Hiking with the Ex's have been sort of running crazy lately.

Tabitha is still working on getting her calf back to healthy. I have been doing my own thing with "the unlikely runners" and "barefoot trail running" where the majority of my trail runs are done with my boyfriend.
Dan has been working on the weekends.

This last weekend we decided to do a fun 4.5 mile hike to get Tabitha's friend out on the trails.  We went to Empire State Mine. We have done this hike many times before.

Tabitha's calf started acting up again so we couldn't do too much, but it was still a great hike!!

Hiking on Pause

This weekend I got to take Birdie and Mara out on a hike.
WELL, I got to take them out on a half hike, because shortly after this picture was taken where we were all laughing and joking, Tabitha sprinted up a hill and the shit hit the fan.

We had been walking for about two miles when Tabitha decided to sprint and about 10 feet up this hill, I saw her hit the ground and scream, “Mother Fucker!”. Tabitha doesn’t cuss on hikes (minus the trip we did training hill) and certainly not on Sunday. I thought she fell so I made my way up to her to see her clutching her leg.
“IT POPPED! SOMETHING POPPED!” I thought she broke her leg. She let me know she didn’t and that she did something to the muscle in her calf. Oh shit. Dan took Mara and Birdie over Robie and down trailbed and I hobbled Tabitha back to the car.

Even with the blinding pain she did so good. We stopped at one point and a family came up and a man and his wife offered to piggy back her back to the car. She gracefully declined and we kept on going…slowly. We laughed on the way back to the car more than we have laughed in a long time and with as much pain she was in, I didn’t think that would be possible.
At one point a handsome man, and I mean HAWT guy rides up on a horse and offers to give her a ride back to the car. She declined ever so gracefully and he was off, bewildered why she would decline. I even had to ask her, “Why did you say no! I could have ran behind you!” She shyly stated, “I don’t ride with strangers.” Pointing out, “I’m injured, he knows I can’t run away!!”
But it was part of the joy of her Pixie Dust…good looking men and horses, she happened to get both in one.

We made our way further down the trail and we got her through the roughest part of the trail which is a waterfall in a deep cut in the canyon, shimming down to the waterfall and over the rocks. I managed to get her up the steep hill without even stopping.
This was the second blessing of the trip. I egged her on, “you’re almost there. you got this. we are almost done. keep moving.” and I could hear all the times she had cheered me on when I was certain I couldn’t make it. There was a time when I couldn’t get up that hill without stopping twice. Now I can do it nearly carrying someone. Not only did she learn something about herself, but I learned something about myself…I’m one strong chick.

We walked on, laughing at the fact that we were laughing in such a stupid situation. Then blessing three came running down the trail.
“you okay?” the woman running was wearing a 50 mile endurance wicking shirt and a Western States 100 mile endurance run hat. She was in her 60’s. She was a woman. Sweet baby Jesus, what more could I ask for!? We chatted a bit where I asked her 500 rapid fire question and she answered every one. She headed on the way and I stopped and looked at Tabitha. “OH MY GOD! Seriously? What the fuck!?!” We just laughed at the fact that a handsome man on a horse showed up for her, a WS100 runner showed up for me. I couldn’t even imagine what more her Pixie Dust could provide!
“Okay, since we both got everything we can ask for, I’m just going to fuck with the pixie dust and ask to see like, Elton John and Richard Simmons.”

Yes, it was a fucked up situation, but one of the best trips out on that trail I have had in a whole year.
Dan, Mara and Birdie made their way back around to us and knowing Tabitha was taken care of, I asked if I could please run. I took off down the hill and across No Hands Bridge.

Our time for a 4 mile “hike” was 3 hours. I will PROUDLY clock that time!

COPIED FROM RANDOM AND ODD

UPDATE ...the doozy of all updates.

I did a rough calculation and it looks like we might have added another 200 miles in.

We have added another 10 to 15 trails into our training.

Coming in 2012 we are going to keep our log updated so we can keep a better tally of the miles we put into our mission of getting healthy and bringing those around us to a new healthy lifestyle.

Happy Trails everyone!

WRITTEN BY TABITHA:

Grass Valley June 6, 2011
I was beginning to feel as though my move and all the chaos surrounding juggling a budding relationship, my family, my friends, school beginning, children coming and going and all else was keeping me off the trail and as if I weren’t going to hike again.
Low and behold Kristine wouldn’t fail me and drug my ass out to yet another special spot.
Grass Valley!! It was light, shady, and filled with mining relics. Both of us bounced up and down the trails as if we had been there a hundred times before. Easy, truly easy…note to selves: one we could take our kids on.
This trail was sprinkled with magic and some pixy dust that had settled in my camelback. We saw horses, wonderful and friendly people and a new friend named Violet. I saw a dog that I could’ve taken home and the owner informed me he would be back on the trail the following day for me to admire some more.
We scaled a wall down to find our own personal waterfall and spun around like giddy school girls on tree lined paths. THIS is what makes the work week worth all the crap! THIS! This feeling of look what we can do! Look how awesome we are to push ourselves to the limit even when the limit is lower speed~
I found a mansion in which I could pretend was the perfect spot for getting hitched as we swung back around to the end of our trail. It was perfect…
The day I needed; Alone on a trail with my darling friend. Away from it all and taking an easy outing along the way to good health.
Nothing feels better than running with my friends. And on the weekends we cannot get together, I miss it. I feel as though I let down the team, myself and my health. And the work week tends to drag. Heres to not missing a weekend!! Cheers!!!

Did someone say BEER?????????????????LOL

*************

Note from Kristine:
She's looking to get hitched, i'm not. just sayin.

Update

So it’s been a rough month for me with work. Things are in a weird place and I have been, instead of losing myself in what I love to do, I have been holing up and hiding. Doing the least amount when it comes to training. I can feel it when I hit the trail and my head starts talking shit to my body. It’s all head and I can’t wait until my head shuts up and I can just run and see how far I can push myself. THAT’S the thing…I want to see how far I can go before I can’t even move.

My new shoes have been the best purchase outside of my 20 dollar camelback I bought since I started this weird ride. I had posted that they were the Montrail Mountain Masochist, but I’m a dumb ass and they aren’t. I had gone into Fleet Feet in Roseville hell bent on returning my other shoes I bought and getting those. They were the other shoe I was debating on. I tried them on and talked to the expert about them and the more he listened to what it is I do exactly he suggested the Brooks Cascadias. When I tried on the Brooks, it was night and day between the two and I ended up getting the Brooks. To say I LOVE them is an understatement, I am IN love with them. They aren’t the prettiest shoe, but when it comes to comfort, grip, support and weight they make up for it. I can’t wait to sink into K2 and see how well they do. This last weekend was the first time they let go of the trail and I ended up sliding off a canyon, but that was my own fault as this wasn’t really a trail but a water washout. Thank God for the tree branch I was able to grab hold of and get back on the ‘trail’.
When I made my way to my destination safely I looked at my shoes and said, “Thank you…that could have been worse!”
I turned back to get back on the main trail and looked at Tabitha and with overwhelming pride I stated one of our many mantras, “WHO DOES THIS SHIT?...we do, that’s who!” and we dug our feet in and started to climb our way out of the offshoot canyon. Holding on to the ground in front of us we made our way up the steep climb.

In the beginning of this year when I started this, Dan and I saw many runners along the WS trails that were in the middle of a race. When I got home I would look up which race they were doing and map the trail and was amazed they were ‘running’ the same trails we were hiking. I never thought I would be signing up for one of those races, but today I pulled up schedule and I looked at it with new eyes. I’m ready. Dan’s ready and so is Tabitha.
Tabitha has been talking about signing up for a few of the street races and I am encouraging her to do that. It’s not my thing, but I told her I would sign up with her and be there for her and when she took off to get a great time I would run too, but my goal is not to compete with anyone, but to complete. Knowing she will always be at the finish line to cheer me on just like she does when my feet finally get me back to the car is amazing. My only fear is that what we do in the canyon and on the trails is dangerous and I don’t want to try to be as fearful as hurting myself out there as before we did the Rocklin Run 5k. We didn’t push ourselves as far as we could have because we didn’t want to hurt ourselves and not run our first 5k.
So I made a deal with myself. I will sign up and be there for her races…but I won’t let myself slow down on the canyon trails in fear of hurting myself. If I can’t run the street race, I will walk it and just be there for her or give my bib to Dan. I’ve been lucky so far, knowing that at 3 miles that blister on my toe will scream at me…at 6 miles my left hip will go out and slow me down for a mile or two. Other than that…it’s all good.

On that note, I am starting the training for my first official ‘trail run race’.

Hike 36

Date: July 31, 2011
Hike Name: "Avery's pond and beyond"
Gate #'s: None
RT: 4.1 miles
Difficulty: Fast and Easy

I had planned out a nice run for us through some deserted old mines. The trial was very wide and shaded, which after last weeks run would have been very welcome.
As it turned out we ran out of a babysitter at 10 am and would need to make this a semi-local and not so far run.

There is a local trail that I have been reading about for a few months and decided it would be a good one to do in cases like this or during the week when getting up to Auburn with the sun going down earlier wouldn't be feasible. We picked this one.



According to the book, this is a popular trail with horses and families with young children. When we got there at 6:45 am there was only one other car in the lot and he was an ultra runner getting ready to head out.
This trail had lots of different off shoots of trails and because for ONCE I finally was smart and printed out the map/directions and had it my camelback we were able to locate where we needed to be. It was awesome running along side of the lake and hearing the early morning wakeboarders and see the small boats floating along doing their fishing. This was something brand new to us as we usually run canyons that climb and descend to the river.

The Trail was very easy to run, unlike last weeks where I came home covered in deep scratches from the blackberry bushes and star thistles.



It is spose to end at Avery's Pond which has a handful of scattered picnic benches where you can stop and take a break for lunch. We didn't have time today so we stopped long enough to get in our Gu and keep moving along to see how far the trail lead out. As you keep moving forward you find more bridges that lead you into a beautiful field of thorn thistles. It was at this point that we were stopped to do some adjusting of our gear that we were passed by two women doing some hard core running. We greeted them and they were nice enough to stop and let us know they were headed to Auburn. YAY, the trail lead to our playground. I asked if they were training for an ultra and they were actually getting ready for the run that we are debating on signing up for. "From here it's only 9 miles. We park our car at the top and use it as an aid station and then run back." GREAT IDEA!
We collectively talked about doing the same thing and we thanked them as they took off down the path of thorns. 18 miles....walk in the park!! If after 9 we decided we were done, we had a car to get us back.
Today, we would need to turn around and get moving back.



4 miles wasn't long enough to get me into the 'mind fuck' I usually have myself in at around 7 miles. Every time I am out running I have so many things going through my head and at some point my head starts telling me to stop, you can't do this, why are you doing this again? stop running and walk. Around the end of mile three I realized I was almost done with this run and my mind decided to kick into over board. I stopped at one point with Tabitha far ahead and Dan far behind I had a chance to just stop for a second and doubt myself to the umptenth degree. "You will fail at this just like you fail at everything else in your life!"
I started sinking so quickly that I nearly had an anxiety attack. So I gathered myself and started running. "Get to the place where nothing matters!" I told myself and tried to find the mile 8 brain mentality where there is nothing left but the sound of the birds, my water sloshing around and my feet hitting the trail...when all I can see is the trail in front of me and making sure I don't fall or trip over shale or anything else that might jump out at me.
Even chickens still run around when their head is cut off. This lead me to a whole line of thinking and I kept moving.



When we got back to the car I nearly felt jipped. This wasn't nearly long enough for me...and what a feeling that was. 4 miles wasn't long enough for me. That made up for the mind fuck I had earlier because for once I finally felt like I passed that place where I doubt my abilities.




Next weekend though...It's going to be a doozy!

Hike 35

Date: July 24, 2011
Hike Name: "Ruck a Chucky Rapids "
Gate #'s: 101
RT: 11.4 miles
Difficulty:Oh boy, this was a humdinger!

It's been too long since we tested out a new trail and I have been saying since we started this that I wanted to do Ruck A Chucky. It's a part of the Western States 100 mile endurance run.

We found that the road back to the trail head was one you must have a four wheel drive. By the time we found the gate we were giggling from the drive in. This seriously couldn't be a trail that many people would use because the accessibility is rugged.



I decided we needed a picture of all of us because we hadn't taken one in a long time. Dan got the camera set up and we thought for sure we got a good shot. Dan pulled up the picture and insisted we take another shot. "OMG! YOU CAN SEE MY NIPPLES!" Tabitha and I lost it. I was laughing so hard! As Dan was setting up the camera we decided that when it beeped it's last beep we would both hide ours. The first 10 minutes and we were already laughing, it was going to be a good run!



As you start out, you're a little bit above the water and at one point you look down and see the rapids. I say this all the time when I am describing being out there, but I can't convey enough the enormity of where we are. Canyons so deep and the water so big, you feel small when you are in the thick of it.

We took off on for a nice rally, it felt great to be able to get out there and just feel the heat and air beating into your skin. It was time to test out the new shoes. I've been feeling a little strange on my left shin and ankle, but I know it wasn't the shoes. It was from me thinking I should be out running on pavement when my body just craves the trails.
The night before I was putting together my hammock and I pinched a dime size chunk out of the bottom of my foot and my first thought was, "oh fuck, this is going to take me off my game!" but I wrapped it up with some sports bandaids and hoped my new shoes would do the rest of the work. They kicked ass! I didn't feel it at all during the run.
We slowed down as we got to this part in the river where it's 100 feet across. It was so quiet out there it looked like the river wasn't even moving at all. I was in awe of it and it took a few minutes to get back in the groove of running again.



Somewhere on the trail it turns to sand and you're running through these thick star thorn thistles. The best thing to do was to keep running and jump over the blackberry stems that shot out along the way until your reach this enormous wall of blackberry and then grapes. We stopped and the berries were so big and warm they would burst in your mouth.

Just when you start to get really hot from all the exposed trail and hills you come across a small brook of water running across the trail. We stopped and drenched ourselves in it and checked to make sure we were on the right trail.

Then it goes up...and up...and up. The river is so far below you that you don't think you'll ever make it down to it. Then just when you don't think you can go up anymore you go down...and it's some steep stuff. I was happy to finally get a break where I can hit cruise control, but noted that coming back up this was going to kick my ass.



We began to see the rafters below us and we knew they had to be docking from Ford's Bar. We could see it way up ahead, but as always we were fooled by the distance.

"Do it movin' people!" Tabitha cheered us on after she gave up the lead because she had suddenly gotten my super power and was hearing all of God's creatures making their way up and down the canyon walls. I took the lead for awhile and set the pace until I was tired of being the spider web breaker and let Dan go.



Up again. Tabitha's stomach started to growl and she turned a little snatchy. "Come on! I'm hungry!" The pace picked up until we reached the final destination. The river opened up and we could walk down to it. Her shoes were coming off and I was tempted to just go run into it without even taking off mine. We pulled out our food, but I was too overheated. The water was cold as hell but I kept walking and walking until it was at my waist and then I dropped down. HEAVEN. If heaven is freezing cold water on overheated skin, that is where I was.
I cheered on Tabitha when she finally decided to take the plunge. "it's fucking COLD!" she complained at shin level. "GO! I SWEAR TO GOD YOU WILL THANK ME!" I did it again to show her how amazing it felt. She dropped down and dunked in. Now it was Dan's turn. He had been hanging out getting his feet wet when I started cheering him on, "Come on Dan!! Go buddy! You can' do!!" He moved further into the water declaring he would he was just trying to acclimate to the temperature. "You can't, it's too cold, just go!" It was at that point he shouted, "My testicles are up in my throat right now, leave me alone!" And I did. Not being a proud owner of a pair, I'm sure it was a wee bit painful.

Coming back up was as hard as I thought it was going to be. The sun was really beating down on the trail and there was zero wind to keep us cool. This trail is very exposed and you have to keep saying in your head, "Just go. DIG. DIG. DIG deep and find the place that will keep you moving!" I did and when I couldn't anymore I would stop and slow my heart rate again.

The trail went back down and I kept repeating my mantra. "I will Run when I can, Walk when I have to and Stop when I need to." This was a part when I knew I could run and I did.

The trip back up wasn't as long as I had tricked myself into thinking. Canyons, then thorns, then blackberries, the river and split off. From there I am home free." Retracing the trail in reverse helped and telling myself, "Almost there."

We got to the rapids and I knew it was a downhill sprint of a mile to the car. I should run half and walk the last half. It was too hot, it was going to have to be ran.

This was one of the most amazing, mind clearing trail runs I've been on since we started. I told Tabitha, "No one we know has ever seen this." As we looked across the water and canyons. "No one. Not unless you are doing THIS, you'll never know how hard we are working!"

Our goal reminder was seeing the tree tags left by the directors and volunteers of the WS100 team. We all grabbed one and wrapped it around our leg or arm as a reminder of the ultimate goal out there, to get to that run and be strong and smart about it.
Year one we are still rookies and learning as we go.

The one thing I want to remember when we finally get there is in year one of training, Tabitha wore socks with sculls and crossbones or Jeremiah's dinosaur socks. That I was running uphill in the sun and smiling when there was a time when I would worry about walking in the sun across a parking lot and that Dan was too close to a heart attack with how unhealthy he was.
We are a half a year into this and I am so amazed and happy that this is my life now and unless you are there, you'll never know how beautiful it is.