at that point I recalled reading an article from the Westword about these floating islands that were going to be installed in the lake. According to a Denver Post article, “A group of volunteers and city workers launched four artificial islands made from recycled plastic bottles, foam, sod and plants into the Denver lake. The islands, called ‘biohavens,’ are meant to simulate wetlands by providing food and shelter for insects, fish, birds and turtles. They also might make the lake’s water a little cleaner.”

I noticed that the islands are not as green as the pictures in both linked articles above. The Canadian geese must have found their way to the islands and caused some damage. I noticed that the biggest island now has some sort of protective net or cover over it. I’m guessing that the islands are under careful observation and that something had to be done so that these biohavens have a chance of surviving. I’m curious to see if any noticeable change in wildlife occurs over these next few warmer months, though I read that success may not be measurable for at least a year. I hope the islands last that long.

Just like last week, we had another come from behind win in hockey last night. Our opponents came out flying from the get-go, while my team was pretty flat for most of the first period. I thought that this was the best team we’ve played against so far, though their 1-2 record wouldn’t make you believe it. Fortunately we were able to pick up our play and come from behind to tie the game 3-3. That was the final score at the end of regulation. Again we proceeded into a best of three shootout. This time we shot first, with our first two players missing their shots. The first two for the opposition also missed their shots. Our third skater put a solid move on the goalie and made his goal. So it all came down to their final attempt, which our netminder easily handled. My team remains undefeated with a 4-0 record in which two of those wins came in shootouts. Hopefully the streak will continue without me, as I’ll be missing next week’s game.

Kim and I have been running fools recently, and this weekend was no exception. After staying up way too late Friday night, we woke up way too early Saturday morning to run in the Race for Dreams 5K in Washington Park. The park is less than a mile from our house, so we just walked over in our pajamas a few minutes before the race was scheduled to start. Pajamas were the encouraged attire for the themed race. Fortunately it was cool enough in the morning for me to sport a pair of pajama pants.

The race had about 300 participants, which was a good turn out for the first time event. For us the run started off a little rough, as we were still feeling the effect of the previous night’s party. However we were eventually able to find a nice pace and finished in a time of 26:10, or just under eight and half minute miles. Not too bad for how we felt. Our time was good enough for Kim to receive an award for second place in the female age 26-40 group. The same cannot be said for myself as there are always way more guys ahead of me. It was a well put together race and we look forward to seeing it again next year.

Wow, my adult hockey team won yet another game last night! For those of you who have lost count, that is now three in a row. As per usual, the stats from the game are not yet online, but I do know that I had one assist in the game. Once again I was playing defense, but still managed to get some great passing and shots on the goal. Unfortunately, I peaked at the score sheet after the game, and I was not credited with the assist. That’s alright, as I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually have all four of my previously credited assists. I just hope that I’m still the league leader in assists after the game. Check out the league statistics leaders and notice my name on there three times.

At one point in our game last night, it looked like our winning streak was going to come to an end. We were down 4-2 with around five minutes left in the game. Surprisingly, we snuck in two quick goals around the three or four minute mark. The game ended in regulation with score tied at four. From there we moved on to the overtime shootout. Each team had three chances to score, and we only needed two. The other team shot first and missed. Next a guy from our team took full advantage and scored on his shot. Then the other team missed again, we missed our chance, and finally the other team missed their last shot. We didn’t even need our third attempt to take the game 5-4. I’m really liking winning for a change.

In addition to trying my first 5-way this past weekend while in Cincinnati, I also found time to do some other Cincy things. My favorite of which was heading down on Saturday night to the Great American Ballpark to watch the Reds take on the Cleveland Indians. I hadn’t been inside the ballpark in a long time and I was happy to see all of the changes that have been made, especially the new giant LED scoreboard. The picture on this high-def screen is incredible and is a huge improvement over the old scoreboard. Here are a couple of pictures, the first of the old scoreboard, and the second is of the new.

I wish the new picture was from the same angle as the old, but you get the idea. The new scoreboard has amazing color compared to the old one. Notice that all of the old advertising has been moved from the bottom to both sides of the new scoreboard. You can see in the old picture that there is a video screen on the right side, but now the entire scoreboard can be used for video display. In the foreground you can also see one of the new smaller ribbon boards that were also installed throughout the stadium to replace the old and outdated. I’m happy to see that the Reds are continuing to make changes to their great ballpark.

I actually would have posted an update yesterday if I didn’t spend the entire afternoon and evening on the couch. Reason being, Kim and I woke up before 5 AM to catch a bus up to Boulder to run in the 31st annual BolderBoulder. This 10K race always takes place on Memorial Day and is the largest timed race in the country. There are a number of qualifying waves (21 to be exact) and loads more open waves after that. In fact, no other race in the world incorporates as many waves as they do. Since we didn’t have a qualifying time, we were placed into one of the open waves, though somewhat near the start, which I’m guessing was determined by our estimated finishing time of around 54 minutes.

So, we caught the first bus up to Boulder at 5:15, and eventually arrived around an hour later so we could pickup our packets, drop off our belongs to a mobile locker that would be there when we finished, and then found our spot in line for our estimated start of 7:32 AM. It took a little while to accomplish all of this with the estimated number of participants around 50,000, but we arrived early enough to avoid most lines. The first wave went off at 7 and surprisingly our wave did start on time, right around 7:32.

The run started off easy enough with a flat run for at least the first mile of the course. We started a little slow, just to make sure we had enough to get through the entire race. Prior to yesterday, the longest we’d run was four miles. Between miles one and three was primarily uphill, though not at a very steep grade. Our times for these first three miles stayed very consistent. The fourth mile had some ups and downs throughout, but we started to pick up the pace anyway, deciding that we were feeling good enough to make a push to get down closer to nine minute miles.

Just after the fourth mile the course took a very nice turn downhill, which we definitely capitalized on and picked up the pace below nine minute miles and closer to eight and a half. And just when we thought we were nearly done, one final uphill came out of nowhere! After making the turn onto Folsom Street you can see the end point, Folsom Field, but you quickly realize it is going to be tough getting up there. Amazingly our increase in speed continued and we actually ran the sixth mile in under eight and a half minutes. We really wanted to finish with an average of around nine minute miles, so we had to make up some time from our beginning miles.

After making the last big climb, we found ourselves running right into an entrance of the football stadium, and then making a loop around the field to the finish line. It was an amazing ending, with large crowds gathered throughout the stadium bleachers cheering everyone on. I’ve never experienced anything like it. And to make it all even better, we actually did complete our goal of running nine minute miles. You can follow this link to see the detailed results of our run.

Once we had crossed the finish line, we walked up toward the food and beverage area. After a quick stretch, we exchanged coupons on our bibs for a nice sized snack pack and a beer. We then walked up into the stands to cheer on the remaining runners and walkers. Once the course was nearly clear, they started the international team competition. Each team consisted of three elite runners representing one country or group. When these men and women entered the stadium to make the last sprint to the finish line, the stadium was nearly full and cheering as loud as possible. It was really something to see and experience. Ethiopia won both the women’s and men’s challenge, with two of their runners getting first and second in both races. The winning man finished with a time of 28:17, nearly twice as fast as we finished!

After all of the running was complete, they had a nice Memorial Day ceremony in the stadium with flag carrying parachuters, music, a twenty-one gun salute, and even a fly over from three F-16s. Once the ceremonies were over, the skies opened and it began pouring. We got soaked while waiting for the bus that would take us back to Denver, but I was just glad it waited until the run and ceremonies were over. It could have been much worse. And the run itself was great. If we decide to run it again, we now have a time that will qualify us to run in one of the earlier waves of the race.

Another hockey game last night and another win. That’s two in a row! I honestly can’t tell you the last time that has happened. Once the stats from last week were finally posted, I found out that I was credited with two assists in our 5-1 victory. Well I took a look at the score sheet from last night’s 5-3 win and I was given two more assists, taking the two game total to four. That may just be enough to be leading the league. We’ll see once the stats are posted.

Unfortunately I added two penalties to my stats as well. Since a couple of the regular defensemen were missing, I was moved back to play D for the game. I got called for our team’s first penalty, a very weak tripping call. Yes, the guy did fall, but I don’t think my stick was the reason for it. He should have received an academy award for his dive. And in the third period I received another penalty for interference, which was an okay call. I just wish the referee would have called the elbow that the other player delivered to my face mask. It even drew a little blood on my lip.

Our team has a rule that the player who gets the first penalty has to bring locker room beer for the following week, so I’ll be doing the honors next week. Hoping to make it three in a row.

After a few months off, last night I was back out on the ice for another season of adult hockey. My team for the last couple of sessions has decided not to play during the summer, so I joined a new team with two other guys from the prior team. Not only are we on a different team, we are playing in a new and different league, and last nights game was at a rink that I’ve never played at before. Another thing that was different about last night’s game was that we actually won!

Despite not playing for awhile, I’m happy to report that I played pretty well. No goals, and no assists that I’m aware of, but I had a couple of scoring opportunities and many good passes. It’s always hard playing on a line with two others that I have never played with before, not to mention that no one on my line had played together before. I’m sure this will change in the coming weeks, and I’m looking forward to playing with some new faces. The stats from last night have not been added to the website yet, but our team, Eck’s Saloon, won 5-1 over CWA.

Less than three weeks after I pretty much said that our snowboard season was over and we’ve added another day to our count. Saturday afternoon we headed up to Arapahoe Basin, taking our count up to 16 or 17 days for the season. We hit the slopes for a couple of hours, doing somewhere around five runs, before heading down to “the beach” for some food, drinks, cornhole, etc. One of the guys on my recent hut trip was having a party for his engineering association and invited us to come along for the fun. I had intentions of taking pictures of the beach party, but forgot the batteries for the camera. Next time we head up, I’ll be sure to be better prepared. I heard that they are shooting to stay open until June 7th.

Since picking up some new shoes a couple of weeks ago, I’ve run with them three times on a treadmill at the gym. The pain behind my knee that I had the first time hasn’t returned and I’ve really been enjoying the shoes. I did get some pain under my right arch on the third run, but this occurred this past Monday after the long hike over the weekend. So I’m pretty much sold on the shoes, and I even took them for their first outside run today. The weather has been pretty nice lately and I figured a nice run at lunch today was just as good as any other time. Besides, Kim injured her ankle playing volleyball last night and probably won’t be running again until next week.

So I mapped out a nice 5K route around the business park. It’s a bit hilly, including one hill section that I did twice, but it wasn’t too bad. I managed to finish my course in just over 25 minutes and with no pain. It was fairly enjoyable, so hopefully I decide to run the route again sometime soon.