Mike and Marilyn

After being ill for four days, I was more than eager to lace up my Cascadias again. I figured, "Go big or go home", so I drove out to Lander and ran up to Popo Agie Falls in Sinks Canyon. It was only a 4-mile run, but it was wonderful. My legs felt alive and my lungs felt tight. My feet were light on the rocks as I pranced down the trail.

This was the same trail where I had thrown my "temper tantrum" with Margo, got to know Bickford on another level and watched Rachel pick a tick off of her stomach. It was fun to look back on all of those memories and focus on those as opposed to my bulging quads or my bouncing behind.   

About half a mile up the hill, I ran into a couple who was stopped on the side of the trail rehydrating. They commented on how they admired the fact that I was running up this trail, not just walking it. Marilyn was wearing a shirt from San Diego, so we chitchatted a bit. It turned out, Mike and Marilyn are from San Francisco and were high school and college sweethearts but just reunited and got married last month. Guess where they got married? You got it! (Actually, I  highly doubt you did) Ojai! And Marilyn has done the La Jolla 1-mile swim every year since she was twelve-years-old. At sixty-five-years-of-age, she is strong and still active.

It is always a huge inspiration to me when people stay active throughout their life. I was so inspired that I decided to go on a twelve-mile run up Whiskey Mountain yesterday.

Stupidly, I decided to park 2.5 miles from the trail head and run up to it. I only took a 16.9 oz water bottle with Cytomax and my pepper spray, totally forgetting my Hammer gel in the car. Arriving at the Whiskey Mountain and Lake Louise fork, I felt thirsty and tired, but I continued to run. Up, up, up, uppity up I hiked and huffed and puffed and trotted.

3Oh!3 and Elle Goulding were blasting through my iPhone as my Garmin ticked off the mileage. At mile 4.5, I ran into Levi, who was hiking up to Ross Lake. By the time I saw him, I was already totally depleted of energy and stamina. The only thing that kept me going was having my time, my calories and my mileage on my wrist. Every time I wanted to turn around, I would look at my wrist and think, "Just ten more calories. Got it. Just four more minutes to make an even number. Hit it. Almost at another mile. I'll just keep going. Got it. The song is almost over. I'll just keep going..." Then seeing Levi and him telling me about Kit running up to Lake Louise last week made me want to keep going.

By the time I turned around, I had traveled over five miles. A storm hit the mountain and rain started to pour. It was a welcome relief since I was out of water. I ran back to my car, almost fainting with .25 miles left. A large body of water greeted me and I changed into my shorts and let my legs soak in the glacier water, like a cold ice bath. Ahh... so refreshing.

And here I am... back to running.

I tried to do some ballet after the run, but my legs were shot. I stretched and did push ups for an hour, then met up with Ben and just sat... and sat and sat. Spectacular.