While it has been pretty dang busy around the Sorenson household the past two months, I am still carrying a heavy guilt load due to not covering Becky's AMAZING performance in the Grand Traverse!!! Hopefully this post will help alleviate my conscience and earn me back some husbandry points!
As you may or may not know, SOMEONE signed Becky up for the 10-mile version of the Grand Traverse. Then a funny thing happened. Due to road construction, they had to change the 10-miler starting line - adding another 1.5 miles. And the 1.5 miles that were added? They were pretty much straight uphill! Did it phase her? Maybe a little, but she did not hesitate or consider backing out and she TORE IT UP!!!
However, it didn't and she made it to the finish line with Amy and Lindsey who supported her along the way. I even caught up to them part way through and was able to share some mid-race time walking with her out of the Haines Road aid station.
Not to get lost in the shuffle of the Sorensons and their trail escapades is the fact that Jay Anderson made his trail running debut on the 10-mile course as well.
One of the highlights of finishing was having Lake Superior right there at our disposal. After watching several other runners wade in and cool down, Jay and I decided that we absolutely had to do it too. So, we made our way down to the Lakewalk, crossed over and walked into ol' frigid Gitche Gumee right up to our waists. Dare I say it felt sooooooooo good! Icy water on the legs for 15 minutes or so after 11 or 17 miles on the trail was heavenly!
While Jay and I were waiting for the girls to finish, we were joined by the Sorenson Stampede Legend herself, Stacy, at the finish line. I can't even describe how sweet it was and what a good time I had sitting by a deck railing at Fitger's overlooking Lake Superior on a 70+ degree fall day while enjoying an adult beverage or three with my sister and my best friend. It was one of those days where I had to take mental pictures because there was no way a camera could have done it justice.
So what's next? Well, in the two months since, I had run a total of zero miles until Sunday, November 23. Despite packing on a few pounds since I last ran, I enjoyed it. Then we had our Annual Black Friday family 5k-or-so at the Peterson Family Hunting Complex and that too felt pretty good.
Then, later the next day, I was made aware of a post by Jeff stating that to stave off holiday weight-gain, if people just ran a mile a day between Thanksgiving and New Year's, they would run 36 miles in that span. Well, because I like to open my big mouth - especially after enjoying some rather tasty imperial stouts from Rathskeller's in the basement of Tycoon's in Duluth - I decided to send out a challenge to most of the Stampede family to up the ante a bit and commit to 50 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Apparently the message was received because as of this writing, 24 people have signed on to report their weekly mileage to me every Monday to see if we all can knock this out while supporting each other. Ahhhh....good times! Since then I've logged 4 miles and 5.1 miles respectively on the treadmill at Anytime and - believe it or not - am glad to be back at it.
Well, that's it for now. I'll leave you with a mini slideshow of pictures from the Grand Traverse and a promise that I won't let another two months slide by before my next post.
Until then, Merry Christmas to all!!! ('tis the season!!!)
--Stu