Two Days to the Zion 100/50

Two days to go to the biggie. Jeff Grabowski, who ran across the entire USA last year, wearing a Foundation t-shirt for part of it, will be pacing me the last 23 miles. I have complete faith that he will keep me pointed in the right direction when logic fades away. Izzy told me yesterday that I was getting fat since I started tapering. Guess I'm ready for a long run. Daily massages and lots of rest this week have helped me prepare. Erik arrives friday am, and the kids are counting down the hours. So am I. This race will be hot. Over 15 miles of the race covers wide open desert, and the rest runs on mostly single track trails through Zion National Park and surrounding areas. I love the heat, I love the limitless mountains, I love the trails, and I love the quiet...so a full day of running is my Mother's Day present to myself. Anything could happen in a race this long and the key is to just stay calm, fix what isn't working and keep puttingone foot in front of the other. At the Ironman this weekend, which started in a reservoir in Hurricane, Utah, hurricane force winds wreaked havock. A local commented to me, "The town is called Hurricane for a reason." Uh, oh, okay. So, the Zion 100/50 starts in a town called Virgin. Hmmm. Anyway, the organizers of this race are locals and they are amazing. Just to give an idea of how cool they are, their mom is making the chicken soup for one of the aid stations, and they are serving up amazing grub at the aid stations, like burritos and snow cones! Alex and Izzy think this is the coolest race too. We ran about 2 miles on single track this morning, and Alex was truly in him element. The difficult trails challenge his balance, and I have to keep myself from saying "be careful!" every minute. This morning he fell, picked himself up and said, "It's alright Mom. That's life. You fall, you get back up and keep going." I'll try to keep that in mind on Saturday. To track my progress-I'm number 785: http://www.ultralive.net/zion50/webcast.php