Busy

It's been a busy couple of weeks, I feel like I've not gotten a chance to breathe, much less rest or run! But it looks like things are back to normal, no more weddings, which also means none of the bullshiat that goes along with being in weddings. Don't get me wrong, both weddings were beautiful, but I don't deal well with my own family tensions, I don't like to be shoved in the middle of someone else's.

Sundays run at Clinton Lake was great.. a lot of the Trail Nerds were racing at Berryman, so it was just Sophia, Gary, Mark & I for 20 miles. The weather was beautiful and the trails are in good shape.. which means not very muddy, which means the Mud Babes might have to switch to their summer name of the Dirt Dolls (thanks Gary!). One of the things I love most about the group runs with the Trail Nerds is the vast amount of information available...everyone comes from such varied backgrounds and have done so much with their lives. I feel like I'm getting the best education in ultra-running & nature every time I do a group run. This week I got an education in identifying poison ivy (not personally thank goodness), a lesson in identifying copperhead snakes (Gary jumped over the snake, the rest of us took a bit of a detour around it) and a personal brush with bonking.
For some reason I forgot to start my garmin at the beginning of the run, and when I remembered we were already 20 or so minutes in, which threw off my eating, drinking, s-capping cycle. I usually start eating & s-capping at mile 5, but everything was off and so I didn't eat enough and I probably didn't drink enough for the heat either. At about 15 miles I started feeling pretty rough and ended up having to walk quite a bit of the last 2 miles after Sophia put the hammer down and everyone took off. I'm going to chalk some of the problem up to the stress of the last 2 weeks, and standing around in heels all day on Saturday, but I know that mostly it was my fault for not paying closer attention. Live and learn....at least it wasn't during a race!
I am digging all the animals I've been seeing on my runs, there have been countless deer, 2 turtles, 5 snakes, the cutest fuzzy yellow duckling that I almost jumped on at Wyco Park (it was an accident!), millions of colorful birds... I just love spring!