Lost Boys 2017 race recap

The day before the race I drove up to Lake Cuyamaca with the plan of sleeping in my van. The sun was setting on my drive and it was devine. I don't remember having a more beautiful spring in San Diego in a very long time. As I was standing here I could smell the mountain flowers. 

I stopped one more time along why 79 to take this picture too. My thoughts where tomorrow morning at 5 am I will start running from the bottom of the desert straight up here. Man that is a long way !!

I was on the bus at 3:30 am. They drove us about an hour I think into the desert and  by 4:30am I had checked in and had my bib. #39. The race director had everything ready to go. There was muffins and I think coffee I am not sure. The RD for the race was there making sure we all knew what was going on and giving us some safety tips. The race started promptly at 5am. I decided to leave my head lamp because the sun would be out soon. This is a picture of the sun rising over the desert it was stunning. I was running with Robert and Mark at this point. Robert and I are running the Tahoe 200  together so we had talked about trying to hang together during this race to get a feel of how we would do. 

The morning is my favorite part f this race. I highly recommend the 
Lost Boys 50 miler. I mean look at this light. The start felt easier this time than our training run 3 weeks ago and that's probably because we ran it and got a feel for it. I am sure my  excitement had something to do with it. San Diego has such a supportive and just great ultra running community how could you not be in running haven. 

Here it looks hotter than it was . The weather was perfect not to hot and not to cold. There was the perfect head wind and everyone was still smiling. The first aid station I remember coming into Larry told me I was number 39 just like my number. I also remember they had the best potatoes I have ever had at a race. I had 2 and kept moving and talked about how good they where for a while. Robert was really good about not letting me lag. I think if I was alone I would not have been as motivated to keep moving and I would have taken way more pictures but nope I kept running along.
 I always run with head phones but lately I have been rewarding myself with music. This time I told myself when I get to Orriflame Canyon I will turn on my tunes and I am so glad I did because I was able to push and yes dance my way up the canyon. I felt like a lucky kid that gets to play outside all day with her friends while climbing the canyon. (while getting her butt kicked by the climb )  After climbing up Orriflame I started to get my second wind. I think it was all that NWA that got me going. I almost forgot to mention that Becca with Nutritiously Balanced helped me with my nutrition and that made a huge difference too. I never felt sick and I was able to keep my energy levels consistent. My expectation going into Lost Boys  was running 25 min faster than last year. That gave me a goal to work towards. Imagine my surprise when a man at an aid station told me your 5th female. I knew there was only 14 woman running and lets be real here in the past I am always near the back. I have never trained so much before and its true if you put in the work you get better results but better results for me would of looked like 30 minutes faster. This training thing really works !!!

I kept running and thought  to myself maybe you should try and catch the next girl G. My thoughts ... what do you have to loose  just run. I pushed myself and pushed some more. Than I passed 5th and then 4th and I had a fun conversation but  she encouraged me to keep pushing so I did. I ended up finishing 3rd female 10 minutes behind second and an 1 hour and 16 minutes faster than last year. 
 All my training with the Trail Crashers is paying off. I get so emotional after I run too. After this picture I gave my friend Becca a hug and cried.  This is such a good race if you love running challenging courses that take you places this race offers just that. Climbing ,stunning views all while getting your butt kicked.

I kept thinking of this quote during the last 5 brutal miles when I asked myself why are you doing this.
You can choose courage or you can choose comfort but you can't choose both.   Brene Brown