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Been awhile! Well actually I thought I was ready to let the old blog go, but I've decided it isn't time yet and nothing gets my the juices going like another 100 mile race. Besides, I need more reading material for my later years when I'm less mobile and reminiscing of younger more active days:)

The running has actually been good this year, wish I wrote about it. I greeted January with a lot of enthusiasm and high hopes and it translated to more training and better running. A bout with pneumonia in the spring put a small damper on things and hurt my training for spring/early summer races but I still managed a finish at the Lake Sonoma 50-mile and the Quicksilver 100k. It was slower going, harder, but overall solid runs. I took a small break after Quicksilver, it slapped me around a bit, then continued training for the Cascade Crest 100 mile. Got in great runs and a couple of running trips in June; Dana's birthday run on the Rogue River trail in Oregon and pacing my buddy Stan at the San Diego 100-mile. Now here we are at the end of August and tomorrow is Cascade Crest! Time flies. I was over trained heading into taper and first two weeks of the taper I felt sluggish and horrible. I was irritable and but I've bounced back this week—just in time!

This is my second time at Cascade, I ran it 10 years ago and I'm pumped for the opportunity to enjoy WA trails again. Unfortunately it's been rough here with the wildfires, bad situation with real lives impacted. In light of this, a 100 mile races seem so arbitrary and frivolous and because of it I'm much more relaxed and less anxious—it's just a race. Thankfully a storm front is scheduled to hit tonight, bringing rain for the weekend and into the beginning of next week. I can tell you that thankfulness was not my first feeling when I first heard about the weather forecast but now I think it's the best thing. That rain will help with the fires and scrub the smoky skies. There will be wind too, it will feed the fires but I'm hoping for strong rain. So it will be wet, slippery, muddy, windy and cold and we will have fun doing it. This is the Pacific Northwest after all. Because of the drought in California, I haven't had a good storm run in several years. I'm sure to get my fill of it tomorrow.

So yeah, back for more:

- writing/blogging

- trail running in the PNW

- rain and mud