Ferocious Fourteen

My chest is on fire and sweat is burning my eyes. I am in a trance as I trounce up Blacketts Trail. I used to hate this trail. Now I love (to hate) this trail. I ignore the pain and scoff at the voice telling me to stop. I love it.

These moments are special. Every single one of them. I can see I am about to hit the summit, so I push past the pain. Beyond. I feel alive. My lungs scream for mercy. It is all so invigorating. I remember when I would sit alone in my apartment, terrified of what was outside. Terrified of tomorrow. 

Now I am free. I am free and I am at home in the mountains. This is my life. I want to escape to nature and push myself beyond comfort. Comfort is settling. 

I finally crest the summit. My heart is on the verge of explosion. "That was awesome!" I shout. I pull a bag of beef jerky out of my pocket and chew up a handful of meat. I feel like an animal. 

This run was special. I didn't have that lingering knee pain. It was gone. Miraculously, it went away. This was my first pain free run since I injured myself prior to Javelina... 

The end of 2013 was not picture perfect. In fact, the end of what was my best year of running was downright disappointing. Failing to finish Javelina and getting lost at McDowell was how I finished up my racing season.. An injury riddled two months with a couple of DNF's was how I wrapped up my year. 

After McDowell, I began to listen to my body. My right knee was hurt and I hadn't given it a chance to heal. Hobbling around at work while trying to ignore the pain was beginning to wear on me. Frustrated, I finally thought, "maybe I am going to have to rest for a couple months..?" To the average person this doesn't sound half bad, but I am not an average person.

I run.

"Gotta take some time off" I explained to Kristi. My grand-plan of the Coldwater Rumble 100 mile "redemption race" was out the door. "Maybe some time off would be good for you" Kristi suggested. "Good for me? Hopefully I don't go on some kind of rampage killing..." I morbidly thought. Why is it that running is everything to me? 

Because it saved me.

So I stopped running. A week went by and my knee felt just the same.. "Shouldn't it be getting better?" I wondered. After 11 days off my knee felt exactly the same. On the 12th morning of no running, I climbed out of bed and put some weight on my knee. "Wow.. No pain..." 

It's quite amusing looking back on how dramatic I get when I can't run. "My knee is never gonna get better.. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this stuff..?" I would sadly think. "If only I could run injury free forever.." I would daydream. 

But as fate would have it, I healed. And now I stand on top of a mountain, soaking in our planets wonder. I am free. 

As the calendar year rolls over, thirteen bleeds into fourteen and I have been infused with a passion and desire to excel far beyond what I thought possible. 

It is going to be a Ferocious Fourteen!


               "The mountains are calling and I must go."
                                                  ~John Muir

Blacketts Ridge