Colorado Summary

I've decided that Denver is an interesting place, and most likely not some place I would want to move to. Although the city seems fun and interesting, it is so much different than Florida. I did get to run in this city, although it's not as much as I would have liked to. Here's a summary of my trip :)

Sunday Night: my flight was delayed so I got in pretty late. The flight was pretty bad, and we had turbulence almost the entire time. I was exhausted by the time I got in so I just grabbed a cab and checked into my hotel. Before I left the airport, I did get a chance to see some of their famous art murals, which were pretty creepy. Ok, like really creepy. After I checked in to my hotel I walked to a nearby pizza place and ordered take out. By that time, I figured I'd call it a night since I had to be up early the next morning for a conference. 

Monday: my conference started on Monday. I attended this conference last year, but this year I was actually presenting in it. I know, scary right? Right away we got into sessions and for the most part they were pretty good. I love this conference because it's like a place for all of us nerdy I/O psychologists can get together and talk about testing. After the conference I decided to go running. I had asked the hotel about someplace to run and they recommended a nearby trail. I initially got lost trying to find it (surprising) but stopped a cyclist to ask where the Cherry Creek Trail was located... Hs response was awkward, and he took a long look at me before asking me why I wanted to go to the trail. I looked at him confused, and told him I wanted to go running. He hesitated giving me directions, but gave them to me anyways. Flustered and confused I went to the direction he gave me... This interaction should have been my first clue that this trail was not a good idea.

I start running in some general direction not really knowing where I'm going, when I stumble across the trail. The entrance of the trail looked scary and there were 8 homeless people congregated around it. Now, typically I'm not scared, but this caught me off guard. I contemplated about whether or not to go on the trail (the trail is located underneath the streets) and decided to go for it when I saw a cyclist cut through them.



Let me tell you something about running in Colorado. It was ridiculously hard. I was struggling to keep a fast pace and could only maintain an 11 minute/mile pace. I literally couldn't go any faster. Even though the trail was pretty, I was so uncomfortable by the amount of homeless people and drug activity going on by the trail, that I ended up running back up on the streets. I only ended up doing 3.5 miles, but figured that was good enough. Since they were having a conference social that night, I got ready to go out :)

Tuesday: since it was the day of my presentation, I could not fall asleep. I figured a run would help me get all of the jitters out, and so I set out to find a new place to run. I opted going down one of the main streets and figured I would just wing it. Since it was my second time in this altitude, I actually felt much better. I kept about a 10 minute/mile pace and was able to go about 4 miles. It felt absolutely wonderful. The weather was much better too. The day before it was in the 90s and that morning it must have been in the 60s.

        

After I got ready, it was the moment of doom; it was time for my presentation. I was so nervous. Like ridiculously nervous, but I had some familiar faces in the room so it made me feel a little bit better. I have to admit I had a rocky start, but after about 10 minutes in, I felt like I could actually pull off the presentation. Once the presentation was over, I was relieved and humbled by all of the positive feedback I received. I felt like I had just been on a roller coaster and was so excited. I celebrated by having a cheeseburger and milkshake at Sam's No. 3 which was featured in One of those Food Network shows.  The rest of the sessions at the conference were great and I couldn't wait to hang out with a group of conference people that night.

Since it was one of the girls birthdays from the conference she wanted to go out to dinner before we went to the Rockies game. She had actually own tickets at the social event we went to the night before and gave me the ticket! I was so ridiculously excited. The first game I ever attended as a kid was the Marlins versus the Rockies. The seats were amazing and we ended up having a blast! They dragged me to the hospitality suite that night, and I did my best to be social, but excused. Yield to go to bed so I could wake up early to go running!!

Wednesday: I woke up early to go on a run. I was actually met by two other girls who I spoke to the night before about the run: E and V. Now, I must admit, I didn't think they were going to make it to the run since I had left them to go to sleep. We set out on our run, and tried our luck at Cherry Creek Trail again. This time I could actually direct us where to go, and there was no group of homeless men congregated by the entrance. Once on the trail we came across some sketchy characters, but it wasn't as bad as the crowd I had seen on Monday. We ended up having such a fun time talking and laughing. Even though we only did about 2.5 miles, I had so much fun and was glad they came on the run with me. As a note, after we headed back to the hotel from the trail, there was someone getting arrested by the entrance, this, confirming the sketchiness of the trail lol.

I attended the last sessions of the day and wrapped everything up before heading to the airport. Even though I had to be at the airport for about 5 hours, I must admit it hasn't been that bad. I'm about to board the flight and I haven't been ridiculously bored. I'm hoping I can sleep or get some reading on the flight, but I doubt it. Although I'm getting in late, it's okay because I have the day off! However, I'm getting back on flight tomorrow night to head to Nashville where I'll find other trails to run... And hopefully safer ones too!