Plans for 2012

I find myself looking ahead for further inspiration in my daily running life. Where am I going? What do I plan to accomplish after I finish my next race? I like to know there's something ahead that I'm working toward.

My original plan was to complete the year with a marathon in November, and then another in January. I decided that I should register now for the January Redding marathon if that is what I'm going to do. Hubby and I planned leave that race and to fly from Sacramento to his parents and he's been pressuring me to make a final decision so we can buy tickets. If we didn't run Redding, we would fly from our home airport. After poring over the website, I realized that I didn't want another road marathon right away. Road running has become increasingly more boring, race after race, different places but the same scenery. The only way I find myself enjoying road racing is when I'm going for a PR. Since I want to PR in November, my next race should not be another PR attempt. So what do I want?

Last week, I made a post about missing Alaska and how the part I missed the most was winter. My home here, smack up against the Pacific Ocean (really, if you sit on my roof you can literally see it, it really is right there). This spring, I was afraid of the cool and cloudy summer that everyone was promising. I turned to my ultra-sweaty runs in the state park inland from here to get my dose of heat. It worked. I never felt like I was going missing out on anything.

Would that work the same way for winter? Drive inland until I find snow, about two hours to get both trails and snow, and hang out there? It should work, right? There seem to be very few winter trail races (and by winter, I mean snow, baby) to choose from. After scouring the internet for a winter "fun" race, I settled on the race that had been in the back of my mind during my searches : Little Susitna 50K.



Yesterday was my one year, bittersweet, anniversary of leaving Alaska. Maybe that's what prompted me to sign up. But I'm very excited for the opportunity to train in the snow and return to the frozen arctic landscape.

Look at the list of Race Conditions that one has to prepare for. Pretty awesome, right?

I know what you're thinking. She lives in California, a place that gets no snow, how is she going to survive a winter ultra? Well, I'll start by saying I could be a whole special breed of crazy and sign up for the 100 mile race, punishing in both distance and temperature. I realize that there will be challenges that I cannot train for given geography.

But, I have more experience with it than my pansy Californian address will lead you to believe. I've still got all my clothes, Yaktrax, boots, and plain old cold weather stubbornness. I may not have experience with the above mentioned race conditions within a single day, but I have experienced them all at one point or another. From overflow to howling wind chill of -40F. These experiences are the only thing giving me the guts to register for a race like this. Or time might have done enough to dull the sting of the extreme cold and glamorize the idea of returning in the winter and I'm going to suffer like I never have before. Either way, should be fun, right?

My main goals :
1. Finish with all my extremities intact.
2. Finish with huge frosty eyebrows.
3. No frostbite.

January 2010, -35F. We ran through that entire winter outside. Coldest temperature we
experienced was -50F. As it got colder, it became less and less about the miles and more about
who grew the best frozen eyebrows. I usually won. Check them out. Pretty sweet.
Bring on Winter!!!