Bad Ideas

So I've had a few bad ideas as of late I wanted to document for future reference, if need be.

Hypothermia/Frost Bite: A few weeks ago when snowshoeing at the yurt (both GREAT ideas) we were looking to fill up our water bottles. We studied the maps and made our way to the spot where, if there was non-frozen water to be found, it would be. It definitely looked like a snow covered stream, so poking through to solid ice with my stick, I VERY CAUTIOUSLY stepped onto the ice, stomping several times with increasingly more force until I felt confident to walk out. I made it a good 6 feet, "I think we're good" and sure enough the very next second as Kari put o

ne foot on the ice we both sank past our knees. Kari responded better than I could ever coach someone to, and within 15 minutes we had a fire going in the sun, warming/drying/laughing. But a lesser survival expert could have very easily found the

mselves in a bad situation.

Blistered Feet: I've been reading a lot about the benefits of barefoot running (crazy sounding I know but if you really wanna know i'd love to explain) well, obviously it was way too cold in CO to try it out, but Georgia was perfect! So I set out ignoring the first rule 1. START SMALL, admittedly because I thought this was written for pansies, I'm a redneck from AR, I can take it. About a mile out, distracted by the beautiful spring weather with all its blooms, I didn't notice the blisters forming on every toe and pad. Walking the mile back with blood squishing up between my toes I definitely noticed. A lesser redneck would never run barefoot again, we'll see.

Sun burns: Unknowingly I found myself on the eve of the last ski day at Steamboat which is "crazy dress up day" Without an awesome outfit like Laura's kilt or

a football uniform, I opted for the only thing I had, a pair of swim trunks, and my black bear hat. I HATE putti

ng stuff on my skin, sunscreen, bug repellent, lotion, anything. Needless to say I had some pretty awesome burn lines the next day. A lesser skier would've busted and had road rash

to add to sunburn.

Dehydration: Traveling so much lately has distracted me somewhat from my running regiment for my first marathon. I've only been doing the saturday long runs, with out the small inner week runs. I completed 18 miles fairly easily then missed 2 weeks all together. Yesterday was a good 30 degrees warmer than any of my runs to date, I pre-placed some gatorade, but it wasn't enough. Only 13 miles in I found myself bonking. I took a few walking breaks, but who can let a cute run pass without a bit of rejuvenating effort. This happened enough times to completely drain me, I started cramping/tightening up and in one of the girl induced sprints I tweaked something in my right hammy, even making walking a pain. This is the closest I have ever been to passing out from what I think was dehydration, it was terrible, I laid down next to a lake cuz I thought it would be a peaceful place to die. I was pretty confident in the marathon 2 weeks ago, I wouldn't say I'm panicking (because I don't believe in panicking) but I'm pretty concerned... (lesser comment TBD after May 9)