Free Labor

Last week we warmly received our new house guest, Michaela’s Mom Rachael, who will be staying with us for the next five weeks. This visit was planned many months ago when Michaela realized that her Western States 100 training was going to involve being gone on the weekends for very long stretches and we started to realize that we were going to have to take a loan out to pay for all of our babysitting charges…well, either that or I wasn’t going to be able to get out and run and to that I just shake my head incredulously.

Essentially Rachael just volunteered for the job as she is now retired and was looking forward to some quality time with Landon (and Michaela and I of course)… so far the new schedule has been great, as Landon still goes to school in the morning for several hours of play time and learning, then he gets picked up around mid-day for some afternoon time with his Nana. Not only has she been an excellent babysitter up to this point, she has also been very helpful around the house, cleaning, running errands, and helping out with random things as needed. So it really does feel like we imported a babysitter/housekeeper/cook/errand-runner, all for free! Not a bad deal, eh?

These past couple of weeks have seen a big jump in Michaela’s training as she has started running “The Canyons” which is one of the more difficult portions of the Western States Run. These days typically start very early for her (getting up at 4-5am, running by 6am) and don’t finish until fairly late in the afternoon, at which point she is pretty exhausted. I haven’t been able to run with her group yet as I’ve been recovering from my 50-miler, but plan to start up with them in the next few weeks.

While Michaela has been out there tearing up the trails (and her quads), I’ve been keeping Landon busy. The days were typically filled with yard work, grocery shopping, naptime, and some fun….lately as the weather has been warm, we’ve been holding “shootouts” in the backyard with water guns and the hose. It’s been a blast running around back there with him and the dogs, drenching each other and listening to him laugh!

This weekend we’re heading up to the Bay Area (specifically the Marin Headlands/Stinson Beach area) for the Miwok 100K Race. This is the longest run that Michaela will do as part of her training, which ends up being 62 miles! I’m excited to go out and cheer her on early in the race and I actually get to practice my pacing duties when I run with her for the last 12 miles of the run. It is sure to be a long day, but hopefully a very productive one. It’s also going to be the largest moon of the year on Friday night so when they start at 5am on Saturday morning they should be in for a very cool sight!

Looking at the calendar, I think May is just going to fly by. It seems as though we have fun plans for every weekend and before we know it, Michaela’s birthday will be here and then it’ll be time for the race. I am super excited to be a part of it all and look forward to the weeks/months ahead.