Alamosa CO.
The weather here in Alamosa remains the same: COLD and SNOWY. As a consequence: My visits to the recreational center are non-stop and three new training partners decided to join me in this wonderful journey towards the women’s marathon Olympic Trails.
We have had very low temperatures for the past 2 months ( Low -32/ High 20s) and the snow storms keep showing up which personally prevents me from running outdoors. To be honest I have no idea how I made it through college while at Adams State. I clearly remember my first Sunday run, 15miles. This was back in January of 2001, when Melissa Bouren (former teammate) and I were running together and Coach Martin came by in his truck just to let us know that we were running in -10 temperature weather. That was just one of many Sunday runs to come under the same weather conditions. Now, there is no way you see me running outside unless all the gyms are close and I have no other choice.
Besides being a baby for not running outside I have a great reason why I now run
inside. I am basically taking into consideration a personal advice I received from the best male marathoner of our country “Ryan Hall”. I met Ryan back in 2006 at the Worlds Best 10km in Puerto Rico. As we are chatting during breakfast, he mentioned the benefit you get from running indoors versus outside in freezing temperatures. Ryan’s informal advice came in handy 2 years later.
Thanks to the challenging weather, my visits to the recreational center are non-stop. People there are just wonderful. I have met so many families and kids that come and exercise after work or school. I love this facility. It has a cardio room with TVs J, 3 gyms, an indoor track, a room for the kids, a locker room and the staff is great!
As for my three new training partners, let me introduce you to the best training partner team I could possibly have. Alan Gomez: Alan is my 3year old nephew. He runs against whoever is in the indoor track, bikes, plays with the toys, makes his mom run, and sneaks into the cardio room to watch me run!
Brayan Gomez: Brayan is my 8 years old nephew. He loves playing basketball and racing against me when I have strides.
Norma Gomez: Norma is my sister and like a second mother to me. She chases Alan around. She plays basketball with Brayan when possible and makes sure I do: “Run, Eat, and Sleep”
Even though the weather has been COLD and SNOWY, I am grateful to have a family and a whole community that are by my side 100%.