Girls Gone Wildwood

One of the last runs of 2016 2016 was a good year, but it wasn't a great year. 2016 was the year of readjustments, I spent a good part of the year dealing with a knee issue , a  herniated disc and an iron deficiency , Susan dealt with knee and achilles issues. We were an hour slower at the Oregon Coast 50k , Peterson Ridge 40m  and Wildwood end to end .  Despite all the set backs we still had a pretty eventful year. We crewed our first race at Bandera, we traveled to France to run CCC and experience all that is UTMB. Every race we ran this year we had family who traveled with us and sometimes crewed for us, which made the experiences even more special.  I learned a lot about recovering from an injury and that taking a break is ok. Susan and I both want to be running trails many years from now, I think this year taught us a lot about what we need to do to accomplish this.  One thing we didn't do much of in 2016 was self supported runs outside of Fore...

Only some of my 2015 trail shoes I wasn't sure we would be able to top all our running adventures and achievements in 2014 but somehow 2015 was even more amazing than the previous year. We ran farther (100k), circumnavigated 3 mountains, did our first multi-day run, and had a lot of support and involvement from our families.  One thing that became more apparent this year is we really prefer doing our own self-supported adventure runs versus racing. Races are great for new distances or for getting to run in areas that would be hard for us to do on our own. I love planning routes but more than that we just love spending the day together running in the Cascades .  Also after years of trying to get girlsgonewildwood.com we finally got it!  My favorite picture of us from 2015 Most epic running adventure:  Circumnavigating Mt. Rainier   Selfie with Mt. Rainier Tying up loose ends: Finally comple...

Looking back on 2014 we have nothing to complain about; it was simply an amazing year for us. Sometime in late 2013 we got the crazy idea to run an 85km in New Zealand, which we thought would be our A race. But when that got shortened to 47 miles due to Cyclone Lusi, we decided we had to find another 50 mile race.  We started hearing interviews / podcasts with the legendary  Ann Trason  and in one of them she mentioned she was putting on a 50 mile race on the Western States course. Next thing we knew we were signed-up for it. In preparation we ran around the Three Sisters in Central Oregon, which was around 53 miles.  We also had many self-supported adventures in the Columbia Gorge, Mt. St. Helens area and Mt. Hood National Forest. We dialed in our hydration and food more; I feel like we are eating less but better on our long runs. We had amazing training and support from Animal Athletics .  Of course none of this would've been possible without...

In 2013 we pushed ourselves harder and further (1700 miles+ for the year). I had to deal with a few injuries, a broken wrist and back spams. Susan, with a toddler, had never ending colds. But we were able to keep running and we ran our longest distance to date (41 miles) in an unsupported run (mostly) around Mt. Hood.  We managed to squeeze in quite a few races . Here are a few of our favorite things from the year: Challenge I (Ann) don't want to repeat again: Training for a 50k with a broken wrist . Best Race: Gorge Waterfall 50k Best Training: Animal Athletics mountain goat class Pushing it further (best run): Running around Mt Hood on the Timberline trail Best sticker: > 26.6 Best/Worst Disaster: Susan's fall down Elliot Basin Best Gear: Life Proof iPhone Case   Smartwool training beanie   MSR HyperFlow Microfilter Black Diamond ultra distance trekking poles Best Food: Tortilla wraps Best accessory: A performance-enhancing Kokopelli ...

Trail Love The number 23 is a magical number, and not just because I was born on the 23rd.  The  23 enigma  refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number   23 .  This was our longest run of the year (so far), it was fantastic, and I believe it was because it was 23 miles.     We started at the Saltzman / Skyline trailhead. Saltzman intersects right in the middle of Leif and Wildwood, which makes it a great starting point for a long run, you can run the first half of the run one direction and the second half the other direction. Which is exactly what we did. You also get the bonus of a picnic table at the intersection of Leif and Saltzman. We were really excited to have a place to sit and rest for a few minutes while we had our snacks, but when got to the table there were a bunch of cyclist hanging out. They must of recognized the look of desperation on our faces, ...

A few years ago Susan made an impulse purchase that the Nike outlet store, she bought us both a pair of running gloves. The Nike convertible running mittens have become an essential part of my running gear. They are light weight, breathable and thin, but still do an excellent job of keeping my hands warm on cold days. The best part of these gloves is the pull over flap which helps to keep your hands warm, but running in the Pacific Northwest I use it more to keep my hands dry. When you aren't using the mitten flap it tucks nicely into a little pocket on the front of the glove. They have also held up to almost weekly washings. Susan lost her gloves on a run recently, I was happy to find that Nike still had them in stock online. I bought several pairs, so we should have happy hands for a few years. Mitten flap Glove without the mitten, the glove on the left has the mitten tucked into the pocket