2013 begins!

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ~ Plato

Its amazing how much you can learn about a person  when you spend hours out on the trails with them. Its like you instantly form a bond and friendship. I love that! I believe its probably why Jesse and I have such a strong love for each other . We have spent half our lives outside playing together. Trail running, Hiking, Cycling, Snowshoeing, snowboarding. You name it; we do it. It  most certainly helps the relationship; not hurts it. We also spend a ton of time doing other things together as he is my best friend on the whole planet....but its nice to share the same passions for all the fun stuff we love to do. In the first 6-8 months of our relationship we really spent time becoming friends, and spent countless hours running on trails. I believe 110% this is why our bond is so strong today. Our focus was always forming the foundation first, and spending all that time together outside over the course of those months really helped mold that. I know him better than anyone I have ever known in my life, and that includes family. He is my soul mate. I cannot imagine my life without him in it. 

Goofballs on the BackBone Trail!

The last couple weeks have been a bit interesting. In early December I signed up for the San Diego 50 mile which was last weekend, Saturday Jan 17th. I really wanted to run a faster, flat race to start off the year simply to get a good supported training run in. I had a kind of decent day, but went out to hard, and kind of blew up pretty bad the last 12 miles(doh!!). It was not my best day by any means, but I did enjoy it, and for the most part felt great until I slugged through the last section. The last ten miles are pretty much flat on this really pretty single track that runs near a dairy, through a park, and as far as you can see is this flat windy trail. Mentally it was just not my gig, and I shuffled, and walk/ran the last five miles. I was hoping to break eight hours, but just missed it by four minutes! Darn! Oh well. The race was very well organized, and the course was marked great. It only has about 6,000 feet of gain, and no where on the course are there big downhills to run to get fast miles. The back end near the turn around from Miles 23-26 has the bulk of the climbing, but its still not much. This is for sure a speedsters course. Tracy Domino won for the women, and she tore it up. She had a great day, and ran a 7:49. She looked great the whole day, and I really like Tracy. She is a local girl who I have known for a few years, and runs with all the awesome bad rats down in San Diego. I was super happy to see her out there crushing it. She is incredibly talented, kind, and really awesome. I came in behind her in 8:04, and then Andee was right behind me for third woman. We all made it into top 7 overall, and showed the boys a thing or two! I would highly recommend this race. It was great fun. Not my type of course or terrain by any means, but it pushed me into the 2013 racing season early, and I like that. Paul Jesse and his crew do a fantastic job! It was also so awesome to have my Jesse crew me all day. Thanks baby!! 

Mile 20 at San Diego 50

My "A" races this year will be my 100's, and everything else will be training for those. I am signed up for Bighorn 100, Mongollan 100, and I plan on running Chimera 100. I was going to put in the lottery for Wasatch 100 with my fellow Patagonia teammate Denisse, but after discussing with Jesse decided not to for valid reasons. I was registered for Wasatch last September, and even got in the lottery, but just could not recover fast enough from AC100 to make it to the race. It will definitely be on my calendar for 2014 if we don't decide to get pregnant by then. Who knows? Just to far ahead to decide that. I am also running Bandit 50k in two weeks, then Old Goats 50 mile, and Miwok 100k. Old Goats might be the only race I decide not to run, and volunteer at. I will have to wait and see what Karl thinks is best for me. For now he says if I do it will have to be an easy race as the focus is Miwok. We'll see! I am pretty sure I cannot mentally go into Old Goats, and not all out race. Especially with the women's line up. If I show up to race it will be to race so probably not gonna happen as I need to direct that focus on whats important which is Miwok, and then Bighorn, and the other 100's. Blah, blah! Babbling.... 

So I kind of had a really big month with something super amazing happen! I was asked to be a part of the Patagonia Ultra Running Team. This is just so awesome, and I am so honored. The team is such a small family, and they welcomed me with such love, and open arms. I am blessed. I am lucky. I am happy. I love Patagonia(who doesn't!??), and so far I have been wearing and testing out all kinds of awesome apparel. All incredibly great stuff!! Wow! Its a great partnership on all ends, and it will be so awesome to be able to have Patagonia be a part of all my races , and events. They are a huge part of Ray Miller 50mile/50k, and the Patagonia race day shirts turned out beautifully!! So excited! 

After Ray Miller my next event is the brand new one in my line up! I am so excited to announce the Griffith Park Trail Marathon. First of its kind, and its going to be epic! Race date is Saturday April 13th, 2013. I am thrilled to be making this happen, and once again someone needs to pinch me. Then after that will be Leona Divide 50 mile/50k. TIME FLIES! Especially when you are having so much fun. To much fun! 

Ok I am off to go hike for two hours, and then load the van for Ray Miller. Never a quiet moment!! On, On, On with life my friends! Happy Trail Running! Below is a shout out to my Wolf Pack. Miss you boys. Hooooooowl....