Summer in the Ice Palace

It's very much a done deal, we are moving toward the better part. At first it seemed like a decent idea to run through the summer months, but below the surface there is the fact that it is not easy. The reality is you endure hot days and hot nights. If the night was any choice it would be the best one, although a good sleep in your nighly abode would be the sacrifice. This is a choice I would make only if it was a 100 miler or a 24/48 hour event. Each run with the Capt. would be at a different place and varied in terrain, Muleshoe and Colorado bend would not disappoint with challenges.The shorter loops over again would be an act of will power. Then after you began from behind would flash through the trail the shorter distance runners, and you got to practice good trail etiquette. When the transition hit between light and dark thirty it played a mental change that at first caught me by suprise, that was the first race and my resolve sank very quickly. But night running takes a mental, as well as all the other details like lighting, nutrition, hydration with the heat, blah, blah, after all 37 miles is 37. Sure the moon, stars, fox, deer, rattlesnake, scorpion, mice, stinging nettle, the armadillo that had to v-line thru my legs, and the ups and down gave a new attitude to things, but your still pushing forward to get it over with. The awards and apparel are good quality, and the aid stations are close in mileage. Next  thing you know it's over, it's getting to be dawn and you load up and drive the distance home. Tracing our steps from the beginning, until they vanish in what was past, we continue now to some future game and nothing ever lasts.