Mountain to Meadow and more

I have not posted here for some time due to my hard drive crashing. I just got my computer back last weekend and I'm trying to catch up. Here's what's been going on.

I took a few days off after the Pengelly Double Dip, then went for a short run. I felt ok. Then we went to visit friends in Idaho and went for a nice 5-6 miler with Roz. Although we only see each other maybe once a year, she is the person I've run with the most. I felt pretty good, so I decided to run another half marathon the next week, the "Mountain to Meadow," actually a 13.7 mile run on Lolo Pass.

The MtM took place on the same day as the Great Strides Walk, a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Ike's Team (ie: me) raised over $1,000, but I decided I'd rather run 13 miles than walk one. It was a cold morning (as they all have been here lately!) and really perfect weather for the run. It got sunny pretty quickly, but never too hot.

The race goes up, up, up, relentlessly, but not nearly as steep as the PDD. I made the mistake of not eating enough the night before AND not eating breakfast, so about 3/4 of the way up the first hill (about 3-4 miles into the race) I had to stop for a snack of water and hammer gel. I had started getting light-headed and actually saw stars a little, thought I might pass out. That has never happened to me while running before. So it was a little bit scary, but the hammer gel did the trick. So glad I packed it in my fuel belt, as a last minute thought.

Jim ran the MtM a couple of years ago, and said that it would be easier than the PDD. I don't know if "easier" is really appropriate. Maybe just not as relentlessly impossible. It was still a challenging course and I could never really seem to get going. Still, it was a beautiful course and I finished in a fairly respectable time (2:26), and when I was done, I started thinking about running the Missoula 1/2 marathon (July 11th)...

Since then, however, I have come to my senses and decided to take a little break from running, then start training for a marathon (the Two Bear, in Whitefish) in September. This coming weekend is the Missoula Marathon and it promises to be a huge event. Jim and I and the boys have decided to volunteer at an aid station.