Ready Set..... GO!!!!!

It’s been a weird year. Due to some hypothyroid stuff, the last race I ran was in July 2015 and it was a half marathon that I knew I shouldn’t be doing, but it was a great excuse to hang out with a friend on some new trails for a few hours. Shortly after that race I finally found a doctor that agreed that there was something wrong and we set about treatment.

In December, we looked at some new bloodwork and saw that everything was WORKING! I wasn’t out of the woods, but the things I had been doing had made a huge impact. We were both thrilled, well cautiously thrilled.

Then I told him my plan/dream/possibly stupid idea for the year:

I want to run a 50 miler in November.

Here’s why I love my functional medicine doc, he didn’t laugh. Ok, he might have rolled his eyes, but he listened to my proposal.

We think that part of the reason my thyroid went to sh!t was because of over-racing (of course there were other factors too). So, I sat down and asked myself, if I could only do one race this year, what would it be? And the answer was the Tunnel Hill 50 miler.

This will be the third year I’ve signed up for this race. Year one, I DNF’d. Year two, my thyroid hated me and I went with a friend to crew for her/hang out. Third time’s a charm?

I signed up and didn’t really tell anyone. Maybe because I was/am scared. Maybe because I couldn’t handle all the supportive Facebook style rah rah stuff (what a jerk right? I just couldn’t handle feeling like I might let these supportive people down). Most likely because I needed to convince myself that this was a worthwhile project.

So here I am.

This weekend I'm doing a 12 hour race. Not because I want to run for 12 hours, but I wanted a 30ish mile run (I hope that doesn’t take me 12 hours) and I thought it might be good to remember what a starting line feels like before I show up for a starting line of a 50 miler.

I’m at this place that’s somewhere between terror and excitement. And considering it’s been over two years since I have lined up for an ultra I’m having a difficult time remembering if that’s normal. But then again when have my reactions and emotions been normal?