like… a LOT of kilometers…

I announced this on instagram last week, but wanted to share here on the blog too that one of my key words for the year is going in a much more focused direction for the second half of the year… Keep Moving Forward. It is going to be a main mantra in my head as I attempt my first ultra marathon- a 50k this December.

There are so many reasons I decided to go on this… let’s call it “adventure” and I am trying to remember those reasons as I start my many hours of training while it is still so hot out here in Phoenix

*Because I love these mountains and I love this community I’ve found. After I ran NYC, which was truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life, I thought I’d be a “one and done” for

any race longer than my trusty yet always challenging half marathon- 13.1 miles is plenty thank you very much. But the more time I spent on the trails, the more I started to wonder if distance running in an environment that was not quite so pressured by pace (and legit worrying about aid stations shutting down and running out of water…) sounded like a potentially different experience. The mountains are my happy place. Staying local and training on trails makes me feel much less anxious than when I thought about how much money I’d spent on travel and hotel and all the other big city expenses that came with running a world major marathon. For this race, I’ll be local. I’ll even have the chance to train on sections of the course before race day. I won’t be doing 95% of my miles solo (though I’ll certainly still have plenty of those… which might be good for me too… )

*Because it’s one last connection I have with my friend. I wrote in my instagram post about how one of the last things I talked about with Mike was thinking about running this. I feel like this training season is an opportunity to process my grief around his sudden passing and also to follow through on this last conversation. Mike had so much perseverance but also so much joy in the process of whatever he worked on and I hope to embrace that spirit as I do the work to prepare for this race.

*For Clean Water: I will use this race as my fundraising race this year because I still want to move my feet on behalf of others and bring clean water to vulnerable people who don’t just log kilometers for fun but to just get access to clean water each day.

*For ME: I would not be doing this if I didn’t feel a deep pull to do it. I can’t explain why I can’t get this goal out of my brain, but that’s been the way with most simultaneously difficult and rewarding things in my life. I want to do this because I have been doing a lot of thinking about how I’m a better person when I am moving my body, when I am going after things that make me surprise myself, and when I am spending time practicing gratitude in nature. I know I will have plenty of moments during training that I will have to fight for that gratitude and work to find the pleasure in the challenges, but I trust I can do that and will be better for it come December.

So… I’m a little over 2 weeks into the 20 weeks of training for this race… already 1/10 through! How’s it going so far? Well mostly hot… and Im still filled with disbelief that I am doing this thing I swore I’d never do… but the point is that it is going! I’m looking forward to a few short trail races before the big day