For those of you that came out to my neck of the woods last weekend to run CIM (congrats on finishing) know how cold it was. Add 30 minutes from the start line, up the hill to where I live, it was colder still with snow! Luckily, I was able to get a trail run in at Jenkinson Lake on Friday morning before the snow. It was cold. It was very cold. I am however a wuss, so it might not have been that cold, but it was still cold. And if that is not motivation to keep running, I don’t know what is for once you stopped, it was even colder!
Seriously, how many times can I use the word cold/colder in this paragraph? (I counted 8 times).
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| Trail run warriors! :) |
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| Run like an Egyptian or funky running? |
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| Walking on water! |
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| The waterfall is flowing, but the swim hole is partially frozen. |
So moving on from the cold (9) convo, UMM and I braved the snow and took a drive out to Auburn for the Western States 100 lottery draw on Saturday. This marks UMM’s second attempt to get into the Western States race. Each year that your name does not get drawn earns you an extra ticket. An additional ticket can also be earned if you are present at the lottery. So why wouldn’t we go right? With so many friends and familiar faces filling up the Placer High School auditorium, it was truly a run party! I was obviously not entered, but sitting there with bated breath for the next two hours was pure agony just hoping that UMM and other friends names would be called.
If you only had one ticket in the draw, the chances were slim at six percent. Out of 2,300 lottery hopefuls, the odds were certainly not in our favor. But then the name was called…...Matthew Curtis, and I leapt out of my chair prematurely. It wasn’t UMM at all but a name similar. What a horrible tease. I am happy to report however, that shortly after that teaser, UMM’s name was indeed drawn!!!! He had two tickets entered. I was ecstatic. He was over the moon! I realize I will hardly be seeing UMM these next months of training, but I will be his biggest supporter! This is something he has wanted to do for quite some time and I am thrilled he is going to be able to make his dream a reality. And thus his training begins!
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| Gordy starting off the lottery draw |
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| Scott & UMM lucky lottery winners |
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| Group picture of all lottery winners that were present |
December is certainly the month for the ultra running lotteries. Miwok, Way Too Cool, Western States, just to name a few. Did you put your name in any lottery draws? What is on your bucket list?
I hope you have The San Francisco Marathon on that bucket list of yours! A bit of motivation perhaps?
:)
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I'm so excited for UMM...I've got Western States in my diary to come, camp and cheer. It'll be nice to have someone specific to cheer for! The lottery system sounds pretty much like picking tributes for the Hunger Games though. Didn't you fancy volunteering as tribute in his place? :)
ReplyDeleteI sympathise about the cold. We're in Colorado at the moment and I've been for two runs in the cold and it's brutal. Part of me is loving how tough it makes me feel and part of me can't wait to get back to the Bay Area to wear shorts again!
It WAS cold! The buses coming in from El Dorado for the CIM transit to the start had snow on them which entertained me. I apparently have lost all of my Michigan blood because I'm cold too. SO happy for Matt getting into Western States. I entered the NYC marathon lottery because I think it'd be a cool race to do some day. We'll see!
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