Memorial Day

    I meant to post this yesterday, but didn't get a chance.....

    First of all, I'd like to thank the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.  Without them, things would be much different for us Americans, and not in a good way.
 
    Memorial Day this year was great!  Ray and I went to Medina to spend the weekend with his family.  For the holiday yesterday, we started the day going to a pancake breakfast for the boy scout troop Ray and his brother Dan grew up in.  There was a setback when Ray's mom hit her head during a fall on the way into the church and it wasn't very clear how the day would go.  If you're going to get hurt, though, the best place to do it is at a boy scout gathering.  Everyone around was First Aid/CPR trained.  For once I wasn't the first responder and actually felt quite unhelpful.  Luckily she was okay, with no signs of anything serious (just a nice sized bump).  An off-duty paramedic was there and evaluated her, we kept an eye on her all day, and she's still ok today.  She did call off of work (she had a noon shift) just to be safe: on the bright side, we now got to spend the whole day with her! 
    
     After finishing of lots of delicious pancakes and making sure Ray's mom would be okay, we headed outside to watch Medina's Memorial Day parade.  What we were able to see was pretty cool: scouts, marching bands, antique cars and fire trucks, the current (and very impressive) fire trucks.  Medina has YELLOW fire trucks by the way: pretty awesome looking. 

    Later on, we went to a cookout with the boy scout families.  There was delicious food: burgers of course, several tasty side dishes to choose from and festive desserts.  After eating, I braved the 55 degree weather and jumped in the lake with a couple of the crazy kids also braving the cold.  Meh, I've swam in colder during triathlons.  Wearing my wetsuit would've been smart though and I could've stayed in the water for longer.  Haha.  Not swimming on Memorial Day was not an option.  :-)

    All in all, Memorial Day 2013 was a success.  Thank you again servicemen and women.

    'MURICA!      

Almost summer!

It's always a strange feeling when race season is over.  On the bright side, there are no distances to track, no anxiety to feel when I can't complete a workout, and I can just run for the sake of running.  However, I tend to feel lost and a little down when I don't have a goal race to keep me pumped up.   

Fortunately, prepping for summer has kept me busy enough to keep my mind off of this.  I've been helping with challenge course maintenance at OU and getting a head start on my summer job.

I'll be working at a camp nestled in the hills of Logan, Ohio (called Camp Otterbein) for the 4th summer.  I've been helping out with some of the cleaning up and preparation for camp over the past couple weeks.  I'll be in charge of a program called Wilderness Adventures again (I had the honor of being the first to run this program last year).  Basically I'll be cooking lots of meals over fire and in the Dutch oven, going on lots of kayaking and rock climbing trips, planning activities for a program with a more laid back schedule, and lifeguarding. 

One necessary part of preparing for summer and lots of firebuilding is making firestarters. I made 2 different types and here's how I made them: they are both easy to make...

   For the egg carton ones (which I've used a lot and they work great), you just need an egg carton, dryer lint and candle wax. Fill the holes with dryer lint and then melt a generous amount of candle wax over them.

   For the ones on the left (which are new to me), you need toilet paper rolls, brown paper, dryer lint, and string.  You wrap the toilet paper roll in the brown paper, tie up one end, and fill with lint (and newspaper too if you want).  I also added candle wax.  Then you tie up the other end.


Also, I got this wonderful water bottle at CVS a couple weeks ago: I will never be thirsty this summer...   :-) 

Dances with Dirt Gnaw Bone 50k Ultra

   DWD Gnaw Bone was an awesome and extremely challenging trail race!  It was in Nashville, Indiana, a lovely small town in Southeastern Indiana that my mom and I have visited once or twice a year for as long as I can remember.  I knew basically what I was in for because I did the marathon distance of this race a couple years ago.  I also was pretty well prepared for the new-to-me distance of 50 kilometers, thanks to a very helpful book I've been reading called 'Relentless Forward Progress.'  I recommend it to any novice ultrarunners out there.

    I wore my American Triple T tri jersey, which ended up being a great idea because it sparked some great conversations with people I met along the way.  One woman, named Stacey, I met and ran with from around mile 4-11 was especially awesome and we had a lot in common.  She graduated from Ohio University in 2005 and now lives in Cincinnati.  She does triathlons too and has done an ironman (Louisville: which I hope to do next year).  She's getting married on September 20 this year (Ray and I are getting married September 20 of next year). 

    Due to a sizable amount of rain on the days leading up to the race, the course was extremely muddy in several areas (including within the first mile).  The horse trails were especially bad: it was like quicksand!  Luckily there were also several creek crossings to wash our feet off with.  I was glad to be wearing normal, meshy running shoes instead of getting trail running shoes like I would have if I'd had the money.  This helped the water and mud drain right out as I ran.

     There were several lovely uphill crazy parts, including one section (around mile 24) that I had to crawl up and grab onto tree limbs to avoid sliding backwards face first into the mud. There were some fairly smooth sections of trail, but some extremely tricky parts as well.  I managed to take only one tumble, around mile 8.  It didn't cause any injuries, other than cuts and a big ole' bruise (pictured on the right).  I've grown to kind of like bruises though: they make me feel hardcore. 


      Some of the views were amazing!  The best was at around mile 29: a former ski slope we ran down that overlooked some of the park.  I wish that Ray's GoPro I was borrowing had some battery power left at that point!  Videos I took on that will hopefully be uploaded at a later date, by the way. 

     I finished in about 8 and a half hours, not bad considering I had no time goal and considering the crazy challenging terrain.   I felt surprisingly good afterwards, no worse than with some of the marathons I've run.  The only new issue I had was actually a minor case of overhydration (the opposite problem of what I usually have).  I didn't sweat enough because of the pleasantly cool temperature to need all the water I drank and my hands were a bit swollen.  I have yet to master water and electrolyte balance while racing.

      My first ultramarathon will certainly not be my last.  I've now gone from marathon runner to ultrarunner.  And it feels amazing!