Ice Age 50 organized a training run for the race on May 8th. The parking lot was full of cars with cool bumper stickers and creative personalized plates. " I run sum" "slo runner"... It was great to see all the familiar faces of our ultra running community.
I brought up 2 new ultra runners I met last week. Juan and Antastastia. I heard they were training for Ice Age 50 so I introduced myself. They had never run on trails yet. I offered to take them up with me for the training run. Friends, Robin and Holly, joined us.
Juan and Antastastia were both excited and nervous. With months of hard training they were anxious to tackle the trails. I set a steady pace and we ran 20 miles of the course. They both ran strong and really worked the hills. Juan had a fall that included blood streaming down his leg. He was laughing hard. We stopped to take a souvenir picture. Leaving DNA behind made it official; he is now a trail runner. They both finished tired, inspired and addicted to the trails. Juan said, "I can honestly say that was the best run of my entire life!" He was glowing. We stopped at the local organic sandwich shop after the run. Juan finished his sandwich and said, "I don't know if it was the run or what, but that was the best sandwich I ever ate!"
Their happiness was contagious. It felt good to watch two people fall in love with the trails that I love! I feel lucky to have gotten to share this day with them.
In the parking lot full of personalized plates I proudly parked my Jeep in a prominent spot for everyone to read my new plates. Which I have to admit...I thought were the coolest plates in the parking lot.
Michele, you have become such an inspiration to me. I love seeing you run down the hills at Ice age like you own them. I love the happiness I see in your face while you are running. It really makes me want to run more, longer, tougher and it makes me want to do it with a big smile on my face. We went at the right time to Ice age, I had just finished reading Born to Run and to visualize everything in that book while I was running, it just put everything together for me. You have already helped me so much with your encouragement and with your experience. After running the 20 miles and tripping like 10 times and as you said falling once, I said enough. I took your advice and went to the store. I bought trail shoes the Terroc 330's by Inov-8. Well I am glad to report that this past Saturday we went back to the trail we ran 26 miles and I didn't trip once. The shoes help my anckles so much better, I ran the down hills with so much more confidence and the up hills didn't seem as hard... I have decided to take on the sport of Ultra's and I have only done a 50K so far but as you know May 8th will be my first 50 miler at Ice Age. I am looking forward to eat the trails up with my Terroc 330 shoes and with a heart bigger than the forest itself... Thanks, Juan "the machine" Juarez
ReplyDelete