With October being one of the best weather months in Colorado for running, we did our best to fill the month with lots of running!
October 1st, was our Coyotes first XC meet. The Parker Panther Invite.
A little warm but, a gorgeous day for a race and our first meet. Awesome race and amazing finish Dylan!
Time for the girls race.
Ava ran strong as well and had a crazy awesome finish too.
The very next day it was time for mom, dad and Dylan to race at the Justice 10K with the rest of the Runcolo training team while Ava was up north in Loveland for two basketball games.
We always love this race and have such a fun day with lots of friends.
I ran a very smart race with a big finish and...
...placed 1st overall.
Simon ran well too and won his age group.
Dylan ran a great 5K race and placed 3rd in his age group. Ava was very sad to miss this race but, she knew the importance of making her basketball games.
Dylan has not only been growing up fast but, he has also been growing a ton too and with all that growing comes a lot of eating. October 3rd, we had to make an emergency pit stop at Chick-fil-A for a Spicy Deluxe Chicken Sandwich. He devoured it all along with a granola yogurt parfiate and still managed to eat all his dinner about an hour and half later too.
It was a sad day when we sold the Honda Element but, it was time for Simon to replace his work car (not the truck) with a new Hyundai Santa Fe Sport Limited with a turbo on October 5th.
It's a fancy, fun and fast new car for dad!
October 7th was Mark Twain's annual Fun Run. I love working from home so that I can easily join my kids for events like this one. Dylan was told by Dad not to run too fast because the next day he had a XC race but, of course Dylan still ran super fast and came in 2nd place on the way back to Twain. I tried recruiting the first place winner for the Coyotes.
The next morning, Saturday the 8th, we headed down to Fountain, CO for the Kokopelli Invite.
Dylan ran an amazing race and finished awesome against one of the always competitive Parker Panther racers and placed 3rd overall for the 8 and under boys. Woohoo!
I think Megan captured this moment of me coaching and telling the girls where to start their kick (or maybe I was just pointing out where the porta potties were). ;)
Ava not only ran a great race and a PR (woohoo) but, she made us very proud of her at this race as well. It was also a great teaching moment for our entire Coyotes team about always having good sportsmanship on the field. This picture captured the moment when Ava beat this boy at the very end of the race who was unsportsmanlike on the course and we loved that Ava put him in his place by beating him in the end. Here was Simon's FB post to retell the moment:
"At the XC race yesterday, this boy behind Ava with the Slim Shady dyed blonde hair, wouldn't let Ava pass him on the concrete path which you see in the background. She tried to pass on his left, he moved over and cut her off, she went to his right and he did the same thing, happened again a third time.
l was standing about 200 meters from the finish and yelled "Quit cutting her off!" and Ava yelled "Stop it!" to the boy, it's literally the only time I've yelled at a kid in a youth sporting event, but the poor sportsmanship really got on my nerves and he topped it off with a smirk after I yelled at him.
The best part is Ava CRUSHED him on the final hill to the finish to beat him by a few seconds. Another spectator goes "Well she showed him!" Made me proud!"
After a great race by both kids it was time for a delicious burger and milk shake from Bingo Burger in downtown Colorado Springs. Yummy yum yum.
The next morning, Sunday October 9th, we were tired from running lots the day before but, the kids and I were still ready to make our way out to the beautiful Botanic Gardens at Chatfield for their annual pumpkin patch and festival. Last year we were so busy that we weren't able to make it out to the pumpkin patch and so we were so excited to make it this year especially on a beautiful, sunny day.
The big jumpy castles are always a big hit with my kids.
Dylan and Ava both had to take a "shot" and the carnival games too and,
...the human hamster balls are their absolute favorite.
While I waited in line for the kids they went and found the tattoo and crafts area and then...
...after a small wait it was time for the gigantic air pillow.
It's starting to feel (or maybe look...not feel) like fall!
Time to find their pumpkins.
Thank goodness Simon bought me my own cool pink pocket knife that I keep in my purse. It came in handy when we needed to cut our pumpkins from the vine.
Dylan on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin.
Looks like he found the perfect one.
Great picks guys!
Last but, not least a hay ride back to the car.
I was beat and worn out when we got home from the festival but, Dylan still seemed to have energy enough to build a crazy hot wheels track with his body Will... off our master bedroom balcony. Boys!
October 11th it was time for some fun Coyote Team photos before practice!
Go Colorado Coyotes!
After practice Dylan loved taking baths in our new master bathroom jet tub and apparently he also thought it was pretty awesome to add bubble bath and turn on the jets. Holy moly that was a lot of bubbles.
Thursday, October 13th, was Ava's middle school's PUMA Prowl race. The race was a little over a mile and out of the hundreds of kids that ran the race...
...Ava L. placed first, our Ava E. placed 2nd and Abby placed 3rd out for the 6th graders. So awesome!
The very next day, October 14th, Simon and I flew out to Canada with a group of our friends for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. We had trained hard and put in a lot of miles. Now it was time to have fun!
I always love the window seat on a plane and this was why. At one point I quickly realized we were flying over the Mississippi river (I recognized the river bends) and then as I kept watch I realized we would soon be flying over Chicago and Lake Michigan.
Beautiful view of downtown Toronto, Canada.
So fun to have a big part of the crew on the same flight.
We rented a spectacular penthouse in downtown Toronto. It was gorgeous with...
...amazing views of downtown.
It was time to relax and enjoy good company with the greatest of friends.
Pre-race shake out run with the marathon expo to follow.
Resting our legs with gorgeous views.
Pre-race dinner at the penthouse so that everyone treated their tummies correctly before the big day.
The whole Runcolo gang was ready to race the next morning.
Sunday, October 16th we woke up ready to race. We have no photos because everyone was racing and no-one carries their phone when they race. We were all a little nervous about the expect warm temps but, still ready to race. We had a short walk to the start of the race from where we were staying which was great and it was so fun to have a big crew to race with. Going into the race I had been running well. I hit all my 8 mile tempo runs at 6:54 pace with my mile and 2 mile repeats at a faster pace then expected. My long runs went well with only one that was a disaster and the my highest mileage week being 75 miles. I was not expecting a PR but, was definitely feeling like I could run a great marathon however, I bombed big time. I had been having lower back pain the ever since the flight out. Didn't think too much of it but, it ended up killing my race. Right off the start line I felt the pain and was hoping to loosen up but, never did. I ran smart in the brining and didn't go out to hard or too slow but, ended up buckling over in pain. Although I was barley slogging though, I still made sure to finish. I wasn't trying to finish for the sake of finishing (I was in too much pain for that) but, I really just wanted the marathon finishers metal because of all the hard training and time I had put into this race. Simon, ran very well given how hard it was for him to train with how busy he was the last month and a half leading up to the marathon. He ran smart and had a fun race overall. It wasn't a PR but, he ran pretty decent.
After the marathon, we made a quick stop for a photo by the Blue Jays arena and then it was onto...
...the gorgeous 360 revolving restaurant at the CN Tower.
Our full, big crew of Colorado friends celebrating with a big dinner after a big day in Toronto.
Stepping on the glass floor.
Time for post-race drinks and celebrations.
The next morning we rented a few cars and head down south for Niagara Falls, Canada.
It was stunning!
Our last night out celebrating one of the most amazing trips we've been on with friends. We couldn't have asked for a better trip with some of the best memories filled with lots of laughter, great experiences and the best of conversations.
Tuesday, October 18th it was time for one last celebration in the Toronto airport before heading back to the States. Cheers to great times with great friends.
Thursday, October 20th, was the first day of fall break the Ava and Dylan and they were so excited to get Halloween ready by cleaning out and carving their pumpkins on such a gorgeous fall day.
Then it was onto putting up all the Halloween decorations. This year the kids did all the decorations by themselves and they looked spooktacular!
By Saturday, the 22nd, it was a big day for racing for the Coyotes. Many of our runners registered for the Middle School State meet and we had several of our runners in the meet that weren't even middle school age like Dylan!
It was a huge meet with hundreds of runners. The boys ran first and...
...Dylan ran really well in the heat and against hundreds of middle schoolers while he was only 8.
The girls were up next.
Look at this starting line. So many runners.
Ava ran amazing and had an impressive finish.
It was another hot but, very fun day.
Later that evening Simon and I went over to Haley and Tristan's house for their house warming party.
Another great night with great friends.
Sunday we woke up to another gorgeous fall day. You can barely see Simon in these photos but, he's throwing the football for William and Dylan.
By Tuesday's practice on the 25ht, the weather was still beautiful and the sunset was even more stunning for our XC runners.
Thursday's practice on the 27th was just as stunning.
The great weather made running hills much easier. We love CO running in October.
Ava kicked off the Halloween festivities with a Halloween dance on Friday the 28th. Ava was peanut butter and jelly with her best friend, Kate, this year who was not able to go to the dance so we tour up and cut one of my old prom dresses and made her into a zombie. Pretty cute for throwing it together very last minute.
Ava and her friends heading out for the dance. They had a blast.
Ending the month with another fantastic opportunity to race on the 30th at the Little Stride 5K and 10K which benefits our Littleton public schools. We had a little fun running this race too by dressing up as super heroes.
Woohoo! Ava ran an awesome PR of 21:50 in the 5K. So amazing and...
...Dylan ran an amazing PR as well running a 23:26! So awesome.
Dylan was most excited for the pancakes after the race. Good thing he's a faster runner and was able to get pancakes quickly after her raced and before the line grew to hundreds deep.
Awesome job Coyotes.
After The Stride we enjoyed having friends over to our house for our first official party in the newly remodeled house.
Halloween was finally here and Dylan was so excited for his class party.
Sister was able to catch some of his party as well because her school gets out an hour earlier than Dylan does. Dylan was Optimus Prime.
Ava and Kate as PB&J!
Another year of a Chili dinner and Halloween fun with our neighborhood crew!
Some of the kids suddenly stopped for a short break during the trick-or-treating fun to count and trade candy. So cute.
Happy Halloween and such a happy end to a fantastic October.
October was definitely full of lots of running but, CBC was also back in full swing with games on the weekends and two practices during the week so Ava has been a very busy girl.
Crash'n the boards!
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