· Date: Sunday June 30, 2019
· Where: West Yellowstone, Montana to Bozeman, Montana
· Total Distance Covered: 92 miles
· Running Partner: Jackie
Looking back on the notes I took today, there was not much that happened. For some reason, we had a very short mileage day today despite having a rest day yesterday. Some were thankful we had to run less, and some were wishing for more. I wished we could’ve kept going and that Bozeman was further from West Yellowstone then it was. We each ran only seven miles today and it was strange to me. However, running yesterday with Tyler and doing a little bit of light speed work helped. My muscles were not as sore as they had been on Day Eleven or on Day Six, both of which were after rest days where I did not run at all. I made a note to myself to approach future rest days like this.
Today, the roads snaked through the Montana mountains. It reminded me a lot of how the roads wound around the bases of mountains in California. This time, in Montana, there were trees and rivers. It was also only about seventy degrees and not above one hundred as it had been in California. I liked Montana much better!
The views were gorgeous throughout the entire day, we even saw a person painting the scenery. For some time, there was a small river that paralleled the road. We passed so many things that you just don’t see in Connecticut and the East Coast. The remnants of forest fires were still visible, and I think these had burned just seven days previously. Some of us on the team saw a moose and her calf swimming, which I was jealous of. This was the second time I had missed seeing one! At one point we saw a bunch of horses and passed a ranch. We had to wait as a group of riders crossed the road. I was reminded of the ranches that my Mom always wanted to go to for vacation. As we got closer to the road crossing, there was a sign that explained this was one of those ranches. Visitors could come and explore the trail riding as well as help on the ranch. I imagined my mom being one of those riders crossing the road and it brought a smile to my face.
Throughout the day, we passed white water rafting destinations and other trailheads as well. Most of the time, if there wasn’t a mountain, there was a ranch. We hardly saw any houses or towns. It was an isolated area, but I thought it would be nice to spend some more time here. In fact, if I could spend a week exploring the areas, we had run through from Day Ten in Salt Lake City to here in Montana, I would be so happy. There is going to be a return trip to this part of the country at some point!
My running partner today was Jackie. We ended up talking a lot about yoga. A lot of us on the team hadn’t known until yesterday, but Jackie is a certified yoga instructor. Last night, she led a group of us through some restorative yoga before we went to sleep and as expected, I almost fell asleep. At one point, I may have even dozed off. I was fighting heavy eyelids the whole time. For anyone who knows me and knows how I reacted to the yoga study I took part in during treatment, you would expect this from me. That is why today, we were talking about yoga while running. I was explaining everything I had learned through the study and the benefits I found with nausea, anxiety, and pain. Jackie was explaining more of the scientific benefits and we both enjoyed the conversation since we hadn’t heard too much of each other’s perspective before talking.
Rizwan was also in the van today and we joked around and laughed together a lot. We were talking about running in high school and how our running has changed since starting college. For both of us, the reason why we ran changed completely since our days of competing on a team were over. At one point, we tried to say different things ten times fast and wound up laughing a lot!
Try these, they were the best, “Did the KT tape help?” and “Rizwan washes his Irish wristwatch.” We could hardly do it.
We got to the host early in the day because of the low mileage. As much as I wished we had kept running, I took advantage of the night off. I set up camp right away and went to sleep for quite a while. I was exhausted and I was also a little peopled out.
When I awoke, I wrote my blog for a bit and then had some dinner that Amber and Lizzie were nice enough to make for everyone. Then a few of us went to a local running store to try to obtain donations of electrolytes.
When we were unsuccessful, I called my parents and Annalyse. It had been a few days since I had talked with them and I really enjoyed catching up. I missed them too much. With the poor cell phone service and our busy and unpredictable days though, I felt like I didn’t communicate this enough.
Comments