I’ve got 54 days until race day. It took a little bit of time, but I’m finally getting a little bit more comfortable with being on my own with training. I guess it’s because so far, I’ve been fortunate enough to have training runs with my friends. I originally had 13 miles scheduled for this past Saturday and 6 miles Scheduled on Sunday. Since I had previously registered for the Sole of the City 10k, I had to work a couple of miles in before hand. Kendra had planned on getting in 16 miles that day for her Delaware Marathon training, so we figured we’d get in 10 before the 10k. Unfortunately, we only got in 6. We spent too much time having fun and taking pictures like this one…

And this one…

and of course this one…

And of course Kendra got into the act too.

We had a lot of fun, but frankly in the world of training…they were junk miles. Happy, fun junk miles. When we realized what time it was we had to cut the run short and head back to the start.

I absolutely love the Sole of the City 10k. I’ve ran it every year since it’s inception, which happened to be the year I started running and I look forward to it every year. Kendra and I met up with Meg so that the Half pack could run together.

I met up with a few friends that I met through running…

And a friend whom I never met in person until this race. Shout out to Theresa!

We were all the way in the back and missed the opening ceremonies. The race helped raise funds for the Erica Brannock Fund. If you didn’t know, Erika Brannock is a 29 year old preschool teacher from Towson, MD who was seriously injured during the Boston Marathon Bombings on April 15, 2013. She is an inspiration to many runners in our community.

There were no PRs for this race. It wasn’t about that. With us, it’s about us. Just running together smiling, laughing, enjoying the perfect weather, and enjoying each other. It was a great day.

Sunday I met up with my other posse from the HAT Run Ultra training group. We headed down to Great Falls Park to run a part of the North Face ECS course. It was beautiful.

While the temperature got warmer, I didn’t mind. In fact, I was hoping to get some very warm weather training runs in before race day to get my body acclimated. I tried Endurolytes for the first time and I guess it was okay. Honestly, I didn’t feel a difference, but I only took two capsules.

We got in about 2 hours of running for a total of 7.83 miles. I know, I know…only 7.83 miles?! We were trying to follow the race course map and got a little turned around here and there. But, that’s why you check out the course before race day, right? Oh, and we did bump into this guy. This was the first time I ran into a snake on the trails. I guess that’s the benefits of training in the winter. I complained about the snow and ice, but I didn’t have to worry about snakes and ticks. <sigh>

Running the course was exactly what I needed to set my mind at ease. I’m pretty sure that we were able to cover the most technical part of the course and if that’s true, it’s nothing compared to the HAT Run 50k.

I’m feeling better about this, but I won’t let it get to my head. I need to keep in mind that this distance is another 20 miles farther than the longest distance I have ever ran. I’ve got to respect the training and respect the distance and not get too confident about being able to finish this. But I do think, everything is going to be okay.