Monday in Denver, Colorado

I was in Luke's Locker in The Woodlands this afternoon - after cutting the grass and before heading to the airport for our flight to Denver - to pick up a new pair of Asics Gel Fortitudes (for Wednesday in Lander, Wyoming).

Whenever I go in to Luke's, I usually get to see a combination of friends and/or The Woodlands Running Club members -- all of whom are working for the store on a full- or part-time basis.

Today, the store was staffed by Tara Wilson (who asked me if I was going to the RRCA National Championship News and Sentinel Half Marathon in Parkersburg), Dave Smart, Stash Timmerski (aka Terlinguan Stan Timmer - the fastest man in Todd Mission), Becky Isaac, Lee Harlicker, Rick "DirtRunner" Cook and Andrew "Wrong Way" Perry.

My goal, as I sit here at Intercontinental Airport, is to run three or four miles this evening once we get checked in the hotel to get a little exposure to running at altitude.

Well, that was last night. This is Monday morning.

And the neighborhood in which the hotel (which is a Marriott Towne Place Suites) is close to wasn't exactly conducive to running at night ... so I got in my run this morning in the daylight hours.

And, yes, altitude does suck the air right out of you. It wasn't pretty, but it is what it is. (And although I put a "zero" up yesterday, I did get in an hour and a half of intense yard work Sunday afternoon.)

4.23 miles in 45:36.57 at 5,280 feet above sea level -- a 10:47 pace that felt anything but!

I ran north on Speer Blvd. towards the basketball and football arenas and realized that Waverly and I can walk to Elitch Gardens. (Well, I don't know if I can convince her to walk two miles each way.)

As far as the run went, I did OK through the first 20 minutes and then the altitude started to kick in a little bit. One thing is for certain is that if you are unaccustomed to it, the thinner air will teach you to maintain a steady even pace.

On the return part of the run, I actually turned off in to a neighborhood where some of the vehicles on the street were probably worth more than the public housing units nearby. Sad, obviously. A reminder of what I have to be thankful for in my life.

Then, I heard one thing that made me move a bit quicker - dogs! Granted, they were behind fences but this was a neighborhood where I'm sure the leading beverage on the weekend is Mad Dog 20/20. I have a feeling though that Leroy, Elrod and none of their pit bull friends that carry the name Astro are also the main form of protection as well.

When I made it back to the hotel, I added 30 minutes on the recumbent bike downstairs. (We're up on the fourth floor.)

From this 2000 Denver Business Journal article, we're staying in what is known as the "Baker neighborhood". It says, "Across Broadway from the Apple Plumbing building, at the site of the A.B. Hirschfield Press building, a Marriott Residence Inn is going up. That a new hotel is going up in the neighborhood is a sign of the area's increasing popularity."

While in the workout area, there are articles and pictures that indicate that there used to be a baseball park from the mid 1910s that used to sit here in the old site of the Hirschfield Press building. A Sports Illustrated article from 1954 called A.B. Hirschfield the "No. 1 Fan" as he had attended 33 World Series since 1919 - which, of course, was the famed "Black Sox" Series involving the Chicago White Sox.