103 Days - Two Ways To Measure 10 Miles

On Thursday night, as Andy and I enjoyed a great sushi dinner, a text message came through on his phone. "They announced our start times for Coyote Two Moon," he said.

The race director, Chris, assigns groups based on what he thinks your finish times for the course will be and all 100kers are given a time that will force them to run through the entire night. The 100 milers are given one that will make them run through two nights, hense the 'Coyote Two Moons' name. I automatically logged on to the computer as soon as I got home. I was in K3, which would give me 20 hours to finish the course. Let me put this in perspective. I was given a 4 hour handicap to Donn and Brian was only given a 2 hour handicap to me. I was honored by Chris' faith in me but scared, to say the least.

Two trails and two different sets of friends awaited me as I rose from my bed on Saturday morning and welcomed my weekend. I met Andy at his place a few minutes before 7 and shortly, we were covering Sierra Madre on foot. After dropping my car off at the trailhead we ran to the start of the Mt. Wilson training. Coach LeClair lead us in some hill repeats on steep terrain just left of the trailhead. I tried to stay towards the front of the pack, but I was also holding back a bit since I knew that afterwards, I would have to spend most of my morning keeping up with Andy. After two repeats, Andy and I ran to Gary Hillard's house, the race director for Mt. Disappointment. Today he would host a run up Mt. Wilson in association with a picnic for the So Cal Ultrarunning Series awards. Andy and I, along with a local man named Dave, were assigned the task of marking the course.

Running with the two of them was a stronger pace than what I was used to running on my Saturday mornings, but at the same time, it was completely manageable. I know that Andy was running slow due to the fact that he was still recovering from HURT so he was not up to his usual speed, but as we ran, I relaxed my legs into every stride and every push of my muscles. This was my pace now. It was actually rather nice.

As we ran back down the mountain, familiar faces past us on the way up. We were the first ones to arrive at the picnic.

"Summer!" a familiar voice called out. It was Jill, a talented ultrarunner that I met at Mt. Disappointment. Jill is a neat person. She is a beautiful woman in her early 40s who looks like she is 30. She is always dressed in bright colors and cute running skirts, but don't let her outward image fool you. She kicks ass on the trails. "We are in the same group for Coyote!"

Oh thank God, I thought. It would be challenging to stay with Jill, but if I could manage it, I now had a friend to take me through the night. My nerves were suddenly calmed.

After the picnic and awards, I headed off to work a few hours before enjoying an evening of UFC fighting... wow, it surprised me how much I actually enjoyed watching that!

This morning, I met Kathy at the Backbone Trailhead. It had been too long. She was running with a group called the New Basin Blues and they welcomed me into their club immediately and even gave me a waterbottle. We were off for a 10 mile run, which was coincidentally about the same distance that I covered the day before, but what a different day it would be. I will let the video tell our story!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT5ISQMBxRY&feature=channel_page

This weekend reminded me of the importance of running with others and adjusting my pace accordingly. My year of running is not just a commitment to myself, it is a commitment to Donn at San Diego, Dmitry at Western States and Dean at Badwater. That is a wide range of ability levels including strenghts and weaknesses that I need to prepare myself for. Regardless, some days are about pushing your body to extremes and training hard, and some are just about enjoying the day and the people that come with it. Sometimes the day is simply not about you, and by accepting that, there is something greater to be found.