Zumbro Endurance Run 17 Miles, Pre-Race, 2014

I think I ought to let you know I'm running a race this Saturday. I've been alluding to it here and there and it's finally happening. It's a little hard to sit here and even type this out because it makes my stomach jumpy. 

I'm running the Zumbro Endurance Run 17 mile. It's near Theilman, MN, which is a bit north of Rochester. You can look it up on Google maps if you'd like. This race has three different distance- the 100 miles, the 50 mile, and the 17 mile. Each lap is 16.7 miles long so the 100's do six laps, the 50's do three laps and obviously I do one lap. 

Here's a screen shot of the course and below is the elevation for one lap. If you want to look at it in more detail, look here on the website. 

I've been wanting to do this race since I heard about it a couple years ago when Bill discovered it and told me about it. I had hoped to do it last year but found out that it ran the same weekend as the high school productions which Audrey was in. Since the race is always the second weekend in April, I figured I wouldn't be able to run it until she was done with high school. However, this year Ballard moved the date of the play to the first weekend and after double checking with the director, I signed up. It wasn't until about a month ago, when Audrey was asked to prom that we discovered Ballard prom is the same day as the race. Prom wasn't really on my radar yet because she is a sophomore and can only go if an upperclassman asks her. It wasn't a tough decision about letting her go; it was the right decision but we all knew it conflicted with my race. I have cried and been sad about missing her first prom but also knew I was going to run. So I will run, Bill and the boys will come with me to support me, and my mom will come down to help out with Audrey. 

I will share more about that decision in the prom post and the post-race post(s), which will probably be long-winded. If you want to catch up on my training through Instagram or Twitter, I've used the hashtag #mindy2mn2x in all those posts. When I sit down next week, which I intend to quite a bit, I'll fill you in on the details of all.

My race starts at 9 AM Saturday morning. I'd love it if you gave me a shout out of encouragement. I don't think the butterflies will stop until I'm near finishing.  

(My bib is #886 but I don't think there are live updates.)