Mary Mary Why Ya' Buggin'

A few months ago my brother-in-law, Jake called me out of the blue. He never calls me. I knew something was up. He had an idea about doing a relay. My answer was an immediate yes! I get all the glory...I get to cross the finish line running 13.1 miles! Today begins my training for the 2017 triathlon season. It's fitting that yesterday was the celebration of the Chinese New Year, year of the rooster. Jake named our team: Two Cocks and a Hen.  My brother-in-law Jake is doing the swim. My brother-in-law's friend Jim is doing the bike. As you can tell my brother-in-law has a great sense of humor!  Santa Rosa is only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from my little spot here on the edge of the world. I love Northern California. This is a newer race for Ironman. There is also a full Ironman which I tentatively have on my wishlist. The idea of doing a race that does not involve me having to ship my bike always has my interest. When Jake suggested doing this as a relay I thought ...

I have fallen in love with trail running this past year.  I have been having a blast, challenging myself and meeting new running friends. I am so thankful to live in an area of the country were there are beautiful places to run so close to my home. I finished a summer trail series a few days after running 13 miles in the Barrel to Keg Relay. I admit I should have taken the night off from running but the lure of drinking beer and hanging out with my running club was the main reason for lacing up my shoes and hitting the trail that night. It was the final run of the series and a celebration at a local pub was planned afterwards. I usually run with my phone. That night my plans were to stick close to my friend Miranda and her husband as she had her phone and we usually run the same pace. I had a full bottle of Nuun, my aching toes wrapped and a goal of enjoying a cold beer afterwards. Off I embarked on what was suppose to be a five mile trail run in an unfamiliar area. The fir...

 This is what it looks like to step out of your comfort zone. I signed up for a five week spring trail running series the beginning of April put on by Ardor Trail Running, in Newport, Oregon. I'd seen in the past that the local running club offered a trail running series but it never worked with my schedule. Last year I was dealing with hamstring issues and was not running.                                                 Photo: Ardor Trail Running  This year I saw Ardor Trail Running created a Facebook event. I immediately knew this is something I wanted to do. My sister-in-law, Paige and I ran our first trail race last October in Molalla, a 5k in the Molalla Corridor put on by the local running club. It was a super fun race. We both had a blast. I signed up then saw that the longest run was going to be six miles and the elevation that we would be...