Lesson one: Rolling with it

I spent the weekend of June 24-25 at the Western States 100 mile Endurance run. I had the opportunity to crew and pace Darcy Africa for the last 20 miles of the race. Through the intense heat she ran really smart and was able to finish 3rd girl, 13th overall in a time of 20:53. The race was brutal this year with roughly a 50% finish rate and only 52 people finished under 24 hrs.


Krissy and Darcy at the Western States 100




Krissy's car...


After a delayed flight into Seattle I got a few hours sleep before waking up to go to work the next morning. Unfortunately when I went out to my car I found it pushed up on the sidewalk, the front bumper a couple meters away and the front driver's tire/wheel broken away from the car. The front of the car was lying on the sidewalk and the rear passenger tire was up in the air. It was quite shocking as my road trip was supposed to start on the following Saturday and the one thing I needed to be able to be "on the road" was sitting in a heap before my eyes.

The following days were filled with rushing around and waiting for phone calls. This was also my last week of work at Montrail, so between calls to the insurance company and autobody shop and wrapping up things at the office the week flew by. Also, to keep moving forward as close to the original plan as I could I bought a one-way plane ticket to Salt Lake City to meet up with Sylvie (Team DART-nuun Cyril's girlfriend) to drive to Moab and meet up with the team as they finished the race, hoping that I'd be able to fit in Matt's van for the drive home.

Thursday, my last day at work, ended up being a lot of fun. We had a Baja Fresh catered lunch and a swag giveaway for the entire staff. The new Montrail Promotions/PR person was up and he and I snuck out for a run to wrap up the day. Returning from the run I checked my email account one last time and was surprised to find a message from Matt. Unfortunatley one of his team members, Ryan VanGorder had suffered severe heat stroke and had to be airlifted to the hospital. Their team withdrew.

Now I sit in Moab relaxing with the team. The mood is good as Ryan is improving everyday and the doctors do not think there will be any permanent damage. We were able to watch our friends from Team SOLE finish in 7th place yesterday afternoon and hike up to Castlerock and the Priest & Nuns. They are sorting gear and each of us are slowly making plans for when to head home. There is a closing ceremony on July 4, and most of the team will stick around for that celebration.



Team SOLE...



Primal Quest...


This has been a challenging year already with a couple of major life changes. I feel as though I am being challenged to learn some of life's difficult lessons all with in a couple of months. Moving on, I thought I had a perfect plan, that once I got done with work I could separate from the difficulty that I faced earlier this year and move on, but once again craziness strikes. I hope to keep a positive attitude, keep moving forward and enjoying all of the good and learn from each experience. Gotta roll with it.