Having fun?
So, the night before Oil Creek, I leaned over to Roger and I said, “if one more person tells me to ‘have fun’, I’m going to lose it.” He looked at me, like I had lost my mind. It didn’t take him long to realize that I HAD lost my mind. Oil Creek gets in my head like no other race. I train hard for it, and it is in my mind during every race I do. Heck, I even dream about it. Have fun? Not a chance. I was obsessing about pace, and gear, and weather, and bears. I was going to attempt the 100-mile distance, and KNEW I could get the job done in 34 hours. The problem was that I was only given 32. (Roger—you know you were out of your mind telling me 30, right?) The race started at 5 am. Rog had been telling me to stay on his shoulder from the start until sunrise or AS1. I stood right next to him, and lost him immediately. Dammit. I was worried (imagine that) about the condition of the trail, as it had rained much of the week prior. Things were slick, and