March Running

 I finally feel like my body is starting to heel. Lots of good progress made in March, and it feels so good to be back at it!

Ashton:

All the places in our area are covered in snow, so I went to Ashton to run with Joyce. They have more snow than we do, but they plow the area across the street from her house, so we were able to get a 12 miler in. Such a beautiful area!

She lives in the best place!

Warm River

So pretty!

After the run, I got to feed all her fun birds!

😄😄😄

Ashton #2:

I loved running in Ashton so much, that Mark and I went back up to do it again! We did a 10 miler, and it was the best I had felt in a long time. I was able to run the whole time, even up all the hills. It was the confidence boost I needed going into The Pulse.

Tricia-Joyce
So much snow!

Tricia-Mark

Bubba the Tree

The tree dividing the road is Bubba.

The highlight of the run was seeing these darling pine martins. 

It's rare to see them in the wild, so we just soaked it all in.

When we were done with the run, Mark got to feed the birds this time. 😃

Women's Runs:

We kicked off March with a beautiful full moon run! We also made an awesome T-rex on Strava. 😂

T-Rex runners!

We didn't even need our headlamps, because the moon was so big and bright.

Our awesome Strava art. 😂

We had another March run at the Greenbelt and around downtown.

Greenbelt run!

We did another run at Snake River Landing. Since it was right after The Pulse, we had a small group run, and a small group of us did a recovery walk.

The post Pulse shuffle!

The Pulse Endurance Run: 12 Hour Night

We love The Pulse for so many reasons! First and foremost, is because it's in Boise, so that means we got to see Nora Rae! Of course we got to see Bailey and Mason too, but it was all about the Nora snuggles! 😁 We went over there with a group of 17 IFTR runners, and had a blast. Mark and I busted out our second of four ITUS events for the year. 

The Pulse is a series of timed running events. Mark and I did the 12 hour night run. We originally both had a goal of completing 50 miles, but after my stress fracture, my goal became to just survive, and complete a 50k distance, so that it would count towards our ITUS races. I wanted to run a pretty good first 15-20 miles, so I would at least feel good about it. Mark took off at the beginning like a mad man. I felt like I was running pretty good, and he was way ahead of me right from the start. I hit my 15 mile mark and felt really good, so I decided to carry that on to 20 miles, and then I would let myself just chill at an easy pace for my last 10 miles. I fell at mile 19. I'm talking an epic wipe out! It stunned me for a minute, so it took me a second to get my wits about me and get in a groove again. I met up with Cheryl and stayed with her for a couple miles. Then I found Joyce and ran with her for a bit. Somewhere along the way I passed Mark because he was having some stomach issues. He eventually caught back up to Joyce and I and heard us trying to calculate if I could take it easy and still reach 40 miles. He quickly interjected that I could easily get my original 50 mile goal. I was trying to not get my hopes up, but I felt really good, so I was secretly thrilled at this new realization, so off we went. Mark and I were together for the rest of the race. We both felt great. I kept saying that I couldn't believe I was still running after having almost zero training. I was amazed! We just carried on and ended it up with 54.6 miles!

Getting our area set up, and getting ready to start the 12 hour night run!

I love this crazy group!

Cutest cheerleader ever! Bailey, Mason, and Nora came to watch us start, and cheered for us on our first few laps.

Motivation station!

This was the first group of us to start. It consisted of some 6 hour, 12 hour night, and 24 hour runners. The second group would start in the morning.

It helps to stay motivated when you get to watch a beautiful sunset.

I had a 31 mile goal, and here we were at mile 40. 😂

Done!

After our race, we stayed for 12 more hours to help the 24 hour crew, and the 12 and 6 hour day runners. It made for a long time with no sleep. 

Bailey and Mason were out on the course pacing some of the 24 hour peeps, so I got to snuggle with my Nora. She is dreamy, and my favorite human!

The finish of the race! We have some seriously amazing talent in this picture. We had lots of people up on the podium, lots of distance PRs, Steph completed 20 miles for her first post surgery run, Jenn made 100 miles in the 24 hours, etc, etc. I could tell a story about each one of them, but I'll just leave it at THEY ARE AMAZING PEOPLE!

I ended up pacing the 24 hour peeps for a couple laps, so I ended up with an almost 60 mile weekend. Not too shabby!

Ririe Roads:

I say it all the time, but I love living here! Even on a 3 mile recovery run on the road I see wildlife. Saw a cute moose just hanging out in someone's backyard. 

😃😃😃

I'm not sure if the dry bed was running, or if it was just melted snow, but it sure looked pretty.

Rigby:

Every once in awhile I can make it to the Rigby early morning runs. I'm always glad when I do.

Early morning Rigby run.

Wolf Flats:

This was our last run before our training plan starts for Moonlight on Mt. Ascension. We just wanted to make sure we were fully recovered, and everything was feeling good. It didn't quite go as planned. Stupid Idaho 4th winter! We went out to Wolf Flats hoping to get 8 miles, but what we got instead was really deep snow, lots of wind, huge tire track ruts that we couldn't see under the snow, etc. We did 5 miles, and it felt like 10, so we called it quits. 😅

Nothing like getting your eyeballs pelted with blowing snow. 

I don't know why I always find it hilarious when we find ourselves in less than ideal circumstances. We were tripping over these giant tire track ruts that we couldn't see under the snow. We couldn't even run, and I'm just cracking up! 😂

Did I mention that this was the end of March. Happy spring! 😒

Just out here living our best lives.

It was so slow going!

If I'm outside, I can manage to find the fun in it. Especially after being cooped up for so long. It actually was a really pretty morning. Minus the snow pelting the eyeballs, I had a pretty good time.

Hopefully I'm out of survival mode, and I can actually train for a race now. I haven't been able to do that since November. Fingers crossed!