Along the way, Erin took a couple of tumbles over some of the aforementioned roots. One was early on, around mile seven and while she rolled her ankle on a root and then fell to the path rolling around in the dirt all the while aplogizing for slowing us down while replying, “only shooting pain, only shooting pain, it will pass. I am sorry. I am okay. Only shooting pain.”
If I were to describe the 50K training regimen Anna, Erin and I have followed, I would probably label it “Confessions of a 50K Slacker” except that just the fact we trained for a 50K probably means we are not slackers so we have an oxymoronic title on our hands.
I realized something I already intrinsically knew that distance running is truly A STATE OF MIND. I could absolutely never run 26.2 miles if I was only training for a marathon. But for some reason since this time around it is an ultra, it was possible. You change your mindset, you can accomplish it. I never thought I could do an Ironman, but I know deep down if I set that as a goal (no honey, not for a long time, if ever), it would be doable. It is truly amazing what we can accomplish when we set our minds to something.
Since I did not post much except complaining about our four-hour doozy last weekend, I thought I would share some pictures that Anna captured from her iPhone. We did a short loop around Boise, followed by a beautiful yet slightly grueling jaunt back into the Boise foothills on notorious trails such as the switchbacks, Shane’s, Three Bears, Watchman and then ending on Rocky Canyon Road with all of the people training for the Race to Robie Creek which takes place a day before our 50K, Skyline to Sea.
I took some time to ponder the nature of long distance, endurance running. It is about so much more than the physical motion of putting one foot in front of another for an extended period of time. It is the prep, what do I wear? It is the nutrition, what do I eat and when do I eat it? It is the mental, how can I convince myself to keep going when it is against everything I want to do? What do I think about for that long?
Three hours and 17 miles later, we completed our training run and are probably three of few people (five if you count Kaidree and Jen) who know the dirt side of Eagle Road.
In retrospect, I think the reason the Waterfall run is so hard is because it is all up and then all down. There is not a lot of rolling hills. It reminds me a lot of the infamous 1/2 marathon in Boise called the Race to Robie Creek which is eight miles of uphill followed by five miles of intense downhill. Unlike Robie, waterfall has equal miles uphill and downhill but like Robie, each is equally hard because having your body get pounded on the downhill after so much climbing really takes its toll on you.
Because I desperately needed a stress-relieving, feel-better-about-myself run and because we were kicking off our 50K training schedule, Anna and I decided to brave the snow and head out on a Saturday afternoon run. To show how motivated we were, we initially planned to run at the YMCA at 9:30. I nearly choked my daughter by shooting Vitamin D liquid too quickly down her throat which traumatized both me and her so I texted that I was not going to be able to run until we had both recovered. That led to me wanting to take a nap with Belén because I was too nervous if I let her sleep on her own she might die because the Vitamin D was in her lungs or something. Which led to waking up around 12:30 starving. Which led to being lazy on the couch and then Andy going and getting us BURGERS and TATER GEMS (seriously, like that is going to help the situation…but yes, I ate EVERY LAST BITE!) which led to me delaying the run yet another 45 minutes so I could digest a bit. And we finally met up at Anna’s house around 3:15pm.
