FREE shoes

Hey friends!  You have a chance to win a free pair of Altra Running shoes.  The new Torin 2 shoes are out and all you have to do is send me your most beautiful, awe inspiring, exhilerating, photo of you enjoying the trails.  I will be the judge of the photo:)  Whoever wins will be mailed a pair of awesome shoes!!!  Below is a link to learn more about the Torin 2.

https://youtu.be/c_oYKik83ts

New Paths and Friends

It's been so fun running this spring!  Met new friends to run with and love running with my good friend Selina.  Selina and her husband will be pacing me at the Bighorn 100 in July.  I'm excited for this race that has haunted me the past two attempts.

Can't believe my first race is already next month.  I have enjoyed the trails here and there are so many I have not explored.  The last few weeks have been a little muddy running and sometimes slick.  But doable for sure.  I think in a couple of weeks I should be able to make it to Mt. Baldy!  First race is end of May, called the Dirty Thirty just outside of Boulder.  I did it a few years back and it is so beautiful.  Megan is an awesome race director.  Kind of a funny story about the morning of the race.  My friend and Altra teammate Nick Clark was going to pick me up at the hotel around 4:30am.  So I went outside and here pulls up a car with a couple runners in it and I figure Nick sent them to get me. I mean it's 4 in the morning right? I forget what the name of the girl was that they were picking up but for some reason when they asked are you so and so I said yes!!!!  I still don't know why I said yes!  We left for the race and about 10 minutes later Nick calls and says where are you!?!  I said Oh my gosh(well maybe not that exactly) where are you?  Long story short the car I was in was supposed to pick up another girl at the same hotel and that girl was outside the hotel with Nick.  Luckily there was enough time and we switched cars and made it to the race.  That was pretty dumb of me and I know Nick will never let me live that one down.  Don't Get Into Cars with Strangers!!!!!  Duh!

Running a lot of mileage now. Snowed a lot recently so I ran alooooonnngg time on the treadmill Friday but was able to run yesterday on the trails. Miss all of my friends from Casper. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Beartrap Canyon

Latest snowfall

Great new friends to run with!

Beautiful Bozeman

Transition

Well I spent awhile yesterday doing a new post and somehow I posted an old one and deleted the new one!  Arrrggghhh!!!  So here we go again.  I'll start off by talking about my "just ok" season.  My first race of the year was the Quad Rock 50.  Great race that Nick Clark puts on.  I peaked a little early at this race and broke the record and won against some awesome competition.  That was the best race of my life.  Next was the Bighorn 100 of which I did 50.  I had stomach issues along with family stuff that was going on.  Not my race.  Next it was Speedgoat 50k put on by Karl Meltzer.  I've done this race several times and done well.  This time it was ok and I placed top ten still.  Since we were in the middle of moving up to Bozeman I decided to do Hurl Elkhart 50 outside of Helena in August.  I won and almost got hit by lightning and ran into a badger.  Yikes!!!  But it was an awesome and rugged race.  A lot of the time we followed game trail.  The elk and other animals I guess like to take the ribbon, so the race director used pink duct tape!:)  The last race was Steamboat Springs 100 of which I ran 38.  Excuses excuses here.  My neck had been strained while either lifting at the gym or moving boxes.  Who knows.  My head wasn't in it and I had issues with eating.  I couldn't wear a pack and carried 2 bottles and just didn't stop to eat.

So after the race I took time off from running and worked out at Fuel Fitness gym in Bozeman.  We officially became residents of Montana September 2nd, the day school started for the kids.  Many of you know I have taught classes for a long time at various gyms in WY.  I love to teach hard bootcamps and was asked to teach a couple times a week.  I lovvvveee to make people sweat!  

I also got back into skate skiing and did a couple races.  I placed well and enjoyed getting back to my first endurance sport.  I started to train again for running in January.  I still lift and do the step mill a lot.  That machine is torture but it gets you in shape quick for the uphills.  I truly believe in mixing it up when training.  Cross training has so many benefits.  Saves your joints a little longer for one thing and for me it keeps running fresh and new.

So skies are put away now and I have dove right into downhill training at the M in Bozeman.  Ran for 4 hours and tested the quads out.  Well hamstrings are great but it still hurts to walk from Friday.  Quads are soar to the touch!!!  Love it!

So sorry about the previous post on FB!  I thought I did the right one!  I'll be updating a lot more now, so check back!!!:)