Running with Tonks

Beautiful night at Peak One Campground Dillon Reservoir Perimeter Trail This is a tough experience to process. It was just so ridiculous.  Wait, I am getting ahead of myself.  First, the drive out to Grand Mesa..... I was making the drive to Grand Mesa by myself in a camper van I rented; so, I decided to break it up. Thursday I drove to Dillon Reservoir and camped at Peak One Campground. It was a super nice place with clean bathrooms. I had a site with views of the reservoir.  To be fair if I was in a tent, I would not have been happy because normally I go camping to get away from people.  However, this was a different kind of trip. I stayed only about 15 hours and had a van to sleep in for the night.  In the morning, I did my shake out along the perimeter trail. It was beautiful and I was happy. From Dillon, I drove to Glenwood Springs, Colorado and made a mandatory stop at Sweet Coloradough for donuts and a bagel sandwich. This place is worth the trip! T...

I've had the pleasure of crewing a few times now.  First at the Dirty30 in 2019, then the Bear Chase 50k in September of 2021 and most recently at the NorthFork 50 miler in June of 2022.  All of them were very different experiences with varying degrees of responsibility.  _____________________________________________________________________________________ Dirty 30 June 2019    The Dirty 30 is a 50k trail race held in Golden Gate Canyon State Park each year.  With over 7,000 feet of climbing,  this race is a doozy. For this event, I was mainly  a driver and cheerleader.  I followed their progress  by taking the shuttles from aide station to aide station.   I helped out a little here and there when I saw them  but for the most part I cheered them on in my cow  and unicorn onesies.  Here is what I said about it on Facebook right after the event, "Today I experienced the cheering/crewing side  of an ultra. It was un...

  Ok before I get into actual race day, a bit of background info: 1. This school year is....hmmm, what's the best word suitable for the internet?  Challenging.  Since going back to in-person school in January, I have not run during the week.  My training consisted of my weekend long runs and my Monday strength class. 😳 2.  After my last big event, I bought new shoes.  I run in Hokas, Stintson for trail and Arahi for road.  I saw how much cushion there was in the Bondi so I switched back to them for the road. (I had run in Bondis about 2 years back.) During February and March my Achilles started bothering me more and more.  I typically battle Achilles tendinitis off and on and they usually are angry the day after 15+ miles.  However by late March, my Achilles were bothering me DURING runs.  I finally made the connection to the shoes. Maaaybe it was the shoes.  So I didn't wear them for two weeks while resting the Achilles. Then I t...

 A person in a running FB group posted, "How do you combat post-goal race funk?"  Immediately and without thinking I responded with, "I sign up for something that scares me."  Trouble is... that doesn't really work anymore.    I ran my first ultra in March of 2018, the Behind the Rocks 50k.  I followed that with a second 50k in December of that year in Arizona, the McDowell Mountain Frenzy.  I chopped off about an hour and a half of the 50k time.  In March of 2019 I ran my first 50 miler at Antelope Island.  Again I followed that with a huge distance PR at the Bear Chase in September.  Then September of 2020 I completed my first 100 miler.  So until I do another 100 miler, distance doesn't scare me.  What does? I guess the next question I typically get is why choose something that scares you?  A few things immediately come to mind: 1- I find that I work harder and have more fidelity when the goal is daunting.  If it'...

A blinking cursor on a blank white page.    That's how I feel right about now.  I've had a training plan for three years.  First, I worked towards my first 50k, then I moved to 50 miles and then I jumped to 100.  It was essentially my part time job.  Most of the time I loved it but even when I didn't, I at least had purpose and a reason to push through the challenging runs.  Maybe this wouldn't be so pronounced if we weren't in the middle of a pandemic.  I will never know. This is just the way it is.  So, now what?  

Finish Line Bliss Look at that face.  I was, and still am, so very happy.  I still can't believe how difficult it was.  I mean I knew going in it would be harder than anything else I had ever done but wow.  It was challenging both physically and mentally.  The finish line was a fog of happiness and pain.  My legs were so stiff, my balance was gone and my brain was about three steps behind.  I kept staring at the buckle thinking, OMG I did it!  The first post race challenge came when they brought the car around.  I was able to sit.  Ok, it was more of a flop into the seat but I got there.  They had to take my legs, as I had zero strength left in the tank, and pivot me into the car.  We propped my legs up on the dash because my legs below the knees were visibly swollen.   Lisa and Michelle walked the path back to the other car at Crew City while Kirsten drove me back to the VRBO.  As we were driving out of the park...

View from our Shake Out Run Holy Banana Pancakes! The lead up to this event was nuts.  COVID caused so many challenges.  The course changed but due to the possibility of more changes it wasn't released to us until three weeks out.  Also, finding pacers and crew willing to fly across the country during a pandemic was a huge challenge.  I was one of the lucky ones as I actually was able to get help.  Some runners had to attempt the 100 solo which I can not even fathom.   Actually flying there was super stressful.  American Airlines cut out flights.  I am very lucky I had already planned to fly out Wednesday and give myself the extra day.  Good thing I did! The changes left us on entirely full flights and long layovers.   I think the most "amusing" part of flying were the American Airlines ramps leading to the planes had markings of 6 feet apart. Of course the moment we sat down on the plane we were shoulder-to-shoulder.  Des...