Moving dreams

When I first visited Colorado in 2008 and spent a day exploring the mountains with a run on Magnolia Road, I knew I wanted to live in the foothills someday. I dreamed of this for many years and after a lot of hard work and planning, I bought a home that was absolutely perfect for me. I had singletrack dirt trails outside my log cabin that bordered national 

forest, a great view and incredible peace and quiet. Sure, the home had pink carpet in bathrooms, a lot of floral wallpaper, 26 tropical fish themed decor items, nearly 30 year old major appliances with many that didn’t work and a windy steep dirt road to get there. But, it was truly perfect. Only a few months after moving in, I met Kristin and we started dating. We got engaged and married in the two years following. Together, we turned that house into a home for us and it was truly very special. When we were done with literally replacing every major appliance, every piece of flooring, every inch of paint, it was a home we were immensely proud of and a dream come true through an incredible amount of patience and hard work.

When I first visited Colorado in 2008 and spent a day exploring the mountains with a run on Magnolia Road, I knew I wanted to live in the foothills someday. I dreamed of this for many years and after a lot of hard work and planning, I bought a home that was absolutely perfect for me. I had singletrack dirt trails outside my log cabin that bordered national forest, a great view and incredible peace and quiet. Sure, the home had pink carpet in bathrooms, a lot of floral wallpaper, 26 tropical fish themed decor items, nearly 30 year old major appliances with many that didn’t work and a windy steep dirt road to get there. But, it was truly perfect. Only a few months after moving in, I met Kristin and we started dating. We got engaged and married in the two years following. Together, we turned that house into a home for us and it was truly very special. When we were done with literally replacing every major appliance, every piece of flooring, every inch of paint, it was a home we were immensely proud of and a dream come true through an incredible amount of patience and hard work.
 

In 2019, our son Levi was born and we quickly realized our dream home was no longer a good fit for us. The singletrack dirt trails can’t fit a jogging stroller, the peace and quiet became isolating without being in a neighborhood with other young families, easy access to help if needed was not possible, the ability to see a mountain lion become more terrifying, and internet speeds for facetime with our families that all live in different states was painfully slow. We came to the realization that our dreams changed.  No longer was this our dream home, but a family friendly neighborhood, a fenced in yard, and quicker access to grocery stores, doctors, etc was now a priority in our life. We pivoted and got the house ready to sell and then COVID happened. 

While there is so much terribleness with this pandemic, the work-from-home flexibility allowed us to expand our search for where to move to.  Ultimately, we decided to move to southern Fort Collins in a very family friendly neighborhood. Fort Collins is consistently voted highly to raise a family in Colorado, and the drive to Boulder for workouts with my team (Boulder Harriers) and for work is very tolerable. Little did Kristin and I know a couple years ago, that our dreams would change and we’d have to pivot to make them come true. We moved in early March and we could not be happier right now.

One of the biggest realizations for me in this process is that goals and dreams can change... and that’s a good thing. In fact, if my goals and dreams are not changing from time to time, there’s probably a good chance I’m just going through the motions. I still have big hairy audacious goals with running - I want to be a fighting contender at bigger road races and marathons, to be a contender at the 2024 Olympic Trials, try to win a national championship and make a US team. But in the shorter term, I’ve also shifted my goals in running. Rather than trying to figure out the next marathon I can do, I really want to work on getting outside my comfort zone in shorter intervals, workouts, and disciplines. I want to get on the track, try to improve my 5k and 10k PRs this year, and not set limits on my 1500m, mile or 3K PR even if it’s a time trial in practice. I’m excited for these different goals in the first half of 2021 and excited for an opportunity to challenge myself in a different way...and explore some new neighborhood trails while I’m at it!