At the risk of sounding clich, I'll admit that I've been thinking about mountains a lot this week and how they illustrate my racing season. Now, you can't really blame a person that wakes up in the morning and runs due West directly toward one of the most majestic mountains in all of Colorado. A towering mark of God's creativity, reaching over 14,000 ft, and welcoming me to each new day with a different morning hew, is Pikes Peak. I am a little disposed to thinking about mountains with this sort of scenery at every westward turn.

So, in the morning I exit the Olympic Training Center and turn down (ironically?) Boulder street towards the Rockies. I'm thinking about my racing season and the imminent beginning. I'm thinking about how each season is always so exciting but notoriously secretly laced with anxiety. The travel, meeting of familiar faces, finishing, going to the team meal, all of the "easy" parts make me smirk a little bit as I'm beginning to warm up as my run is getting underway. Warmed up... now my thoughts turn to the pre-race shake-out and the warm-up before I go to the track and the butterflies and the 30 seconds bouncing on the line that feels like all of the earth is dragging it's feet just for the sadistic pleasure of watching you sweat out the start one last moment. These moments make me anxious, just thinking about it even a week out can make my stomach turn. Then, I collect myself and think, 'I'm probably running about 7:10 pace right now; I just have to run ONE mile a little less than 3 minutes faster than this pace....' and that doesn't help one bit.

At some point during this turmoil I fortunately lift my head up to see Pikes Peak. I'm actually approaching the foothills that are just in front of the actual mountain range. As I approach these measly mounds (relative to the height and majesty of the actual Colorado Rockies), a common optical illusion takes place before my eyes. The foothills, despite being thousands of feet shorter than Pikes Peak, begin to rise to the same height. The foothills seem to grow as I get closer to them until they completely cover the larger mountains behind them. A few miles later I get all the way to the base of the foothills and now towering of in front of me are these 8,000 ft "hills" that a few miles back graveled to my original focal point.

I'm getting ready to run my season opener, first race as a professional, and first race in a New Balance uniform. I have fortunately had my share of "Pikes Peaks" in my career and I know there are even greater peaks ahead. Yet, as I approach what may seem later on to have been a little "hill" along the way, I can't help but respect the task at hand. It's not easy getting up an 8,000 ft peak but there were quite a few of them before I got to Paris, Beijing, and Berlin in years past. It's going to be a little intimidating and I've got the butterflies, but I couldn't be more excited about the unseen peaks behind this race. Thank you Juli, Ray, and New Balance for believing in me and here we go.