Not your mother's trail race

Wait, who am I to judge? Maybe this is your mother's kind of trail race. Maybe she does these kind of trail races in her sleep, while reciting the lyrics from Ace of Bases "The Sign" backwards and...on her hands. Your mother is a wonderful women I'm sure. What I meant to say is this is not my mother's trail race. Unless at the end of the trail there was a carton of Salem Lights and Haagen Daas. Then we'd be talking.

Anyway, one of my 2007 resolutions was to compete in more "fun" runs. I use the quotes because my friends mocked me saying, "how can running be fun?" To which I replied, "No, how can running be more fun?" See how I showed them.

The answer turned out to be relay races. In 2006, I competed in the Muddy Buddy. Many important lessons were learned on this race. First, even though the rules state you need a hydration system, you don't. I was happy to have mine, but my partner wasn't used to running with one. Second, it says you can use any bike, but you really need a mountain bike. Third, biking is hard. We were going through sand, water, mud, fields of hot coals, you name it. In the end, we didn't post a great score, but I had a great time and I was happy that I tried something new and exciting.

In the beginning of 2007, a group of us decided that we were going to do the Jimmy Stewart relay Marathon. It was the perfect race since we were all on different running levels. Some of us could run 5 miles in our sleep (like your mom -- oh gosh, that's not how I meant that to sound) while others had set five miles as a new running goal. We were making preparations. We were thinking of team names. We were waiting for them to open registration for this years race. That's when we finally realized that this years race was not taking place due to construction in Griffith Park. Back to square one.

I dove back in to looking for a race. That's when I discovered Wild Miles. It claims to be the "ultimate 2 day road trip. Your ten-man team has to cover 180+ miles over two days. The trail wasn't posted at that time, but it promised to be a challenging all-terrain adventure. When you weren't running, you were crammed in a van with other sweaty folks. You could be attacked by a moutain lion, a homeless person or your own teammates. This...this was the race for me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't run the race alone. The folks who were so excited about the 26 mile relay didn't seem so enthusiastic about multiplying that distance by seven. "C'mon," I said, "you could do a bunch of the shorter legs!" Sadly, they stuck to their reasoning and level headed thinking and I was on my own.

I posted a message on the Wild Miles board and soon found myself a team. One of my friends from LA changed her mind and decided to join. I called my parents to let them know and they seemed really excited that I'd be in a van with men I didn't know. They couldn't be happier. I think they've already written my obituary.

I guess what really excites me about Wild Miles is the people. I know that when I started running marathons people looked at me like I had just told them I was going to try and walk on water. They always asked, "Why? Why do you want to do that?" We all have our reasons I guess. But what's nice about Wild Miles is that while my friends are still asking me "why?" my teammates and the other competing teams get it. They don't need to know specifically why you're doing it, but in their hearts, they know that us "crazy" runners are all united. It's like a nice big family. Tear.

The point of this rambling post is that we're still looking for a few more runners to complete that family. If you're in the Southern California area and your looking for a fun, insane way to spend the weekend of April 28th-29th, let me know. If you're close to LA, I'd be more than happy to train together. I have yet to switch over from my marathon training to my Wild Miles training, so I am a clean slate. A clean slate of awesome.

What's 180 miles among friends?