What's Your Dream?

I am going to come out and say it. I am pissed off! I have been on the struggle train for over a year now. Sense I hurt my ankle last August. I am sick and tired of constantly failing! Sprained ankle made me miss Ragnar Cascades (2016) Car accident made me miss pacing the Seattle Marathon and Deception Pass 50k (2016) Working way too much at Amazon made me miss Gorge Waterfall 50k (2017) 4 day stomach flu made me DNF at Sun Mountain 50k (2017) 3 day Migraine made me drop from pacing the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon (2017) Now this, smoky conditions made me unable to breathe and had to DNF at White River 50. (2017) Every time something bad has happened or something has gone wrong I just keep saying "it's good training" for my 100 miler. But, you know what? I am mad and tired at failing at something I really love. Between not having enough $$ to buy the gear that I need for my 100 miler (I need lots of stuff, from a new pack and trekking poles to new shoes and ni...

I was feeling really low after my DNF at Sun Mountain . I didn't want to run at all. I was thinking of going to Echo Valley with my friend Mary and was basically set to hit "buy" when my other friend Liz pinged me.  That's how I ended up at the Beacon Rock 25k .  I didn't know what to expect from this race, I hadn't been practicing a lot of elevation gain and this race has almost 4,000 ft in the 25k. So I planned to just hike/run it. This race had a very generous time cutoff, so I wasn't really worried at all. I took my trekking poles with and used them on all of the uphills. I couldn't believe how great my legs felt after! I wasn't sore much at all, just my shoulders from the poles.  I was getting ready the morning of the race and found Emily and Sean hanging out under their nice dry tent. So I joined them for a while before the race, just hanging out and having a good time not knowing that Emily was about the same pace as me and that Sea...

Like a tornado she swept into my life, turning it sideways and filling it with adventure. I had no idea that in such a short time someone could influence me and my life so much. Her name is Anne Danczyk. I met her on her first day at Amazon. She had just joined my Executive Assistant team; we were at Key Arena for the Amazon Seattle All-Hands, even in a stadium of 30,000 people Anne still stood out. She is a powerhouse of confidence, capturing her audience, not just by her beauty but her passion. She stormed in a few minutes late, literally running from campus due to a slight misunderstanding in the meeting location. Instead of stressing about it, she just laughed and was really happy about making it before the start of the presentations. That just who Anne is, bubbly, silly and carefree.  Anne's life is that of fairy tales, to say that she is a go getter is an understatement of a lifetime. Anne's first job as a young girl was working with horses. She trained to be on the ...

Imagine entering a room where all of your dreams are being stored, walk into the room and just pluck a dream from the shelf, open it up and dive into it. That's what The Trail Running Film Festival was for me. What's more, I don't think I have ever been surrounded by so many people that share the same  dreams and love for the mountains and running as I do. Instead of being afraid of running 100 miles of hell, they join in. Many in the audience completing more races and runs than I could dream of. I sat in a room of my idols as we watched people share their stories in film. We laughed that the same jokes and cried for the same losses. The unity of shared passions was overwhelmingly powerful.  I have held many dreams to myself, tentatively sharing tid bits here and there to my friends but this festival showed me it is silly to be afraid to go for the things that you love. Why not? What would I have to lose? After being surrounded by so many people who love crazy adventur...

I am sure that many of you have heard of the Ragnar Relays but have you heard of Ragnar Trail Relays? Same concept of a relay team but very different concept about traveling 200 miles. In a Ragnar Trail Relay there is a base camp where all of the teams camp out for a couple of days while each team member takes their turn running the three trail loops. Each runner still runs 3 separate times, just like a Road Ragnar but instead of all different legs, everyone on the team runs the same three legs.  We did it!  This race was a bit of a tough one, one of our teammates Lynne had an unfavorable run in with another very rude runner and ended up breaking a few bones in her right leg. We are all very grateful that she is up and about now, determined to be running again in the fall. She is an amazingly inspirational person who has shown us that there are no excuses! Here's to you Lynne! May you heal swiftly and kick all of our asses at our next meet up! I look blah but was doi...

So for a couple years I have slowly watched the world of virtual racing grow and grow. If you don't know what a virtual race is, it's simple. The race host puts up a website that you go to and sign up, you pay a nominal fee, then run said distance you signed up for, record your time, post you time on the website and see your standings. These races can range from getting a free printable bib to the much more eccentric races, like the ones I am about to tell you about. So despite my doubts and wonder of how this could be enjoyable, so I decided to give it a try anyway! I am signed up for two virtual races! Don't ask me how that happened because I am not exactly sure... So I started looking into a virtual race company that one of my mega marathoner friends posts about every once in a while on Facebook. I thought "If he likes this stuff and he travels the world to run, then maybe I will!" So I looked into it and signed up for the US Road Running 's  Hallow...