SPRING IS SPRINGING (early)

My friend Angie, pictured above, and I hiked to Bond Lake on Sunday. The trail, Bond Creek, is 12 miles round trip and meets up with the Alpine #7 trail 2 miles from Bond Lake where we turned around.
There was plenty of snow still but things seemed to be turning green and the world beneath the snow is slowly emerging. It makes me so excited about trail running! I'm glad I've essentially taken the winter off from running because I'm genuinely excited to get back out there.

Also, this was a new trail for me and I'm pretty sure I will want to get back out there. Perhaps on a hot day I will take a little swim. . .

CHICAGO!

I spent the past week and a half in Chicago, where I previously lived (for 5+ years). And Montana is doing a huge ad campaign in Chicago -- many of the busses scream MONTANA! When I think of Chicago, I normally feel unsettled and not altogether positive about my former home. I now realize, however, that the stress of work and such influenced my feelings about the city a lot. Even though my time in Chicago this past week was incredibly busy and, at times, stressful, I enjoyed being back and think it's a great city afterall. I suppose it was a little like seeing an old friend you've totally lost touch with. I felt nostalgic, and at times a little sad. I left behind such great friends, and it was nice to spend a wee bit of time with them. Cheryl and Chris were nice enough to let me stay with them, and I got to see Joe and Kate, in addition to my friends Julie, Jen and Kimber. There were a lot of people I would have liked to see, but was unable to see. I attended a trials skills workshop and it was pretty time consuming and intense. But very helpful.

About that workshop. I've been reflecting on the experience on my way home, and what struck me is how I came across as totally lacking confidence. I learned ways to speak that remedy this impression, which was very helpful. The truth is, I don't lack confidence. I'm not over-confident, but I think I have the right amount of confidence. What I realized is I'm too embarassed to *act* confident and assertive, and I've developed a shtick that I thought would be usefully disarming and endearing. It just comes across as being unconfident which is poor advocacy. I'm glad I realize that now and will practice all the skills I've learned. I think I will be a better lawyer.


Finally, back to running, I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8k and finished in 38:34, which is around a 7:4x pace, and was 2775 out of 25,561. Considering we jumped in the corral as the gun went off, and were just planning to jog and have fun, I was pretty impressed. Cheryl and I ran together and it was sort of fun spending the whole time weaving through the masses and pretending to be fast. It seems fast when you're passing people, even if you're not really running fast. It was a great way to end the week -- finishing the goofy race hand-in-hand with my buddy Cheryl.

FANTASTICAL WEEKEND!

Shawn took Corey and me up to Hellroaring Peak, which involved a lovely hike. I wore my skins and they carried their boards.
The sun was shining and the sky was blue. Does life get better than this? I am embarassed to admit though that at one point on the way down I took my skis off and carried them. I'm really not good in the trees. . . but it was really fun to get into the "slackcountry." Yesterday was similarly gorgeous. I got up early, hiked up the mountain, took a few turns and enjoyed some beer. Have I mentioned that life is good?

This week I head to Chicago for "trial school" and will be there for about a week and a half. I miss my friends and am looking forward to seeing them, but I can't say I think we made a bad choice with the relocation thing.

I think ski season is winding down with all this sun and warm weather we've been getting. I'm looking forward to trail running! Wheeeeeeee!!!

I ran a half marathon

Saturday I ran the Snow Joke half marathon in Seeley Lake for, I believe, the fourth time. I finished, according to my watch, in 1:53:29. Last year I finished in 1:52:59 (I think). So, pretty close. The differences were that 1) I haven't been running this year hardly, 2) I ran without Sonja this year and 3) I kept an even pace for almost the whole race. I made it my goal to maintain an 8:30 pace start to finish, and I stayed on pace until around mile 10 or 11 when I slowed a bit. The race is hilly and at 4,000 feet so I actually feel pretty good about my run. Especially given the fact that I've been running about 10-15 miles per week on average. So, I'm not sure what the take away is, but maybe it won't be so much work to re-qualify for Boston, especially now that I only need a 3:45 (I turn 35 this summer and will be bumped into the next age group). Or, maybe, running more miles doesn't help me especially. Who knows.

Yesterday I skiied and it was another great day. I made it down the moguled black run and fell only once. The snow was really soft which helped on the moguls but made it really hard to ski the normal slopes. It was like wet cement. Ouch.