A little thing called life..

 Approximately 2 weeks after my last post (May 2024), I began a new job as Executive Director of 232-Help / Louisiana 211.  This job has been a natural progression of my nonprofit career, and I was happy to have been approached for the position.  I started it with the belief that I would be able to balance my work and home life (which includes my running) as I had before.  Boy was I wrong. 

Not long after starting my new role, it became evident that something would have to give.  The first year of this job was incredibly demanding mentally.  There was a lot of work to do getting the ship sailing straight again, and while I enjoy challenges, it definitely left me drained. I tried for a while to maintain my running volume so that I could still take part in the Cowboy 200, but at some point I had to admit that it just wasn't going to happen. 

Instead of being a stress reliever and a nice brain cleanse, running was causing me stress - or, rather, missing runs because I was exhausted was causing me stress.  Add to that hormone imbalance from perimenopause, and I was left defeated.  I quit running completely, not knowing if that was the end of my running or just a temporary break, but I put it out of my mind (but I held on to all of my running supplies because, who knows?). 

Here I am now just a couple of weeks after my one year anniversary with 232-Help and that old familiar tickle is back - the one that makes you look at a shaded, tree-lined road or path and think "Man, that would be fun to run".  Once those thoughts started popping up more regularly, I knew it was time to start moving again.  And, the recurring thought that I would really like to run one more 100 miler helped me to realize that it is not time to throw in the towel.

Now that I am somewhat getting my hormones under control and my work life has calmed down considerably, thanks to finally having a solid team working with me, I have slowly started rebuilding my base.

I am planning on 2026 being another racing year with a 100 miler next fall or winter, depending on training and which race I choose.  

I plan on documenting my training struggles and triumphs here for anyone who is interested.  The posts will likely be brief and to the point (and some will be offensive on some level, I am sure), but they will also be very honest about what it is like for a 54 year old woman to start from almost scratch.  It should be a "fun" ride.

Happy Running! 

Edie