1 week until 100K

At times I thought it would never come and now that it's a week away, I can't believe how soon the Born to Run 100K is!

Emir and I planned this trip so long ago as our ten year anniversary trip. As it turns out we did end up celebrating our anniversary at the double Blue Ridge since it was only two days after our actual anniversary however this trip was meant to be our "real" anniversary celebration. The Double Blue Ridge was sort of an after thought and more meant to help us prepare for our first ever 100K. And who says you can't celebrate your 10 year anniversary more than once anyway?!?! The Born To Run ultra takes place out on a ranch in Los Olivos, California. Emir and I are flying out to LA on Friday morning and picking up our awesome camper van to drive to the ranch. We will be camping two nights at the ranch for the race. I'm so excited! There is a beer mile Friday, live music, tattooing, people running all kinds of distances from 10 miles to 100 miles and lots of partying after we are done running Saturday. Then Sunday we set off on our big road trip adventure to san fran, yosemite, the grand canyon and end in Vegas where we will fly home from.

Finishing the Double Blue Ridge!!

We will be away for 9 days. I'm really looking forward to it but at the same time a bit nervous. We have never left the kids for more than 2 "sleepovers" as Niko calls it. I know the kids are in excellent hands with my parents and my sister not to mention my family has tons of fun activities planned for them while we are away so the kids probably won't even miss us. I think I'm most worried that after the first few days of initial "ahhh this is a nice break" then I will start missing them, ALOT!

So hard to leave these cuties for 9 whole days!!!

Emir and I have been finalizing details for our trip, preparing Niko for us going away and setting some things up for while we are gone.  All of this has been distracting me from the fact that we are about to run our first ever 100k! I got a real sense of just how hard mentally and physically it is to run anything over the 50K distance at the Double Blue Ridge. However going through that experience only makes me that much more excited to tackle this 100K. It's such a weird thing to describe to people. When we were actually doing the double there were times when I couldn't wait for it to end especially when you get to the last few miles (longest miles ever!) But once we were done, I was on such a high and I kept saying I want to go run more, when can we do this again?! It was the best feeling. I didn't care that I could barely walk for a day or two. I felt AMAZING. I did have a crash and burn on the Tuesday afterward. I guess post race depression? But then my mood picked right up again. We have been keeping in contact with our other double friends. Every time we talk to them or see a picture, it makes me SO HAPPY and I get those amazing feelings all over again. I'm guessing this is exactly how and why people get addicted to ultra running. "My name is Amy and I am an ultrarunner..."

Anyway needless to say, I know this race is going to be super hard but I really cannot wait. I was very surprised at how after a couple of days, my legs felt pretty good. I'm guessing the coach Caleb "no rest ever policy" has something to do with it ;-) I even did some speedwork the other day and felt really great so I'm not too worried about my legs going into it. Is it time to fly to Cali yet?!?! 

My little man getting ready for a run

 Sidenote to all my fellow mommy and daddy runners. As you may or may not know I recently purchased myself a new Garmin Fenix 2 watch. I went with the higher end watch for the battery life. As it turns out, I've been extremely happy not only with the battery but so many of the other features that I didn't have on my nike+. Anyway, I digress. I had been thinking what should I do with my nike+ watch? It's only maybe 1.5 years old and still in perfect condition. Then Monday I told Niko that I was going to take him and Una to the trail for a run with the double stroller. He is usually agreeable however I must always agree to let him do some running as well, which I am more than happy to do. He saw my watch sitting on the counter and said "Mommy that's your old watch right? And you don't use it anymore. Can I wear it for my run on the trail?" First instinct was to say no but I took that extra second to think and realized "what a great idea!" I taught him how to find the satellites to start his run, which he thought was great and is now obssessed with satellites, haha. Then I taught him how to pause and restart. He absolutely loved it! He ended up running about .75 at 10min/mile which for a 4 yr old isn't too shabby. He had a blast and I loved watching him. So now I'm setting him up a Nike+ profile so he can wear his watch and run whenever he wants and we can keep track for him. It's not meant to be a crazy, running, training thing but just a really fun, healthy activity for us as a family.  

checking his pace ;-)

Totally got the look down pat

and mommy's goal is achieved, nap for Niko!