Bear Creek and Beyond

Hop!

Pop!

Bop!

Slop!

Log!

Frog!

Dog!

Egg Nog!

These were the sounds of my friends and me announcing obstacles along the Bear Creek course to one another.  We sang Little Bunny Foo Foo. Trail running is so different from running on the streets.  You cannot shuffle, you cannot lose your focus.  If you do, you’re going down!  And when I found myself tripping over a little log, I stretched my arms out wide, "SUPERMAN!"  But, alas, it was Underdog who fell to the ground in a THUMP.  

But up I popped again. The ten-mile run was an out and back, and around mile 4.5 I thought, “what were you thinking?”  I didn’t know how I could go on.  But I dragged myself to the turnaround, where the volunteers said, "oh, you must be the gigglers!"  Apparently, we had gotten a reputation.  This buoyed me up, and the rest of the run was so fun!

I am ever so thankful for all my friends who joined me on this trail run.  Many had never run on trails before, especially not in a race.  Many went outside their comfort zone to support me, to celebrate my successful surgery and what appeared to be ongoing successful radiation treatments.

At the finish, I got a bear!  The race director, Barry Kreisa (Barry the Teddy Bear) arranged to have the guy who makes prizes for the winners make a prize for me too.  Take a look at my bear prize.   He’s so cute!

I LOVED THIS RACE.  As a result, I decided to keep running on trails.  In January, Holly and I ran the Willis River Wilderness Race--a 35K (or 21 mile) run in the woods.  We got lost twice, ran through creeks, got stuck in muddy fields.  It was a hoot!  We decided to keep going.

So, as I mentioned, here is my schedule for this spring:

•  March 3rd.  Seneca Creek Greenway "Marathon."  The race director suggests that the Marathon is more than 26.2 miles, but instead "more like 31 miles." All on trails with creek crossings, hills, etc.
• March 18th.  Shamrock Half Marathon.  This is a more traditional road race.
• April 28th.  Promise Land 50K.  A 31+ mile race in the mountains that involves 8,000 feet of ascent and 8,000 of corresponding descent in the mountains in the western part of Virginia.
• June 2nd.  Fifty MILE TRAIL RACE.  North Face Challenge.  And we signed up for a 10K in the same race series on June 3rd.  Just for good measure.
• June 24th.  The Philadelphia Triathlon--my race for Liberty from Cancer, Making Cancer a Sprint!  It's on my Dad's Birthday, and I am racing in his honor!