It had been four months since I last raced and the itch to commit to something had grown incessant. Following the lead of my running partner, Erin, I signed up for the Santa Cruz Mountains 21K, a trail race from Harvey West, through Pogonip, and deep into Henry Cowell, with two waist-deep river crossings.
Bittersweet Victory
On Saturday, March 26, I ran a 35-kilometer trail race in Woodside, CA. Even though I was the first woman to cross the finish line, you will not see my name in the results.
The morning of the race, I lay in bed listening to the rain pound my roof and waiting for my alarm to go off. As I brewed a hot cup of coffee, my husband asked me if I thought they might cancel the race due to extreme weather conditions. With a knowing smile, I answered, “No way. Trail runners thrive on this stuff. The tougher, the better.”
Barefoot Running Frenzy
I recently started reading Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and The Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall. From the moment I dove into this book I’ve been itching to get out for a trail run. I read about how the greatest runners in the world run for the love of it; for “sheer joy.” McDougall describes running as “…mankind’s first art, our original act of inspired creation…combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain.” Who wouldn’t want to run after reading that?
Set a Goal and Achieve It
Many of us have set goals but failed, in one way or another, to meet them. It is high time you succeed in achieving exactly what you set out to do. Here are three simple steps to make it happen.
