Oh boy... Here we go!!!

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson My dear John, I have news for you. We may very well land our very first last place finish on Saturday. Think about, accept it and embrace it. How many others get those special bragging rights? In just five days, John and I will be celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. For the past five years we have spent our anniversary weekend in Key Biscayne, Fla. The weekend is always extremely laid back, lazy and low key. We return home refreshed, recharged, rested and ready to dive head first into another year of wedded craziness... I mean bliss. Seven months ago after the completion of my first, as thus far only, ultra distance event, I was flying high for quite a while thinking about doing what I had once considered highly unlikely and pretty much impossible. I pitched the idea to John about taking a different sort of trip this year for our anniversary. We talked about it and agreed that a race described as "The world's toughest 50k" would be a "fun" and "wise" choice. We'd make a weekend out of flying out west, scaling tall mountains, marveling at the breathtaking scenery and having a blast. The more I read the description of the race, the less confident I felt that two people who lived and trained at 500 ft above sea level should try to run 31 miles starting at 5500 ft above sea level and peaking at 8500 ft. So I did what any reasonable runner would do. I convinced John that we should do the 25k instead. Hell, that is only 15 miles. After all, how often do we bust out a nice 15 miler? Surely, this would be no big deal. "No big deal" is long gone from my brain. "No big deal" is replaced with "What the heck was I thinking?". This is a huge deal! This would be super tough on healthy legs. What will happen to two dumbasses who have been dealing with calf issues this spring? But let me say this... I have considered that we may both be sick as dogs trying to "race" at that elevation. We might place last and feel like hell doing it. We might set our marathon training back by weeks because we have screwed up our calves again. I might miss my chance at Boston for next year and we might both get fat and grumpy because we can't run. We might argue the whole way up the mountain and not speak the whole way down. We may return home exhausted, sore and in need of a RELAXING getaway. No doubt, all of these things are quite possible. But all things considered, I am super excited to do this even in the face of those possibilities. And I think John is the coolest thing ever for agreeing to do it with me. Looking forward to an unbelievably memorable anniversary!