Countdown to 100 Miler Is On!

On Monday I ran an easy 5 miles. It was early in the morning and I'm pretty sure I slept through the whole thing.

Wednesday morning I ran 6 miles with my friend Will from work. It's a good thing I ran with a human being instead of my mp3 player - because I swear to you - if I hear one more Katy Perry song on the radio I will have to be institutionalized.

Will had never been on the Prospector Trail in Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. I'm pretty sure after this experience it won't be long before he goes back again.

I was feeling antsy to go out and run again on Thursday and Friday but I had a conversation with myself that went something like this: "Self, you should give your legs a  little break, get a little more sleep, and rest up because you're running a 100 miler next week. Go eat another cinnamon roll instead." So I did.

On Saturday, October 20th I ran 9 miles on the Guacamole Trail with my friends Cherie, Lyle, and Jason. None of them had been here before. I like showing people all the incredibly awesome trails we have so close by. This is the short climb to the top of the mesa:

 Once we reached the top of the mesa Cherie gagged down a Gu packet and then we were off.

We took a few detours to check out the views from the edge of the mesa. This involved making a few death-defying jumps. (Or not. The jumps are much less intimidating than they look.)

Lyle cheated death himself by jumping over some low lying barbed wire. Before he jumped I told him that I wasn't carrying him out if he fell. I'd just leave him for the mountain lions. No legs or manhood were harmed in the making of this picture:

My favorite part of the whole run was seeing their reactions as we came to different views along the trail. Honestly they were like kids in a candy shop. They couldn't believe how spectacular the trail was. I know how they feel. I feel the same way each time I run out here.

We stopped to take plenty of pictures along the way. It was an easy, casual run that made the miles float by. It's hard to take yourself too seriously when you're hanging out with yahoos like this:

Cherie has been into Crossfit, and I explained that she could just stop Crossfit and get into more trail running. If Spiderman was a trail runner, this is what he would look like:

We had one minor detour trying to find the trail, and before we knew it we were back at the beginning after nine miles. Sometimes it's better to slow down, relax, chill out, enjoy the scenery, not stress about pace, and have some all out fun.

I can't believe that the Javelina Jundred is in a few short days! It is such a strange feeling to know that on Saturday morning I will take my first step of a 101 mile run, and hopefully take the last step of that 101 mile run before the cutoff 30 hours later. It's going to be hard, and fun, and challenging, and amazing, and positively awesome.

In the next few days I'll give you some info about preparation, race day strategy, and live tracking of the race. Can't wait.

"You're better than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can!" ~ Ken Chlouber