Tales from the Trails

I should have written this immediately after the race! Too much time has passed and it's not all as fresh as I wanted it to be. I'm running a 50-miler on September 9th and I have been training pretty diligently this spring, after taking a short break because I was sick after the Derby Marathon at the end of April. Run Under the Stars was a 10 hour endurance race based on time. I researched this kind of race since I had never done one before. Half mile horse track (crushed limestone) for 10 hours? Sounded like it would be great mental strength training, if nothing else! I set a 4-part goal: 1. stay on the track the whole ten hours 2. run 36 miles (most mileage ever) 3. run 40 miles (solid goal I felt I could reach) 4. run 43 miles (stretch goal) I started with Dannielle and we ran about 10 miles together at an easy pace for the heat and sun - around 11-11:30 minute miles. She then took a break and I continued on. My stomach started to hurt. Bad gastric distress. Severa...

Early in July, my friend Amy had been planning to run a marathon for her 44th birthday. It would be her first marathon, and she trained with me and even let me help plan some of it! We had such a fun day with various meetup opportunities so as many people could join as wanted. I enjoyed sweeping the first 10 miles, running back and forth between groups and getting some extra mileage that way. Then I was pretty far behind Amy and was determined to catch up. So I ran my butt off. I made a guess of where I might catch her and enjoyed working hard to catch up and having some trail time to myself. I was able to hear her calling back to me at the exact spot where I thought I could catch up. I was super psyched that we were close! I was relieved when I did finally catch up to her and have some company for awhile. I was feeling great, and she was in top form. We got back down to the Welcome Center and met up with family and friends who did the final 5 miles with us. And the finish was really g...