Let's all cheer, IDITAROD TRAIL INVITATIONAL WEEK IS HERE. Here I sit at Black Mountain Running Co. on Monday afternoon. I will be leaving for Alaska on Friday and I literally couldn't be more excited to get on the trail. I've run twice over the last 10 days and I feel primed for a long effort.

      As most who read this will already know, the Iditarod Trail is in horrible shape. The trail is in such bad shape that for the second time in it's history the restart of The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has been moved north to Fairbanks. A couple weeks ago, the race made that decision after flying over some VERY exposed ground and some scary open water sections. When I ran this race last year the trail was in poor shape. Mushers got their asses handed to them and weren't happy about it. All I kept thinking about was a memory of my ol' man saying "you can't do anything about the weather". He was right. It is what it is. We will be sticking to the original route and I couldn't be more happy about that fact.

     This race represents ADVENTURE to me. I really don't even think about it much as a race. Sure, I  would like to compete this year and see where my skills stack up against other modern day explorers. The truth is though, i'm looking at this race as a 10 day (much needed) vacation. I've started to lose patience with the general public while working at my running shop and my wick is about 1/4" long. I'm ready. I can't be bothered with old ladies who bring back shoes because they "changed their mind about what color they wanted". I need to be amongst trees, snow, ice, rain, hail, rocks, wolves, moose, over flow ice and like minded individuals.

     As for the actual race. In my humble opinion, most will be fighting for second place. If David Johnston is not mauled by a moose, he will win. To me, the only comparison I could make is if Elvis Presley went to a dive bar in say Cleveland, Ohio and participated in a Karaoke Contest. It's that unfair. In fact, I will be spending a day or two with David after the race and he thinks were just going to hang out and swap stories from the trail and drink 7 Budweisers. Little does he know that my mission is actually to see if he sleeps or if he just plugs himself into a wall socket to power up. I seriously don't think David is of the human species. He's an animal/robot. I wish David the best as I do every single person wild enough to go run/bike or ski 350 or 1,000 miles on The Iditarod Trail in slushy, dangerous conditions.

     I feel BLESSED that I was born with a deep sense of adventure. I've been reading about adventure on the Iditarod trail since before I had pubic hair. Now, i'm traveling the Iditarod trail and following in some mighty big footsteps up there. God has me right where he wants me and I can't wait to get back to the 49th state. Adventure Calls! Come what may! Yee Haw!