Never say Never!

First of all I have to say a HUGE, HUGE Congratulations to so many KC Trail Runners who raced at Rocky Raccoon in Huntsville, Texas this weekend! Ashley A., Emily N. and Wael S. who did awesome in their first 50milers! Darin S. who killed another 50miler and THEN paced Sherrie K. on her last 40miles to her first 100mi finish! Ummm..speaking of bad-ass Sherrie…this awesome lady killed and I mean totally killed her FIRST 100miler!!! Fourth place overall woman and a sub-24 finish in her first 100mi Ultra…yeah BAD-ASS!!! Mudbabe Sophia W. snagged herself a Sub-24 buckle (her second Rocky Buckle btw) and we had barefooted Jarod R., Honey Badger Erica C. and the awesome Matty M. who battled some serious obstacles to finish their first 100milers! YOU GUYS KICKED ASS in some seriously muddy conditions!! Damn…I know some pretty kick-ass runners!

Compared to what these guys and gals ran this week, my 25miles this WEEK seems paltry and low. I will be totally honest, sometimes its so hard to be in the midst of all these amazing runners and not feel like you are just weak and slow all the time. BUT I always try to remind myself where I started and where I am right now with my running! I have to remind myself that all of them didn’t get here by just starting and running a 100 right away, they started small, dreamt big and worked their running sculpted butts off to get here…and that with time, patience and lots of hard work, nothing is impossible!!

Since my hubby was working pretty much all weekend, I spent most of my weekend post long run tracking friends running Rocky Raccoon. I got my longest run to date since Dogwood 50k done with my running buddy Lisa Saturday morning. Our usual trails were closed due to the almost 2” of rain, but you know where our running preference is when we still opted to avoid pavement and instead running at Olathe Prairie Center trails which were waterlogged and muddy. It was 12 sometimes tough, sometimes awesome, but all in all invigorating miles in squishy and sloppy trails with some heavy misting off an on throughout! We weren’t totally sure of the loop, so we pretty much just ran whichever we decided whenever we hit a marker for an off-shoot. We ran some sections once, some twice, crossed some flowing streams several times ran through mud, some soggy grass, some gravel paths..it was truly a run with a little bit of everything and a whole lot of conversation and fun with a great running friend! We even had a unusual critter along the trail….a crawfish on Kansas Trails!

I can honestly say 2 years ago I would have never thought of doing this and now we go looking for it . This is how far my running has come!!

My mindset has changed for sure! I spent most of Saturday post run and Sunday tracking my friends running a mud fest that was Rocky Raccoon. Two years ago I would have never done this and of course the thought of actually wanting to run a 50 or even a 100miler NEVER crossed my mind! Last year I tracked some friends, but NEVER seriously contemplated running those distances!  If someone had asked me even a year ago..my answer likely was “well maybe a 50k..but NEVER a 50 or 100”! Ask me now…Ask me today as I build towards my first 40mi race …and I will just say you NEVER know . This was only confirmed by what I felt as I kept seeing the progress made by the runners as they ran towards their goals, and seeing the updates flowing through twitter and Facebook. My first thought was not “they are doing awesome, no way in hell I’ll ever do that”, instead it was “they are doing awesome, I wonder if I can do it”. Guess I should NEVER say NEVER!!!

"Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still." - Chinese proverb