Dirt Diva

The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.
HURT 100 2011 It was just not our year. We went into it as a team. Andy and I would run the race together.
It was a very humid this year John the RD said it was 93%, it felt more humid than years past. I felt great going into it.
We were doing awesome the first 2 loops off by a little but still ok. Andy twisted his ankle on the third loop so we walked a bit.
As we headed down to Paradise the trail became very slippery, with 150 feet passing over this section 6 times now it was hard to keep your balance in a few places. I hurt my shoulder/arm somewhere in here. It has bothered me in the past in races, I usually have to take my pack off because of the pain. But really couldn't do that. I needed my water. I didn't want to take any advil yet. I was saving two for later in the race if I needed them.
I am trying not to take them at all after my liver enzyme test came back high a while back. I was taking a lot last year. Now I am not taking them at all unless something serious happens in a race.
I could not believe how great the course was the first two loops now this third one was so slippery and wet. It was dark so we were moving slow trying to stay upright.
I think we both were struggling with some demons.
I was kinda thinking in my head we shouldn't of ran the 24 hour race 2 weeks before HURT that kinda stuff.
We made it to Paradise and were in and out. Andy bought me a little speaker so we attached to the ipod and were having our own little party on the trail.
We made a promise to stay together so when Andy first twisted his ankle he mentioned I could leave but I said no.
I was kinda slowing down I think and I know Andy was doing his math in his head about finishing with time to spare. He mentioned to me he felt bad because he thought of leaving me on the trail which I would of been ok with. But we did make a promise to run this together. As we climbed along and enjoyed views of the city we thought to ourselves maybe we should call it a day and enjoy each other alone in Hawaii and not killing ourselves just to finish the 100k since that seemed like what we would do. We both had no desire to want to to that 7 mile section to get 100k credit since we both weren't feeling great. Plus we would not finish until 7am and loose a whole day being trashed. We thought we could make it to mile 60 and drop but it's still a DNF 54 or 60.
We got to the aid station and we had discussed our joint decision to bail there. We made sure that there were no regrets because we both were fine with hiking to 60 or stopping here.
So we stopped. We both believe things happen for a reason and there was a power stronger than us that decided how our race would go.
Sometimes we don't see it right away.
One thing that occurred to me out there is, I never spend Andy's b-day with him I am usually putting on the Fremont Fat ass 50k. Which Andy always has been fine with. But on the trail I realized it doesn't have to be like that and I just won't run the 50k this year. It is more important to spend special days with those we love. I felt awful knowing the past 3 years Andy has been alone on his b-day.
Had we not dropped none of this would of ever came up.
So see maybe this is the reason ;-)

So I will be spending and celebrating Andy's b-day the whole weekend with him
And the Fremont Fat ass 50k will still go on just a week later.

HURT 100 we will be back. Oh and after we dropped we had a good sleep and snuggle. We ate lunch at my favorite Thai place on the North Shore and helped volunteer at the finish line Sunday to clean up. And we also got to watch the excitement of the last runners coming through. Congrats. to all who started even if we all didn't make it to where we wanted we did our best.