Saturday March 7 2020
Becca and I headed west on Thursday afternoon, via Phoenix, arriving into Boise (the local pronunciation of Boy-see acting as a shibboleth), late on Thursday night. We were picked up by friends – Abby & Ryan. Both went to IU and Abby is a former field hockey star student of mine, and a good friend, from St Louis, MO.
The race, Les Bois 10K Trail Race, was Saturday morning. Friday we had a nice big breakfast in one of Boise’s local restaurants, and went exploring. Snake River and Box Canyon, then Bruneau Dunes – at 470 feet, the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America!
Friday night we had a drink in a downtown brewery and ate at a nice pizza restaurant.
Saturday morning was the race. Les Bois 10K Trail Race. A nice little event – a warm hometown feel with about 200 runners. Ryan, Abby and I all ran. Our exploits hiking the canyon and scaling America’s biggest sand dune the day before proved perhaps less than ideal preparation for this out and back up a hill! Based in an army reserve, the event’s first 3.1 miles was a very tough 600ft climb, some of which reduced me to a walk. I did better coming back down but had to shake off a stitch – probably from the gel I took on at mile 2 whilst slogging up the hill… I ended up placing 15th overall & 5th in 30-39 age group with a time of 43.30.
My running wasn’t quite done for the day… Still mid Vegas marathon training, I had to get an extra 15 miles in! So off to the Greenbelt we went. Abby’s apartment backs right on to the Greenbelt – a huge expanse of beautiful asphalt/concrete trails running through and around Boise and its river ways. So she cycled and led the way, whilst I slogged it out in my Zoom Flys. It was rainy but with such a nice flat hard surface beneath the feet, the beautiful river to one side, trees everywhere and snow peaked mountains surrounds as far as the eye can see, it was a lovely place to get the run in. After that, we all headed out to Fork, Abby & Ryan’s favourite restaurant, where they very kindly bought us a delicious dinner. We went Payetteville after that, a local brewery on the river & Greenbelt, where we tried some local brews whilst playing Scategories and Bananagram.
Sunday we slept in, stopped by a Sherwin Williams paint store to pick out colours for the house we’re trying to buy, grabbed a delicious local diner breakfast in Boise near the apartment, then headed north to the Kirkham/Lowman hot springs. Natural hot water springs nestled into the open rock of the snowy mountains. It was a beautiful drive and a fantastic experience. We had home cooked salmon and brownies for tea and watched a movie.
Monday morning, Ryan and I ran 8 miles on the Greenbelt with Presley the dog, we all went to lunch at BFC (Boise Fry Company) next to the State Capital building, and we headed back to the airport for our flight home via MSP. What a wonderful place Boise is, and what a fantastic weekend we had. NOLA next.
Racing Americana 