Truth be told...it's a pretty good life: Mustache Dash 5K!

Wish the shirt had Denver or the date...

On November 2, 2013, on a whim, I decided to purchase a groupon for a 5k in Denver. My first race! It wasn’t supposed to have been my first race, because I had signed up for the Atlanta Monster Dash 10k back in July when I attended the Peachtree Road Race Runner’s Expo with my awesome BFF Allyson. A few things transpired between July 3 and November, when the Mustache Dash was scheduled. Namely, I moved from Atlanta to Denver! Then, the Ortho crew cancelled the Monster Dash—which I had planned on flying back from Denver to be able to run in, but I had to fly to Los Angeles for work. Later in the fall, while I was in Salt Lake City for work, I saw a groupon for this little 5k, the Mustache Dash, which was to benefit Movember-- the prostate and male cancer month. I texted a Denver buddy to see if he wanted to give it a shot. He’s a tennis player, so he’s in good shape. I’m a flatlander, and the altitude is BRUTAL here. Mustache-dache, you're on!


We are grumpy about the cold pre-race.

Fast forward—it was only about 3 weeks from the sign up to the race! I'd been running on the treadmill and using the elliptical at the gym in my apartment complex. I'd done two short runs (about 40 minutes) in a park near my place, but I was not really feeling that great about running. During the summer, Allyson and I were pretty regular about working out at the gym together before the Atlanta heat hit too hard core, but I'd slacked off a lot here. Allyson totally inspired me on this-- her blog, her encouragement, and her living by her goals of running and racing-- it's been monumental to me not being just a couch potato out here!

Ick. Dead critters and guns.

Lots of layers in non-cotton fibers, Body Glide, and sparkly eye shadow.

Denver also hit a cold snap and it snowed buckets and buckets of snow the Thursday before the Saturday, November 23rd race. We even received an email pushing the start back half an hour so that it would be a little sunnier and hopefully warmer at race time. On Friday night, my friend Michael and I set off to the “expo”—more just a packet pick up at the Bass Pro Shop. Okay. I’m not a “sportsman” type with hunting and fishing. This place had more taxidermied animals than some museums I’ve been to! All the dead critters hanging off the walls were pretty intense to me, but then I had a bunch of Cheddar Bay biscuits at the ultra-healthy Red Lobster around the corner. My stomach was definitely settled by the biscuits.

I made it home on Friday night and got some of my clothes ready. I read on Jeff Galloway’s website about what to wear in a cold weather race. I got a little bit nervous about that part because it was going to be 18 degrees when the sun came up—possibly warming up to about 30. Between the altitude (meaning I’m much slower here and get side cramps fast!) and the temperature—I really felt like cancelling and going back to bed. But, I had a little cheering crew text stream going on from Atlanta and I was good to go.

Oh, mountains. I really, really, really am glad I get to see you.

The race was at a place called Central Park in Denver-- it's actually part of Denver called Stapleton. I swear I'll understand all these neighborhoods eventually. It’s actually where the airport used to be located. It’s hard to imagine planes managing around buildings, but I think it’s awesome that some of the buildings from the terminals are still there along with the air traffic control tower. I still catch my breath to see the city skyscrapers juxtaposed against the silhouette of the Rocky Mountains. These mountains just make me really happy.

I started off the race with my buddy, but then I decided against keeping a fast race pace in favor of listening in to people’s conversations, saying hello to people, and enjoying the scenery. I do the “run-walk-run” interval running, so I don’t injure myself here in this altitude. I never thought Atlanta hills were terrible for running in, and comparatively speaking, the hills of Grant Park and Decatur are NOTHING compared to attempting speed here. (To date, I’ve tried running on a trail once. Once.)

A long queue of folks up to the starting mark-- all mustach-io'ed.

There's snow on the ground! You want me to do anything but go back to bed?!

The air was pretty crisp from the starting line but the crowd thinned to the walkers, the families, the people with strollers, the people with a group who were doing this 5k fun run as a fund raiser for Prostate Cancer research. Did I mention the mustaches? There was a tent where you could put on a temporary tattoo mustache, or draw one on with marker. I’d already drawn my “pirate-stache” on in the car. I was pretty surprised there was anything left of my mustache after the race because I’d had to wipe my nose the whole time from it running. Silly nose thought this was a race it needed to RUN!

The morning was warming up nicely.

I made sure I followed my friend Allyson's advice and was ready to RUN across the finish line. I walked some of it for sure, ran some of it, and listened to some Florence and the Machine. She’s good running music!

We got chocolate mustaches and protein bars after it was over—I checked in for my time based on the chip thingie in my bib number. It wasn’t fast, but it was my first race. If I got a do-over, I'd make sure my outside layers were easier to remove-- I had pinned my number over the zipper on my jacket. It got a little hot and sweaty. I would probably train more before hand (I did have a few things going on, like work and travel for work conferences!) that would help me to be more ready for the altitude. I was happy with the Body glide coating I had on my chilly toes, though, that's for sure. What can I say, I think I’m hooked!

Enjoy a few pics from the day—it was a good one!