Back after a hiatus!

I'm baacckk!!

Lets just say I was reallly...reallllly tired after Trans Rockies (so worth it BTW, it is an amazing event!)

The last several months in a nut shell

• Joined Crossfit in November to work on cutting down mileage and improving my times
• Ran Whidbey Island Marathon in hopes to qualify me for Boston, silly me thought it was flat when I signed up, I was soooooo very wrong. after much cursing I finished it in 3:52 and still managed to get 3rd in my age category!
• Ran my first 50 miler in May with my weekly running mileage reaching over 55km only 2 times! I never ran more then a total of 20km mid week and then did 1 typical long run on the weekend.
• Finished the 50 in 8:41 placing second overall (the leader beat me by 2 hours! She was crazy fast, rumor has it she was sponsored....maybe I made that rumor as I was convincing my body to finish the race....)
• Next stop a half marathon at Nike Womans in San Fran in October then 7 days later a marathon in Greenland!

Day 4 - Crazy Wicked Creek Running

The 3 top highlights of the day

1. Short distance- roughly 14 miles
2. Running down an ice cold creek for over a mile! Soooo great
3. Nachos in the pub at the finish line - Mangos, great pub with free international calling! I called my family but no one was home so I had to leave a message :(

I do not remember too much of this stage, perhaps it was because it was so short!

We did meet another great team, Ted and George. Ted's hydration bladder was leaking and volunteered my taping skills and duct tape, instant friends after that and it helped him get through the day without going short on water! They were fun to BS with, the whole time we were complaining about "how happy and cheery everyone was and that the views during the run were horrible!"

Us with Ted and George

Look at that vertical at 11500ft!

Just one of our many steps in the lovely creek

During the run down the creek, I was determined to find one of the photographers and get a picture taken that would make it into the nightly slide show. So as soon as I found one, and luckily it was during the creek run, I sat down in the deepest part of the creek and started splashing around and smiling. SUCCESS I MADE IT! Not a great picture of me but that is no surprise I am not exactly photogenic!

Not too long after finishing the creek run we arrived in Red Cliff, land of Manos pub with great food! Ah another day done!

Running through fields of flowers on Day 3

Yeay another big climb! It was not as big as day 2 but it was steeper and the downhill was more mellow.
This was quite the socializing day, I met the Running Yogi groups, ran behind Dean Karnazes for a bit and then got a picture!

It was another hot day and at the last aid station they announced that we would be out in the sun for most of the end so I grabbed a large handful of ice shoved it into my sports bra and off we went! Best thing ever in the heat!

Once we crossed the finish line today I could  not get into the river fast enough. The great thing about today was the finish line was right at camp and we would be staying at this camp for 2 nights, fantastic, 15 minutes of extra sleep the next morning!

Sea of tents at Camp Hale

Day 2 - Great big climb followed by long downhill run to play on!

The top of Hope Pass!

Day 2 was my favorite day of the race, yes there was A LOT of up hill and we got above 12 000 ft. However a lot of uphill means tons of time for playing on the downhill run. There is no other way to put it but I LOVE DOWNHILL TRAIL RUNNING! I don't know if it is because I miss skiing or mountain biking but I do find you have to think the same way, react the same way and look for the best line through the direction you are heading.

The way up bottle nose quite quickly however I did not complain as this slowed the pace which made breathing much easier and it gave me more time to say "WOW" about the views! At the top we got some quick pictures as I was eager to get my reward for the climb!

(Our decent through the alpine)

The last few miles we ran were along the side of a lake and it was hot. The whole time I kept staring at the water and jumping between thinking "hmm I wonder if there are any good cliffs for a quick jump into the lake, I doubt anyone would notice" with "oooh this better mean there is a good place for a ice bath/soak at the finish line! And there was! I even swam. And just like the day before we made yet even more friends at the soak sessions.

Back at camp in Leadville, it seemed even hotter, I went into town hoping to find an air conditioned store, no such luck. I finally resorted to hanging out in the snack tent back at camp to get in the shade. All the seats were taken so I sat on the beer/pop cooler, I did not care how many times I would have to get up off that cooler, as long as I was sitting in the shade. Through this plan I made friends with a great Belgian guy named Kristof. We laughed and bonded over the cooler as we served others their drinks.

Once again my head hit the pillow running with excitement on what was in store the next day.