2025 Thoughts and Plans

 I’ve gotten really bad about updating this.  It’s more of a diary at this point - albeit it public one.  I’ve registered to do the Silk Road Mountain Race again.  I’m not sure if it’s related to soon turning 50, or just feeling suddenly a bit of aging, but my athletic confidence has taken a bit of a hit.  Not that I was ever “confident,” I just don’t recall giving too much thought to what I could or couldn’t do, only whether I was trained at all.  But that never stopped me.  Now it seems I have to really work hard for the same level of mediocrity.  But that’s ok - I’m wiser and have learned some good lessons!  I had some confidence boosters as well.  In late September I did the East Idaho Epic, a 420 mile or so race that I completed just under 4 days.  

I experimented with going significantly lighter with a minimal sleep kit (I was too cold) and wanted to see if my body can handle consecutive long ass days.  It can handle 4 at least.  This was good information.

Just a couple weeks ago I returned to the Fat Pursuit 200k.  It’s “only” 120 or so miles but pretty challenging.  I was super nervous about this one and whether I still have the fortitude to endure in the cold.  It went pretty well and I camped in the cold and finished third woman.

This was a boost to my self confidence as what I learned was that if you keep going you can finish.  Funny that.  Also my friend suggested this self help book (You are a Badass) and there was a lot of woo in it but I decided I need to be more open minded about such things.  As if to prove my point, I had a weird thing happen where I got an unusual burst of “go” energy right around when it turned out my friend Betsy was imagining physically pushing me.  This next 50 years or so of life will be lived with more open mindedness and grace and all that.  I hope.  More immediately I’m going to train and keep balancing it all and I’m going to bring more pizzaz and intention to my athletic mediocrity!