Escape Into the Woods: Third Time's the Charm

Two weeks from today I will have finished my frantic packing and will hopefully be cruising towards North Carolina. Wow. What a difference a year makes. Last year Umstead was my primary focus, my goal, my point of light.

This year, its more like "wait, what?" It is mid March and I still have a Christmas wreath on my door and snowmen decorating my kitchen. My spare time is taken up with grading papers and running, and sometimes I even combine the two and grade on my treadmill.

But it is really okay because despite my lack of sleep, my running has been pretty consistent, and I even have cut some time in the past year. I am banking on the fact that not only have I been training to run, but I certainly have aced going without sleep for 24 hours at a time. After last year's fiasco with my feet, I went online and purchased the book "Fixing Your Feet" and read the chapters on blister prevention. It was okay until the chapter with 142 remedies for blisters. Really I was just looking for one remedy, two tops, because I am not good at making decisions (as I have established numerous times on this blog), so trying to figure out which would work best was pretty mind numbing. I decided to go with lube, duct tape, and safety pins. Pop it and plug it...that's my strategy.

I am so very lucky to have my same posse from last year all agreeing to crew me again. These ladies are so knowledgeable about running a 100 that I'm convinced they will get me across the finish line. I really missed running with them through the night last year so that is what is going to keep me going as the sun goes down.