This has been a huge couple of weeks!

I'm incredibly grateful to have received an invitational entry to the 2018 Boston Marathon via my club, the Somerville Road Runners. I and 9 others (Liza included) will have the honor of representing our club at this year's race.  I am incredibly proud to represent such a great community of runners.  Getting the chance to run my hometown marathon is a dream come true.  Thank you, SRR!  

Oh and we got into the Berlin Marathon too!!!  2018 will be the biggest adventure yet.   Praise God for all. Let's go Boston!  Let's go Berlin!  Let the winter training begin.  <3 See you out there!

What about you? 

Have you ever run Boston?

What big races have you gotten into for 2018?

My ultra marathon is this weekend!!  I [and 41 other Trail Animals] will be attempting to run 50 miles through trails and fire roads of Carlisle, Ma at the TARC FAll Classic 50 miler.  This is the moment every run this year has been aiming towards.  I can't wait to see how it goes!

Where: DCR Great Brook Farm in Carlisle, MA

The race starts at 6am and I will be running until about 6:30pm (give or take LOL).

Course: The course is a 10 mile loop which will be nice.  My crew will have a chance to see me 4 times at the start/finish area.  Here's a pdf of the map:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxKo5FsSCWeyNDEzQ0dIY01DNGc/view

Goals:
My goals are simple for this one.

------ Goal:  Run 50 miles...no matter how long it takes.

------ Reach goal:  Finish in under cutoff - 12 hours, 30 minutes


Michael and Liza will be out with me all day serving as my race crew.  Thanks guys!

I am really excited for Saturday.  The celebration has somewhat already begun.  Michael gifted me these beauties after my last training run on Wednesday :)  I'm looking forward to what the day brings. 

Celebratory flowers after my last training run <3

Thank you to all you who have been following along this year.  It has been a long time coming, this 50 miler.  See you after the finish line!

My day started out rough today.

I was angrily shouted at by a guy on a crowded train this morning.  When another man intervened, the two almost came to blows right there on the T.  I was shocked.  Then, as I got out onto the street a few blocks from my workplace, I witnessed a woman angrily yelling at a construction worker who seemed stunned by the situation and was sheepishly trying to get away.  Her friends were able to get her away.  Still reeling from my encounter on the train only a few minutes earlier, I thought to myself (and probably out loud).  WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I hadn't even made it into work and everybody is going nuts.  Everybody's angry.  Everybody's on edge.  Everybody is flipping out...at strangers...on the street!  Is it a byproduct of the crazy racist events of this week?  People are having a meltdown!

It was a chore to focus once I finally made it to work.  I mulled over the crazy events of the morning and I craved a quiet space for my evening run.  Today I was scheduled to do a run-commute (about 6.5 miles) and was planning to do the same old, same old.  After this morning, however, it was hard for me to want to run through crowded Back Bay, Mass Ave, and Kendall Square.  People are nuts today and I didn't want to be around them.

I was tempted to retreat to the forest again, where I would only be bothered by a mountain-biker or two, maybe a scurrying chipmunk, and the one thousand-some-odd gnats floating around below the trees.

I was tempted but made a different plan.  Instead, I decided to stick with the city run but to explore streets just off of my normal commute-- neighborhood streets where I would see real people; tired people in need of a smile.  And, I resolved to smile at them-- any of them who looked me in the eye.  I was in a bad mood but this is what i needed to do; run and use the joy I feel that God has given me (regardless of circumstance) to bring joy to others.  So I ran and smiled and said hello.  And people smiled back and said hello.  It was hot today and the sweat was burning my eyes but the angriness of the morning felt far away.  I extend my run to 10 miles.

Harriet Tubman memorial (South End Boston).

You cannot love God and hate people.

My current mood.

Here I am, a moss covered bolder making myself comfortable in the middle of the trail.  I have no place to go, nowhere to be-- just enjoying my current chill in the quiet of the forest.

This run took some patience but I had nothing else do to this afternoon so I stuck it out.  I got to the trails just as a downpour started.  I decided to wait it out in my car and ended up napping for 45 min while it rained and rained and rained.  I woke up, ate half the peanut butter and honey sandwich I packed for the run, and waited another 20 min for the showers to pass before heading out unto the trail.  It had been four weeks since I last ran on trails and with the slick footing I took this really slow (a walk/jog pace or a "wog" as my buddy E-Rob calls it).

Even though the rain delayed things, I'm glad I got out there when I did.  I really needed a quiet space today.  The rain virtually made it so that only true nature lovers or those training for ultra marathons were out on the trails.  I saw 3 runners and a bunch of folks at Sheepfold (because there are always a bunch of folks at Sheepfold).  It was nice.  And, after-the-rain leaves everything so green!  In addition to 3's company, I saw a little garter snake which was moving slowly down the trail but too fast for me to get my phone out and take a picture (I doubled up on zip-lock bags today.  My phone is still recovering from the deluge of two Tuesdays ago), the fluffiest squirrel I ever did see, and about 2,000 gnats.  I was swatting and swatting and swatting-- really working my arms as much as my legs on this one.  K ridiculo.

My running calendar called for a cutback week this week and I decided to run no more than 30 miles total.  This would keep me with my personal goal of not running less than 30 miles per week during this training and is a 12 mile step back from what I did last week.  I ended up running 8 for 32 miles.  Things are going really well so far.  I'm behind but managing to get out there and keep training.  Two more months!

The Vermont 100 weekend is a weekend to look forward to in my summer.  This is my second time volunteering for the event with last year (2016) being my first and I can easily see it becoming a tradition. Visit the race website for more info on the race.

My friend Liza and I went up together this year and had a blast.  Vermont and the Vermont 100 did not disappoint.  From amazing volunteers, enthusiastic runners and spastic weather, there was always something to see and be inspired by.  Flexibility was key for the weekend...e.g. sleeping in the car to avoid camping in the wet fields with looming clouds above.  Adventure!   We volunteered first at the Friday night runner dinner and then Saturday at Camp 10 Bear aid station from 6am-2pm.  I recognized a lot of people from last year and made some new connections.  I am tired but oh so inspired.

Here are my pictures from the weekend.

Liza and I starting out on the trip up.
photo cred: Liza

Friday was dreary and wet up in the valley

Runner briefing before dinner on Friday

the Vermont 100 also has a horse race. Horse use the same route as the runners

"car camping!"

View from the car

4am start for the 100 mile runners

Camp 10 Bear aid station

Runners approaching 10 Bear

Runner drop bags at Camp 10 Bear