It's Your Time to Shine

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin

Today was a beautiful day! I met Jerry at his house at 7am to run. He took me on a fun loop to a pond I had never seen. We were out for 4 hours.

Jerry is a great friend the kind of person that would do almost anything for his friends. I always tell people without his help in 2007 I could of never hiked 2,000 mile of the PCT. He was my Everest base camp. He kept everyone informed of where I was on the trail through my blog for me.

He did many trips to REI and trader Joes, getting me and sending me supplies when I needed something.

He was there for me.

I will never forget the best thing he did for me was to meet me ,at the Tahoe rim trail 50 mile finish with Rocky my dog, He brought him out to see me after being without him for 66 days. It was very touching.

Good friends are hard to find and I consider Jerry a great friend.

This is Jerry and me on the top of Mission Peak, standing on my favorite rock on the top!
I will be living at the bottom of that hill soon.
Diablo behind us!

Put a Lil' Love Into It!

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into the giving. Mother Theresa
Rocky is the best dog ever!! some days he teaches me a trick or two. Today's trick relax!! We did a 3 mile run and I did a 3 crossfit exercises just Tabatas.
And took care of packing for our trip down South Thursday afternoon.
All these pictures are of flowers My Mom and I planted. I will be moving in a month and it will be scary change is always scary, but I am moving forward in life. It will be nice living with my Friend Jerry for awhile until Whole Foods has an opening for me down South so I can move in with Andy.
Jerry's house in 1 mile from the Mission Peak trail head so I can run there. Rocky really likes Jerry so it will be a perfect place for us to live for awhile.
It will be sad that this chapter in my life is closing.

I won't see those flowers to many more times. My house has a lot of good and sad memories. I have lived here since I was 13 moved out when I was 20 and moved back at 27, after I got clean and sober. Never planned on living back home that long. In 2002 my Mom passed away so my sister and my nephew moved in. I promised to stay 3 years then it turned into 5. I told her when I set out on the PCT I wanted out in 2 years.
So here I am two years later and am ready to be free.
I never felt happy living here since my Mom passed away. Felt trapped, now I am finally being set free to take care of what I need to in life. And take care of me.
I will be much happier but at the same time I'm sure I will be filled with sadness.
I found my Mom dead in her room. It has always bothered me that I didn't come home that night, and instead was out running all night on Diablo. Maybe things could of been different.
I know deep inside everything happens for a reason and when it's our time to go we cant do anything to change it.
Ok sorry didn't mean for this to be so sad. I know I am going to be happy and feel free in the end.

Do More

Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work. William Arthur Ward
Jerry and I yesterday back out on the trail for more running through Hell heat.
I was still toasted from yesterday but want to get out in the heat again for a couple hours.
FJ was feeling good. He told of his story from the day before. He turned around 10 miles into our run Saturday because he was going out of town.
The heat even got to him.
Well at least we should now be heat acclimated right? ;-)
FJ doing Chi running and me doing POSE very similar positions. I need to work on my lean I'm to straight up and down. Jerry showed me a cool trick to keep me looking forward. I am always staring down at the ground. Need to work on gazing into the horizone.

Crossfit WOD
4 rounds for time:
20 lunge steps
20 push press
20 abmat sit-ups
run 200 meters
time: 10:39

Make a Commitment

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred. W. H. Murray
The Happy group getting ready for some fun running through Hell and back! right to left me, Julia Kevin, Jerry, Ben and Mike.
I'm just going to write something short now but will post more pics. and report later.
We all had issues out there it was the first super hot day of the year. We all drank tons but still got dehydrated so really didn't drink enough.
Most important thing to do is wet your head and body down and each stream or water source when it's hot! It really makes you feel cool.
We all suffered at some point.
me out of it on the way back had to wet the bandanna and drape it over my head.

I was fine most of the way but the last 7 miles was pure hell until I got to backpackers camp. We all ran out of water and I was really over heated and felt light headed at times. I wet my body down and we sat for a while and felt better. Ben and Kevin took off on there own on the way back and got lost and missed the water so both of them were having major issues.
Remember take of yourself and each other out on the trails in the heat, it can be dangerous if you're not acclimated to it.
still out of it, but almost done!
Got ice from the rangers and cold water and felt 100 % better. Happy we made it ;)

Accept Yourself

Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different. Stacey Charter

click on collage to view

I love that quote today it is so true!!!
Tomorrow we will be running Sunol to Del Valle and back it will be 40 miles. There is a snack bar at Del Valle, I'm thinking Popsicles ;-)
If you want to run with us meet at Sunol regional park at 7am that's what time the gate opens, should be on the trail by 7:15am. It will take close to 12 hours to complete it will be hot so bring a hydration pack. There are 3 water sources we will stop at along the way. One at the turn around as well.
If you want to run 20 miles that's fine too. This would be a good training run for Ohlone 50k Sunol to Rose peak.
You can email me if you want to join us catrarunner@yahoo.com


These pictures were taken during my 13 miler yesterday afternoon. This is some of the wildlife I spotted along the way.
This squirrel was 1 foot away from me he was posing for me.
This ladybug hitched a ride on me. I noticed her on my jacket ;-)

I saw many butterflies out on my adventure here is a shot of one. I hope you all get out and run, bike, hike or just move your body this weekend. Being outdoors is good for the mind, body and soul.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.

Do it Now!

We have to stop procrastinating, pretending that we have forever to do what we want to do and to be what we long to be. If we think that we want to become better and more loving human beings, we had better start moving in that direction right now. Lama Surya Das
There are days when I wanna be lazy. And there are days that I want to, but I can't :-) Today was a can't day. It was a 10 mile run day with a crossfit WOD along the way .
These crossfit WOD/runs are tough. But I feel strong when I'm done.
I decided today to run Alameda creek trail and every 10 min. of running I would do an exercise.
I think some people would have a hard time doing a workout like this with all the people around.
I know they look at me kinda funny when I stop and start doing burpees but oh well. Ask me if I care?? I don't it's for me and makes me feel and look good.
The workout took me just under 2 hours.
Of course had to throw a little climbing in there. Enjoy this workout alone or with a friend.
Just get out and have fun.

The WOD run 10 min. , then do an exercise in between
you can mix it up but here is the order I did.
Squat
Lunges
Push-ups
Bench jumps
frog jumps
handstand push-ups
squat jumps
sit-ups
burpees
and then repeat. I did 25 reps of each exercise

Consistent Action

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently. Tony Robbins
Rocky and I did a short 5 miler had a good time. I will be taking him to Sierra Madre next weekend for the Mt. Wilson trail race.
Going to do a crossfit wod now. Not sure what I will check the oneworld site to see what they did today.


Change, disruption or obstacles could be the order of the day! There is a reason for each of these occurrences but in general it can be said that the way in which you are doing things, or viewing things, has to change. Very often the universe takes a hand and helps you by clearing away the debris of the old, but be assured that what is right, essential or just plain needed, will remain in place. In all cases be calm in the face of these unexpected events and just know that everything is going to be all right.
© Stephen Haynes

Be Yourself

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fun times were had at the PCT 50 miler Saturday. Andy and I ran the whole race together ,or should I say he ran it with me :-) I'm much slower than him so I really enjoy the fact I have an awesome boyfriend who will run with me at races.
We decided to just take our time. Our goal was 12 hours. We did finish in under 13 hours so we we're happy. We would of like to have been faster but it was just a week since we ran Miwok 100k.
We felt great the whole way pretty much. Andy go a blister and I got a small one too.
We didn't eat enough, so Andy had a little slump. The last 7 miles I had a mini melt down. That section goes on forever and I just wanted to be done ;-)
It was hot but there was a breeze so it felt good. I would take the heat over the cold any day.
It was great seeing so many friends out there and all the volunteers were awesome.
The race was very well organized considering they had to move the race to a different course a few days before the race. The RD John Martinez did an awesome job.
For being able to pull it together when it was on the verge of being canceled.
It was awesome training for SD 100 since it was 50 miles of the course.
Just want to thank Andy again for always inspiring me to do the best and push harder. Happy to say no one passed us the last half of the race :) Or maybe one did. We did pass a lot of runners the last half.
I get a few weeks break from racing. Running 40 miles Saturday training ,and next big run is my solo Ohlone 100 miler which is the same weekend of the Ohlone 50k. I finish my last 50k with the race.

My Destiny, My Choice

My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.
Elaine Maxwell

Hanging out in my other home town Sierra Madre
Working on my tan and heat training for tomorrows PCT 50 miler. It's going to be HOT but I'm running with my sweetie so it will be fun.
Please send us positive vibes tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Brand New Ending
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.Marcus Aurelius

Heading down south in a few hours. The PCT 50 miler course has been changed we will be running a loop of the SD 100. Perfect good training for me and Andy since we will be running SD 100 in less than a month.

Have a great day.

Please send me positive vibes Saturday. Oh, and thanks for all the positive vibes last Saturday during Miwok 100. You all helped me through that tough race.

For those of you who are signed up for PCT 50 miler here is the new plan.

ok , boys and girls. It looks like we’ve got us a race this Saturday.

Due to the crash of a military helicopter on the PCT trail, the Forest Service has officially shut us down. They have closed off the PCT from Boulder Oaks all the way up to Dale’s Kitchen. I was not aware of this earlier, but the two marine pilots unfortunately did not survive the crash. I am sure all of your well wishes and prayers go out to their families. The craft was loaded with munitions, one of which exploded today from the heat, triggering a fire and sending the munitions search team from the area. There apparently is a fair amount of munitions that needs to be recovered.

So, thanks to the efforts of Paul Schmidt, and the kindness and flexibility of the folks at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, the SD County Board of Education, and USA Track & Field, pending my getting a whole bunch of paperwork completed and approved within the next 24 hours, we will be staging the PCT 50 on the SD 100 course at Cuyamaca. Same time. Different place.

There are a tremendous amount of logistics which I will need to sort out between now and then, but for the present anyone who was planning on setting out at 5 a.m. will still do so. All others will start at 6. Same sign in procedures will apply. I will figure out appropriate cut offs. I still need to get you off the course by 7:30 p.m. I will advise you of cut offs at the race start.

This will now be a single loop course—the exact same loop run twice for the SD 100. If you’ve never run Cuyamaca, it is a great place to run. So I think you’ll enjoy it. For a map and other details, i.e., crew access, please go to the SD 100 website: http://members.cox.net/sandiego100/

I also have two favors to ask:

1. If you know other runners entered in the PCT 50, please try to contact them and make them aware of this change. I’m hoping to reach most everyone this way, but there will always be some out there who will miss the call.
2. If you can carpool to Cuyamaca, please do so. The park has made this request. Start/finish area will be at the Cuyamaca School Camp location, same as SD 100. Again, check the SD 100 race site for directions, etc.

Thank you all for your understanding. I hope to see you all on Saturday.

Best regards,

John

Meeting difficulties

There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them. Phyllis Bottome

Took Rocky out for a 4 mile run along the Quarry lakes/Alameda creek trails.
He loves the ducks out there. But they were all in the water because it was so warm.
I leave tomorrow for Andy's , we are running the PCT 50 miler in San Diego. I just found out it might be cancelled because a military helicopter crashed on the course. We will find out tomorrow if it will happen or not.
If it is cancelled I will still want to do a long run somewhere on the PCT or AC course. I will decided when we find out.
I hope the military guys are ok. I will go online to read what happened.


Crossfit 3 rounds of
25 squats
25 sit ups
25 push ups

You Always Have Three Choices

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.
Eckhart Tolle

Today I ran 13 miles on Mission Peak with Julia it rained a little, but turned out to be great running weather..Cloudy and warm, we had a blast as always.
Horse heaven trail.
On the Top of Mission Peak
Julia heading to the monument on the top
Me at the top

crossfit. Easy workout.
Tabata..
Sit-ups and Squats.

Rejoice or Complain

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. Ziggy

Waiting for the start of Miwok 100k comfy, happy and warm.
I never thought we would have this type of weather for Miwok 100k in May. I have run it a few times and I think it rained a little once during the race but it was still warm.
Smart choices I made before the race
#1 tape my feet that I have been having issues with the last couple of weeks ,and go back to wearing injinji socks. #2 Wear my Arcteryx gortex beta ar jacket. It saved me twice now in bad weather.
Bad choices I made during the race #1 not eating enough ate 6 shot bloks and a hand full of potato chips for 40 miles.
#2 not drinking enough because I wasn't thinking clearly due to the cold.

Me having fun ;)
I must say I had very few issues other than not eating and drinking. I did almost pass out a few times because I bent down and got up to fast and was already low on food. Low blood sugar level I'm sure.
Smart thing I have been doing lately, that has been working well, every 3 hours I take 2 grams of L-Glutamine powder and Ribose powder and 1 100 mg pill of Co-Q10. I use the Jarrow formulas brand the rep from Jarrow asked me to try this during HURT 100 this year and it has worked great during every race and long run. No really bad energy issues even if I'm not eating but most of all no muscle fatigue.
It was a pain at first but now i mix it together ahead of time and have the pills in the bottle and keep a little scooper inside the bottle.
During the race I could tell alot of people were in trouble on the out and back section. Alot of people were barley moving and seemed to be out of it. I felt great all the way to the turn around. I saw Andy in that section and he was having a bad day. I felt bad and wished I could catch him so I could run with him. Which I was trying to do all day catch him.
I made it to the turn around and on the climb out started having a few issues and felt slow. Once to the top, I just ran walked as much as I could and knew once I got to Bolinas AS I was home free ;)
Julian and me at the finish.

I was so bundled up most of the race I didn't talk a lot with runners. I just blasted my ipod and focused on getting through the race.
The runners I did talked to all seemed to just be focused on getting done too.

I was alone a lot after Pan Toll aid station. I was moving well because I was passing runners.
I was happy to make it to TV AS. My goal now was to finish without having to use my light. I hooked up with my friend Julian from Colorado who didn't have a light so we decided to stay together to get to the finish.

The whole race, it was so foggy you never really had an idea where you were at on the course, it was very trippy.
Happy to say I finished in 14:36 my slowest finishing time there. But it really wasn't about time it was about digging deep and being uncomfortable. Running 62 miles is not meant to be easy if it was everyone would be running Ultras. It is about our mind and learning how to not give up and pushing through being uncomfortable for 14+ hours. We all know as runners that we don't want to do anything stupid. So we make our own choices during our races.
I am proud of all who started and if you didn't finish it doesn't matter we all were brave warriors to be out there no matter how long.

Time to rest up this weekend I have PCT 50 miler this weekend. It will be most likely 90 degrees there. It's all Andy's fault I'm running that race ;) At least my sweetie is going to run with me the whole race :)


Cleaned up and ready to go home ;)
Crossfit wod...

"Twenty-One"

Complete the following for time:

• 20 push-ups/1 sit-up
• 19 push-ups/2 sit-up
• 18 push-ups/3 sit-up
• 17 push-ups/4 sit-up
• 16 push-ups/5 sit-up
• 15 push-ups/6 sit-up
• 14 push-ups/7 sit-up
• 13 push-ups/8 sit-up
• 12 push-ups/9 sit-up
• 11 push-ups/10 sit-up
• 10 push-ups/11 sit-up
• 9 push-ups/12 sit-up
• 8 push-ups/13 sit-up
• 7 push-ups/14 sit-up
• 6 push-ups/15 sit-up
• 5 push-ups/16 sit-up
• 4 push-ups/17 sit-up
• 3 push-ups/18 sit-up
• 2 push-ups/19 sit-up
• 1 push-ups/20 sit-up

time 12:17

The Three Complaint Rule

Practice the "three complaint rule". When it comes to complaining, you are allowed to complain about something three times. After that either change your attitude, change your behavior, accept the situation or move on (and stop complaining).
Lucy MacDonald
Rocky and Andy running Friday, last training run before Miwok 100k which by the way we both finished. I will post my story tomorrow, but for now I just thought you would let you know we made it through.
I followed this saying I complained 3 times about the weather and then stopped. I let everyone around me know, we were all very lucky that we have strong bodies, and minds and that we can push through running 100k in bad weather.
Congrats. to all the finishers, and everyone who was brave enough to start the race. It was hard and we all had to battle with the demons in our heads to make it through.