Gasparilla!

Besides The Big Thing I was depressed about today, I just wasn't in a good mood -- I have a zillion work projects, my weight loss has stalled, I haven't been sleeping well, etc. etc. But late this morning I checked my email and found this:

I squealed with delight and raced into my boss's office, where I was able to babble out what had happened. Once my boss gave her OK I responded to the email to say YES I was still interested! After work this happened:

The Ultra Challenge is four races over two days: a 15K and a 5K, followed by a half-marathon and an 8K:

I was on vacation this summer when the race announced they only had 100 spots left, I missed it, and it sold out. I had asked to be put on the wait list but when the weeks to go got down to single digits I started to give up hope. You can imagine how surprised I was today when I got the email out of the blue.

Training is going to be... interesting. I've run two 30-mile weeks recently, which is good, but I've topped out at 10 miles. So I have a few weeks to get into race shape. I want to add a few miles to my long runs, do some longer runs on consecutive days, and maybe do a few two-a-days to prepare.

Making it a race-cation will be fun. I'll stay with my sister, and I already have plans to hit up a spring training game while I'm down there, too. I haven't been to Florida in two years and I'm overdue for a visit.

Yay! This seriously made my week! And now I have a fun goal to get me through the next chunk of dreary and cold winter training.