Thru Endurance We Conquer!

And in this case, it was the first time for a DNF. I had really been looking forward to the Cheyenne Mountain Trail Race this year after missing out last year. I love the course and it's a fun event. I was also looking forward to seeing how fast I could run one lap, as opposed to pacing myself for two laps. I was also looking forward to getting out and seeing my friends in the running community after a really rough week. My warmup felt good, but I was distracted. I couldn't seem to get my mind focused on the trail and the upcoming race. Mistake number one, I'm sure. While the trails at CMSP aren't super technical, there's enough loose rocks and soft edges that you need to pay attention to them. At the start, I was still kind of out of sorts. I'd left my phone in the car and was planning on making the next 2:30 some me time - with my closest running friends of course. We started quick, heading out into the parking lot for a short road climb to spread things out...

Yay! I finally got to race the Rattler Trail Race! First - the back story. This was my third time registering for the Rattler. And my first time starting... in 2016, I was registered for the 50k, planning on making that my first ultra race. Whelp, Mother Nature had other plans and a blizzard blew in the morning of the race. Mad Moose had no choice but to cancel the race for the safety of the volunteers and the runners. In 2017, I was ready for the 25k, but my cranky eye prevented me from running all of March and most of April. So I DNSed, only to see perfect running conditions come race day. Given my history with the race, I was hesitant to sign up for the 25k again this year. And last night at packet pickup, I felt like I was jinxing the race ala 2016. Another blizzard threatening, with snow whipping into a frenzy. Yikes. But the difference was the weather was supposed to improve overnight, not get worse. So I packed up a variety of clothes and hoped for the best. Race morning da...

And dry air - but no fire! A few months ago, Nick and I got a lovely Excalibur Dehydrator. Why? I remember the round, plastic thing Dad got for Mom many many years ago. It made apple slices and that's about it. It also required a ton of work to rotate trays and keep things balance. So when Nick suggested the dehydrator, I was skeptical. I did hours of research and we ended up with the Excalibar dehydrator. Why that model? It has a rear fan and blows air evenly across all of the trays in the unit so technically no flipping around every two seconds. And my research proved accurate. This has been wonderful so far. I can fill up the trays, set the timer and go out for a run and my food will be done when I get back. Of course, I started with apple slices since that's what I had in the fridge and it would be a good test of how it worked. The apples came out delicious. OK! Time to practice with some more complicated things. The ultimate goal is to be able to make meals for Nick whil...