Just when you thought you have seen everything....

I have seen all types of creatures while running;

bears
fox
snakes
raccoons
skunks
owls
deer
mice
swan
heron

....you get the idea.  But today was a first.  In fact I NEVER would have guessed that I would EVER see this creature while running in my Idaho town.

We helped it safely to the river!!

You never know what you might see out there!  So keep your eyes open and enjoy your run!

Sometimes you just run....

There are some days when my trail run is very uneventful.

No one falls.

No wild animals scare us out of our wits.

The only major obstacles are cow pies scattering the trail.

No one nearly dies of heatstroke.

Kris doesn't yell at anyone.

No one gets a phone call or text.

We don't solve the world's problems.

We don't see ANY other runners.

No one has a close call with a speeding bicyclist.

No one announces half way through the run that THEY ARE DONE!

No one runs out of water.

Sometimes....you just run.

I have a friend who falls!

My running buddy Kris is a faller.  Now, we are not just talking about a yearly thing, or even a monthly thing, we are talking about....she falls quite often.  Today her and Michele went on a run by their house.  I get the following text message.....

"Well, we are walking.  Kris just fell. BIG TIME!"

Now, I did send the "Is she ok" text message BEFORE the LOL message.  But, I couldn't help laughing because, Kris always falls!

So I decided to do some research as to why some runners fall.  This is what I learned:

1.  Face it, some people are just not as agile as others.
2.   Aging can contribute to changes in your vision, thus       increasing your risk of meeting the ground up close.
3.  Lack of concentration.  If while running we are busy      yelling at our running buddies (or even those buddies      who are not there) we lose focus on the terrain and        SPLAT!
4.  Some runners do not lift their feet off the ground high      enough which often causes them to trip over                  "nothing".
5.  Running faster than your legs can handle.  This can        almost guarantee a 'yard-sale' on the trail!
6.  Cocky-ness.  Often times runner's feel that they are         invincible and will mouth off to running partners of        their greatness.  This is when gravity becomes the          great equalizer.
7.  Balance.  As we age so does our balance.  Practice      standing on one leg several times a day to improve        your balance before heading out for that run!
8.  Your imagination can cause you to fall as well.  It can be very dangerous.  Never imagine that you are running on "pillows'.  That will assuredly result in a face to face meeting with some dirt!
9.  Kharma - it happens to most of us (never me).  You see someone fall and laugh at them.  The result?  A painful chest bump with a trail post!!

Be safe out there runners!  And don't FALL!!

We run in such a beautiful land!!

To celebrate the Fourth of July, we always begin the day with an early morning trail run.  It is nice to be outdoors in God's beauty.  For the past few years we have had a tradition of doing the same loop each fourth of July (Shane's Loop and Buck Tail).  Today we decided to try something different.

We started at the Upper Corral's trail-head.  The plan was to run an out and back.  Less than a half mile on Corral's we came upon the new trail that had just been finished this spring... Highlands.  Immediately we headed right to try it out.  SO glad we did!  It was a wonderful single track, downhill, full of switchbacks.  I LOVED this trail!!


It brought us out to a parking lot where we were able to jump onto Bob's Trail and head back up to Corrals.  Well we did have to stop for pictures first....of course!

There are some really rocky parts on Bob's.  Michele hoped we could avoid any "Kris"-tastrophe's!  She was laughing so hard that she could not pronounce it correctly.

We really had a great time, 8.6 miles.  Love where I live!!

River of No Return 25K

The distance listed for this race is deceiving.  It may have only been a 25K, but it felt MUCH LONGER!!

When we headed out of Boise Kris treated us to Jimmy John's sandwiches.  We put it into the cooler with intentions to eat it somewhere on the road.  We left town at about 10:30 AM.  I was already hungry.  By 11:30 I was STARVING!  Michele could NOT find anywhere to pull over so we could eat.  By 1:00 I was about to eat my pillow if we didn't not pull over soon.  Michele found a campground and pulled over.  The sign said "fee area".  Michele stopped the car, "We can't stay here to eat. You have to pay."  Kris insisted that we COULD stay there to eat and that we WOULD stay there to eat.  We were just eating our lunch, not camping!!

We had not been eating all but 5 minutes when a portly man in a white truck pulled up and KICKED US OUT!!  That's right, we were kicked out of the campground!  You do have to pay, even if you are taking 20 minutes to eat.  (I know that to be true because that is exactly what Kris asked him!)  As we drove off (me still starving) Michele made sure we knew "She was right" for several miles.  (Do not worry, we did find a FREE picnic area and I did not have to eat my pillow).

In Challis, we picked up our race packets and I saw 2 people that I know; my sister-in-law and an old friend.  Michele said that I have to go out of town to find friends..... oh haha.  Then we toured a little bit of downtown Challis.

The weather was extremely windy.  We were all hoping for that to change when we woke up in the morning.  We enjoyed a spaghetti dinner (not worth $13) at the Tea Cup Cafe in Challis and then called it a night.  After watching a marathon of "Pickers" we decided it was lights out time!  Once again we froze all night with e A/C on full blast proving that we are both afraid of Kris just enough to risk getting pneumonia in a cheap hotel room, than turn off the A/C and face her wrath! Our race distance started at 9:00 AM.  We woke up to nice clear skies, and WARM!  Oh boy was it warm!  It was already in the low 50s when we were lining up to being.  That is already 30 degrees too warm for me! To say this race was tough would be an understatement. After a 2 mile start along hwy 92, running on an old rutted 4-wheeler trail, we started climbing.  We climbed ... and we climbed .... and we climbed .... and we climbed. Then after we climbed a while - we climbed some more! We started the race at around 5,200 feet and climbed to 7,700 feet in the first 8 miles.  We stayed together until about mile 6.5 and then we started to slowly pull away from each other.  Michele's hurt leg was feeling better than she thought it would.  It was Kris who struggled.  The elevation really got to her.  So her new nickname became "Iron-Lung". Even with all this tough, HOT climbing.... we still had fun!! I hit the Aid Station at mile 8.6.  This was a happy surprise because it was supposed to be at mile 9.  As I was there I ran through my checklist: 1.  Do I have enough water in my pack? Yes 2.  Need to use the bathroom? No 3.  Slice of orange, yum.  Everything else looks gross. 4.  "Hey, can I have a shot of Coca-Cola?  Just a tiny bit!  Thanks!  Perfect." Michele hit the aid station next, about 5 minutes later.  Her list: 1.  Biofreeze the legs.  That feels good. 2.  Chips? Sure.  Oh gross that was sour cream and onion flavor! 3.  "Can I have one inch of Coca-Cola please?  Perfect." Kris followed next.  She of course was her usual fun self: 1.  Bananas?  Taste delicious the rest of your food does not look appealing! 2.  Oh look!  A wipe station!!  Face wiped clean- check 3.  "I will pour my own Coca-Cola thank you. Oh wait , mix some of that endurance drink into it.  Hold my cup until I'm ready!" 4.  Handful of pretzels to take with me? Don't mind if I do. After the aid station it was going to be downhill until we came back to down town Challis.  We were all looking forward to being able to open it up and tear down those hills! Unfortunately that only lasted until mile 10.5 or so, then the trail became not really a trail anymore.  It was more like a field of loose rocks.    At mile 12 there was an intensely steep downhill, completely covered in loose rock.  I called it "rubble hill". It was so awful, you could barely even walk down it! You know a trail run is bad when you are happy to see the road.  I was so thrilled to hit a flat surface that didn't move underneath me.  I picked up the pace a touch but not too much.  It was so HOT!! We all finished relatively close together: Jodi - 3 hours 27 minutes Michele -  3 hours 47 minutes Kris - 3 hours 57 minutes He race was harder than we anticipated, but we all agreed we felt quite proud of ourselves for completing it.  After a free "shower" in the Challis high school locker room we hit the road.  Once again with me STARVING!! Some things we reflected on during our car ride home: 1.  We don't have many photos of the end of the course because Kris, our photographer, announced she just wanted to "get off that blasted mountain!!" 2.  Great news realized..... Kris did not fall! 3.  Challis is all rock and desert, very few trees! 4.  We saw ZERO wildlife, unless you count grasshoppers and crickets. 5.  Kris likes Bob Hope movies.  Most likely due to the fact that she is older (this was revealed by Michele). 6.  Michele will forever be friends with Deedra.  They were instant BFF's 7.  We were disappointed to not receive a midnight call from Dan.  That's NOT amore! 8.  When driving on mountain roads, the center line is optional. 9.  When we were about 30 miles from home Kris announced that "was fine as long as I don't have to run it!"

And I ran....I ran so far away....

Problems loom, people stress you out and annoy you, health concerns pop up unexpectedly.......

But luckily I can run......Far away..... with my running buddies.

When I got home, the problems were all still there... but they did seem smaller.

I left all my worries and problems along the the Trail

Today was one of those days when I really needed a trail run!  A lot is going on and I needed a moment to step away from ALL of it.  A trip to Avimor was just what the sanity doctor ordered!

So since this was on the ground, it's ok to run here....right?

We "dance" across the creeks!

A GREAT DAY!!

This caterpillar was almost stepped on!!