Year of the Ultra

It's 2014 and it's officially been over a month since my m-thon. Time's up on all laziness, excuses, gluttony, etc. But I sure did enjoy the last month with little work, little running, lotta holiday parties, and lotta honeymoon. 

I thought I kept myself in okaaaaay shape over the last month. We certainly didn't go overboard on endurance exercise on our trip, but we did manage to pull off some exercise, including: 1) an 8 mile run in (failed) search of a coffee plantation in Antigua, Guatemala, where my nose started bleeding profusely around mile 7, 2) an intense motha-f$cking hike up Volcan San Pedro that knocked my quads out of commission for 5 days straight, 3) a painful 4-5 mile run up a dirt road near Cerro Chirripo, and 4) a hike-turned-run in Cloudbridge Reserva in Costa with beautiful waterfalls.

Post-nose bleed running photo shoot in Antigua, Guatemala on cobblestone; bad heel strike!

Anyways, turns out, I'm more out of shape (?) than I had thought. Today marked my first long run since the m-thon and it was a sufferfest. Not due to a blistering pace, but rather lots of little aches, pains, and soreness in my hamstrings and nether region (butt). Kind of a bummer for me. I thought a month of little running + a 90-min massage with intense focus on the piriformis would = feeling amazeballs. 

I also found out that I've been "targeting" the wrong race date for the Lake Sonoma 50. It's a whole month earlier than I had thought! I'm not worried yet. Just feeling like a munson for working off the wrong race date.

And in other exciting news, I now officially need to run and finish the Lake Sonoma 50 in order to obtain my 2 qualifying points for the CCC on August 29th, starting in Courmayeur, Italy. 

Photo from the 2012 CCC. Insane!

With all the excitement I'm feeling about the year ahead, I still battle feelings of "am I crazy?" "Will my friends and teammates think I'm crazy?" "Will my Mom think I've been coerced into doing something so nutty?" 

I've also heard rumors that our team coach is not a huge fan of ultra-running. Perhaps as a direct result of this knowledge, I felt embarrassed and almost ashamed when an Impala teammate "called me out" on running the Lake Sonoma 50 and I immediately started trying to rationalize my crazy decision to race 50 miles. "Well yeah, I am running it...I'm giving it a try. It's crazy, I know. I'm sure I'll hate running that far." Turns out she wasn't being critical and actually thought it was really cool that I was going for it.

Maybe I'm so sensitive to this because I once judged ultra runners as ridiculous, nutty, selfish whack jobs and only recently have begun to change my tune. Or, maybe it's because I know my parents don't really approve. Or rather my parents associate it with an outside influence. I certainly didn't learn about the world of ultra-running from the Blandy's; but, I did learn my love of running from them, which matters most, I think. 

So, while internally I'm very satisfied and excited by my race plan for this year, I'd like to work on sharing my excitement with family and friends. No more insecurity and embarrassment about the journey I'm embarking on, which will no doubt take up a significant amount of my personal time. It was my decision to sign up for these races, and I need to own it.

Let the year of the ultra begin!

Ultra-ing