Sunday I woke up to 24 inches of snow. It snowed another 12 Monday.  So I decided to run my long run Sunday night to free up Monday morning for skiing.  I ran 13.1 miles last night between 8-10 p.m.  I never run at night, and never on Sundays except vacation. But it had to be done. Got up to Sundance by 8:30 and got all the fresh stuff for 4 hours straight.  The powder was sick.  I was thrashed by noon.  Came home at 12:30 when everyone else showed up for half day and the lines got longer. MAN what a morning, that was some awesome snow, there was no wind and some sunshine.  I am still high.  These days have been few and far between this winter.

Today I ran lots of little segments around the house to test out the mileage so I could know how far things are w/o the Garmin.  When I finished up, it landed at 7.16 and I'm not even OCD enough to need to run that .04 to round that up to 7.20  I know I just made all you running freaks cringe.  9:43 AP

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_47037ed0-1810-52e2-afc6-fe30569dc093.html  For work, we set up a Curt Brinkman scholarship fund.  Curt of course, in the wheelchair division, won the St. George Marathon lots of times, won the Boston Marathon and several others across the crountry.  He was also Paraolympian gold medalist. Before being in a wheelchair he stood 6'7 and had dreams of becoming a pro basketball player.  When he lost his legs at 17 he was tortured by the thought of not being able to walk again.  But from that greif he summoned the will to become a true champion and world class athelete. Curt spoke at a couple of our Kidney Camps and never failed to inspire and connect to the struggles of those having to survive on dialysis and wait for a transplant. One of his best friend's brother had been a dialysis patient and later received a transplated kidney donated by the man's wife.  Since Curt died last September, we developed a scholarship fund called "Will to Win" that would be made available to any youth transplant recipient (kidney, heart, pancreas, etc).   So yesterday we had a luncheon to announce the first scholarship recipient: Ryan Proctor. I know Ryan because she singlehandly raised $600 for a Kidney Walk he had a few years ago.  The whole experience of remembering Curt, seeing his massive shoulders push that wheelchair, remembering what an affiable, positive person he was; remembering Ryan and her struggles to overcome both kidney failure (10 hours a night on dialysis) and later thyroid cancer, really gave me pause.  We are so lucky who have health, we strive for excellence or to overcome our own challenges. But I was reminded as I am so often through my work what a gift a healthy body is.  Curt and Ryan challenge us to look at what they overcome, to give us the strength to overcome whatever it is we think we can not.  It was a great day.  Curt Brinkmann was a great man.  I'm really proud to be part of the scholarship fund and give young people who have struggled to get through school through chronic illness and financial hardship, the opportunity to go to college.     

10:03 ap Today's run was hard following yesterday's 9. In addition I had at least 1 mile of 35% grade at mile 2 and mile 5. Today's weather made me remember last year trying to do speed work outs pre-Boston on those same hills up and down up and down; panicked about whether or not I could run Boston with any grace. It was the beginning of the end of last year. Running this hard in February is a crime against nature. All white people should be hibernating right now. Our genes have adapted to closing shop for the winter in order to survive our Northern European winters. Why am I running? Someone please remind me to never sign up for a Marathon before May. I like skiing more than I like Marathon training. I don't mind running and skiing, but it's training that takes up the mojo. Everyone keeps whining about this incoming storm. When will it stop? I am sick of this weather....While they whine; I am silently giddy and begin to peruse the national weather service snow reports to see how many inches are predicted.  Last week was only the second good storm we’ve had all winter.   I had a moment last weekend so beautiful and perfect it has sustained me and given me strength all the days of this week.  Here it is:  On my first lift ride up I could see the quality and quantity of the newly fallen snow (36 inches of Pow).   I rushed off the lift without slowing, and flew over top of the rim at Bishop's Bowl.  I caught a good bit of air, taking my breath away, until I landed about 10 feet from the lip.  The snow so soft and ample, the landing caught my skis in a downy embrace as I floated the rest of the way down the bowl; literally in heaven.  I spend days and weeks longing for those moments of beauty and freedom.  Without the bike trail behind my house, this has become my only connection to the outdoors I crave so much. 

Ran a quick easy 4 to dedicate the rest of the morning to 12 new inches of silky dry powder.  It was great snow, but windy and Zero visiblity.  Tomorrow I have to do 18 EIGHTEEN miles.  I'm only going to be able to get to 20-21 before DC. But it's better than nothing. I'm going to miss running with Jos and Ericka tomorrow, but there is no way I can get up as early as they need to tomorrow.  It's going to take me all day to get that 18 miles in the bank.  I hear it's going to snow some more so I may have to do half on the ground and half on the treadmill.  We'll see what happens.

The first 18 miles were run on the trail in 3 inches of fresh wet snow.  I wore my best 'traction' shoes , a pair of Mizunos, that have a hole in the heel (austensibly for shock absorption).  However that hole packed itself full again and again with fresh snow, converting my shoes into those sickening "fitness" shoes everyone is paying $40 for (the ones that look like a pair of teeter-totter wedges).  The further I ran up the canyon, the fresher and fluffier the snow became; tauning me that I was plodding and slushing along on that fresh snow, instead of gliding over the top of it on skis. The run was so slow, labored, and unenjoyable,  I ran back to the house utterly disgusted with myself.  I vaguely enjoyed the solitude of the trail, the stillness of the windless morning, the fresh whiteness of the world or the solidarity I normally would have felt with the with the few brave other runners.  I should have brought my dogs and called it a walk.  I came in the house, changed out of my soaking wet gear and  ran another 2 miles on the treadmill in my bra while crying; utterly exhausted, and dissapointed it took me 4 hours to run 20 miles.  In retrospect, it was a hard run in the snow, a lot of canyon uphill, back up hill toward the cementary, etc.  I don't know where all this negativity is coming from. But I am dissapointed with myself.