more real every day...

so... i just booked my room for bryce canyon.  while perusing the website i decided to read what they had to say about the course.  i can't tell if i'm excited or terrified...

The 50K course starts at the boat ramp area of Tropic Reservoir, near King's Creek campground. Runners will be shuttled here from Ruby's Inn. Shuttles will load at 7:30am and the race will begin at 8:30am. The route starts with about a half mile of road to thin the field out before hitting the singletrack which will lead you out to Keyhole Arch and some beautiful hoodoo running before descending to a doubletrack road after a couple of miles. You'll begin a 5 mile ascent, peaking at over 9,000ft, then descending 500ft over a half mile to the Blue Fly aid station at mile 8.5. After the Blue Fly aid station, you'll hop on a steep and scenic singletrack section that quickly descends through some hoodoos down to a doubletrack at around mile 10. You'll take a left and have a two mile climb until you meet up with the 50/100 mile route. From there, you'll take a right and descend two miles of singletrack to the Proctor Canyon aid station, your only crew access point. You'll have 8.5 miles of singletrack between Proctor Canyon and Thunder Mountain aid stations, with plenty of ups and downs through canyons and along ridges. After Thunder Mountain aid, you'll have a gradual ascent for about two miles before hitting the Thunder Mountain trail for a long and grueling climb up to the finish line.

i mean... not even a mile in and there's a FIVE MILE ASCENT!  this will likely be the most breathtakingly beautiful and also most challenging race i've ever in my life run.  i'm so excited!  there's no way i'm hauling ass through this race.  i can hardly run our tiny hills at lapham peak!  guess i really do need to seriously start training on some hills.  the bane of my existence.

it's not that i don't WANT to run hills... it's just that it's so damn hard!  i feel like when i "run" hills (and i use that term loosely) i'm going slower than if i hiked them.  also, as i run i'm in way more pain than if i just hiked them... so i end up hiking them.

i think the terrifying part is that the ascents are not just feet... they are talked about in MILES!  we don't have anything like that here in wisconsin that i've run.  the exciting part is that i am going to do something amazing and new and hard for me.  

i am going to conquer something i've never conquered before and i'm going to complete it and be a better person for having suffered through it.

i cannot wait to be bathed in all that beauty!  june cannot come soon enough!