Cheyenne Mountain 25/50K
My good friend Andrea is putting on a 50K race the day before Easter (April 23rd) this year in Colorado Springs called the Cheyenne Mountain 50K. It's been so fun to watch her go through the process of organizing a race and I'm really jazzed for her. The race is a two loop format in Cheyene Mountain Park. I went out and ran the entire thing a few months ago and it is RAD. It's primarily single track and there is a mix of all sorts of terrain. There are some climbs in it, but everything is runable and it should be smack dab between a fast and a slow course. Challenging, yet, runable. I love the way Andrea is acting as a race director. She reached out to all of her runner friends (and she has a lot) and asked what they wanted in a race. Answers like "well taken care of" but "organic" with "great aid stations", "family friendly", and "schwag for all levels, not just the winners" all came up. She is really putting together some great stuff.
For example, there will be a Golden Easter Egg hunt on the course. Eggs will not be first come first served, but spread throughout the day. If you find an egg you turn it in for a prize. No waiting around for the raffle, just keep your eye out on course. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo will have docents out with some critters for the kids to enjoy after the kid’s fun run, and Carrabbas Italian Grill is serving up post race grub!
There is also an Elite wave that she is awarding prize money for the overall winners of the race, $500 for the men and $500 for the women. See the site to see if you can enter the Elite wave and race for some rent money. If you’re racing the 25K the first overall female and the first overall male will enjoy a 6 month supply of VitaBev multi vitamin beverage.
I'm very confident that Andrea will put on a top notch, yet home grown event. She's good with balance like that. I talked with her about offering a free entry to my blog readers and here is what we came up with, and I LOVE it.
If you decide to enter the race, there is a spot on active.com that says "How did you hear about us". If you sign up and type in goSonja.com or goSonja then Andrea is going to draw names out of hats from those of you that entered "goSonja" and it will be announced on the starting line of the race who won. What do you win? Upon completion of your race, Andrea will hand you in cash, your entry fee. Isn't that fun?
So, enter goSonja on the "How did you hear about us" section of the entry and you could get some cash in hand at the completion of the race.
If you are in the area and don't want to race, think about volunteering. You'll have a really fun time whether you race or volunteer, believe me!