"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

OMG


I am running my first 50K (31.1 miles for us ugly Americans) today. All I can think, is what the SAM HELL was going through my pea brain when I signed up to do this?

Jane came in last night from Texas. She is such a trooper! She has been sick all week, but she is willing to give this thing a go. Of course, what else would you expect from someone that PR'd a half-iron triathlon with a dog bite wound wrapped in duct tape?!

We had dinner last night (at around 8:30 pm [10:30 pm her time] due to my catastrophically poor planning and absolutely shit schedule) and it was so cool to meet her. I started following her blog about a year or so ago and am always inspired by her honesty, humor, and get back up and fight attitude. She ROCKS (hee hee. Sorry Jane) and I am very stoked to get to do this run with her.

But as I sit here drinking my coffee I am plagued with worry:

1. The biggie is, what if I don't make the 8 hour cutoff? Really, I am more worried that I won't get a t-shirt or WORSE, they will have to wait and be mad at me for signing up for a race where I there was a high probability that I wouldn't make the cut off.

2. What if I am so slow and Jane feels like she is trapped with a lead anchor all day? Oh worse yet, I am a hyper, irritating, idiot that she is trapped with? That is pretty likely too.

3. What if they tow my car that I left in the parking lot of the finish yesterday because I didn't want to ride the bus to the start? Or more likely, what if someone steals it? I fucking hate Santa Cruz. I have a novel idea, pot-smoking losers, get a fucking job instead of breaking into cars!

4. What if I can't make it at all and hikers find my lifeless body being gnawed on by ground squirrels? Alright, less likely. Ground squirrels aren't really known for there scavenging, carnivorous nature, but still, a concern.

Sheesh.


17 comments:

Lou said...

Holy crap. I didn't realize you had a HUGE-MONGOUS race this weekend. Good luck! I can't wait to read the race report!

Kevin Westbrook said...

Oh my goodness. As if your description wasn't detailed enough you put that picture of the squirrel on your site! Thanks for the visual illustration. Good luck on this run. This is truly impressive. I hope you do great and don't encounter any squirrels!

Aka Alice said...

Bwaaahahahahah...ground squirrels...priceless.

Hope you had fun...50K...WOW. Can't wait for the report.

Jaime said...

GOOOOOOOOOD LUCK!!!!!

Southbaygirl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Southbaygirl said...

ok silly girl! You'll have fun no matter what! And I hope you see ground squirrels! They are so cute. If Velcro was there she'd chase them away from your body!!! But you wont need her because you'll do GREAT!

I hope the weather holds up and it's a cool day! I know it's a bit warm here in LA this weekend-it's gross!! SO I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's cooler in the pot-smoking mecca that is Santa Cruz....hey dude, check out that car...wow it's nice!

RUN BITCH RUN!!!

Mike said...

You never know with squirrels though ... they can turn very ugly :)

Unknown said...

That's a long way to run. Have fun!

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

As long as you're worried about things unlikely to happen, why not worry about good things? E.g., what if everyone gets lost but you, and you win the race? How will you carry all those medals?

Stef0115 said...

You are so funny. Hope you ROCKED IT!

JenZen said...

OMG - 31 miles! HOLY COW I would totally crap my pants thinking about that. GOOD LUCK!!

Aileen said...

Damn...good luck!!!!!!!! I've been pondering trying a 50K when I get a few more marathons under my belt.

But please watch out for the ground squirrels. If they're anything like the black squirrels of Kent State, they'll stop at nothing and eat anything.

I await your race report!

E said...

50K! I'm in awe. Can't wait to hear all about it!

SWTrigal said...

How did it go?

Anonymous said...

Your a brave girl - can't wait to hear all about it!

Jane said...

1. we didn't make the cut off and got our shirts anyway!
2. I was slower than you. and no, you were not annoying.
3. No one broke into the car! I would have to steal your Tyr turtle toy.
4. No squirrels, but BEES, lots of BEES.

Maryland Girl aka Michelle said...

I guess you never have a recovery period do you? You just keep on going. I feel like a complete lazy ass reading about all these events you are doing. Oh wait I have been a lazy ass since Aug 31. ha ha ha no wonder my pants are snug around the waist! I need to get moving.
I hope it went well. Can't wait for the report.