Friday, January 6, 2017

Catching Up - CIM 2015 & Mt. Whitney

I'm floored I have not posted here for two years! Especially after having the best CIM December 2015. I finally broke 3:30 and my favorite people were at the finish line or on the course along the way to greet me.

2016 started off getting into Miwok 100K and winning the lotto for Mt. Whitney on July 4th. 2016 was meant to be a big year with hopes of getting into Western States for 2017 and getting more grounded in my newish job with the State of California.



Still smiling although cold, dehydrated and hungry
Photo: Aunt Terry
 
Never happier at the finish of a marathon!
Photo: Baby Daddy: David Grabowski






















Different plans were in store and big is understatement. But first, I will say that Miwok 100K was the best ultra race (following a great race I had on my birthday at Sonoma 50 miler) I have ever had. I think my goal was to break 15 hours and I came close to breaking 14 hours. Undertrained seems to be the best way for me to PR. And since I never want to leave out the gory details of my ultra runs I won't leave out that after breaking 10 hours at Sonoma 50 miler, I waved at David, went straight for the bushes and vomited. I was so happy for breaking 10 hours that I didn't care how poor my stomach felt.

Fast forward to June and I was invited to meet the Grabowski's in the sweet country town of Lancaster, PA. David and I attended his cousins wedding in the oldest building (church), in the US, I've ever set foot in and discovered fireflies. Did you know that it is their BUTTS that light up? I was so delighted.

Lancaster, PA June 2016

We got home towards the end of June and finally secured a lease on a bigger place. We moved the weekend before we were set to head out to Mt. Whitney and things were a little hectic. I felt "off" and I had a feeling I was pregnant. A few days and 3 pregnancy tests later revealed what I had suspected. There was something brewing inside. We found out the morning we drove to Lone Pine on July 2nd. We met up with our friends, Bruce, Kelly and John and camped out near Whitney Portal. On July 3rd we hiked/ran up to Kearsarge Pass for a warm up to Whitney.


Still smiling although I think we were both terrified at the news we had received the previous morning.
 
The next morning we woke and drove to Whitney Portal around 3:30 a.m.. Whitney was amazing and there is so much I could say about it but really one must experience it. It's 22 miles to the top and back. There are options, if one is lucky in the lottery, to do a multi-day pass so one can hike a half way up, camp, and then do the rest the next day. We were ballsy and did it in 1 day. The person I was worried about was David because he hadn't really trained. He is still new to the "long distance" thing and thinks that because he ran a marathon it would be no problem. I think he realized about 3/4 of the way up that he should have listened to his girlfriend :) He was a soldier and powered through it. He was also carrying not only his poop in the porta bag on his back but mine as well. If he's not a keeper, I don't think anyone is.

Top of Whitney - John, Kelly, Bruce, David, Me