Two weeks of insanity...

Wow, a lot has happened in the few weeks since I've posted.

First, I (finally) graduated from nursing school on May 13th.  This journey took 9 1/2 years, beginning at Madison Area Technical College back in 2001, and travelled to this day via waypoints of the United States Army (where I trained as served as a medic and licensed practical nurse), Columbus State Community College, Monroe Community College, SUNY College at Brockport, and finally ending at the University of Rochester.

I feel very fortunate to also already have a job (actually, I was hired a little over a month ago), working in the Burn-Trauma ICU at University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital.  How many people truly land their dream job right out of the starting gate?  I am truly blessed, even though Dave has already spent my first several paychecks in his head!

I have also been spending the past few weeks wrapping my head around my first marathon, which will be this Saturday (May 28th)...the Sehgahunda Trail Marathon.  Now, why the hell I chose one of the hardest trail marathons in the eastern US is beyond me (no wait...because a road marathon would bore the bejeezus out of me).  That said, I am not certain I will finish this race.  There is an 8 hour cutoff, and while I am a 10:30 minute miler on my long runs these days, "maintaining" (I use this word loosely, as you may figure out later) the required 17:30-18:30 pace has been quite daunting.  There are over 110 "gullies" (straight down-cross stream-straight up) on this course, and the access points to the aid stations (a requirement) are quite steep.  Basically this race is either going up, or down.  Not that running a certain pace is possible on trails anyway, but finding a rhythm on this course is near impossible. 

It's not that I don't have the endurance, it's the confidence to relax on the downhills and make up time like most runners in the free world do.  Ever since I severely sprained my ankle during the first stage of the Dirt Cheap Stage Race in 2009 (on a downhill no less), I just can't open up and enjoy the downhills that I once owned in my trail races.  Considering the STM is about as technical as it gets (and almost all single-track), every step freaks me out. 

All I can do is try, give it my all, and if I get pulled at Checkpoint #3, so be it.  There will always be another race.

At first my goal was to finish and not die.  Now it's only to finish...