May Running

 It will appear like we didn't run very much in May, but we did! The Lost Souls Challenge started part way through May, so those have been most of our runs, and I will wait and blog all about the challenge at the end of it in August.

Boise: Hulls Gulch

When I was in Boise for Nora's birth, I did a 14 miler in the foothills. Everything was so green there, and the flowers were blooming. That hadn't started yet on our side of the state, so it was a fun change to run there. I got to the top of Hulls Gulch, and there were hundreds of sheep on the mountain, and along the trail I had to run down. That was a fun surprise. 😀

I had the whole trail to myself except for the last couple miles.

So green and pretty!

Cute little sheep!

This was me going through the tail end of them. 

Love love love some yellow flowers in the mountains!

Trail Hollow:

The day after we got back from Boise, I needed a nice good run by myself to clear my head. It had been an emotional few days. I ran a 9 miler on Trail Hollow in the mud, and it was just what I needed. It was a bonus that Bailey was sending me cute Nora pictures along the way.

So much mud!

Gibson Jack Loop:

Joyce, Jen, and I did the 8.5 mile Gibson Jack Loop so they would have an idea of the climb for the Mini Barkly. We did our mustache picture at the pink gate, and it won us the pink gate photo contest! Winner Winner!

Gotta love Jen and her shenanigans! 

The big climb!

There was still a bit of snow up on top.

We made it to the top! That's quite a climb, and we have to do it 3 times for the Mini Barkley.

The pink gate!

Joyce crashed and burned pretty hard on the downhill. We hit it at a run, and it got super slippery in the snow. Good thing she's tough!

About half way through, we finally realized who she reminded us of! I laughed every time I looked at her after that. She makes a fantastic Mario.

Never a dull moment with these ladies! 

Cress Creek Canal:

A quick, easy 5 miler on the Cress Creek Canal path. Sunshine and short sleeves!

Steph-Tricia-Mark

Gibson Jack-Sterling Justice-City Creek:

I needed one final long run before the Mini Barkley, and Mark was still recovering from his surgery. I made a group event hoping I'd get someone to run with me. The ladies stepped up, and we ended up with 7 of us doing a 20 miler in Pocatello. It was a crazy windy day, but we lucked out and it was only bad in a few spots. We ended up with a great day!

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Pictures on the ski swing!

My friends are rad!

The flowers are starting to come out in Pocatello!

Twinners!

Little Moose:

We did a 10 miler on Little Moose, and aside from almost being blown away, it was a lot of fun. We had a beautiful cloud day. I love a good Idaho sky.

The sky! 😍

Jen- Joyce-Tricia

Buckskin Morgan Rolly Polly Loop:

Steph and I braved the 30 mph winds to do the rolly polly loop. Luckily once we got into the trees, the wind was mostly blocked. We hit a bit more snow than we anticipated, so that made it slow going for awhile, but it was a way better run than we thought it might be. It was made even better on the way home when we decided to stop for lunch at the Heise Pizza place.

Steph

I was up to my knees in snow, and couldn't pull my back foot out. 😂

Lunch doesn't get much better than this! 😋

Palisades:

We did a group run up Palisades. Super fun morning, and we met a few new running friends. Four of the people had never done this trail before, so we showed them all the fun spots on the way to the lower lake. The people in our car turned around and went back, but Jenn's car kept going to the upper lake, so all the ones that had never done the trail before made it all the way to the upper lake. 

Our starting picture!

Steph-Mark-Jennifer-Linda-Jenn-Meredith-Michelle-Aaron-Abby-Steve

Linda-Jenn-Tricia-Jennifer-Steph

Picture Rock

The gang at the lower lake.

See that little white dot towards the top of the rock? That's a mountain goat! We watched a couple of them through Mark's monocular.

Women's Runs:

Sidewinder & Pizza Kick-off

We had our kick-off to summer women's run. It was another windy evening, but we don't expect anything less from Idaho in the springtime. Despite the wind, we still had 9 ladies show up, and it was a great run. Always a blast coming down Sidewinder. We ended the night with pizza at Heise.

The long, slow, shuffle up to the top.

Flapping in the wind! 😂

The fun, exhilarating, run back down. 

I love this trail!

Pizza!

Wolf Flats:

Our last regular women's run, before we start busting out the Lost Souls routes.

We saw a couple snakes along the way, but just the nice kind.

Such a pretty night!

P-Town's Mini Barkley:

The only race I signed up for this season was the P-Town Mini Barkley. I did the preview of it last year, so I knew it was going to be tough. It's a trail marathon, unless you decide to do the extra trails to find the trail treasures. If you do all the trail treasures, it makes it over a 50K; 32.4 miles to be exact, with almost 7000 feet of gain. With the shape I'm in (or not in), I had no business adding on the trail treasures, but I can never resist a good challenge. I was the first (and only) female to complete all of the treasure trails. It took us over 8 hours, but we got it done! No regrets either! It ended up being a great day! The weather started out a little stormy, and we even got some snow flurries up at the top on our first loop, but it cleared up to be beautiful with perfect temperatures. I ran all three laps with Carney, and it was so nice not to be alone for the whole thing. 

Jen-Tricia-Steph-Joyce

This was coming back from my first trail treasure. This was my favorite part of the race. Such a pretty trail up Slate Mountain.

We made it to the top of our first big climb.

The pink gate!

Starting the second loop in the reverse direction.

So pretty!

We ran into Joyce and Steph going the opposite way as us. You could chose your direction on the last two loops.

The ridgeline.

The sky 😍

Steve and James showed up to do our last loop with us! So grateful to them. James and I chatted the whole way up the final climb, and it totally took my mind off the misery. They were a great help in keeping us going on the final loop.

I described this as just enough amazing scenery and great people to make me love it, and just enough crazy climbing to make me hate it. That makes the perfect race in my opinion. If you're looking for a beautiful, challenging, fun, early season race, this one is perfect.

We did a lot more running at the end of May, but it will all be posted with my Lost Souls Challenge post in August. Like usual, it was a great month of fun running adventures. I'm super excited for summer!