Butterflies

It is race week, the San Diego 100-Mile Endurance Run is upon us! It is only Wednesday but I am already way too excited. I was up late again last night working on my new work website but I got up early this morning and was unable to go back to sleep due to anxiety and excitement. I forced myself to stay in bed so I could eek out that little bit of rest.

My friend Randy Katz asked me the other day if I still get nervous, he's running too and I told him of course I did. It's a long way to go and the journey from start to finish is always hilly on so several levels; the course itself, emotions, energy and strength and unforeseen issues coming up. There are always peaks and valleys inside and out, at least that has been my experience.

It's only Wednesday but I leave tomorrow morning, probably why my body thinks it's already race weekend. My mom lives in Corona, California and it's her birthday on Friday, the day before the race. The last three years I've been making this trip. Even when I ran Western States 100 last year instead of San Diego I was still present in SoCal for Mom's birthday and San Diego weekend.

What even makes it more exciting is that four other members from my Thursday morning run gang - the Ninjas, are participating in San Diego as well. I already mentioned Randy Katz, in addition is Larissa Polischuk, Chris Wolfe and Jennifer Patee. In tow are more friends who are helping crew and pace. Speaking of which I'm going solo. I don't really need a crew and I've always run San Diego solo, a tradition I'd like to continue. Besides it's never really solo, there are other runners and the aid stations are not that far apart. Am I scared running in the dark by myself? Only when I think about it, only when I have time to think about the wildlife and creepy films I've seen in the past - running around with flashlights always reminds me of The Blair Witch Project. When I am actually running the only thing that scares me is failure; failure in the task whether from weakness, injury or unforeseen problems. Fun is always part of the equation too and I'm pretty sure I won't be having fun if I have to pull out of a race.

I'll leave you all with two pictures Gary Wang shot of our Thursday morning run crew. Gary is beyond phenomenal right now with his running, not only has he done really well at races but last month, during the Strava climbing challenge, he amassed 130, 732 feet of climbing for the month of May taking 2nd place. Third place will be a familiar name to the ultra folk out there. I'm at 56 for that Strava challenge. Had I not been in the UK the first 9 days of the challenge I would have cracked top 30 but nothing close to the leaders, mountain goats! All that and he has been taking great shots of his GoPro camera, finding new angles for the usual places. We've been seeing a lot of him on Thursdays as he trains hard for his 12th Western States 100. Most likely I'll see you guys on the other side of the San Diego 100. If you are a Strava user look me up, don't mind meeting more folks in that social space.

Getting up at 4:30am to run is hard but always worth it especially on mornings such as these. Photo courtesy of Gary Wang.

I once won a photo contest sponsored by Wend Magazine with a photo similar to this one - I received clothes, a pair of Saucony Peregrines, an Osprey pack and my picture with credits on their website, let's just say I'm glad Gary didn't enter the contest then:) Photo courtesy of Gary Wang.