Skirt Ambassador Weekend

As you know, I'm a Skirt Sports ambassador this year. Well, in conjunction with their race (13er, 10k, 5k), they hosted an ambassador retreat weekend. Even though Brandon was actually home, I attended pretty much all of the events and had a blast. I met a ton of other Skirt devotees ... Ladies, I know I didn't talk much (super introvert over herrrrre), but I truly did enjoy meeting all of you!

Friday evening was a welcome dinner and tour of Skirt Sports; basically a great chance to meet each other. Founder Nicole DeBoom gave us the Skirt story and we were treated to delicious food from Evol (burritos!) and, because it's a Skirt event, fantastic cake from Kim and Jake's. Also shopping, because of course.


Fellow ambassador Lisa thanking Nicole (electric blue top) and Noelle (to the right of Nicole). Birthday girl Deb off to the far left!


Nicole and Noelle with their gift baskets, given to them by the ambassadors.


Caaaaaaake! Almond poppy seed with a cream cheese frosting. We had leftovers of this the next day ...

Saturday morning, it was up early again to drive back to Boulder for a hike. There were 40-50 (of 200) of us at the dinner and probably about 15-20 of us at the hike. We hiked the Hogback Ridge Trail loop on the south (?) side of Boulder - basically right near Olde Stage Road.


Ladies from all over the country tackling our rough elevation and doing fantastically well.


Trail of hikers ... and views of Boulder.


Deer!


At the top.


Hiking back down.



Wore my brand new ambassador tank on the hike, as well as my 70.3 Boulder visor in honor of the race going on that day.


I, um, kind of beat everyone down the hill.


Previous picture, not zoomed in.

After the hike, we convened at Noelle's (Noelle's basically the one in charge of the ambassador program) for leftover cake, coffee, fruit, quiche, and conversation. 

This was probably one of the least-advertised part of the weekend, but also I would wager one of the most important parts of the weekend, and one of the things I felt that makes me love Skirt Sports even more. As we are the faces of the brand, Nicole and Noelle wanted to hear our thoughts on the brand, on product, on the ambassador program itself. Are women still wearing running skirts? Is there a reason Skirt can't get into more retail stores? Why might women, say, wear Lululemon before Skirt Sports? Obviously all assembled were Skirt loyalists, but we also know other female runners, and some of those runners may hate running in skirts and/or prefer skirts by other brands.

After the roundtable, we were free for a few hours before a BBQ. Brandon came up so we could get in a ride. We parked at Skirt HQ (just down the street from Tom Watson and so much less crowded) and right up 63rd ... and saw the runners out on the Boulder 70.3 course. So, less than a mile into our ride ... and we stopped so we could cheer on the athletes.


Go runners, go!

After about 10, 15 minutes, we continued on with our ride. About what would have been a third of the way through our original plan, Brandon started not feeling well. And REALLY not feeling well. Side of the road vomiting not feeling well. As it was in the low-90s, we think he got heat exhaustion. As a result, instead of going from Niwot/Neva to 36 to Nelson back to 63rd ... we turned it back around at 36. 

We also stopped and cheered some more before heading back to the car.


Poor guy.

Due to Brandon being half-dead, I decided to skip the ambassador BBQ which Noelle hosted at a lake near her house. On the way back to Brandon's car, we swung by there - I had RSVPed and didn't want to no show, and I also wanted to snag some more mild food to possibly help Brandon feel better. 

Sunday morning was the 13er (half-marathon; so named because it's not half of anything), 10K and 5K. I had signed up for the 5K and Brandon signed up for it as well that morning. Before the races started, all the ambassadors and ladies in the Kick Start program assembled for a massive, giant photo.



The rest of my story continues with the race ... which I'll leave for another day.

In any case, the first (annual?) Skirt Ambassador weekend was a total blast and I'm so thankful to Nicole, Noelle, and the rest of the Skirt crew for putting this on and bringing us all together. If this happens again next year (and I'm fortunate enough to be an ambassador again), I'm totally in for it!