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!

scoop of terrifying? sure, i'll have 2 please!

so… at noon today registration opened for the ice age 50.  i went running with friends at 9am on the indoor track at the pettit center which, incidentally, was WAY more awesome than running on the dreadmill but not quite as awesome as running outside in the world.  22 laps is around 6ish miles… i ran 20 because i have these awesome blisters on the ARCHES of both of my feet.  why do i have blisters in such a interesting place you may be asking…

well, i'll tell ya.

on friday i went shopping for winter (read gore tex) trail shoes so that my toes wouldn't freeze off from frost bite the next time i ran in the snow/cold weather.  this is because on wednesday i ran at lapham on the ice age trail in below zero temperatures in the dark at 6pm.  my toes were so cold it took around 2 miles for them to warm up enough that i could feel them.  then they hurt like it hurts when you run your cold skin under hot water after being outside in winter too long.  so i got all paranoid that i would get frost bite and decided i should invest in some winterized running shoes.  my mistake…

i went to 3 different stores and settled on a pair of salomon xr mission cs trail shoes.  

i was reluctant to purchase them but the dude selling them at rei assured me i could bring them back whenever.  i ran 10 miles saturday morning and about 1/2 way through my right arch felt like it was rubbing.  about 7 or 8 miles in and my left started to feel like it was rubbing.  it was uncomfortable but not terribly so and i finished the run cuz what else was i going to do on an out and back?  prolong the pain by walking back?  no thanks… so i got home and got those suckers off and lo and behold… a HUGE blister on the arch of my right foot and a smaller one on the arch of my left foot.  total bummer.  i showered and drained the blisters and decided that those shoes needed to go back pronto.  just a little word to the wise… rei does indeed take anything back within the first year if you are a member.  i returned those stupid things wet after having run in them for 10 miles.  so… thanks rei for being awesome and taking back a pair of $130 shoes that i hated.  later in the day my arches were hurting so bad that i found some blister band-aids and put those babies on.  felt much better!  

so this morning i went to the pettit to run on their track with some lady friends.  i was about 18 laps in when my right arch started to bother me so i was glad when kellie needed to go home so that i could stop at 20 laps.  got home and in the shower the band-aids were coming off… i pulled the right one off and was quite successful at leaving the skin intact.  i wasn't so careful with the left (because the blister was tiny) and that proved to be the wrong strategy because I PULLED THE BLISTER CLEAN OFF!  that freaking hurts!

but i digress…  the ice age 50K.

so after my shower it was almost time to sign up for the race.  registration opened at noon and i was reloading the page from about 11:57 on… it was true… didn't open until noon.  at noon i registered for the race and even tho' i got in there right away i still ended up being the 17th person registered!  the race then proceeded to fill up more than 1/2 way during the first hour (somewhere around 180) and was full within 2.  crazy!  now for the terrifying part.  I'M REGISTERED FOR A 50K!  i haven't even run a marathon yet!

for those of you who don't know (and/or don't want to look it up) that's 31.0686 freaking miles ON TRAILS! *gulp*  

i don't even know what sort of training i should do to prepare for this… i think i'm just going to run a lot and for a long time. ha!  training plan schmaining plan.  actually i already started a marathon training plan for the trail breaker marathon that i'm thinking of doing in april.  of course… i might not do that one because it's looking like i've got a lot on my plate already so far and it's not even 2014 yet!  i'm not really worried about covering the distance as much as i'm worried about my hydration and fuel.  i mean… i know they have tables of stuff throughout the course so i guess i don't need to worry but i've had so many issues with my gut in 2013 that it concerns me none the less.  i've finally gotten a good pre-race food thing going on and i don't want to compromise that by eating unworthy items on the trail during the race.  of course, i also don't want to carry a bunch of crap with me either so i think i'm going to rely on the latter to get me through this.  i've been experimenting with drinks too.  it seems to me that i do best on plain 'ol water.  first i was mixing gatorade and water and i think that was upsetting my stomach.  then i moved onto nuun but i'm not sure that does anything at all for me.  at least, i've not noticed any difference when i drink it or just plain water… so there's that.  i am just totally against carrying too much stuff with me.  i don't want to have to leave any clothing or things behind on the trail because i like my stuff which is why i have my stuff.  so i have to figure out a plan for my fuel/hydration.  the mileage i think i will be able to handle without a problem.  i'm going to ramp up training as soon as the snow is gone and work up to 2-3 laps on the black loop at least once a week in preparation. 

right now i'm at about 20 miles per week and i'm going to start upping that by 10% a week until i'm back at my fighting mileage.  so there are some plans in the works. 

but man oh man…

to think that just a few months ago i was telling jeff there was no way i'd even consider doing a 50K.  stick a little bug in my ear about something and i sure as hell will figure out a way that i can be up for the challenge.  maybe i'm too competitive for my own good?  i mean with myself mostly and others secondly.  i just want to prove that i can do it, do it well, and maybe try to do it better than others in the process.  doesn't make it any less terrifying tho' does it?

what does your race schedule look like?  are you stepping out of your comfort zone with any races in 2014?  doing anything that just a short time ago you wouldn't dream of trying?