GETTING READY FOR WESTERN

I really tried to get myself psyched up for Western. Even bought my crew and pacer shirts from the Western States store. I bought iron on letters. For Ken, "Hubby Ken," for Mary Hanna, "Pacer Mary,", and for Ken's brother Cliff, "Bro-in-Law Cliff." On the back I had "Go Pigtails!" for all their shirts. We also watched a couple Western States documentaries. Here are the highlights of my training after my birthday run:

3/7/10 I ran the Lord Hill 50K 6:27 after my 39 mile B-daythe day before with Jess Mullen and Alison Moore.

3/20/10 Pac Rim One Day-102 miles. Felt achy the whole time. Worked a lot the week before on my feet-probably had something to do with it (I hope). I think I stopped too many times on the one mile loop. Should have run with a hydration pack. Doesn't matter, don't think I'll run it again. Jess rocked with a win with 116 miles!

3/28/10 Redmond Watershed Marathon 4:22. Not quite recovered from the one day but great to get back on the trails.

4/4/10 Soaring Eagle 50K 6:06. Nice to try new trails. Enjoyed it! Ran easy cause of 100 miler coming up.

4/10/10 Lumberjack 100 mile 23:47. 1st woman. Happy to get under 24hrs. Had to push it. Jess paced me last 50 miles. Thanks! Tough course. Winding, technical, very muddy in places.

4/17/10 Ten mile training run on Tiger. Had to walk the last 2 miles. Severe back pain. had been dealing with back pain for over a year now but never this severe. Very worrisome for me. But ran the next day at Cougar and did okay. Still, pain coming on that suddenly is not good.

4/25/10 Rucky Chucky 30K with a few friends. Good times! Thanks Gwen for organizing!

5/1/10 Miwok 100K 12:35. Great weekend! Stayed with my brother. Had fun the entire race. My finishing time was not that much more than three years ago.

5/6/10 Started new job at Valley Orthopedic Associates. So the last 2 months had been quite stressful waiting to get the job. So great to go from a 45 mile commute to 9 mile commute!

5/15/10 Redmond Watershed 12hr run. 100K. Was overall happy with result. Had muscle cramps the last half. Alison won with 66 miles but happy to report that my 71 mile course record still stands!

5/22/10 Snake to Lake training run 46 miles. Ran this with a group I have been training with for a while. A couple of them, Pat Ackley and Tracey Nguyen were training for San Diego 100 mile, Tracey's first. The other runners in our group were either pacers or carpool buddies for other runs. This run started with us dipping our feet in Rattlesnake Lake at the start and then into Lake Washington at the finish 13.5 hrs later after running over Rattlesnake ridge, Tiger Mt, Squawk Mt, and Cougar Mt. All weather conditions: rain, snow, sleet, hail , sun, thunder and lightning. Our friend from the Georgia (?) Ransom, said we had just about everything except hurricane and tornados. He's coming back to run CCC later this summer. Needed hill training.

5/29-5/31/10 Western States Training runs: 28mi, 19mi, and 22mi. Drove down with Val Beyer and stayed with her parents. Great weekend! Would recommend to anyone training for 100 miler, even if not in Western. Price was right and there were aid stations and well marked trails. In-N-Out burger every day after runs-yeah baby! Back did hurt day one but had sat in a cramped car for 14 hrs the day before. Loved the trails but as you will read later, doing them at night during the race in warmer temps made them much harder.

Had planned on one more race on 6/5/10 but it was cancelled, so had 3 week taper before Western. Did some heat training by sitting in a steam room, but nothing mimics running in hot weather other than running in hot weather. We've had a cool summer. Only one day of 75 degrees. Otherwise, rain and cold.