It’s New Years Resolution season. Maybe you set a goal to run a 5K or a marathon or a trail
race in 2021. You got a new watch for Christmas, you bought some new running shoes, you
stocked the pantry with healthy snacks. Motivation is high. Here are 5 ways to approach your
running new year’s resolution sustainably.
I don’t think I need to drag us all through a recap the things that have happened so far in 2020. You already know. Two angles, first the Ruby Crest Trail and how this ended up being my main personal race goal this summer. Second, as a coach of around 25 athletes I’ve been able to get an inside look at how lots of different people have dealt with the adversity this year has thrown at runners across the entire globe. I want dive into these ideas, and to talk about how I hope we can be looking into the future with optimism.
Over the past few months I have noticed I keep grabbing the same pair of shoes each morning. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I tend to gravitate toward the Nike Pegasus Trail 2. I’ve never liked a shoe enough to write a review, but I felt this shoe was review worthy.
Now, for full disclosure, I am on the Nike Trail Running team, meaning I received these shoes for free and have been wear testing them for 3 months. I’m not being asked or paid to do this, I just like the shoe and thought you might too. So, let’s get to it!
This is not the story of an Olympic hopeful or elite athlete. This is the story of friendship and a ragtag bunch of misfits surprising themselves and urging one another along in the ungrounded goal of qualifying and competing in the U.S. Marathon Olympic Team Trials.
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This Saturday, February 29th, Trails and Tarmac coaches, Camelia Mayfield and Rachel Drake will be competing in the Olympic Trials Marathon. Along with 509 other women, they will have the opportunity to qualify for an Olympic Team and represent team USA in Tokyo.
A 2016 Trials qualifier himself, Coach David Laney asked both Camelia and Rachel a few questions about the transition from trail to road and eventually back to trail again.
I’d competed in one 100 miler before this summer; the Leadville 100. I wouldn’t say I ‘ran’ the thing, though. Instead, I ran a good 60 miles before hitting a wall made of hyponatremia and altitude. I never recovered and walked it in pretty darn disappointed in myself. Like anybody, I had a lot to learn about running this distance, and I wanted to figure it out as best I could, but the next year I skipped the distance and ran 75 mile efforts at Lavaredo Ultra Trail and an FKT on a section of the PCT. I figured I would edge forward the longest distances and durations I’ve run in an effort to increase confidence and ability for the distance that had wrecked me.
Inspiration
Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) has been on my radar for about 4 years since my pal Chelsea Blanchard showed me the video, “Curiosity” starring Rory Bosio, saying something along the lines of “this woman is your spirit animal.” If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend watching. I was in awe of the energy and spirit of the race, and knew I just had to experience it someday. In the summer of 2016 I ran the course (Tour du Mont Blanc, which circumnavigates Mont Blanc and passes through France, Italy and Switzerland) with two of my medical school classmates Beth and Audrey, after that (2017) I went back and ran the Mont Blanc 10km. In 2018, I ran the reverse Haute Route (Zermatt to Chamonix) with my boyfriend (now husband) Tyler and our friends Ben and Katie. All these trips in some way were spurred on by my fascination with UTMB, and this finally culminated in running CCC this year. While UTMB circumnavigates Mont Blanc, CCC goes around about half of it. It is a 101 kilometer mountain race with 20,000 feet of climbing. It starts in Courmayeur, Italy, winds through Switzerland and ends in Chamonix, France. The UTMB races draw many of the fastest athletes of the world, and has been called the “Super Bowl” of trail running.
It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the short window to tackle new trails and running routes in the high mountains is upon us. We’ve had a fine snow pack this summer on the West Coast USA. The meadows are green, creeks flowing and mosquitoes are feeding! For my whole life until about a year and a half ago I planned and executed all my outdoor endeavors using paper maps, ones I bought from the forest service or other third party map makers. I have collection of 100+ topo maps which I still pull out and pour over on a regular basis. But,I have had a technological awakening, and it’s made a pretty major impact on my running adventures.
There is a lot of hard work between having a vision for a dream race, and having runners roll up to the starting line at 6AM on a Saturday morning. I think a huge thank you to Ethan Newberry (The Ginger Runner) and Kim Teshima-Newberry is first in order. These two thought up an awesome concept and produced a world class race. I can’t thank them, the volunteers, and sponsors enough.
