Bring on the Mountains

I can’t believe the week is finally here. The calendar flies by so quick at times you wonder where it all goes. The past few weeks I’ve done my best to ramp up my running mileage. Most importantly the vertical trail mileage. I know that the sections of Leadville I’ll be pacing are steep and sustained efforts. I don’t know the total elevation, but it’ll be a lot. Not much compared to the amazing feat the ‘true’ athlete will accomplish on Saturday though. I can’t even fathom running or hiking 100 miles over that terrain. My friends say that I’ll want to sign up after pacing. I doubt that. Just the fact that I’ll be running a trail marathon and that is barely over ¼ of the course is enough for me to think I don’t have the ambition to do the full hundred. We will see. There was a time when I swore that I'd never do an Ironman too.

I’ve researched as much as I can. Both about the course and about pacing. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to my athlete a few times. I’ve got my gear pretty much packed and my plan in place. Our goal times and pace are set. Now we wait….

I’ve blogged before about past races about how I hate the taper. This week I’ve done a couple of shorter runs, but mostly I’ve been drinking tons of water and eating complex carbs. I’ve cut out alcohol and coffee. No wonder I’m a bit on edge.

I sit and wait. I have a plan. Variables I can’t control: the weather, how my athlete is feeling, the distance. Variables I can control: my attitude, my nutrition. Just. Keep. Moving….

I’ve got butterflies ready to begin this journey. Most people reading this know that I’m a Christian guy. This means that I believe that God always has a plan for us. He doesn’t always give us an easy path to travel, but he always gets us home. It’s all about the journey, not necessarily the destination. If I can keep that in mind, hopefully I can make my leg of the journey a part of her bigger story. I hope I can help her reach her goal.

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An Excited Heart

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Quad Rock 25

For some reason every time I know I have to wake up early the next day, I can’t sleep. I set my alarm the night before for 4:45 AM and went to bed around 10. I woke up just about every hour on the nose and looked at the clock. By the time 4:15AM rolled around, I just laid in bed and waited for my iPhone to tell me it was time to get up. Buzz….It was time to get up. My pre-race plan I rolled out of bed virtually exhausted and put on my battle armor for the day -- shorts, socks, compression, t-shirt, jacket, and my signature trucker hat. I had loaded up my car the night before with all my gear and nutrition so I was good to go. I kissed Julie on the forehead, she wished me luck as I left to go grab some coffee, pick up Chris and carpool to the race. We made it up to Horsetooth about an hour before the race start. Since we carpooled, we were able to park about 100 feet from the start line. This was clutch because outside it was 37 degrees, raining and windy. View close...

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