20 May 2015 ~ 0 Comments

The Gnarliest Colorado Blend Retreat {Recap}

By admin

Prepare for lots of pictures today friends!

This past weekend I went to my #1 bucket list state… Colorado.

For years, I have craved visiting this hippie state. I was just sure that I would fit right in, be blown away at the natural beauty and feel my hippiness wanting to break free.

I was right. And I have Blend to thank for allowing me to have the experience.

Friend + Blogger = Blend. It’s a weekend long retreat of hanging out with friends that normally are just friends via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogs. We actually get to see each other in the flesh and it’s amazing.

So back to my recap…

Friday morning I landed in Denver. My friend Katie had landed shortly before me so we met up and took the tram over to pick up our rental car.

Chautauqua Park would be our home for the retreat, more of a summer camp feel with amazing views of the flatirons.

We signed in to Blend, grabbed our swag bag…

swag

And the weekend officially kicked off.

How to pass time?

Fitness & Food

Did someone say trail run? After packing up some homemade trail mix from General Mills, several of us headed off on to the trails behind our cabins for a short run.

Short, but gorgeous.

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After about 10 minutes into the run, I heard a man’s voice behind me say he was from North Carolina. I immediately knew it must be Rob from SizzleFish! I was excited to meet him in person after our fun podcast awhile back. We talked for the remainder of the run and I had a great time getting to know him better.

boulder trail run

After about 40 minutes the run was over and we headed to our cabins to freshen up for dinner…

watermelon-drink

What a fun evening. Amazing cocktails, amazing appetizers (Oh Sizzlefish), amazing entrees and of course amazing company.

crustini

Everything was truely amazing, I can’t say enough for my friends that put this whole event together. From the fitness events to the meals. It’s just perfect!

All perfect until someone is tired. By 9pm (11 my time) I was dead and headed back to the room. I wanted plenty of energy for the morning…

Gnarly’s Boot Camp

I led boot camp!

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I LOVE Gnarly to death so I was ecstatic to be able to represent them at the retreat. I started off by talking about this amazing brand, giving each person a shaker bottle, water bottle and protein sample (to be used post workout) and kicked of a bump and go.

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These ladies worked hard. I won’t lie, I was a little jealous I couldn’t participate.

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Hike It Up!

After boot camp, it was time for a quick breakfast and then a gorgeous hike…

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More Snapshot Fun

After the 2 hour hike, we enjoyed a great sponsored snack break and then broke up for the remainder of the day.

I couldn’t possibly recap everything if you expect to get any work done today, so instead I’ll finish off with some pictures from the remainder of the weekend!

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Enjoying the Get Down at @upslope @fitnesstaylor

A video posted by Julie L (@juliegoeshealthy) on May 16, 2015 at 8:43pm PDT

Sunday morning I had to hit the road for the airport around 7am which means I had to miss the closing events. But that didn’t mean I was going to miss out on one final Colorado adventure.

My tush was on the trail at 5:15 am, just in time for this…

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And this…

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And just like that, I stepped into my rental car and drove away. Craving more.

This event couldn’t have happened without Lindsay, Lauren and Janeetha… thank you ladies for an awesome weekend with friends, fitness, food and memories. XO.

Picture Sources:

SweetLifeEricka

Busy Barista

Julie Goes Healthy

Whip Six Feed

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