590.55 miles in the past

Yes that's right.  I've ran 590.55 miles since I started my season in January.  Feels so good to know I'm one month away from THE race day.  This weekend is a short 2.5 hour training run.  No I'm not bragging, it's just that we train so hard that 2.5 hours is nothing in comparison to the following weekend.  July 10th is the longest training run we have this season, 7 hours of trail running.  We'll be covering part of the race course from Lake Chabot in Castro Valley to Redwood Park in the Oakland hills and back.  Yes I am very nervous to even think that I'll be running for 7 hours!  The most I've ran in one training is 5 hours and 15 minutes!  Those 5 hours and 15 minutes covered one of the most brutal and memorable training runs at Mission Peak in San Jose. 

The picture up above is of Mission Peak in San Jose.  We arrived bright and early at 7:30 am to try to beat the heat.  I couldn't believe how many people were there that early in the morning.  It was packed by at least a hundred cars and we had to park about a quarter of a mile away.  Sounds pretty silly.  Anyway, my coach said we weren't going to warm up because our warm up was going up the hill.  That was no hill.  She lied to us.  We went up and around for about 2.75 miles.  My calves were on fire but I pushed on.  The heat was blazing down on us for the first hour as we climbed away.  Once we reached the top the weather changed.  It was still hot but it was really windy.  I looked down in amazement to see what I had just climbed.  I couldn't believe I had climbed all that way and didn't stop.  That's what ultra running is all about.  We keep going no matter what challenges lie ahead. 

Speaking of challenges, the team, as a whole, got lost.  We ran for 7 miles before we found where we got off course.  By that time half the team decided to go back because we were so low on water.  The other half, including me, decided to keep going to the water stop.  It was a hard decision to make because I wasn't sure if I could make it to the water stop, which was another 4 miles away.  It took us about 3 hours to get to the water stop after 11 miles.  Thank God for our volunteers that day.  They had sponges soaked in ice water, chips, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, gummy bears, water and electrolytes and so much more.  It was so nice to see them.  My mentor, Ellen, was one of the water stop volunteers that day.  I told her that I didn't have a good feeling about going back.  I had the option to get in the car and be driven back to my car or keep going.  I decided not to give up and keep going.  I knew that no matter how bad I was feeling, because of the heat, I could make it that no matter how long it took me that I could do it.  I don't like to be mentally defeated so all I could think of was making it back to the start.  That sense of accomplishment feels so good to me.  It confirms all the training I've done is working.  That will get me to the finish line on August 1st at Skyline.

Click on this link if you want something funny to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hCuYjvw2I.  If you've done a race you'll understand but for everyone else this is pretty much what you'll see after a race.