My husband is an official ultra marathon runner! One year after he started running he ran his first 50k. Last year at this time he had only be running for one week! What more can I say other than WHOA!! Not only did he complete his first 50k but he had a great time as well! He finished BBA in 5 hours and 42 minutes.
During the race I teeter tottered between taking pictures of all the awesome runners and helping out all my friends, old and new. My son jumped in and volunteered as well!
At first I thought he was just doing it for the cookies, but he really enjoyed it!
Bills' Bad Ass is an amazing F/A run. It was a free race, but you still got some swag. You got a t-shirt courtesy of Bill Wagner and the Wild Bill T-shirt Company.(the shirt I received last year remains my favorite running shirt) There was an aid station as well, which had tons of food. A few runners contributed to the aid station, so we brought gallons of water, Fig Newton’s, and chocolate chip cookies - along with Scaps and Ecaps. Almost all of my ultra runner friends were at the run - Bill Bailey of Playing With Knives and Fire and Bill Wagner know how to make a great event! This was like one big running party. At first I was bummed I was not running (due to a reduction in my mileage for the week) but I wound up really enjoying taking care of my husband and friends and snapping pics as well. And I thoroughly enjoyed introducing my son to the big nasty hill! HA! We kept busy and time went by fast. Soon the winners were coming through. And who were they? None other than running friends Dave Wank, 1st male and Crystal Basich, first female! They were both so strong looking!
Crystal was amazing the whole race - I have never in my lifetime seen anyone more focused than she was at BBA.
It was incredible and inspiring! Even before the race started she was looking extremely focused so I knew then that she was coming out on top. Great job Dave and Crystal! Another running friend, Jeannette, had an accomplishment of her own during Bills'. This was her first 50k. She gave her all, got a great pep talk from Chris Basich
and finished that sucker! (To put it this way - Jeannette had not done a marathon distance yet! She just jumped straight to an ultra!) Great job Jeanette!
Right before the top runners were about to finish I walked up the big nasty hill to the basket of Smarties candies that were sitting there, waiting for the runners. The runner's trophy, of sorts.
I snapped pictures of the runners snatching up their Smarties, bending over and wincing in pain - glad to almost be finished. Soon I saw my husband and son running down the trail! He was almost done! I could tell from the look on his face that he gave all he had and then some. There was a bit of flucuation in his voice as he repeated over and over again "That hill was messing with me, I think I lost my mind! I lost my mind!" He grabbed his Smarties and we all ran down the hill together.
I told him "Now you know what it's really truly like to push yourself, to keep going when you have nothing left to give." The mind is an amazing thing - this is what it's all about. It was written all over his face, in his voice, in his running form. For his marathon that didn't really happen. He flew through it with no real pain, not too many issues - but at Bills' Bad Ass 50k it did. I could not have been more proud of him at that moment, or for my son for being such a big help to all the runners! Congrats to all who tackled BBA - hopefully next year there will be tons of mud!
**All pictures can be purchased at-cost at Walmart.com - if you see a picture of yourself just purchase the print for whatever Walmart charges. Enjoy!**
http://photos2.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1584745007/a=1959098007_1959098007/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/
BEAST OF BURDEN 100 MILE TRAINING:
Training is in full swing for the Beast of Burden! The mileage is picking up again and I'm stoked! Saturday called for a long run which I spent on the road - running into the wind for much of the run. I've had a bit of a hatred for the wind ever since an extremely windy NC24 training run I did, so I was not happy. This was probably good training for the Beast though - as the weather will most likely not be all that pretty there.
Since the weather has gotten cooler my asthma/lungs have been trying to adjust. The week prior I suffered the worst asthma attack I have had since the fourth grade - and it was during a trail run. It was towards the end of the run and luckily my husband, Crystal, and Kattya were there with me. (And the stayed with me!!! This is why I love trail runners!) I muttered "What the hell was I thinking, signing up for a Winter 100? How the hell am I going to finish this one?" Anyway - the pouting is over and I've sucked it up, I think now my lungs are adjusting nicely and are getting used to the temperature change. All I can say now is bring on the cold, snow, ice, and wind. Mother Nature: Give me all you got!
GIVING IT A TRY: VEGETARIAN LIFESTYLE WEEK 1
This week begins the start at our attempt at a vegetarian lifestyle. I have to say so far so good! Every dinner this week has been a grand slam, and if all the new recipes I will be trying are like these ones then we will not have any problems! So far this week we ate: Eggplant Parmesan, Indian Samosa Casserole, and Black Bean Chili. The recipes for all three can be found at http://www.vegetariantimes.com/
I'm really hoping this lasts and am looking forward to trying many new recipes!
