Digging Deep

I had such a great birthday... and here I thought turning 35 was going to be a big deal!!  I am so lucky to have so many people who care about me in my life and all the visits, phone calls, messages, gifts and thoughts I got today was awesome.

I started my day off with a visit from a good friend of ours, Michael Hintringer.  Besides being a very talented and incredible photographer (among other things) he is also an expert on Austria/Europe!  Michael and his wife Suzanne have helped Sarah, Trent and me plan our trip for the Goretex Transalpine Run and figure out accommodations.  They have been a huge help and have invested hours into the planning with us.  This morning we sat with the maps, race outline, google earth and made phone calls over to the stage towns to book accommodations.

The timing couldn't have been better because just when I was starting to doubt Chuckanut or my taper plans or the zillion other things that creep into your mind before a race, I realized just how small scale Chuckanut is in the big picture.  Suck it up Buttercup!!  That's right... it's mind over matter this weekend and no matter what goes down in Fairhaven park, it will bring me one step closer to managing the stress of the bigger goal this year in the ALPS.

Stephanie and I did our taper workout while the PACE crew kicked ass (and I mean they were fast tonight!) on the 10k tempo route in Dilworth.  We did 1min race pace efforts with 1min recovery in between.  We found our rhythm and loosened up the legs and got fired up for the big race!

I will never forget the day this photo was taken.  It was on the Rockwall Hike.  We came into camp late in the day, after having to leave two of our party at the previous camp site because they couldn't continue.  So we got into camp late... almost dark and it was PISSING rain!!  I was down to my last few coping tools and I remember Stephanie just taking charge, getting the tent together and we got that fricken tent up faster than lightening could strike!  Cause it did... and we sat in our tent eating potato chips (evidence in the background) and pepperoni, while the rain poured so heavy, we could barely make out the other tents around us.  I was just trying to keep it together... man I was hurting.  Not enough time tonight to write what lead me to that melting point.  Regardless, it was nothing that digging deep didn't fix... well, that and the support of my bf.