Doc's couldn't help, in stepped my awesome coach/friend Ray Zahab. #1 He ordered more sleep. "Don't even think about running unless you are getting 7 hours of sleep each night!" Is what he said. He told me a year ago that my sleep habits weren't good, but I thought I was doing ok on very little sleep. (Yes then I was managing it, but it all catches up to you at some point. My point was now.)#2 Since the doc's couldn't figure anything out Ray had me cut out 3 big food items. So far, so good! I'm so thankful for his advice and pretty bummed I let him down, but things are improving and I'm looking to the next race, Beast of Burden 100 miler (summer version). For awhile I was pretty bummed about not running Mohican, but in the end it was all my fault really. Time to start taking care of myself the right way :) Suck it up and move on to the next one. 54 days and counting. I have to say while the course will be boring without a massive amount of snow on the ground I'm pretty excited to see what I can do given the lack of that cold white stuff.
Mohican 50 miler - my husband's first 50!
Friday we left for Mohican, my husband driving me crazy with his taper. I almost ALMOST wanted to tell him to run to Mohican. We arrived and checked into a pretty cozy cabin that we shared with good friend Charlie Bolek and his family.
We were pretty surprised how beautiful the inside was! We weren't exactly roughing it, the man needs his air conditioning!! The outside, now that's a different story. The cabin was right on the main road, and behind it was the river (and another road). Beautiful cabin, not too great setting - but still a good situation so we were pretty happy. We went to the packet pickup/spaghetti dinner, chatted with some friends and headed back to the cabin.
Early to bed, early to rise:
We went to bed as early as we could, and woke up about 3 a.m. I made my guy some oatmeal piled high with fruit. My son had some as well, um - that is he ate two bites and complained. eh what can ya do? Soon Charlie, my son, my husband and I made our way to the starting line. I could tell my husband was nervous.
I could just see it - the expression on his face, the fact that he really wasn't talking much. His stomach was in knots. We hooked up with Kevin Tenkuu and Scott McGrew before the race, saw a few other friends and just hung out at our own little table for awhile.
10 minutes before the start of the race I looked around. No Fred Davis?! I told Charlie and my husband, you know I bet that Freddy is still sleeping! We made our way to the starting line, did all the happy sappy kissy lovey dovey stuff and soon my husband and friends were off! Their adventure had begun! After the dust had settled I saw a bunch of activity in my friend Fred's tent. You could tell that it was him hurrying up, trying to get ready as fast as he could "FRED" I yelled....."Hurry up the race started!!" Fred soon crossed the starting line and was on his way. Can I just say right now he's one of the most awesome men ever??! We cheered for our buddy and then went inside to figure out what aid stations we could be at and when. After all was figured out my son had his little plan - he had noticed the McDonald's in town (gross) and of course NOW was hungry. We headed to the McD's and got his nastified breakfast and saw Scott's wife Bri, who we would be hanging out with from aid station to aid station for most of the day.
And on to the aid stations:
We went to the first aid station we were allowed to hang around at and soon saw SMOKIN fast running buddy Jay Smithberger in the lead. WOOT! This would be the only time we'd get to cheer for Jay as again, the man is SMOKIN fast. More runners trickled in and finally groups of runners started to come. Looking good my hubby was in and out of the aid station pretty fast.
The next location we headed to was the dam. This turned out to be a confusing spot for runners. The runners were coming straight out of the dark woods into open light and basically were trying to get their bearings when they came out. The confusion pretty much fell on how us viewers/fans were standing, all gawking around the exit standing in a circle, it kind of confused some runners when they came out into the light. One poor guy we saw ran right into a sign. Many looked stressed as they were coming out of what was a harder portion of the course. Many had something to say about that part of the course and it sounded incredible! I was so jealous, peering into the darkness wanting to know just what it was everyone was seeing and going through.
Mid way through my husband's run he was looking good. His bum knee was holding up on him, so that was making my day! He complained that I didn't tell him how hilly the course was. BAH! "I told you to do your hill work!" I said. In his defense, while not the hilliest place on earth (far from it) It's the biggest hills he's ever seen not to mention run on. EVER.
The next aid station we hung out at we wound up talking to a couple people. One guy was crewing for a husband/wife running team out there (his brother and sister in law, or vice versa - can't remember which) and we were also chatting with a girl from California, pacing her friend. Really nice people. The girl from California? (Summer) Turns out her runner won the 100 with a sub 24 hr finish. AWESOME!! We were also able to see Terri Lemke come through this aid station, and I was able to tell her that her son was on track to win the marathon portion of the run. He did wind up winning...so congrats Little Lemke! (little? maybe just to Terri still!)
Finally we went back to the finish line and waited for my guy. We had gone to the firetower but had just missed him. Waiting at the finish line was a good chance to talk with some running buds and make some new ones. Stephen, Juan, Kim, and James. It was great to get to talk to everyone and makes me wish even more that we all lived closer together :)
The Finish:
Waiting, watching, hoping everything was o.k. we finally saw him. My husband ran strong through the finish line, got his medal and we hugged there, with him saying NEVER again. HA! Suck it up buttercup - you have your first hundo in a month! Seriously though, I'm so so so proud of my guy, and again so thrilled that his knee held up. Secretly I did worry about his knee the whole time, given the terrain - but he prevailed and completely shined! Such an awesome thing to witness and my son and I both are just SO PROUD!!
Big Congrats to fellow Northeast Running Club Sean Hensley for conquering the 100 miler at Mohican! Sean had a stellar crew in wife Amy and President Mark Anson! Sean had an amazing finish and looked like he could run 100 more miles easy!!
The Impossible2Possible 6 Hour Fun Run Fundraiser!!
Ok people, I've created a fundraiser with a suggested minimum donation of $15. No goody bags here, I'm sorry - but I will have food (a little) and lots of I2P prizes to raffle off. Here's the deal - a great idea thanks to Mike Nicholson. Each loop you do gets you a ticket. The more loops, the more tickets. After all is said and done the tickets go into a hat and names are drawn. They will be drawn until all prizes are gone. We have SUCH awesome things thanks to Bob Cox and Ray Zahab of Impossible2Possible. Hoodies, tech t's, tech tanks, tshirts, stickers, patches - you name it.
We have a few people signed up already, so hurry up! The event will be held at Indian Point in Leroy, Ohio. Anyone who wants to chill at our house the night before can do so. You can crash on our floor our outside in tents, we are 5 minutes from the starting location. All proceeds go directly to I2P via Activegiving.com. 100% to the organization! Sign up today, it's for a great cause and you'll be running and/or walking with some pretty fantastic people. Remember there are no DNF's - it's just all about how many loops you can do in 6 hours. Hope to see you all there!
To sign up/donate:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103905569702911&ref=ts
What's Impossible2Possible you ask? Check them out here!
http://impossible2possible.com/i2p
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The Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run
I can't say how proud of my trail running sisters and brothers I am! Sandi Nypaver, Stephen Zeidner, and Shaun Pope all ran the Western States 100 this weekend and ran it in style! They had a great team of pacers as well - Rachel Nypaver, Star Blackford, and Steve Hawthorne. It was such an exciting thing to watch play out online (as well as frustrating given the online tracking malfunctions). It's such a thrill to see their finish line videos, and completely inspiring and motivating. Congrats to all this weekend on a job well done! Love ya guys!!!
Beast of Burden training
Easing back into a training schedule I had a bigger run that what I had been doing this weekend. 35k and my butt hurts. It's the good kind of hurt though. This weekend brought the first weekend of running in a long time that I actually #1 enjoyed, and #2 didn't feel like total poo. Saturday I dropped off my son off to volunteer at the Metroparks Wildlife Center (right at the start of the trail, conveniently!). I ran the trails until he finished and he joined me for the last 7k. I introduced him to a "new to him" trail at Pen Glen, where tons of mud was sitting there begging to be jumped in and run through.
Good times with my fave trail buddy :) Sunday I woke up sore but was thrilled to have a faster time than Saturday's run. Not as fast as I want to be, but baby steps. I'm just very thankful that I didn't feel bad during the run, that every step wasn't complete misery. Just to enjoy my run again, not getting sick - it means the world to me. Thanks Ray for knocking some sense into me and telling me like it is. (And if I don't listen ever again, feel free to yell at my stubborn ass)
Happy Running All!
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