KATCINA MOSA 100k!!!

Training for and running this race was such an ordeal so it is strange that now it is almost as if it never happened. I just spent so so so many hours running and feeling bad that I was away from my boys (all three of them) for so long that I guess once it was all over I just dove right into what I had been thinking about the whole time I was training and that has kept me so busy. I don't know. Anyway, the race was SO SO GREAT, I loved every minute, did way better than I ever thought I would and wish that I could devote so much more time to this hobby. Someday. Now, I am retired. 

Ok, anyway, there's a billion mountain pictures of training runs I went on: 

Moose on Spanish Fork Peak

Southeast of Spanish Fork Peak (so sad that next time I see this it will be a big, black, burnt hole of fire scar:( )

Hobble Creek from Spanish Fork Peak

Diamond Fork, now just getting totally consumed by flames. :( Such a tragedy. And a conversation for a different post I guess. Still, can't help but think about it looking at this picture. 

Spanish Fork Peak Summit

This was the first summit I had actually made it to since Billy and I did Timp with 6-week-old Truman. Just not so easy to get babies to summits of mountains I guess. It was fun to remember the feeling of summiting. 

This run was the first half of the race course and it kicked my butt. I ran it about a month before the race and was sure I was doomed because it was hot, miserable, long, lonely, scary and I didn't even do a full 30 miles. At that point I was sure I was going to DNF on race day. 

But oh this run was also breathtaking, amazing, awe-inspiring and new. It was so pretty and fun. 

I have never seen such an expansive mountain view in Utah County. Who knew it was right there all along? 

This run was up Dry Fork to Granite Flats two weeks before my race. Also beautiful, also fun.

The week before the race was nuts! Truman bit his tongue open and had to get stitches, we had family stuff coming out of our ears, it was so so hot and I was so so nervous that I didn't have a living will written up cus I thought I might die on this run. Training for an ultra with two boys was a billion times harder than with just Truman and I wasn't confident that I was perfectly ready for 100k.

I got my drop bags ready and one of the things I had a problem with on one of my training runs was bug bites! So i got this pocket bug spray and laughed that it bragged protection for 10 hours becuase I thought to myself, "Oh, but I will need protection for 19!" haha that is when I really knew I was crazy. 

BUT. Race day came and it was nothing short of perfect bliss and joy and adventure and fun and success! Oh, oh. I just loved it. There was nothing like running all day. 

Augh. Billy has the good morning pics. But it was awesome that the race started at 3 and I only had to get up at 230 to get there on time since it was right down the road. The start was eerie and fun and the first 13 miles or so were creeeepy. Even though I was running on a stretch I know like the back of my hand it was just dark and eerie. And also I had only a $1 headlamp from Wal-Mart and the strap broke at the start of the race so I was sure I was going to sprain my ankle. I did, in fact, but it was fine. haha I just mooched off the light of other people until dawn finally came and that is when it truly started getting so so beautiful and great. 

I was meeting at Kim at Rock Canyon so she could pace me for awhile and that was so great! 

Little did I know that everyone else was coming up too!!! It was such a great surprise and the aid station people said, "We've never had a runner with such a great support crew." Haha literally 12 people is a crowd. 

I loved the signs and cheers from all the people

Then me and Kim were off! Oh, it was such bliss running that trail with Kim. Such, such bliss. I forgot that i was running a 60 mile race. Just a good ol Saturday morning run with Kim. 

Billy has all the other pictures of during the race. I should put them in. It was so pretty. The long lonely lope to Little Valley, as I called it, was not bad and so cool to just literally traverse mountain ranges. Just going up one summit and thinking, I must go to that peak, then getting to the top of it and thinking, now I will go to the bottom of that valley and then getting there and thinking, now I will go to the top of that next summit and getting there and looking back at a whole series of peaks and valleys I had gone across on my own two legs was just wonderful and crazy. 

I felt great until about mile...I don't know actually because I refused to know time or mileage the whole time, but I had a rough patch coming into LIttle Valley because I almost ran out of water and it was hot hot but then who should appear once again but Kim! She was a life saver. I ran the last mile or two to Little Valley with her then Billy was there! Phew. Kim ran the out and back with me then Billy took me from there. We ran together for probably 3 miles or so then he had to turn back cus he had to run back to little valley, bike back home, drive up right fork and run up dry fork when he was meeting me next! But he handed me off to Dave Hunt, who I used to work with at Noni, he and I ran together for the next 3 or so. He was really helpful cus he's done the race every year since its inception so he could point out helpful landmarks and stuff. 

That back section was one I was nervous for becuase everyone said it was dry and dusty and hot and boring but oh my! It was none of those things. So pretty and fun and new and exciting. Plus, I ran a lot of it by myself and I always like that. Just truckin along. 

It was crazy how much Dave's directions didn't help cus when i finally got to the Dry Fork aid station, I was by myself by then and had been for probably 6 miles or so, I was so turned around I literally thought I would go left but they had me go right. It totally whacked me out, I had no idea where I was at that point. It was nuts! In my own canyon! Crazy. 

The stretch down Dry Fork was SO FUN. It was such a relief to be back on single track and then I finally ran into Billy! IT was so fun to run with him and he helped me A TON on the road. So many people warned me about the road and how horrible and long it would be. Fortunately, BIlly ran the first couple miles with me, I have run that road a million times and I knew the finish was at the end. It also helped that I know the curve of those mountains and just where the finish sat at the bottom of them so that helped me feel confident about my progress. I felt so strong going down that road, just chanting, you can do it, strong and steady, strong and steady. You can do it, strong and steady, strong and steady. Things like that tend to get stuck in my head when I've been running for a really long time. 

Billy had told me my parents and the boys probably wouldn't make it to the finish but they were there when I was about to turn into Kelly's Grove and I was so happy!! I crossed the line at 15:36 and John Bozung was there to tell me that I was the first woman and therefore the USATF Trail 100k national champ, which I still think is something he made up but it was cool to win the women's! 100k has got to be my favorite distance so far. 

I felt so good!! And so tired and so sore and so weird that it was a 16 hour ordeal and I felt like I had only been running for maybe 9 or so. 

Billy was the champ of all champs! He made it happen from start to finish. Katcina wasn't even a real thing in my mind until he told me he would do everything he could to get me there and he did. What a freakin champ. 

Also see how I had a good number for the race? 26! 

So much good support! Thank you, all the people, for cheering for me and coming to the faraway finish late at night. It was cool to have a crowd. 

Doesn't this shirt look like something that would be hanging in Gma&Gpa's house? haha maybe I will frame it for them. 

Oh, such bliss! If only there could be these kinds of races all the time in my life! Even so, I wouldn't trade my days of motherhood so I'm lucky I could squeeze this in as I did. All the boys were so good for me and so supportive and I loved every minute of it. Such beautiful mountains and such satisfying running and I did not die so booya!