TWO WEEKS!

All my long runs for Badwater are now done. I can’t even explain how good it feels. I love to run and run far, but I am ready to taper. And after my last long run in the heat, I am  extremely happy with the shape I am in right now going into the race and am confident that I am going to have the best race that I can!

On Wednesday night after I got off coaching classes at Anaerobic, we did some quick packing and then Mark and I made the drive up to the Best Western in Indio. Now although, this hotel totally looks like the type of hotel you would go to to hide out like if you robbed a bank or something, its pretty great. They have an extensive movie collection to choose from, an olympic size swimming pool and a fairly decent breakfast. While we were there, Mark and I finally finished watching, The Raging Bull, which we failed to complete 2 or 3 times the last time we were there. Then Mark thought it was funny to pretend to be the Raging Bull and bark orders around. ha ha. NOT!

Onwards to the running portion… On Thursday morning, one of my friends and BW crew members, Nick Hollon, came up with his girlfriend, Lindsey. The two of them were kind enough to give up their day to crew Mark and I on a long run in over 110 degree heat… probably not most people’s ideal way to spend a summer day. The goal was to do around 3 hours or 20 miles. We ran on the same road we always run on when we go out there… Dillon Road, which is just long and rolling hills and hot as heck. Mark was pretty much self sufficient most of the time, but Nick and Lindsey stopped about every mile to give me aid. I was glad to hear Nick describe himself as a “needy” runner when he ran Badwater because I have a feeling I am going to be needy as well. I like having my water bottle full of ice and I know I will want to be sprayed down as much as possible. Mark will run for miles in the heat drinking hot water. Yuck.

During the run, Mark got a bit ahead of me. In just a tad over 3 hours he ran 20 miles and I ran 17. My legs were a bit tired from all of the miles I had put in over the past weekend, but I was pleased with my 17 miles. I was thrilled with Nick’s crewing expertise as well. He was on top of everything at each pit stop and his knowledge of ultrarunning and Badwater will be invaluable during my race.

After the run we made it back to the hotel just in time for a small radio interview that I was suppose to be on to talk about Badwater and the Dreamchaser’s Foundation. I literally stepped out of the car and they were calling me for the interview. Definitely cut that one close! The show is called The Diacos Radio Show. Fein, who is one of my sponsors, sponsors the show as well. The show has a mostly mens fan base and talks about sports, travel and other manly topics. I was a bit nervous before talking with them, but once things got going it was actually really fun! The guys were way cool and easy to talk to. They of course thought I was crazy for wanting to attempt Badwater, but so does everyone else pretty much.

After the interview it was time for the pool and then FOOD! Mexican food and margaritas. We had so much sharing stories about our sometimes not too brilliant runs or races we have done. Like what kind of hallucinations we see when we run more than a day straight,  passing out in the middle of trails and running into various forms of exotic wild life in while tromping through the jungle… that kind of stuff. Im pretty sure if an outsider heard the stories we were telling they would have thought we were making them up, but we weren’t.  Then Nick and Lindsey left to go camping at a microwave tower (which we were pretty sure they would not find according to the directions Nick received. They were something like “drive down a road, turn left at the cow and then make mostly lefts until you’re there.”).  Mark and I then spent the rest of the night on our 3rd attempt of finishing the Raging Bull in our 95 degree hotel room. What a perfect day 🙂

Friday Mark and I slept in (we are not the wake up at the crack of dawn type of runners), packed up and then headed out to the Palm Springs Tram to run the 3.8 mile hill. This time was definitely the hottest it has been going up it, but I actually made it up in my best time, which ended up being about 48 minutes. Ha, that sounds really slow, but I felt like I was MOVIN!

On Saturday we attended the Bangin Beach Body BBQ at my CF gym and had a fun CF workout which consisted of some log running, pullups, KBS and wall balls. It was a team WOD, which made it more fun since everyone was getting into it and competitive with each other. CF Anaerobic rocks and I am extremely proud to be a part of the team over there! And EXTREMELY lucky that they put up with all my traveling for training and racing lately.

Later that evening Mark and I went down to Laguna Beach and had a dinner at Mozambique. Very paleo friendly place and almost all of their menu items were gluten free. It was great to have a nice dinner together and actually relax. See.. we can do normal stuff too! I even wore a dress and put on makeup and looked like a real girl, which I was very proud of myself for because that definitely does not happen too much lately!

So that is that. Training is done. I am ready. Or as ready as I can be for running 135 miles through the desert… Time to recover, relax and eat and hydrate.

Thank you for everyone who has been supporting me along the way. By either offering encouragement, donating to my charity, fixing my aches and pains, training with me, covering work hours for me and everything else. Promise I will try my best for all of you!