Dry Wash Runners

There is this hump that I'm starting to crest. Sometimes it seems like an insurmountable mountain. Sometimes I feel the weightlessness of the downhill side. And now it's November 16th, cold and dark, and after a tub of Ben and Jerry's I'm struggling to find motivation to do the activity I love most. Lately the thing that has gotten me out the door and onto the trail have been my entries into trail races. No matter how out of shape I am these days 20mi on Cougar Mountain ain't all that hard. I recently ran the last Cougar Mountain trail run of the year hosted by Seattle Running Club and before that thoroughly enjoyed Candice Burt's, Cle Elum 25k (aka 28k). Now that Candice has punched the sky with her audacious Tahoe 200 I find myself dreaming and pining for the open trail...and trying to will myself to do the training that will get me into some of the longer races. First stop will be a few more 25k and 50k races, then a 50mi, then a 100mi, then hell

In short my story of running has been essentially a story about me getting out of the way of myself. But before I could learn about getting out of my own way I had to get rid of the technology that was getting in the way of me discovering myself. And if that sounds like nonsense I won't be surprised, for in some ways sense had nothing to do with it. This story like all the best stories started with a girl. It started with a girl I once liked and the shoes she wore. Enter the five figured Vibram. Vibrams When I first donned Vibrams, my first pair of minimalist running shoes I had no idea they were even made for running. Nor did I have any inkling that this weird guy named 'Barefoot Ted' (who lived only a few miles to my south) had a hand in persuading Vibram into making a running 'shoe'. At the time I hadn't even heard of ultra-marathons or running Tarahumara Indians or crazy Eat and Run vegans named Scott Jurek. No, I just liked a girl who ran b