Mountain Mother Runner

It has been nearly three months since my last blog post and I'm FINALLY able to write a recap of the BIGGEST race I'd ever trained for! I can't believe that I wrote a weekly wrap (final training recap can be found here ) for an entire 18 weeks (or 654.04 miles) of training and then left you all hanging without knowing the outcome of the race. If you didn't already know the cause of this delay...I replaced my 'title' of stay-at-home-mom with full-time Massage Therapist student. I have had the teeniest, tiniest amount of "free" time during these months and the hierarchy of what to do with this time has been the following: family, sleep, salt baths, running, reading, eating, blogging. Yes, the idea of writing any sort of blog has been on the bottom of my list and luckily I have felt zero guilt about that. I'm coming up on finals week at school which is followed by a THREE WEEK winter break which I plan to fill with running and fun family adventures. ...

Last summer, my husband was out of town (hellooooo Vegas) for his birthday. His trip happened to land on the same weekend as the Greater Bellingham Running Club’s Race Beneath the Sun . Instead of letting the Race Director know that I wouldn’t be able to attend, I asked them if a baby stroller could handle the course. They quickly replied that yes, people had previously raced with off-road/trail strollers, but there was one steep, single track hill that might be difficult. We ended up finishing the 5 mile trail race in 47:45 (9:33 min/mi pace) and I was surprised to place 2 nd Female 19-29. You can read last year’s recap while racing with the stroller, HERE ! Photo by Joy Love Our daughter is much taller and heavier now, so the idea of pushing her up that steep C. Moore Loop already had me exhausted. I opted out of taking the stroller and wanted to try the race out ‘for myself’. I convinced my stepson to run the race with me, knowing that he would totally beat my time witho...

At some point last December, I found myself searching the internet for upcoming races to kick off 2016. My New Year’s Resolution was to start taking running more ‘seriously’. I wanted to try something new. I wanted an adventure. I needed a goal to work towards so my training would have some sort of direction. Eureka! The Fragrance Lake Half Marathon/10k was just the event I was looking for. Who wouldn’t want to attempt 1,685ft of elevation gain?! This would be my very first trail race, in fact; I had barely run on trails before…so I purchased my first pair of trail running shoes. The next question was, which distance do I sign up for? My confident, competitive side was screaming “HALF MARATHON!” while my realistic side chose the 10k. I didn’t want to be too optimistic. There were only six weeks until the race and I had to balance training with being a stay at home mom. Preparing for a trail run with the majority of your workouts being in the gym (thank you drop-in childcare), not outs...