Whats in a number?

What is in a number? I guess thats mostly a stupid question, but as I sat staring at my safety pin of race numbers it brought back a lot of memories.  When I started this blog earlier this year I intended to get through a marathon.  Instead I ended up pushing myself through to a 50k. Something that was so far out of scope for me, that if you would have asked me in February this year if I would ever attempt a race of that distance I would have just laughed and said it was for crazy people.  Maybe it still is and I have officially joined the ranks of crazy?

The number on the far left is from the Summit Triathlon   Its really the whole reason I started to get back into shape.  Its funny how something so insignificant can remind you of some of your greatest adventures.

Anyway, I spent most of the time in October, November and December getting to know the trails around Provo canyon.  I have got to say I really do like the trail network up there.  While running in late October up the south side of the canyon on the BST I started thinking about where to go next.  Should I continue with running or should I go back to my roots in triathlon? I can pretend that the decision was a hard one, but honestly it really wasn't.  I have found my groove in trail running and I don't plan on changing anytime soon.  The problem is where to go from here?  Well I guess up was the answer.

I started looking into other races 50m, 100k. I looked around trying to find my options that would be semi close to home.  I considered Zion's 100k and Bryce Canyon 100k but I thought it might be a bit much to jump that high without getting a couple more smaller ultras under my belt.  I put in for the wait list for the Moab Red Hot 55k not really expecting to get in since I was 24th on the list.  I decided that I wanted to run the spring version of the Antelope Island 50k the Buffalo Run for a good training run and prepping for something bigger.

That something bigger as it turns out would be the Squaw Peak 50m.  Since it was local I thought it would be a very good race to run and I would be able to run significant parts of the course before the race.  Finally realizing that I had chosen a hard 50 mile race to run I only had to enter the lottery.  Clicking that submit button was an interesting experience.  It wasn't so much the distance of the race as it will be all the training coming up to the race.  

Well the clouds parted and a sign came from heaven when I got a notification email for the Moab Red Hot saying that I had made it into the race.  Since the Squaw Peak did not reach race capacity there was not a reason to do a lottery and I made it into that one as well.  So there we have it.  Now all I have to do is fill in the blanks in April and May and I will have a full schedule.  I have been thinking about a Zion's traverse sometime around the end of April but that one has so many dependencies.  We will have to see if it actually gets off the ground.

 I have most of my training schedule planned and looks to start on the Monday.  I will post more about that later. For now I just hope the snow doesn't interfere with my longer runs.  I know that I already miss the higher elevation and running BST and Corner canyon all winter looks like it might get old.  I hope I am wrong!