A repost of life's most important stuff

The picture above is from Mt.Baldy. I tend to be a bit scared of running in icy snow, and part of me feels dead and empty since not visiting my favorite playground in almost five months. I will wait for the snow to melt before I venture up into the high country, but oh how I miss her....Jesse keeps trying to talk me into going up with him, but I am just a little to afraid. Deep aching heart I have right now...ugh..

I did not race Bandit on Sunday. I have had a bit of the flew which started up Saturday,  and I was just not up for it on Sunday. Just a 50k so oh well.  It would have been really fun to see everyone, but lots more races in the future so no biggie. Rest is key right now. Feeling much better today! Yippie! I had an amazing little run this morning on some new trails I have found near our house. I actually have now found almost 25 miles of new trails I had no idea existed. San Clemente is insanely rad. Such fun and fast trails. Lots of single track too! Great fun! 

Ok so the real intent of this blog post was to repost something I put up back in 2011. Someone had brought it to my attention recently that it really helped them with some stuff they had going on so I wanted to get it back up. Always happy to inspire, and help anyone who needs it. Here goes...

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 Life is a gift, and you are only here once. Do not ever loose site of that. No matter what you are thinking or feeling it will move forward regardless of weather or not you want it to. It's best to live it the way you want to, and with no regrets. It is most certainly ok to make mistakes. It is most certainly ok to be afraid of making life changing decisions. Just remember to learn from mistakes, and not continually make them. To learn from regret, and do whatever it takes to get your life in the right place. Do not sacrifice your own happiness to stay comfortable or please someone else. Tomorrow you will be 70-then 95. Blink...it will be here before you know it. Will you truly be able to look back and say you have spent it with the right person? You share the same passions, and friends? You love your job? You have given everything you could to those you love. My life has changed tremendously in the last year, and I believe it's vital for me to send a message to women(and men) that life is exactly what you make of it, and no matter how bad it seems there is always a way out of your problems. I wanted to pull together some thoughts I have read in different places, and pass them along to all of you. It's never to late to make a change. Never.

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1. There comes a point in life when you get tired of chasing everyone and trying to fix everything, but it’s not giving up.  It’s realizing you don’t need certain people and things and the drama they bring.
2. If a person wants to be a part of your life they will make an obvious effort to do so.  Don’t bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
3. If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down – which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds.
4. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.
5. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You don’t fail by falling down.  You fail by never getting back up. 
6.  Everyone basically wants the same things.  Theywant validation, love, happiness, fulfillment and hopes for a better future.  The way they pursue these desires is where things branch off, but the fundamentals are the same.  
7. The more things you own, the more your things own you.  Less truly gives you more freedom.  
8. While you’re busy looking for the perfect person, you’ll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy.  It’s about being exactly who you are and then finding someone who appreciates that, and shares that with you.
9. Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
10. Making a thousand friends is not a miracle.  A miracle is making one friend who will stand by your side when thousands are against you.
11. Someone will always be better looking.  Someone will always be smarter.  Someone will always be more charismatic.  But they will never be you.
12. Making progress involves risk.  Period.  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
13. Every morning you are faced with two choices:  You can aimlessly stumble through the day not knowing what’s going to happen and simply react to events at a moment’s notice, or you can go through the day directing your own life and making your own decisions and destiny.  
14. Everyone makes mistakes.  If you can’t forgive others, don’t expect others to forgive you. 
15. It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is ok.  
16. We sometimes do things that are permanently damaging just because we are temporarily upset.  A lot of heartache can be avoided if you learn to control your emotions.
17. Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right.  There are many roads to what’s right.  Remember to: sometimes it's just easier to have peace that be right. 
18. Nobody is perfect, and nobody deserves to be perfect.  Nobody has it easy.  You never know what people are going through.  Every one of us has issues.  So don’t belittle yourself or anyone else.  Everybody is fighting their own unique war.
19. A smile doesn’t always mean a person is happy.  Sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems.
20. The happiest people I know keep an open mind to new ideas and ventures, use their leisure time as a means of mental development, and love good music, good books, good pictures, good company and good conversation.  
21. You can’t take things too personally.  Rarely do people do things because of you.  They do things because of them.
22. Feelings change, people change, and time keeps rolling.  You can hold on to past mistakes or you can create your own happiness.  True happiness comes from within.  Don’t make the mistake of waiting on someone or something to come along and make you happy.
23. It’s much harder to change the length of your life than it is to change the depth of it.
24. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
25. When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.
26. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else.
27. Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  Read 
28. Share your life with someone who truly shares in your life. "Those that play together stay together". 
29. Everything is a life lesson.  Everyone you meet, everything you encounter, etc.  They’re all part of the learning experience we call ‘life.’  Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don’t go your way.  If you don’t get a job that you wanted or a relationship doesn’t work, it only means something better is out there waiting.  And the lesson you just learned is the first step towards it.
30. Regardless of how filthy your past has been, your future is still spotless.  Don’t start your day with the broken pieces of yesterday.  Every day is a fresh start.   Every morning we wake up is the first day of the rest of our life.

Getting everything out of Life

My adopted parents the Wickland's, and my future husband

“Don’t just accept whatever comes your way in life. You were born to win; you 
were born for greatness; you were created to be a champion in life.”





The morning after Ray Miller I wrestled around in our tent, and was awake before sunrise. I had rented out the entire La Jolla Group campsite for the start and finish line of the race, and also so we could set up Friday, and have a place to store all our stuff. The group camp could easily fit 400 people. Its really awesome, and will be the staging area for Ray Miller every year. I kept tossing and turning, and finally I got up to witness the sunrise. I threw on some warm clothes, and climbed outta our tent. To my surprise it was warm outside. Much warmer than Friday morning  when me, Jack, and Chandra marked the course. 

I could hear the waves crashing hard down below me, and across PCH. I quickly grabbed a chair, and sat down in View of the ocean, and took a deep breath. So deep that it almost hurt my lungs. I closed my eyes, and decided that I would take in this moment. I worked to really capture it, and just tried to stay where I was at for a bit. I could hear the waves crashing, and crashing. Man it was such an awesome sound. The breeze was a little chilly, and blew over my ears to chill them. I kept my eyes closed, and thought about the huge success of the event. I remember hearing a bird make some noise, and it was close. He chirped away as the ocean roared, and I opened my eyes. The orange sky lit up the campground, and it was so beautiful. Another day had gone, and a new one was here. For some reason I thought about the moment in time when I was over at Wick's house having dinner in December 2010. He had mapped out the perfect 50 mile/50k course, and said if you can someway make this happen it would be the perfect course. It was in the back country, and I really wasn't familiar with that area. Sure I had ran out there a few times, but to be an RD you have to have an exact knowledge of the area. At that moment in time we looked over his maps he had drawn up, and he committed to help me learn the area, trails, and teach me everything there could possibly be to learn about the course. Howard committed also to help. We spent countless days, hours, weeks running in those mountains with our friends, and eventually it started to come together. It took a long time to get the permission to even move forward with the event from Park Services, but eventually in Feb 2012 Ray Miller happened.  

The sun was getting much warmer, and I decided to peel off my jacket. I thought about how much fun me, Jack, and Chandra had marking the course on Thursday and Friday. I love my friends so much. I honestly cannot even comprehend why I am so blessed with such wonderful and amazing friends in my life. We spent the Thursday and Friday before the race hiking, and marking the course. What a blast we had!!  I am so lucky to have two legs, two arms, and a conditioned body to be able to be on my feet all day, and mark my own courses. It took us 9 hours on Friday to mark! Fun, but exhausting. Below are some fun pics of us out on the course. We are silly! 

Jesse signaled to me that we needed to start loading up, and get rolling out of the campsite. Its funny, but I think I could have sat in the sunshine all day. I told him I would be right there, and then took another deep long breath. Some people never even get to see the ocean their entire lives. I wanted to take in this moment. I thought allot about the enormous success of the event, and how awesome it was to have so many of my friends there from all ends of the sport. So many great friends came down from Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. What a crowd we had! Jesse and I have a blast at my ultra's. I love my job so much, and never dreamed I would be where I am at. Yes I pinch myself everyday.  

This week has been about resting, resting, and more resting after Ray Miller. I have been sleeping about 10 hours a night. Karl has me doing some shorter faster miles, but I mostly have been tidying up all the stuff after Ray Miller, and now focusing on Griffith Park Trail marathon. The non-ultra races are much easier for me to organize and put on. Funny enough the runners are not near as needy! Ha! Looking forward to my next event. I also am racing next weekend, but its simply going to be a nice supported training run. I am no wear near as fast as Margaret on the short stuff, and I don't care to be. I know my goals this year are my hundreds. I look forward to a good old fashion ass whooping next weekend, but my hope is that she can really push me to roll out a 50k PR. I guarantee she will beat 99% of the field including men, so if I can keep her as a carrot I should be able to run pretty fast. Maybe finish within 15mins after her? We will see. She is friggin fast as heck. My only concern is that the RD has said this course is tougher and longer than the old course so I am uncertain how to gage previous times. I have ran a sub 5 hour  @ Calico 50k, but that was in 2008, and I am a little bit faster now. Also Calico is not so easy. I am guessing it might compare to the toughness of Bandit. I will just have to see, and all I can do is try my best, and have a super fun day! I am just blessed, and happy to be healthy and able to run!! Plus Prizzle Sauce will be there so I am very excited about that!! 

Almost positive I will not be running Old Goats. Boo Hoo! I really want to...but my goal for the month of March is to be training for Miwok 100k. That's the first "A" race of the season. I am getting so excited for so much coming up!!! I cannot wait to volunteer at the Back Bone Race, PCT 50 Mile(Jesse is racing it!!), and then SD 100(love you Scotty)! I am crazy excited about Jesse running Western States, and honestly we have our entire 2013 planned out until Chimera 100 in November. Life does not suck!! Its so awesome. Below is my 2013 race calendar. I am super excited! In between it all Jesse will be racing a ton, and in some capacity we will be at pretty much every race in Southern California this season. Love our world. Love my friends. Love it all so much! 

Feb~ Bandit 50k
March~ Old Goats ? 
May~ Miwok 100k
June~ Bighorn 100 
August~ Angels Staircase 40 mile~ Washington and Oregon vacation!!!! 
Sept~ Mongollan 100
Nov~ Chimera 100

On, on, on with life my friends!! Off to go run... 
   

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....