Happy Sunday

There are so many special moments that made this race SD 100 special but these are the ones I will hold close to my heart. Its the end of the race. It was when I knew I finally made it. I was done .  After 31 hours and 12 minutes. You know when I was running this race I thought my friends who where there cared but when I crossed the finish line and saw my family and friends ( I had no idea they would be there) where all at the finish line. They drove out a long way just to see me cross the finish line. It was those moments when I received all these unexpected hugs that I realized that running had brought me so much closer to my family. I also realized that even though I get jealous sometimes or I feel negative stuff in my head my family has got my back. I totally added this warm fuzzy feeling to my already exhausted body. What a great ending to the hardest race I had ever ran and finished. 

Thursday Stories

There are so many wonderful memories that I will carry with me probably forever that came from my expirience at the SD100. Training to run these longer distances has taught me a-lot about myself and I have made friends with people I hope to keep as friends/family for a very long time. I went into this race so feeling really emotional and I am not really sure why. I think the distance really scared me. I also felt uneasy about knowing so many people would be helping me. I am a terrible receiver of anything. I love giving but receiving that is hard for me. I had really open myself up to feeling the love my friends showed me. Even know just knowing my friend Charlene stayed up all night and fallowed me around from aid station to aid station just to crew me makes me feel so special. The SD100 took me 31 hours and 12 minutes to finish that is a-lot of waiting around and supporting someone just cause you care for them kind of thing. I feel like maybe my capacity for feeling loved grew during this race. 
Another super fun thing that happens when you run this distance that is so different from say a 50 miler is you have these great talks with total strangers that you have a huge thing in common with (like your all out here trying to run 100 miles) and I think that if I was  not  there during those moments I never would of met these people. I heard so many great stories and crazy impressive distances and races these people had ran it was hard not to be inspired. 
The other thing that really impressed me was the aid station volunteers at this race. These men and woman really care about what is going on with you. They check you out and try and make you comfortable. They feed you and give you good pep talks. They get you ready to go out again and I even got a couple hugs. You have to be an awesome caring person and very giving to give like that. It was great to be around this energy.
I am sure I will be telling stories about how much I love my 100 mile adventure for a while. It was an epic ride even if I did a lot of it in a low gear. Its one I won't forget anytime soon. 

San Diego 100 mile Endurance run part 1

The day was finally here I was so ready to do this. My best friend Charlene was here ready to crew me. Jeff, her husband, was going to crew me.  Scott, the director,  told  us all  everything we needed to know to keep ourselves safe. I felt less nervous after listening to him. I knew this was a great race and they we would be safe. 

I got my swag peeps.

Here we are saturday morning at 5:30 am except Natalie is missing. All 7 of us signed up trained together and ran the same course. Here are the Trail Crashers.

This is Jeff he would be my pacer for most of the second half of the race and his wife would be my crew. He let me barrow his spot and my family felt better being able to fallow me for the next 100 miles just to make sure I was ok. (specially my mom) At this point I was so excited. I knew this would be so much fun and I knew I could 50 miles so why not 100 right? right 

Excitement overload going on here. I mean how exciting right? I am standing with a group of dedicated runners all on a mission. The feeling is so awesome. I felt so lucky. I am attempting to do something I have dreamt of for years. 

The race starts at 6am. As I wait for the fast runners to go then the faster than me runners to go soon it was my turn. I started of taking my time and settling into a good place in the runners line. I could see the lake to my right and the sun was shinning but it was cool weather. I was doing it !! That is  what I felt like. Holy Shit G you are here lets just do our best and run Gloria's race. 

So here we are at Pioneer Mail mile 30.5 I felt great. I was a little slower than what I ran at PCT but at this point I thought I might be able to run 27 or 28 hours. I was singing and feeling the runners I am so happy thing. This all felt familiar.