Westward Bound

We were toying around with going away Labor Day Weekend. The issue: Holly had to work in a 20-mile training run that weekend. So destinations like Vegas and Florida were kinda out of the picture. We thought about San Francisco, but that meant finding a park and Dave escorting on bike (no one rents bike that early).

The solution: Find a marathon! It's an extra six miles for Holly, but it gets one more state out of the way of the 50 state marathon goal. So where are marathons Labor Day Weekend?

• Sun River, OR
• Boulder, CO
• Roswell, NM
• Tupelo, MS
• Pocatello, ID

Heat is one concern. For some reason marathons in the south during the summer weren't appealing.

• Sunriver, OR
• Boulder, CO
• Roswell, NM
• Tupelo, MS
• Pocatello, ID

The Northwest was appealing. Never spent much time up there. Sunriver's marathon was at a resort in the mountains a bit south of Bend and looked perfect. We have access to O'Hare and Milwaukee airports. So travel across the country should be easy. Not so. You can't get to Portland easily let-alone Bend, OR. Most flights on AA from ORD go through Dallas and prices were not favorable. Idaho had similar (if not worse) flight issues.

• Sunriver, OR
• Boulder, CO
• Roswell, NM
• Tupelo, MS
• Pocatello, ID

Boulder is the winner! Holly gets another state checked off the marathon list and Dave gets beer!

We'll visit family the first night and probably head into Fort Collins. Unfortunately the New Belgium Brewery Tours were all booked up for that weekend so we'll skip a lot of Fort Collins touring.

As we head to Boulder from the north we'll stop in Longmont at Left Hand Brewery. home of the delicious Left Hand Milk Stout. Lunch will be at the Pumphouse microbrewery in town. The rest of the time we will be touring Boulder's fine establishments.

There are some plans of breakfast in the mountains. The Sundance Lodge in Nederland looks perfect.

Monday is the marathon and we'll come home Tuesday. I'm sure we'll be meeting up with some friends while out there. Should be a fun weekend.

Any suggestions while in Boulder? Let us know.