Liza Howard. Ultrarunning Mom.

I ran out of instant coffee packets here in the room yesterday, which derailed my early morning blogging plans.  Sitting in the dark while Asa snoozes sipping on microwaved milk just doesn’t inspire.  I read about Gretchen Rubin’s new book Happier At Home and listened to running podcasts instead.  And I made Saturday’s Plan and figured out Watermelon Chomps and crew logistics.  The rest of the day passed quietly between time at the playground (on McWerthy near 6th — great place with lots of friendly kids and an old school merry go round) and trips to the Safeway for odds and ends.  Legos, paper airplanes, running wardrobe decisions… and now it’s Thursday.  Asa’s snoozing and I’m sipping on microwaved coffee and it’s gonna be a good day.  (Except that I was cheap and got the Folger’s instant packets for $1.25 instead of the $7 Starbucks ones and it seems like I might be down $5.75 in caffeine this morning — so please forgive any typos or awkward grammar.)

I’ve still got a bit of a head cold, but the asthma is under control. It’ll be comforting to have the rescue inhaler with me on course, but I’m not worried about suddenly having a severe attack amongst the llamas on Hope Pass.  That would be rather grim, wouldn’t it? Though it does have the makings of an excellent short story… (“And then they lashed me to the llama’s back and we ran as one down toward Twin Lakes…”)

Anyway!  My good friend Kris arrives from Colorado Springs today with her daughter Skylar.  (Sorry, Annika, Asa has a new blond love interest.  Older Colorado girl who likes to shoot stuffed animals with nerf guns.  Hard to compete, honey.)

I’ll be wearing my Team, Red & Blue shirt on Saturday. (If you’re a blog reader and you’re here in Leadville and you see me during the race in the RWB shirt, the secret greeting  is, “You look awful!!”  I’ll respond with, “You do too!”   It’ll be great fun — and I’ll send you an RWB shirt after the race.) Check Team RWB out if you’re unfamiliar with the community building they’re doing.  And look up Mountain Goat Running Retreat or friend me on FB to find out about the trail running camp Alison and Jason Bryant, Joe Prusaitis and I will be doing with them at Camp Eagle on the Nueces River in November.  I’ll get a page and link to the information on this website as soon as I get back to a computer and a keyboard.  It’s gonna be stellar.