Becky and I ran the Steamboat Springs Marathon on June 5th, 2021 of this year. It was about 84 degrees and Sunny, which seems like great weather for a marathon, but when you are running 26.2 miles it gets really hot. The heat is definitely a factor when you are running in a mountain town at elevation with a course that starts at 8,128 feet and descends to 6,728 feet. This is really deceptive too because there are plenty of hills you have to run up and down and your legs get trashed.
The marathon had a 5 1/2 hour cutoff, which is plenty of time for most people to finish a course like this one. This marathon was much more difficult than we both expected, even though we had ran the half marathon years before. We did finish it with plenty of time to spare, but it wasn’t an easy run. The views though were spectacular and a marathon is always a great way to see and experience a city.
It was an easier than the Estes Park Marathon that we ran two weeks later and the course was really great running, including parts that were along the river that flows through Steamboat Springs. I stopped and jumped in the river at about mile 18 when I was a bit too hot and within a few miles my shoes and shorts were dry again. Our friend Daniel ran the course as well and he finished sooner than we did since he likes to run marathons fast, where we like to cruise along and enjoy the run.
We ended up at an Airbnb type property for the night.
It is surprising how many people complain about timeshares, but they love VRBO’s and Airbnb’s. I don’t get it. I think they either don’t know any better or they are just suckers for the “hype” of staying in someone else’s place for the night. Let me give you a heads up about Hotels.com because we thought we were booking a hotel for the night only to discover that they signed us up for a vacation rental by owner through a company called Evolve. It’s another place for people who own property to rent out their property. My guess is that this alternative is probably less money than a VRBO or Airbnb service for property owners.
For those of you who like turning your vacation into a “treasure hunt” complete with directions at every turn on how to make sure you take care of some stranger’s property you are borrowing for the night, you might not like the rest of this post. For the people who own timeshares you will see the difference from what I’m talking about. I am on vacation and in this case we paid about $290 to say at this person’s condo. We were not borrowing Aunt Sally’s place for the Weekend, but it starts out like this…
Check-In Instructions:
– Check in after 4:00 PM
– The home is accessible via lockbox (the entrance on the right side of the building). The code for the lockbox is ABCD (not really, but I didn’t want to post their code)
– The key with the blue around it opens the top lock. The plain key opens the handle lock
– Please inform the Guest Contact of any problems or concerns upon arrival, so we can work to address these immediately
Okay. That’s easy enough or is it? We showed up and the lockbox had broke the key from the previous “tenant for the night”, so we had to wait for a friend to get home and drive across town to meet the stranger and get the key to get into the property. That sort of thing just doesn’t happen at a timeshare or the Hilton. They have staff onsite to get you into your room.
Once we got into our room for the night that we were paying for there were more instructions, including how we had to tidy up the place for the owner. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not going on vacation to do housework, take out the trash, strip the beds, etc. I can do that sort of thing at home. If I’m visiting my timeshare, depending on the location I can have someone come in and make my bed each day, clean my room, give me fresh towels and even put a chocolate on my pillow. Call me spoiled, but maybe the people who are so fascinated with paying to “borrow” someone’s house don’t understand what real vacations are like?
Check-Out Instructions:
– Check out before 10:00 AM
– Return keys to the lockbox
– Prior to your departure, please tidy up the home by doing the following:
– Remove all perishable items
– Take out the trash located on the west side of the building. The code to access the building is XXXX
– Wash and put away all used dishes
– Strip linens from all used beds
– Place all used linens and towels in a pile
– Turn off all lights, electronics, and appliances
– Close and lock all windows and doors
– Additional fees will be imposed if the home is found in an unsatisfactory condition, so please return it to the condition in which you found it
Parking:
– 1 vehicle can be parked in the designated parking space marked #X (if you’re at the entrance where the lockboxes are, you’ll see the trash garage. Parking spot #X is the second spot over)
In the end, we enjoyed our trip to Steamboat Springs, but I’ll take staying in a timeshare over the borrowing someone’s house or condo and paying them like it’s a hotel hands down.
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