This Monday I returned from a week long trip I took to good ole’ Boulder, Colorado. Initially the trip was planned with the anticipation of getting a job and never returning back to California. However, as the time approached to leave for the mountain state new and exciting opportunities had presented themselves allowing me to live in Santa Barbara while also being provided the freedom to travel to Colorado somewhat frequently.
See life post college has been... exciting, invigorating, stupendous... haha, let’s be real...unique. I would say it wasn't up until this last week that certain parts of my life really started coming together. You see it’s hard to explain but it’s one of those era’s in your life that you can’t really understand until you get there, despite everyone who has already done it trying to explain it to you numerous of times. It’s quite humorous if you ask me. One day you can be like a pioneer 49er who has just found gold... “Eureka! I have found it! Motha, Fatha, no need to worry I have found a way to live a stable life and never go hungry! The thousands of my dollars spent on my piece of paper claiming I know stuff was worth every penny! Yipeeee!” And then the next day can sound the complete opposite as if a Dementor just soaked your soul despite your excellent Patronus charm and sent you into a soap opera playing on daytime Television, “Mom, Dad, *dramatic pause* my life is over. *slow piano prelude* How am I going to do everything I want to do, there isn’t a way. * picks up rose and smells it* I have checked every job site and nothing is enjoyable and pays enough to live a normal life.” *fade scene* Needless to say I am happy enough to say the former has definitely been happening more than the latter, but being the passionate person I am I can honestly say the soap operas still occur, especially when I am Pms-ing.
Nevertheless, my trip to Boulder, yes the title of this post, was done with the intent of getting in some good quality training and being outside while organizing these “ideas” of how I want to live my life. Easy enough right? Actually it was. See what I came to figure out (or that I secretly knew what I wanted all along) was that I want a life where I am in control to make it however I want, which is pursuing outdoor projects that can garner support with the intent of inspiring young women to be what they think is badass and educate kids, and their parents, about the outdoors. Lucky me there’s been a few a things that have led me to be consumed by this mentality. The first was, and any person who overthinks would probably agree with me, were some quotes ( I strongly believe this because it's able to simplify what we are thinking). The main one that has been the center of my mojo is , “First say who you will be, then do what you have to do.” Great, right? I know it’s fabulous. The other one has been the people who I am surrounded with. There’s a couple in particular who are just doing what they want and are successful because it’s like they aren’t even working! I mean if work feels like play then you’re just having fun the whole time, so rad! So when I was in Boulder every moment I had downtime I was constructing a business that is in an area of work that I am personally very passionate about and excited to pursue (more details to be revealed later).
But, I wasn’t just doing that, of course, I was also having a tons of fun on my own and with a friend of mine, named Dave, and his friends and pup. All of whom I had the pleasure of staying with during my trip. See the story of Dave is quite funny. (short side story) Him and his friend John were in Santa Barbara about four years ago during the summer when one of my teammates and best friends in the entire world ( and former gaucho/ inspirational role-model runner/ sub 16min 5k PR) AMANDA BABINEAUX met John in a grocery store, noticing that he was wearing a cross country shirt. Being the friendly person she was she mentioned she was on the UCSB Cross Country team and BOOM the summer of John and Dave commenced and one of my favorite memories from college was born. So this time around roles were switched as I was living on his couch. :)
During the week I got to run some unreal trails! I ran Mt. Sanitas, Green Mountain, Bear Peak, Mesa Trail and all of its surrounding trails. My favorite run by far though was the in Walker Ranch where I got to meet up and officially meet up with badass runner Ashley Erba. Such a highlight of my trip as I knew we’d get along the moment she dropped an f bomb. This isn’t to say we aren’t classy ladies but sometimes it’s just easy to figure out who you’re you going to get along with based on how they talk about running. On this run we did a 9-ish mile run in walker and added on a little to this canyon I can’t remember the name of, but it was absolutely gorgeous. I love water, it’s my favorite element by far, and this entire run we were crossing this majestic and very powerful river, very suiting for the conversations me and Ashley were having. Needless to say I walked away from this run and meeting with ideas and goals, for myself and with Ashley which we are both excited about.
Aside from running I got to venture out in the town and do some bouldering, and mountain biking! Both of which were super duper fun. However, one of my most favorite memories from the entire trip was the moment I was dropping my friend Dave off at College of the Mines in Golden, and take into consideration he said I could use his car for the day, he turned around as he was getting out of the car and said, “ ... you know how to drive stick, right?” To which I quickly responded , “ No. *gulp*” He then said , “ well, you know how to ride a motorcycle, don’t worry my car is forgiving.” Needless to say that day will forever be known as the day I learned how to somewhat drive stick, despite stalling numerous times at stoplights. I would say the day after was the day I learned how to actually drive stick. Haha.
Well this is my first post and it is super convoluted but I thought I’d put something up to give you an insight to my mind. Future posts will be a little more organized. I will do a race posts following each competition to give you some insight to what was going on in my noodle, and also regarding awesome things like other stuff I do about running. So yeah until then. D-Mo out.