SkyLine to The Sea 2012

The Tattoo we were going to get

It's been a week and a day since the race. I can walk again! My C.A. Trip was quite an adventure. I will not be planning my next vacation around a 50k or Marathon - I know now that their is a reason people said that was crazy.... they were right.

Our Rental Car - I miss it

My sister and I got to the International San Francisco Airport at 3pm CA time- we got our rental car and ended up getting a nicer one because they double booked what we would have gotten - a Green Kia, instead we got a red Toyoda Camerae - 9 days for $170 from Hotwire.com plus $80 for insurance - I think it was a good deal. My car at home is old - its a 98 and not in great shape, this was a 2012 with about 1200 miles on it. The breaks were REALLY touchy compared to my car - everything was different and somehow I had to start driving down what seemed like a 50 lane interstate. It was a little rough to start with, but after a little bit I started to really like the car.


We drove on Highway one through half Moon Bay and stopped for dinner -

Half Moon Bay - Saturday June 9th

after walking around for a while we stopped in a bar right along the main street. We decided to try the catch of the day - which happened to be salmon -

Wonder FRESH Catch of the day.

it was SOOO good. I have never had fresh salmon, this was grilled to perfection and came with rice and wonderful fresh veggies. It was also nice to have some California wine - we just choose a Cab, and it was really good, as was the wine everyplace we went on CA. After that we we headed to our "tent" 

The layout of the "tents" Ocean view to the left

Our View from across the street

Our "tent"

  at Costanoa - http://www.costanoa.com/ Costanoa is a huge area that has a lodge, cabins, RV parking, tenting area and also the "tents" that we stayed in. The beds were comfortable - the bathrooms were clean and heated - the people were friendly and the food at the restaurant was good but a little pricy - as were most things in that state... on one side of the tent we had a view of some hills, on the other side we could see the ocean from the edge of the campground - I loved waking up to the sound of waves - I slept very well in that tent. After we settled in we headed across the street (highway one) to some trails. The view was amazing - and we ended up walking a bit farther than we had planned to (this ended up being one of the accidental themes for the trip) no big deal though - we only had to run a 50k in the morning - no problem, right?

The next morning we got up around 5:30 or so - we ended up taking

It was cold, we wanted to sleep more...

a bit longer to get ready than we thought, and I was REALLY hoping the GPS was right about how long it took to get to the finish, where the bus would pick us up and bring us to the start. I decided to wear my Saucony  Peregrine ProGrid Trail Running Shoes that I had gotten about a month prior to the race on ebay new for about $35 dollars - they had never given me a blister and had worked really well so far on trails. I also brought my watch of course, IPOD with lots of music, nike shorts, and a nike running short sleeved shirt. I also brought cliff bars, gues (the kind with caffeine)  Gummys, and a little over 1.5 liters of water (3 16 oz bottles) I had the cliff bar for breakfast - that's all, because we never could find anything to make my traditional PB&J
finding a regular store seemed to be impossible on the way from the air port - but at least we had water - and Peanut butter.... but no bread or knives...

Coastal trail runners to the rescue!

 or protein drinks. Oh well.... I put some supplement in my water that I used on my last 20 mile run - my camel back still tastes like it - YUCK.  We made it to a parking lot along the beach that the GPS said was correct - we saw other runners, so we thought it was the place only to have someone drive up the road saying it was still a mile away - we hoofed it over their and parked the car in the right place - got in the bus, and off we went. I was kinda tired, and we didn't really talk too much on the bus ride - it took around 45 minutes or so so we arrived at the start around 7:15 or so - got our bibs, strapped everything on and waited to use the outhouse - not THAT was a LONG line - we barley made it.

Clean legs before the race

At the Start! Nervous!

Lining up at the start

Then off to the start. I was nervous - i'm actually nervous just thinking about it still.  Finally we got to run - it was beautiful and  it was nice to get moving - after a few false starts we were off in the line of runners running through the very tall redwoods. For a while we just paced with the group - got use to our surroundings - then we started passing people to find a group that was going our speed. We found them around mile 2 and stuck with the same people for a while after that. Debi took her first of 5 falls at around mile 2 as well. I tried to keep drinking water to stay hydrated - I knew it was supposed to be hot. If was a fun trail - it seemed like most people planned on walking up the big hills, so that was nice that we were not the only ones with that plan. we got to the first aid station, and it was wonderful. all sorts of food - little PB&Js (finally I got some of my staple pre race meal) M&M's, trail mix, nuts, chips.... water, Gatorade/sports drink. Debi and I filled up our camel backs and were off again.

Aid Stations - awesome volunteers!

The next aid station was around mile 8 - I decided to try a salt pill.... she did as well. I didn't think much of it and it may not have been the problem, but something was. I started feeling really strained, couldn't breath right and my heart rate was WAY up. I had to stop and sit down - I felt ill and I felt my air ways getting smaller - Debi had an inhalier - so I used it after doing it wrong a few times because I had never used one - it seemed to help, not sure, but at least I could breath. after I felt good enough to continue we walked for a while till I felt like I could run. It was a little scary - I didn't know if it would come back.... But we continued a little slower this time - I never felt as good as I did before the unknown attache of what ever it was - but after a few miles I did feel quite a lot better. we got to the next aid station at mile 12 or so - that was where the Marathoners and Ultra Marathoners split.

Going UP - 3ish miles of UP

after filling up on some food and more water we headed back to the trail. The girl at the aid station was not kidding when she said "it's all up hill"

Very UP

the first 3 miles of it was - and it hurt just to walk it - we finally reached the top of the hill and the view was amazing - not worth it - but still amazing.

We made it to the top!!!

after that the trail was more down hill and was rather fun - winding around trees and valleys, it was also nice to be back in the shade. at mile 19 or so we were back at the same aid station

Aid station again after the Ultra 5m hill loop

YAY - only 10ish miles to go!

and got to go towards the finish. it was exiting to go by that sign, but knowing how far we still had to go was less than exiting. After that I didn't take too many pictures - not because it was not exiting and interesting - but because I was really tired. We ran, and ran and ran some more - up hills down hills around hills.... maybe even through hills i'm not even sure anymore. I was so tired and my heart just wouldn't settle down sometimes, I took some walk breaks Debi insisted on staying with me - probably a good thing she did because we were sore enough the next day -

High Teck Bridge

I couldn't imagina being more sore actually. The last 2 miles were really pretty - right along the edge - the views were awesome - I ran the last mile with out stopping - at that point it felt like an accomplishment. I had trouble going down the big hills - normally i'd just let my body sorta fall down - it's easer that way, but I couldn't do that because my legs were so tired they wouldn't support that speed and I REALLY would have fallen. Crossing the finish line was a good feeling - even though it was not in 5.5 hours or 6.5 hours like I had thought - it was in 8 hours and about a minute....

Post race legs

I stil finished. and I guess thats why I started running it - to finish. I finished in 100th place out of 110  - nothing to boast about, but I did it and i'm still alive. Finishing was not what I had though it would be - I didn't feel triumphant, or defeated, I didn't feel like celebrating, I didn't run into the ocean because that would mean I would have to go farther - I was just plain tired and everything hurt. I was happy to be done, but it really was not as amazing as I thought it would be. I visioned a finish line right next to the water - running past it and into the water, being happy and exited, then going to the car and toasting with my sister and maybe some other runners.... But it's ok, lots of things are not the way I vision them to be.  I haven't had any more problems

WE MADE IT!!!

 with my heart since - don't know what that was all about - but glad I didn't have a stroke or something up in those mountains - that would have really ruined my day. After the race we hung around and talked to people for a bit - got to thank Wendell from Coastal Trail runners for putting on the race - I was so tired. We got a ride back to the car and I was so thankful that we had a automatic car and only 2 steps to climb up to the "tent" turns out that was too much still.

Post Race Pizza! YUM

After we cleaned up we drove to the lodge for some amazing pizza with fresh veggies - a order of garlic parmesan  fries (REAL GARLIC ON THEM TOO :)) and a order of sweet potato fries. It was delicious. We hobbled back to the car - getting more sore as the minutes passed. We could barley drink our warm champagne - I still enjoyed opening the bottle and accidentally shooting it

Soooo Good!

at Debi though. So that was that - it was over - 8 hours of running, walking, climbing, falling, eating, drinking, taking pictures and viewing the beautiful world on my first ever Ultra Marathon - Skyline to the Sea 2012. I do believe that if it weren't for

We were supposed to do this in the car
after the race - totally forgot. Toast
to Ultra Marathoners!

Wendell taking on the race we would have had a much harder time doing it - may have ended up in the hospital after or even worse not even even finished at all. I do think that if I run another one next year I most defiantly will not plan on doing a lot of hiking and active things after the race because the next morning was pretty rough. going down steps was so painful, sometimes we just stood their and looked at them for a while before we could make ourselves go down them - we even had debi's super ibprofin pills from the doctor and they didn't do a thing for us.

Beach On Highway One

Entering the Park - $10 per car

 I really don't remember what we ate that morning, all I can remember is having a awful time getting around.... We decided to go to see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo - http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523  It was amazing despite the pain it took to get out of the car and walk the 4 mile trail.

The Beach at  Ano Nuevo

Wonderful Wine From beauregard vineyards

After that we went for some wine tasting in the mountains - then to Santa
Cruz to hang out and see a town and have some more wine of course

The seals 

The Closest Deb got to a shark 

We were feeling pretty sore still - we were walking like 90 year old women at best and trying to cross busy city streets. Normally my sister and I would be really annoyed

Beach along highway one

at a car full of guys whistling at us - but not at that particular moment. We were just talking about how awful we must be looking when precisely that happened. I told Deb "See? We still got it" it was pretty funny. We found a place to have some wine and bought a bottle. Ended up meeting some girls and going out with them for Mexican food after. I wanted to stay out - but I was WAY too tired. We headed back to the little "tent"

The next day we packed up and went to get some supplies. Back to Santa Cruz because thats the direction someone told us to go. Turns out that someone was wrong and after a very extended shopping excursion we headed back the way we had come and on to Yosemite National Park. We drove around 5+ hours to get their, I drove the whole way - going up the mountain was quite interesting with my height hating sister. Apparently she did not trust my driving too much and was terrified the whole way - I really did try to drive slow.... We finally got to the park entrance and then drove 45 minutes or so into the park to get to Curry Village

Bear proofing our stuff

"you are now entering the Wilderness" sign

where we checked into our "tent" and got settled in. This ended up being rather tedious because we had to empty EVERYTHING out of the car so that bears would not break in - bears that we never did get a gimps of sadly. We had to make 3 trips - not fun because we were still very sore. Then we put all the food we had purchased along with anything that had a smell in the bear proof container by our "tent" After that we pretty much hung out in the village and had some food.

Cute strong blue bird - not scared of us.

so amazing to see.

The next day we headed out to see about climbing Half Dome - The shuttle service was a little annoying - we had to wait a lot went in the wrong direction a lot, and I got really anxious to get on the trail.

Yosemite Falls

We ended up learning that you needed permits to climb half dome, permits we should have already gotten. the soonest we coudl go was Friday - the day we needed to leave for San Francisco - plus we might not even get them if we tried. We ended up not going - but it's a little complicated of course. I will be back to climb that dome. We thought we would take it easy and let our legs heal - that didn't happen.  we couldn't find the trail we were looking for so somehow we ended up climbing to the top of Yosemite Falls a

Yosemite Falls

3.2 mile pretty much steright up climb with 30+ switch backs each way. It was hard, my legs were not working properly, but we made it, and it was beautiful. I sat at the top and enjoyed the sun, water and view for a while. Debi did not join me on the ledge.... The decent was much worse,

Me By the falls

my legs were shaking like levees all the way down.

Laying at the top in the sun with my
shoes offit was amazing

The Amazing view from the top of Yosemite falls

We made it though, and went back to the camp site where we drank all our wine (rather a lot) met a couple form Australia to talk to and another from England - we ended up running into both couples a few times again before we left. We got a pizza at the camp pizza place -

Going down - NOT GOOD. my legs
were shaking and hurt SOOO bad

it was delicious. I've decided that C.A. just has really good pizza. We got in

Wonderful stream water

trouble for being too loud back at the "tent" and went to sleep. The next day we went on 2 hikes, they were fun - we saw bear claw marks and bear poop "Bear Scat" as my sister would say. One cool thing on one of those hikes was when we filled up on fresh stream water - it was SOOO good. We had cheese sandwiches for

Climbing to more falls

Bear Tram at Yosemite

dinner that night and a bag of chips - for our breakfasts we had bagels bananas and peanut butter... Our last day we hiked up Mist trail - got an early start and made it up to one of the falls - probably a 8ish mile hike. I was finally not sore - except my calves which were just sore from all the climbing the

 

days before at Yosemite. That means it took 4 full days before I could walk normal. Now thats just crazy. I really appreciate that I can walk and move normal again.
After the hike we headed back to the car, had lunch in the park and got locked out of the showers - we hadn't showered since Monday morning - yuck. oh well -

One of my favorites. 

off to Fransisco we went. I booked us a last minute deal on hotwire - a $350 four star hotel for $125. It was

Lots of little markets with fresh fruit

the Hilton in the financial district right next to China town. Getting to the hotel with the GPS was an ordeal - it lost signal because of all the buildings, then we were on our own. We did find it though and for $45  a  night were able to park at the Hilton garage. We got all our stuff in one trip and were quite a sad sight coming into that nice hotel. Turns out they were completely full - we must have gotten one of the last rooms - Our room was amazing - clean, fresh, a view of the city and the ocean. I took a wonderful shower and was clean at last. We headed to fisherman's Warf for dinner - all we had to do was

I'm Forest Gump 

walk about 6 block down Washington street to the street by the water - then a bus of sorts (it was on rail road type tracks - took us down the road to the warf. It was only $2 and you could get back on with a ticket that the driver gave us - they were pretty full busses though and the stops were pretty rough - but that's aright - it was nice to get a ride. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner - got a bottle of Cali Merlot and had Shrimp for an appetizer - Debi had never tried shrimp - sadly they were not the best shrimp I had ever had - and I really don't like having to take the shell off myself. After that we just went back to the hotel to bed - it was kind late and we were tired from out hike and travels. It was actually a rather cold night - we had jeans and jackets and I was still cold - San Francisco has a very icy breeze that feels great when the suns out, but not so great when its not.

The next day I woke up frantic to run - I felt gross - lazy - awful. Too many french fries, chips and pizza. I hurried Debi out the door and we headed out to the water - I over heard some runners talking about running the Chicago Marathon, so I jumped in to discuss - we ended up running with them for a while - my plan was to run across the Golden gate bridge, turns out that that would have been a ten mile run at LEAST - I didn't really feel like a 10 mile run - so we headed back - Debi's knee started hurting un fortiantly - it had been hurting since climbing down the falls the first day at Yosemite and a bruise had appeared on it - We figured she must have hit it on one of her five falls on the run.

After 6 mile city run, we thought we would take it easy and just sigh see.

Wonderful Fruit

We headed down Washington street and ended up finding a really cool market place - we shopped around and got some cool stuff - it was fun - Then across the street was the most amazing Farmers Market I had ever been at or seen. Everything was so fresh, and I heard that the city regulates it pretty tightly to make sure the quality and standards are up to par. We sampled fresh peaches, Blood Oranges, regular oranges, Peas, Peanut Brittle & more. We bought a apricot and it was the best thing I think I have ever tasted - if we had those here in Illinois I don't think I would ever eat candy. And that was all I had to eat al day till about 7pm....  We had every intention to do

Farmers Market

something leaser - maybe start drinking wine by noon - "How about rent bikes?" we thought. drive over the golden gate bridge, see San Francisco from a bike... Great Idea.

I had been wanting to see this for a long time

5 or 6 hours later we finally made it back to the other side of the bridge for our ferry ride back across. I'm not sure how it happened - possibly because the lady explaining the trails made them seem really easy and not too far, i'm not sure. but somehow we ended up on some crazy mountain bike trail lost. More hills - just want we wanted (NOT) some of them were so steep that if we braked too hard our bikes would easily skid out and send us tumbling down. We actually did run across a guy who had fallen and was quite scraped up - his shower later that day must have really hurt.

Sooo Pretty - but so hot and tired.

 All we wanted to do was see the red woods....  We did see a squeaking snake though - it was very mysterious till we discovered that it had a mouse and it was really the mouse that was squeaking....  We also came across some nice people to help us - and we finally made it to the city across the bridge. Once we got on the ferry I thought we deserved some wine - after one glass I felt like I had drank a bottle and both of us started feeling a little ill - oh yeah... all we ate was fruit all day...

Really long one lane tunnel we biked through.

We made it back - returned the bikes and
went to a pizza place - it was SOOOO good. I think it was my favorite one - it was next to Bubba Gumps on the second level of the warf.
The crust was really garlicky and I was SOOO hungry.

More wonderful pizza in San Fran

We polished off the whole pizza no problem and got pop corn at some hawiian pop corn place too. We saw the sunset and headed back to the hotel with every intention of going out again - but

San Francisco From the boat

we didn't. We fell asleep. The next day we thought we would get more sight seeing in - it didn't go well. We ended up looking for Freemont street - the really steep street everyone goes to in San Francisco - we stopped looking because the hill we had to go up just LOOKING for freemont street was so steep we didn't want to

Cable Car?

drive on a steeper one. Then I got a ticket and the police officer was so mean he made me cry because I was already shooken up from the

Hillie Streets

crazy traffic (some festival was in town - yay) then I had to use the bathroom BAD - so we finally made it to Golden gate bridge state park - it was pretty miserable but I made it.  Then we had to throw away our cooler and our other left over stuff and high tail it to the air port - somehow we found it with out too much more disaster and after that it all went smoothly. We were very happy to see our boys coming to pick

Alcatraz from the boat

us up - it was hot and humid and I missed that icy fresh air but I was glad to

No - REALLY?

be home.

So to recap - here is what went good - the car and hotel with price line. The "tents" and other stuff of course...
Here is what went wrong: 1)Planning a vacation with Day one "Run a 50k through 5000ft of elevation change when you live in Illinois and dont' have hills like that"
2) Not drinking enough wine
3)Taking the Yosemite shuttle too much - it's slow and annoying. New phrase if someone is taking a long time is "Your slower than a Yosemite bus"
4)not booking Half done
5)not camping in Little Yosemite Valley and then going up to Half done the next day (requires more permits)
But number one would have taken care of number 4 and 5 kinda - because honestly - if I had had the permits, i'm not completely sure I could have made it on my faulty legs.
6)should have Booked a whale trip in San Fransisco
7)Drink more wine in San Fransisco
8)Relax MORE
It was a great trip though - live and learn - that's what life is all about. Sometimes you can't learn to do things the right way till you do it wrong first - sadly that is the way I usually learn. I thought I would be more tired when I came home, but I actually was not. I feel pretty good. - I do still itch from all the bug bites and it's been about a week.... guess they grow them strong in Yosemite National Park.

Saved by Coatal Trail Runs

Last night I got great news! here it is:

I'm the former owner of PCTR and I actually designed and started SttS 5 years ago. I currently own & operate Coastal Trail Runs. I just received tentative approval from the Supervising Ranger to coordinate this event. I'm ordering hi-tech shirts, producing awards, setting up runner check-in, organizing aid stations, marking the course, etc. Basically, I'm trying to pull this together officially so the many runners receive the experience they were promised without any additional cost to them. I currently don't have contact info for the runners so please spread the word that the event will happen. Thanks. Wendell

So we're back to a normal timed race, Aid stations & Hopefully beer at the end! I'm exited, but I also think it's awesome how everyone got together and were going to run it anyway. I read about Wendell, he use to be the partner owner of the PCTR, then for some reason did not want to be a part of it anymore, dropped out of it and said that he would start Coastal Trail runs. After that PCTR had some problems and then made a come back with a new partner who also after a short time did not want to continue. Now they are back to having problems. I read reviews on Yelp about PCTR - they canceled races before last minute, and once simply did not show up for a race, the bus did not come, runners were waiting, volunteers were waiting for supplies.. Pretty awful. Anyway, I'm really happy that this guy Wendell stepped in - they will not get our entry money, so i'm thinking I would like to donate something to help out, and certainly if I get my refund send that money to them. He's defiantly making a good name for him and his team by doing this - I never thought about all that goes into these races till I had to think about how we were going to do it with out a team of experienced people to help. So thank you Coastal Trail runs! The race will go on!!

My lifes roller coster started again....

Life is so un predictable - I suppose that is what makes it interesting.
Yesterday at 5:18pm (17 hours ago) I got this email in my inbox on my phone, I saw the title
"Skyline to the Sea - CANCELLED"
, my heart sorta stopped, and I ran to my computer to read it (waiting for my phone to load just wasn't going to happen)

I cannot thoroughly enough explain my sorrow and regret at having to cancel the upcoming Skyline to the Sea races. The following was just posted to PCTR’s Facebook page:

I am beyond sorry to announce that I am forced to close the doors at PCTR, effective immediately. As many of you know, I have dealt with some very difficult obstacles these past few years which have taken their toll, in many ways, on me and on PCTR. Although they were exacerbated at the end of last year, I truly believed that PCTR could be turned around through the influx of money, the hard work of a few of us, and the support of my friends, but it just wasn’t to be. As a business, PCTR can no longer function.

I know that many runners/entrants will be upset with this decision, but please try to keep in mind that, for each of you, this is a race in your life, but for me, for over 12 years, this has been my life. Moving forward, I am hopeful that other RDs who are friends of mine will take over the upcoming events, and that those of you who have already planned to run will still be able to do so. Thank you for your understanding.I do know that for some of you, this was a goal race, and for others, a destination race. For others, a first ultra or a first marathon. I hope you know that if anything could have been done by me or anyone else to prevent this, it would have been done.

I have been a part of the trail/ultra community for over 20 years, and PCTR has been hosting events for 12. Thank you for your support all that time, for allowing us to advise you, teach you and learn from you, share your accomplishments, help you reach your goals, and share hugs with you as crossed the PCTR finish lines all those years.

I wish each of you continued successes out on the trails.

Sarah

Pacific Coast Trail Runs

www.PCTrailRuns.com

Crazy, right? At first I didn't exactly believe it, so I hunted down the website - nothing on it - then I found the facebook page and sure enough, the message was their with quite a lot of attention already. Most people said stuff like "So sorry Sarah, thank you so much....." I don't know this Sarah lady, I don't know what's going on, what happened or what would happen. I was with the other group asking "I have not seen my refund in my account yet" I was dissipointed, shocked, my head was spinning a little... My brain was going a mile a minute... Never once did I think I would not run it - I had run 710 miles training for it, sweat buckets, sacrificed staying up late and eating crappy food, spend hours and hours on the road, been through a tone of pain (I have developed such a tolerance to pain that, the other day, I stubbed my toe rather hard.. and... it didn't eve hurt, I guess that's a positive though)   I WOULD run it, now I had to figure out how to do it. SO... I started a facebook group and posted it on the page. "2012 Sky Line to the Sea lets run it anyway!" and from their it took of. We have 40+ people that are going to go, 15 or so are a maybe. We have a conference going on tonight in San francisco about it. Someone is heading up trying to get the shirts that must have been made, someone is heading up transportation to the start, someone got a sign up sheet that everyone is putting numbers down on so that we can all text a number when we finish - just to make sure everyone is safe, we have wives and husbands that are going to make aid stations, people will help with supplies, I'm going to head up a kick ass after party.... Right in the middle of all that madness I was trying to keep up with all the posts on the site, my mom called me and told me that my first Nephew was born.... Exiting, too much action. I headed off to Plano Liquor to get some wine and after a glass started thinking and speaking back at normal speed...
it's going to work out, it's going to happen, and it will be awesome.

I limped and I limped.... Finally I run.

Last Saturday - I won. I finally felt good and made it 20 miles without limping, extreme pain, or absolute exhaustion. We started out at 5am - met Debi at silver springs. She looked sad and said she knew her I.T. band was going to act up. She was right - after only 2 miles of trails at silver springs it was hurting - she turned around after  another mile or so when we were on our way to Hoover Forest Preserve. It was sad, I felt bad going on without her, but I had to do what was best for my training - and I knew I needed to give myself one last chance for a good 20+ run. We ran Hoover and after a search for water that was successful we headed towards Yorkville, then on to the Van Emmon Street forest preserve  - got more water at the rt. 71 parking lot, and headed back around. I really like running that park - on the way back the trail gets really fun and windy and is mostly down hill so you can get some speed going, but not have to work too hard to achieve it. If was fun showing Judah the rout that I had done so many times with out him. We got pretty hungry on the way back to silver springs, I drank most of my water and we shared a gue and ate quite a few stinger gummys. Those are my favorite, the texture is so much better than the gue gummys - they are more like candy then something I must take to get more energy. On river road we were assaulted by hordes of gnats, that was not pleasant - they were awful - I think they were able to keep up so well because the wind was at our backs at this point. The last hill going up towards silver springs on Ben street was a little tough, but I ran up it pretty strong - we walked the rest of the way once the watch beeped for 20 miles. Poor Judah was hurting, it was pretty much like running a marathon for him since his longest run was 14 and some marathon training programs go to 20 as the longest run. It was nice though - running his first 20 with him. I'm so glad he said that he would run it with me, I think that's a big part of what got me through it - having him with me and knowing it was his longest run ever - showing him what I have been doing all summer.... It was the 7th 20+ run I had run this year. I finally felt like all that work was paying off - I was hard, not a walk in the park (A run in 3 parks though) but I could defiantly feel my training kicking in at the end.

I know that I said earlier that my spirit was broken, and I truly believed that - and i'm not saying i'm 100% better, no doubt I have plenty of bad runs to come. Since February when training started it has been a struggle, so many problems, so much pain, I limped through so many runs, wondered how I could possibly make it one more mile, one more step even, wondered how I could possibly get out of bed to run again, wondered if I would ever be able to run and feel good again. I was so discouraged, so frustrated so angry. But now the light at the end of the tunnel is more than visible. It's within reach, it's mine, and I will reach the end and walk into the sunlight - not die in the dark sad and alone. It sounds  dramatic, because to me it was. I'm going to make it though - i've had a lot of help and support to get to this point. I'm so exited - elated actually - that I feel so much better. I can WALK down the stairs in the morning with out a ton of pain, that's just exiting and that's all their is to it.

I am sad though - because Debi is not doing well - and turns out the 20 mile run did not agree well with Judahs foot or shin. Now I know his pain and he knows mine - that is - I feel for him and feel sad for him because he's limping around, and he's the one feeling the physical pain by having to limp around - it's very strange.

Skyline to the sea is one week away now - actually a week from yesterday. The official list of people is up and Debi and I are the only 2 from Illinois. 12 people out of 158 people are my age or younger... it seems like the majority are in their 40's. one week from today i'll be waking up next to the ocean most likely quite sore.

Burn out....

http://www.running.net/read_feature/beating-burnoutIt's me :( I'm just like Susan. I found this column the other day and it depressed me a little but at the same time made me feel better that the description was so clearly my problem. It totally sucks - I really didn't think I was THAT much of a type A personality, but I do have some of the traits. I have trouble relaxing, I feel guilty for not doing something productive, I make huge lists of things for myself to do, I take on way to much sometimes and feel like I am failing if I do not do everything I set out to do, I don't like asking for help,  I expect a lot from myself - sometimes I say "I tell me what to do so I can do anything I want to do" -or something like that- And running really should be that way - it's just me and the road, nothing is stopping me but me - That's why this is so hard for me, my internal struggle with this. I feel like I'm failing and then failing again and again and again because I just can't accomplish the things that I want to accomplish - but how is that even possible? It can't possibly be that I can't because I could, right? I  choose to stop running and walk when i'm out their, but it really feels like I CAN'T go anymore - but I could I just don't.... because somehow I can't even though I should be able to.... and around and around that goes. I'm having to realize that my statement above is not so simple. Some people say "I"m so fat I need to loose weight" but then decide to go to McDonald's and get a big mac or worse yet go to Chilies and get the #1 worst burger for you in America: Chili’s Jalapeño Smokehouse Bacon Burger - 1,910 calories - 126 g fat (43 g saturated) - 5,290 mg sodium. I bet it tastes delicious... it better anyway, I will never know though because I could not order it after knowing how many calories are in it, I have ruined many wonderful restaurant meals for myself  by looking up the calorie chart. I have a new rule for that though - if I already ate it, don't look it up.... I don't really follow that rule though.... ANYWAY back to the fat thing - I always though "well stop eating crap food then, and start to work out" but it's not so simple is it? it's much easier to say than to do. Just like saying I will run 2 marathons and 2 ultra marathons in 5 months with total of around 900 miles in my training program - is easy to say, easy and fun to make a schedule for, but FREAKING HARD to actually do it. I don't want to be like Nike and say "Just Do It" I want to be able to say "Just DID it" How can their even be such a thing as "pushing to hard" "doing too much" "being too productive" "working too hard" "being too dedicated" those things have always been positive statements in my mind.

I decided to try to go 22 miles tomorrow and NOT run Sunday. The schedule says 10 miles tomorrow and 8 miles Sunday. I feel like I need to accomplish one more long run because last week we cut it so short because of Debi's I.T. band. 10 miles plus a 22 mile bike ride does not equal a 26 mile run. I'm afraid though. Genuinely worried and a little stressed about it. I don't want to fail again the though of that makes me want to cry.... Debi is going to run 10 and Judah is going to try to stay with me for the whole 22 - his longest is 14, so that should be interesting for him. I must succeed. I have to beat myself in this war of wills.... May the best me win I guess....

But I don't want to...

Last weekend was the 22 mile Euro trail adventure race around lake Geneva. I had a rough couple weeks before the race, but really thought things were looking up. I have just been fighting exhaustion and pain and injury for a wile now, and i'm just tired of it. However - I thought I was doing better, I had a couple of decent runs, I had upped my protein a LOT and I though I had more energy and just felt better over all. So, Friday, driving up to Lake Geneva I had no idea what was in store for me............

Deb taping up for the run...We need help...

My sister & I, her husband and my boyfriend stayed in a 2 bedroom suit with a living room and kitchen... it was really nice - I would stay their again - it was called the Cove of Lake Geneva and happened to be right next to the start line.
That night we got our race packets and went to bed around 10pm. I got up and ate my regular pre race meal - coffee and BP&J - I felt rested for the most part, I felt that I had slept well. I remembered all my race gear, so things were looking good. I ran in my Brooks Pure Grit trail shoes. We headed out to the start and met up with another runner. I decided to let him use my watch because he had forgotten his, I thought it would be good - less pressure to keep a certain pace for me. The weather was good, over cast about 55 degrees at 8am - Turns out running with out a watch for a whole race really sucks... But hey, live and learn....

The Rout

Glad I don't have to mow that grass.

One annoyance was the May flies had hatched and happened to be just about every where. I ate several of them on accident of course - One of them also flew in my eye in the fashion of a kamikaze fighter plane. I wonder if he died in my eyes water with the promise of 10 may fly Virginians....That last part can be credited to Judah.... I didn't think of that. Anyhow, The trail was less of a trail than I thought it was going to be. We quite literally ran around the entirety of Lake Geneva - right through the back yard of the HUGE houses on Lake Geneva.

So tired....

I wanted to stay.... and sleep.

Death by running....

I ran on more surfaces then I think I ever have - squishy grass, dirt, gravel, brick, cement, black top, big circle stones, little square stones, cool old brick, new brick, different stone walk ways.... It was annoying when a super awesome nice house didn't have a nice walk way for us....but a smaller less impressive one made an effort to have a nice path. We had to open gates, duck under boats, jump over hoses, avoid dogs, go around land scapers through a golf course... It was interesting. 4 of the 5 water stops consisted of a card table out along the rout with a sign that said "Euro Race" and a pile of water bottles on top of it....  Debi has been having IT Band problems - she said she was going to take it easy... but then she saw all the people in front of us and seemed to want to pass them - ALL of them. She ended up having horrible pain around mile 3 and we thought she wouldn't be able to make it. I ended up feeling AWFUL around mile 5, so we ended up walking A LOT - it was depressing. I was just tired. REALLY tired. and everything hurt. I was so sick of moving one leg in front of the other OVER AND OVER AGAIN. As I was running just around mile 7 or so - it felt like mile 25.... So sad....

I was hoping to trip on a root and twist my ankle so I wouldn't be able to run any more, or maybe I would mis step on one of the stones and my foot would fall between 2 of them and twist my ankle and then I wouldn't have to run anymore... We passed the half marathon finish line where I figured Judah had ran through many hours ago (even though I had only been running for about 1:50 at that point) I also considered just stopping at the half marathon mark... but Debi wouldn't let me. She was a cruel ruthless slave driver. After that the next time I couldn't run anymore and we walked I told debi to just go ahead and I would go to the road and get Judah to pick me up - She rudely refused me that as well and we continued on. I hated running so much at this point, I wanted to curl up and sleep and never run again.... SO TIRED. Since I could not mentally handle running for too long at a time and Debi was making sure to stretch her IT band when we stopped to walk... we decided to have a little fun, take pictures of stuff... the houses... me dieing... stuff like that...  We finally got to around mile 18 and my brain finally gave in to the fact that I was going to finish the race one way or another -whether I liked it or not, whether it killed me or not... I would finish. It was not a happy realization like It should have been - it felt like a death sentence - It's strange that I thought this as I realized that I would finish somehow, but it was a hopeless feeling - that I would have to go through 4 more horrible miles - I imagined that the feeling was similar to the feeling of someone who had just realized that they were going to die, gave up fighting and just let it happen. I really should have felt quite the opposite, but I felt like running anymore was practically equivalent to death. I did finish - in over 4 hours - worse then my last marathon time. but I did finish. And I'm glad I didn't quit. I felt utterly defeated though, but quitting would have been worse. My finish photo pretty much told the story, I looked every bit as misriable as I felt. My parents were their though with Matilda my dog and Matt & Judah were waiting for us to finish as well. I was glad to be done. We went to Geno's East for the pizza dinner after and awards. Turns out I was first in my age group - but that was only because I was the only one in my age group. I was 10th to last in the race... My one claim to fame was when the announcer announced our 22 mile Euro race as the race "the crazy people" ran. So at least I have that.
I should have felt good. It shouldn't have been so hard. It should have been a fun run because of the cool terrain and the awesome houses... It should have..... I should have.... but it wasn't. ... and I didn't.

  I remember making the training schedule - thinking that with all these 20+ mile runs it would be easier towards the end. It isn't. Thinking that 20+ miles wouldn't seem so hard or so long, but it does. I feel like I have broken my spirit to run. Like a horse, if you train it too hard and are too tough on it when you first train it you break it's spirit - Break it, not MAKE it - and it is just a boring old broken down horse after that... the sparkle in it's eye is gone, it dosen't flinch when struck with a whip, it just dosen't care anymore.... I just didn't want to run anymore .

All for this?

Embrace the Suck Month

Running Kills - just say no. -How I feel right now && "Just Say No to over training" - Mike Way -

Yes - this is what time I get up sometimes

Last month was our hardest training week. We ran three over 30 mile weekends in a row -

One of our running routs - tour of the parks

and i'm really feeling it. I made it through some tough runs, but not with out help. My first week over 50 was rough. I had hamstring issues as usual and had to skip a run early in the week - only to make up for it on Sunday - running 12.5 instead of 10. On Saturday we met at my parents for 24 miles. We had a good group of about 8 ranging in miles between 18, and well... 24. I had an awful run, another runner also did, so we limped through a rough patch together. It was a nice rout though. starting in Sandwich out in the country - going mostly on the back roads towards sharidan into newerk -

Lake Geneva Marathon rout - the 22 Mile Euro goes around the lake trail

Matilda thinks i'm crazy

we got a little lost so our 18 rout turned into  20, but it worked out ok. After that Debi and I had to do another 4 miles. 4 miles never seemed so long - it was tough. I ended up just running down a road and waiting for a ride.... laying on the road... then it

I also go to bed really early sometimes
It's lame

started to rain and it was cold.... but I made it 24, the next day was though, 12.5 miles - It was Judah, Debi, Paul (Old youth pastor who is training again after a year + off) and I. We went down to silver springs from my house, ran a loop, and came back down hale street. That was my first 50+ mile week. On Monday I hurt. BAD. but my hamstring didn't feel too much worse. The next week we ran 23 and 8 I believe. everyone met at my house and we ran a rout through Sandwich and Somonauk. we had about 8 or 9 runners - the weather was great, I didn't feel too bad. That Monday I hurt, but not as bad.... This last week we ran 22 - the tour of the parks rout. Deb and I were going to run 6 before we met up with everyone, but it ended up being very rainy - I did NOT want to go run, it was cold and raining.... I think everyone was praying for lighting... But it didn't, and we did meet at 6am on another Saturday made possible by yet another early Friday night. 10 of us met, I think we needed the group just to have the motivation to get out and run in crappy weather like it was. A few people went 12 miles - we ended up loosing Mike and Angela, so it was just 4 of us. I'd say it was a decent run though. After that run my foot started hurting and Debi's IT Band started hurting.

We met at her house at 8am to run a Plano, yorkville Bristol rout - 10 miles. We were both limping pretty bad - it's my left foot, started with the arch area in the middle, now it's that and the outer edge....

my arch support foot wrap attempt. FAIL

 

We made it through the run though and were feeling alright - we figured this week is an easy week, so we took 2 days off hoping we would feel refreshed after - that effort was a major fail. We had a HORRIBLE 9 mile run this morning. it was 60ish degrees and SOOO humid. I couldn't breath, my foot was killing me.... it was awful. but we made it.... today I am limping. I am tired of hurting. I don't know what i'm going to do - it hurts bad, bad enough I may not be able to run through it. It's just so heartbreaking, hit after hit I try so hard to be upbeat and strong and not worry about how much pain i'm in, but sometime it just wears on me and I feel like curling up and crying. I"ve put so much work into this, time, energy, so much sacrifice and it's just so hard to be hurt right now. The crazy early mornings when I wish I could just curl up on the couch like Matilda and go back to sleep - All the medicine and pills I have to take, All the gear I put on every run, the icing, the massaging, the stretching.... and what do I have to show for it? a little section of medals and running bibs.....

Right now - to me. its not worth it.

Every runner needs one of these

My Watch & headphones

I have the 22 Mile Lake Geneva race on the 12th, I just can't be more hurt now - but I am. The hamstring, blisters, rubs from my camel back, soreness... that was all enough... now my foot? really? I shake my fist in disgust at this situation.

Embrace the suck bracelet. Sometimes it helps

Runner Friends!

To stray away from the doom and gloom I want to talk a little about what has helped me get through this schedule - so far. I wear Calf compression sleeves
- I LOVE them. After a run when I sit at work if I do NOT have my compression sleeves on my calves get SO tight and awful feeling - but when they are on - the feel great. I also think it aids in recovery and is good for traveling if your a runner or not (helps with swelling) . My Garmen Forrunner 405 - I think it's neat - it tells me how fast i go, how many miles i've run - keeps me from starting out too fast and just in general makes me happy.  My Ice Pack - It goes in the freezer and gets cold, OR in the microwave for a heat pad. then it just slips into it's nice sleeve and wraps around what ever hurts - it has been used a LOT. These days i'm not even sure what to put it on first.

I love these

My head phones - I have spend a great deal of money on head phones in the past - finally I found these - they wrap around my ears and actually stay on, Few things do I find more annoying when I run is the feeling of my ear bud slowly slipping out of my ears. Mole Skin - I have some shoes that give me blisters, I like those shoes, and if I put this stuff down where it gives me a blister, no blister and I get to wear the shoes. My Shoes

As a runner you really can't have enough

- I love each and every one of them - even the ones that have hurt me and failed me - i'm just loyal like that. I don't think I could ever have too many, although my door begs to differ. Lately I have been enjoying light shoes and trail shoes. Newton Shoes are my favorite - but i'd be up for trying some heaver more structured shoes again someday. My running friends

I really can't wear these heels

 

 

 

- Sometimes I think my running group needs to have a pact - and that would be - What happens on the trail/road stays on the trails/roads. The runners that show up to run at 6am on a Saturday morning is sometimes the only reason i'm able to get out of bed, and that's because if I didn't, i'd never hear the end of it -we all enjoy the group Facebook attach to runners who don't make it in the morning.  like last week the 10 that showed up in the rain - no way was I going to be the weak link and not show....