Mumford & Sons - The Wolf (Live)

Have you ever felt chased by a tune. Then found by its song. You hear this song and it takes you back and forth to places and faces you had forgotten but suddenly there all you can think about. Me too.

Do you know the feeling ?

Do you know the feeling ?
The feeling of knowing that as soon as you step out of the car you will be freezing cold.
The feeling of cold water slowly making its way though your shoes and onto your socks then feet.
The feeling of having warm legs and numb lips.
The feeling of freezing winds moving its way though your shorts, shirts and gloves.
The feeling of adventure. The feeling of full enjoyment. The feeling of uncomfortable bliss.   

There is no greater feeling  like the one you feel when you find yourself right where you are supposed to be.  I discovered myself enjoying this mixture of crazy weather, exhaustion, beautiful scenery , silly conversations and the will get it done. Do you know the feeling of knowing a little bit more of what you are made of ? I do

Thursday Stories

I have been thinking about making Thursday my story day. This will be my first one. This is my birth father. His name is Pancho. A very fitting name for him. He was a very good looking man. He wore his hair long and he had a very raspy voice. He had tons of personality. If you knew him then you had a nick name . When he came around to visit me my name was Skinny or his fly girl. I can tell exactly how I felt when I heard he was on his way. I felt warm inside. I remember looking at him and loving the resemblance there was between him and I. I felt like I truly belonged and that was a feeling I was not familiar with so I welcomed it with open arms. He hugged me like he missed me so much that in that moment it did not matter how long he was gone for. In this picture are so many of my favorite things. My favorite color is Orange. My favorite car is a Volkswagen van. It had been ever since I would sit in the passenger seat with him as he drove around. He would tell me. Flaca ( skinny in Spanish ) he would say look around . I would look out the van window and then he would say there is magic in the air baby. Where I would say ? He would look at me and say magic is here  because of you.  I believed him. He was an amazing musician he played the guitar and the piano. He sang with this raspy awesome voice. I think about him a-lot when I run. I do not want to forget what few memories I have so I play them over in my head like a broken record . A broken record that never gets old. My favorite thing about him was his hands. When I close my eyes I can see his lovely musical hands and I can often feel them holding mine. Running has helped me heal the wounds left behind by those so close to me that have died. Wounds left because they held such a huge place in my heart that was empty and some how now I can take all the goodness they gave me and just run with it. 

Happy Earth Day

ramblings from my brain while I run

Tuesday Thoughts

Hi and happy Tuesday. I am happy to report I am still injury free and for the most part loving my training runs. Today I ran for about two hours.  I do not get to run on the trails during the week so I have to take what I can get. That means Jack takes a nap Mike is home and I run out the door and keep running until its time to go home. I just tell myself that time on my feet and getting my miles in is better than getting hung up on the fact that I can't make it to the mountains. As you know I love running on concrete as much as most of my friends hate it . I love it. I run faster on the street and I get to zone out. My friend Robert told me a couple weeks ago when I was whining about how tired I was that it would get better. Honestly I think its better. So with 17 days  away until The PCT 50 . The first of the San Diego Ultra Slam series. I am feeling excited about the challenge that lies ahead..

Life is Good

26 - PCT - Good Runs - Good Friends- Pushing Hard

picture by : Becca Roan

I had the best run today. I had a really good run and I needed it. I was up at 4 am so I could make our run on time. I am really trying to do things right and today it worked today. 

I went to bed at 9pm

I woke up at 4 am 

Had a huge bowl of oatmeal at 4:15

Put everything in the car the night before so I would not have to stress the night before :)

I got dressed and was in the car by 4:30

So I had no stress driving because I had enough time. 

I decided since I have been feeling so tired on my runs to try eating other than GU.

TADA

I tried dried figs from Sprouts. I loved the energy they gave me and my tummy never felt gross. 

The most important part I ran with My favorite bunch of runners. Funny Hard working good people. (The Trail crashers )

So this combination worked for me and in total I had an 80 mile week that ended with a great run… 

The great thing is I have been having a really hard time keeping up and feeling exhausted during my runs. A part of me has been feeling man I suck at this but not today :)
Today I ran 26 miles on the PCT and it was great ,beautiful and all those things that help you have a wonderful run. I am going to cross my fingers that next week goes like today. Happy Trails and guess what 48 day and 8 hours until the San Diego 100.
I am doing the excited dance over hear peeps.
These pictures where taken by my friend Becca Roan

The Voice 2015 Sawyer Fredericks - Top 12: “Imagine"

This is my new favorite song sang by this umber talented kid. Sawyer. Just amazing stuff.

John Mayer - Bigger Than My Body

Dream Big

You know how life feels . Sometimes its up up up and others its down. I was feeling really tired and I really think its just my body getting used to this running schedule. I was thinking how the he-- am I going to run 100 miles in 52 days and 9 hours. Can I do it ? The reason I keep asking myself this question is because the farther I go the slower I get.  So many negative crappy reasons of why I can't run this far just keep coming up. So today on my run I decided to accept that yes I am getting slower but I am also running twice as many miles as my body has ever ran. I am also tired but I am still taking care of my family. I feel like I was in the grey and I am starting to feel better. I ran 22 Sunday and I felt good. I ran 10 today and I felt really good. So maybe I am starting to see the light. I am definitely eating as healthy as I ever have. I am trying my best to do everything I need to do to have a good race. So I have to come to this conclusion its OK to feel crappy and have tired runs. Its OK to be tired . Its OK for it not to be perfect. Nothing in Life is ever perfect. What is important is That this is my huge dream. I have been thinking about this race for about 5 years. I am doing it I am trying my best and dreaming big. That is important because we all need big dreams. Something that lights us up every time we think about it. So maybe since my Big Dream is only 52 days and 9 hours away and maybe because I feel like I am dreaming huge and big part of me is just scared and its telling the other part of me HOLY COW G  its almost here. I get the crappy thoughts but I am going for it because for every reason I tell myself I can't there are 10 reasons why I can.
I can. I can. I will try my best and do everything I can to make sure that 52 days from now when I am standing at that starting line my ass runs 100 miles.
So if Gloria a 42 year old mom of 4 kids ages 20 to 1 can do this then imagine what you can do !! My message is do not let fear hold you back from Dreaming Big and going for it. Fear is only a feeling but going for it and accomplishing your dream is life changing.

Day 3 and 4 of our little vacation

I have spent the last couple of days just hanging out here in the mountains with my family. It has been easy and simple. I made pigs in a blanket for dinner one night and for breakfast we had pancakes. I made simple meals and what made them special was that we all sat together with nothing else to distract us except for the trees and the awesome fire burning in our cabin. It is really nice to be in this special place and by place I do not mean location I mean this simple loving family space. 

Today we hiked. I want to explain that our baby boy requires a lot of patience specially if you plan on hiking with him. He does not like the car seat and he does not like the baby carrier but he can only walk for so long before he gets tired so in the baby carrier he goes screaming. That last for about 5 minutes then he settles in and enjoys the ride. We still had a good some what long hike today. The trees are what I find the most amazing here. They are so tall. 

These two had a really good time. They laughed and just hung out. I am really grateful they are growing up to be well behaved and respectful little adults. It is really nice traveling with them. Christopher loves joke books so there is a lot of laughing that goes on around him. Isabella and I did lots of painting and drawing. She is really easy and fun to be with. I thank God everyday she still like spending time with me. 

Here he is the baby. He does love all the open space and running and picking up anything he finds interesting putting it in his mouth or crushing it . Typical baby stuff.
 I hope one day we can live in the mountains. I feel like I am at home and I just love the stillness of everything here. This has been a really good trip for all of us. We have one more day and then we go home. One more day sounds perfect to me. 

Mini Vacation Day 2

Today we spent most of the day outside. We spent all day running around trees and jumping from branches and laughing. I spent lots of good quality time with my 12 year old daughter. Time I will treasure for ever. I am so grateful for moments like today. 

Mini Vacation in the mountains

For the next week this will be our new home. We are in the mountains in a small adorable cabin playing board games by night and hiking by day.

This is right out our back patio door. Amazing huge green trees. I am so excited to go for a run here tomorrow. Its Explore time.

found on Pintrest. I could not find the source.

Big Morning RUn

Another Saturday and another trip out to the PCT. That means getting up at 4:15 am so I can make it up there by 6:45. That's the part I could do with out. I am at a point in my training that makes me feel like I am going backwards. I am staying optimistic but man I feel like I am just getting slower. I am really happy I still have a month before my next race so I can keep giving this my all. Its very humbling to being slow. So the part that keeps me smiling is I can't get slower that means I should get faster right ? I am also going to lose some weight before my next race and that should help too. This whole entire running season is going to be a challenge for me . I did go and sign up for some crazy distance races but that can also be looked at as a very cool challenge  that should come with great stories . I am making some great friends on this new path and that is a very good thing. So besides sucking right now at the thing I love doing so much everything else is going well. Oh did I forget to mention that being outside in the mountains all Saturday morning is a most wonderful thing. It is.

Its in the picture

These things that cought my eye. Beautiful flowers dead or alive.
Little boys talking on the phone while driving. 
FInding this little guy consistently climbing on things.
Have a great weekend. G

The SimpleTthings

I found out today one of my great friends relapsed. I feel sad and helpless because I do not know how to help her. I have reached out to let her know she is not alone but I am sure whatever it is that is going on is bad.  I sent her a card and now I think all I can do is pray for her unless she reaches out to me. Somehow this got me to thinking about how important it is to find joy in the simple things. How taking time time to paint or run has become my ice cream on the cake. I am speaking about simple things I can do for me . To love myself and honor my being. Everybody should have something they love to do right ?
 When I first thought about having something I love I couldn't come up with anything. Then Someone told me what did you love to do when you where a child before you where told you can't do that for a living. Then it came to me. I loved to draw and keep journals. I loved taking pictures of anyone who let me use there camera and I loves running.
This is a true story when I was 16. I joined the track team. I sucked and I always signed up for the longest run. I showed up for practice but I do not really think I understood that I had to run at home to be able to compete well. That concept was just foreign to me. When both your parents work there are things that get missed. I honestly just remember showing up for practice. Then showing up for meets and sucking at it. The funny part is I never cared if I was last or almost last I was just happy I finished . I was just happy to be there. I think most of my life I have been happy to be able to experience things. I know that comes from being a huge part of my sisters life when we where little. She looked normal but she is in a wheel chair. She can not walk and she can't talk. I know she would of loved to show up to a track meet and be able to run even if she was last. Its so important to stop and just enjoy the simple things. I have never been really good at anything but I love that about myself now and I think my gift is the learning process so I can get good. I guess to tie this together what I am mean is if you choose to do drugs it will steal all the simple good stuff away from you. Drugs help you forget what you loved and they steal so many good things from you. They steal your ability to experience the day to day things with a smile. So to my friend I love you and I am here whenever you need me I will tray to help you find joy in just getting a cup of coffee. 

Happy April

Hi and happy April. I honestly can not believe its April already. I am happy to report the weather here is still great. No excuses for not going outside. On my plate this month is . Kids

More Frida Paintings. I can not get enough of this woman. 

Enjoying all the beautiful flowers in bloom

and running training running . Happy April and I hope your smiling.