A Maniac is Born

So I've decided to run the San Francisco Marathon in July. Well, more than decided...I've registered. And booked my hotel. And put in for the PTO at work. And started looking for a plane ticket. And did I mention I've also registered for the Omaha Marathon in September? Long story but that one will actually be a local race for me; a move from Denver to Omaha is rapidly approaching. Did I mention we are moving from Denver to Omaha?! Yeah, it's been that kind of month.

So, apparently I am going to continue the marathon madness, and maybe I'll scootch a June or August race in there and become a maniac along the way....

Holy Bullets, Batman!

Because I am again time-starved, I resort to the lowly bullet post (but I give you exclamation points; that's worth SOMEthing right?! Say yes. I beg you.), lest I risk being completely blog AWOL:

• 4 WEEKS TO COLORADO!!!!
• New shoes!! (Asics GT-2150s)
• Platte River Half Marathon this weekend!
• One more 20-miler to go and then taper!
• Lovely spring weather and I GET to run!!!
• Managed to recruite TWO team's-worth of coworker-runners for the Colfax Marathon Relay (which happens to occur just one small week after Colorado...is that a bad idea? If history has anything to say, it most definitely is...but I don't care!)
• Official planning for 2010 Wild West Relay and Colorado Relay teams has commenced!!!
• Running without iPod = oddly, I'm loving it...it's meditative, yo (maybe not like Trancendental Shambahla-esque, but meditative nonetheless)!
• This reminded me of Nitmos and Vanilla!

Wild West Relay Freakout: Phase II

Is it me, or does the route look a bit hilly?

As I wouldn't want to unfairly steal someone else's hard work,
I will fairly steal by giving the correct credit for this lovely
poster to: "Runner/cartographer Paul Petersen of MarathonGIS
has created beautiful poster souvenir maps of the WWR route.
They will be for sale at the finish line for $20 and will be
packed in a mailing tube. "

So last night I actually took the time to read the "last minute instructions" from the race director...holy shit, there is a lot of important stuff to remember in there! A sampling of gems:

"The Friday forecast (and it will probably change between now and then) for the Fort Collins area is currently for a high of 84 degrees and isolated thunderstorms. So remember to bring your sunscreen AND rain gear, and take extra effort to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! The first 13 legs do not offer much if any shade.Walden will have a drastic change in temperature as a low of 41 degrees and scattered showers are forecasted for Friday night, so don't forget warm clothes." HMMM, A RANGE OF TEMPS ANYWHERE FROM 40-90, POSSIBLY WITH RAIN AND LIGHTNING. PERFECT.

"If you want to leave your car at the tour center during the relay, Budweiser requires a parking pass to be placed on your dashboard - you can download the pass here. Any cars left in the paved Tour Center parking lot WILL BE TOWED. Violators will be responsible for the towing and impoundment fee." FUCK, NOW I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT REMEMBERING TO BRING THAT PASS.

"...So running down the road with your ears shut off from reality is one of the most unsafe things you can do. So headphones/earbuds/iPods, even if in just one ear, are prohibited and violators will have their entire team disqualified." YEAH, YEAH I KNOW IT'S UNSAFE TO WEAR AN IPOD...BUT I COUNT ON MY TUNES TO KEEP ME GOING SOMETIMES. LIKE WHEN I HAVE TO RUN 6 MILES AT 2:00 IN THE MORNING. COURSE, I DO NEED TO BE ABLE TO HEAR THOSE COWS COMING...

""Open Range" is a ranching term. This means cattle are roaming freely and are not penned in by fences. You will encounter this situation on the Wyoming section of the relay route. There's nothing quite as scary as coming around a bend in the dark and finding black cows standing in the middle of the road." YEAH, I'LL SAY. IF I ENCOUNTER A COW, THAT BEYOTCH IS GETTIN' TIPPED.

"In the cattle country sections of the route, there are many cattle guards. The purpose of a cattle guard is to keep cattle on their owner's property. Placing a piece of plywood on the guard to make it easier for runners defeats the purpose of the cattle guard. DO NOT RUN OVER THE GUARD - slow down and cross carefully - prevent getting a sprained ankle or worse." WTF DOES A CATTLE GUARD LOOK LIKE, AND HOW WILL I KNOW IF I'VE ENCOUNTERED ONE?

Ah, so THAT'S a cattle guard. Shit.

"In addition, any road hazards have not been marked! Keep your eyes open and run within your self." DO I KNOW HOW TO RUN "WITHIN" MYSELF?! I'M NOT SURE I DO...

"A common comment after a relay is how someone found themselves off the course. The signs are put in place many hours before runners appear. Therefore, anything can happen to them – the wind could blow them down or some idiot could move or steal them....Remember, a relay race is a form of an adventure race - runners and teams must pay attention and take responsibility for themselves. Therefore, if you get off the route, especially if you were not carrying a map, you will receive no sympathy." BUT I DEPEND ON THE SYMPATHY VOTE!

"Leg 36 starts on the Core Trail and goes through downtown and residential Steamboat. Study the route map carefully before you run this leg!!! The leg also crosses Lincoln Ave (the main drag through Steamboat). There is a stop light at this intersection. You are required to wait for a green light to cross. Steamboat will ticket jaywalkers. STUDY AND BRING YOUR MAP FOR THIS LEG!!!!" SHIT, THIS IS MY LEG. FUCK NOW I ALSO HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT REMEMBERING TO BRING MY MAPS. PREFERABLY LAMINATED. (AS ANOTHER BLOGGER RECENTLY NOTED, I TOO NEED TO GET IN THE MAP, JOEY TRIBIANI-STYLE, TO FIND MY WAY. AT LEAST IT WILL BE DAYLIGHT WHEN I DO THIS....I THINK.)

Wait, WHY am I doing this again? Oh yeah, to get this shirt, designed by Drew Litton:

WWR Freak Out

The Wild West Relay is in two days and I am fairly-well freaking out. I feel totally unprepared for what to expect, no idea how I'll hold up in that environment, nor how well I'll run in the [real tall, real high] mountains. Seriously, I am really freaking out. At least work has been busy enough to somewhat distract me from a massive meltdown (however, my anxieties have found me in my dreams as for the last week i've been having stress running dreams every night. You know, the kind where you are running in a race and can't catch up or something goes wrong, or you are naked and sweating profusely? Normal anxiety dreams + running. Yeah, those are fun.). Unfortunately I now find myself with one project wrapped up and a small block of free time in which my freaking has found a nice home. Five more minutes until I move onto a new project...and the freaking will go back to being a low, dull, distracting ache in the back of my head.

But first:
- How will I apply body glide to somewhat intimate parts (i.e. sportsbra areas, bikini line where built-in running shorts underwear rub when they get wet with sweat) with 5 strangers looking on?
- I have been instructed to be "self-sufficient." Exactly what mix of food do I bring to tide me over 30+ hours, with running sprinkled in?
- How much water will I really need?
- Is it rude to bring a book and expect a little reading time while on the road? Or will everyone expect me to talk to them the whole time?
- Don't even get me started thinking about the outfits I'll need nor what will happen if (ok let's be honest, when])I have to pee every half hour...

Ok now it's time for me to distract myself again with work, before I start to pull out my hair and wander through the halls muttering and foaming at the mouth. Tomorrow I'm sure I will share more freaking out, probably centered on my legs of the race, and the hills/heat/middle-of-the-night running. Or nutjobbing about my lack of ownership of a blinking head lamp and sleeping bag.

And on the home front, I am glad to say that apparently a 5-year old can be fairly easily placated with a purple Hello Kitty battery-operated toothbrush and one gold dollar coin. Point Tooth Fairy.

Wild Hair Up My...

Yeah so, I am officially signed up for the Wild West Relay team I was considering joining. My crazy, endurance-mad coworker (who I will not name, but if you know me and happen to know who he is, you know he is an awesome but crazy-ultra-man who does things like 24-hour ski-race UP mountains and such) talked me and a couple of others into it...and $133 later, I am officially running slot 12 of the 200-mile race from Ft. Collins to Steamboat Springs on August 7-8. WTF I am thinking, I don't know.

This is the little bucket of madness I have subscribed myself to filling.

Ultra running has always sounded so ridiculously ridiculous to me, yet by the time I got to the end of reading Born to Run, it had begun to sound completely and utterly natural. A measly 26.2 miles is chump change compared to 125 miles through Death Valley in the summer. Or running down a deer, you know, for dinner or a midday snack. So obviously, it was in the wake of finishing this book that I fell prey to my convincing coworker and decided that the Wild West race was small fries and that I was totally(!) up(!) for(!) it(!!).

Now after a week of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 12th guessing my decision, I'm not so sure (too late, sister, you already paid and the team is counting on you)...I don't do well without out enough sleep...this is 24 hours in a van with 4 strangers...minimal sleep...no showers...sweaty feet...random food choices...limited bathroom facilities, and what if I don't like my van-mates? That's a lot of hours in a small metal box, with sweaty bodies, if they are annoying...

I'm sure they will be fine and it will turn out to be great fun; my slot is actually only about 13 miles total (3-5-5), it's rated a level "3" on a scale of 1-12, so it is well within my abilities. I bet I'll enjoy it in the end. And if not, hey at least I tried and I have a good excuse to get out of it next year.