My plan today was to run/hike for 8 hours. Well – I only had 6.5 hours in me. Ran the downhills and hiked the uphills. I ran some ups when I could, but it was a good opportunity for me to practice my hiking skills.

Here’s my elevation map for today – talk about blazing some trails. I had no idea how far I was going or what the terrain was going to be. I looked at the Ridge to Rivers map for Shaffer Butte, and I picked a couple of trails. Youch! I went up about 850 feet in my first mile. But it was about 630 am, and it was still a nice and cool 70 degrees. That was fun. Next 3 miles, I added about 300 more feet each mile. What a way to start the day!

See that “V” around mile 4? That trail was named “The Tempest” so I had to check it out. But when it kept going down, down, down…I decided that I would save it for another day. So I only went down about 1/2 mile, then straight back up for a 350 foot climb in 1/2 mile. Geez – think if I had kept going down. Yikes.

After I came down off that side of the mountain, I went over to the Nordic ski lodge where I planned to run some of the cross-country ski trails. Here’s a tip: It was a lot longer than it looked like on the map. Ended up being ~13 miles with the first half of that going down. Aren’t you supposed to finish on the downhill, not the uphill? Who knew?

Then I got turned around the last hour, and I ran out of water. That was a bummer. And it had climbed to almost 90 degrees by that time… and I had more sun by that time – but it was 10 degrees cooler on the mountain than in the city, so that was a plus. I was pretty tired by the time I finally found the lodge (and my car), but I had a frozen bandana (yes a bandana not a banana) in a baggie in my cooler – It had thawed out, but it was still cold and wet – felt so good on my face and neck – ah, what a relief.  I rehydrated when I got to the car and drove home with my cold bandana around my neck.

When I realized I was a little off course at the end…and that I would probably not be going 8 hours today, I thought about something I read a couple of nights ago in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. At the time, I couldn’t remember exactly, but he says that running is like “the game of life – You never know how hard it will be. You never know when it will end. You can’t control it. You can only adjust.”

I made a few adjustments today, and everything turned out just fine. What a terrific day.

The t-shirt asks…”How much fun can you have in 24 hours?”

The answer: As much as you decide you want to have. And I had a TON of fun in my first 24-hour event.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a road trip from Boise to Laramie, Wyoming, to participate in this 24-Hour “race.” I use the word race loosely because for most ultrarunners, the event is not like the traditional race that most runners are accustomed to. It’s an event, a run, a run/walk even…but not really a race…except for a handful of the faster runners.

People often ask me, “You RUN for 24 hours?” or “You RUN for 65 miles?” Technically, the answer is “no – you have to take walk breaks.” And, the fact is, all ultrarunners walk part of the course. So, probably, a better title is “endurance event.” It’s all about endurance – of both body and mind.

At the Laramie 24-Hour endurance event, there were actually several “events”: a 12-hour, a 24-hour, and a 100-miler. I chose to participate in the 24-hour in preparation for my 100-mile event (the Bear 100) in September…to practice and experiment with clothes, shoes, socks, headlamps, flashlights, food, drink, sleep deprivation…and such things.

My two main goals were 1)to go through the whole night and 2)to go more miles than I had ever gone before. I had previously gone 62 miles, so I felt 65 was a reasonable goal. Speed was not a goal.  It is amazing what happens when you “dial in” a distance in your head – can you figure how many miles I went in Laramie? Yep, 65 miles.

The whole experience was terrific. Just the education of what worked and what didn’t was worth the 10-hour drive (each way).

Reid Delman, the race director, was great as were the volunteers. They took care of all the runners’ needs day and night. The course was well-marked, the food was super, and the cheerfulness of the volunteers helped to inspire the runners to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Reid puts on a number of events – his company is Gemini Adventures. Not only would I recommend his events to other runners, but also I plan to do another one sometime.