Fun in the Sun

Spring in El Paso is incredible. It is still fairly cool, but sunny, sunny, sunny. Today, it was 37 degrees in the morning, but 57 in the afternoon. I did a hill run with the group at 5:30 and then went out again by myself after I took my kids to school. I had originally only planned to do 7 miles on my second run, but the weather was so spectacular, with ducks, egrets and butterflies in abundance, I kept running, finally ending up with 13 – giving me 20 for the day. I was supposed to lift this afternoon, but dedided to postpone it until tomorrow because I’m planning to run hills again in the morning.

Bob reminded that we only have about 90 days until Kettle Moraine 100. What! I’ve been so focused on “facing my fears” at Ruth Anderson, I had completely avoided thinking about KM100. I’m actually super excited about running that race. I have never been to Wisconsin and I’m really looking forward to going there this summer. It is a trail race, but I think it is a pretty easy one – at least that is what I hear 🙂

Do you ever think about all the cool places you get to go because you are an ultrarunner? I mean, some of our races are in “ordinary” places, but a lot of them aren’t. We get the chance to go all over the country (if we are willing and able), and sometimes, all over the world, just to run. How cool is that? Most “mainstream” sports hold their competitions in large “markets,” needing to capitalize on the amenites of large metropolitan areas. But in our sport, it almost seems like the further off the grid, the better 🙂 And if a race happens to be held in a big city (or close to one), the race is still held out in the boondocks! My kids love to go to races because it essentially is camping for them. We put up our tent, pack in our supplies, and the boys have a field day while I run around in circles! Plus, they get to stay up as late as they want – although I don’t think they have ever actually lasted very long into the night! At Ruth Anderson, I think my family is going to hit some of the sights while I run because there is going to be tons of aid on the course and it doesn’t run into the night. It will be fun to spend the weekend in San Francisco! If anyone plans to make the trip to San Fran, let me know. It looks like a great race!

I hope all of you are doing well! Happy running!