Well, I have been MIA for a while, but now that I can actually breath again, I will try to do a quick catch up of my adventures in the last 2 months. I really wasn't despondent over failing at Umstead, I promise.
I mean, it was bad and all, but who has time for any kind of emotion when you are on to the next thing before the day is out. I knew that next up was the AOR race, and last year, that really helped throw me right back into running. And who can't feel somewhat better dressed like this:
This year I was in van two, which was torturous due to all the waiting.
I was dressed and ready to run at 4:30 am Friday morning and did not run a step until close to 3 pm that afternoon, and that wasn't even my scheduled leg! But it was a lot of fun and despite my ADHD tendencies, I was able to calm down enough to get some sleep. We passed through one gorgeous site after another, from the actual course to the "borrowed" house where we caught a couple hours of down time.
There is nothing like a van load of six sweaty runners to make you forget about your troubles. Even taking a mile and a half detour on leg 10 did not dampen my spirit, and the 3 am run through Antietam was nothing short of incredible.
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| replace candles with glowsticks and it almost looked like this...well not really |
So between AOR and my latest race, there was a trip to NYC, a trip to Ocean City (both for work) and a couple very long runs in the Massanutten Mountains and on the Appalachian Trail. I kept training to run long, but hadn't really picked out a good race. I just knew that I had to do something to prove to myself that I COULD. Hmmm, that Cowan's Gap looks interesting. Yes, we ultra runners are a very strange breed. Case in point...the article below. The big fear that ultra running is becoming too popular, because, you know, so many people want to strap water on their back, pack toilet paper and take off into the woods for multiple hours (or days) at a time!
.I especially like "...Calm down. Ultrarunning is still pretty damn counterculture."
http://www.outsideonline.com/1977961/reality-check-ultrarunning-not-mainstream
It may just be our quirky-ness that makes ultrarunners interesting and annoying at the same time.
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