A check off my bucket list

Craig and I made a bucket list of sorts about 8 years ago while on a camping trip.  Most of his were fun events such as seeing a Cubs/Cardinals or White Sox game from the rooftop bleacher seats.  We came home from that same camping trip to find I had won us (by a drawing at Hy Vee) a trip to see the Cubs vs. Cardinals on one of those rooftop bleacher seats.

Most of the the things on my list were "to visit" or "to accomplish".   And the "to accomplish" items were mainly physical fitness feats.  But then it felt like we were pregnant or had a baby the last 7 years so I wasn't getting around to any of those any time soon.   One of the things I have ALWAYS wanted to do is a trail race.  Now, I am not really a runner.  It keeps me in shape, I love the workout, it is easy to do as a mom, etc.  But I am not really a runner.  But I do love to run.  And I love trails and hiking.  A natural fit would be to do a trail run.  However, as a non-runner, I get a little nervous about the trail running.  The ups and downs.  Mostly the ups.  But I put it on my bucket list anyway.  My "someday this would be fun to do" and basically forgot about it for 8 years.

Until I saw a flier for my favorite local park where I take the kids hiking.  A 7 mile "challenging" (in their words....and mine) trail run?  Could I even do it?  7 miles on pavement is one thing....on the trail?  I looked at the elevation and to say I had my doubts would be an understatement.  I hemmed, I hawed.  I hiked at the park, checking out the terrain.  I hemmed and hawed some more.  Then Craig told me I basically had to "do it" or get off the pot in not so many words.

So I decided to "do it".  I don't know if you can tell in this picture but I am a little nervous in this awkwardly posed picture.....

My finish.  I am waving saying YAY!!  I am going to finish this thing to the sound of my kids screaming Go Mommy.  Music to my ears!

And afterwards....no stretcher needed.

A little playtime with friends who came to cheer me on with their kids!

So would I do it again....in a hearbeat.  It was amazing.  It was hard.  It was challenging.  There were many moments when I was pep talking myself ("just keep running, just keep running, running, running") But there were some amazing moments when I would look up and realize that I was running through awesome landscape or I would catch a glimpse of a flower bursting open or run through a cool creek.  I loved the adventure of the run. My time per mile was so extremely slow but I did it and I ran as fast as I could that day.  So check a trail run off the bucket list......