Someone asked me last week what I think about when you’re out on a long run. It actually stumped me.

Well some pretty deep thinking occurred on my 25 mile race I just finished (Kilkenney Ridge 25M) – the following is a compilation of some thinking done during this race and during training for it:

A few hours talking about what we want to do when we finish….warm/soft slippers…

Or how we’ll feel when we finish….awesome!

I had made a huge new music playlist I did not use at all

Sometimes I listen to ultrarunner podcasts or audiobooks (if not on a road)

What we want at the next aid station (potato chips, quesadillas…)

Other races run or future races

Personal history of husbands

These mosquitoes/flies are killing me! Did I just eat one?

OMG! Those are spider eyes reflecting off my headlamp – they are everywhere

Vacations

Chafing issues

Let me help this frog get out of the road

Beautiful or horrible landscaping or scenery

Where to pee

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 switch to left, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 counting uphills right to left feet (never look up ahead, just one foot in front of the other)

Mad at someone at work….then remembering to love everyone and feeling better

If I’m this tired now, how am I going to feel in another 15 miles (quickly squashed that train of thinking!)

I’m hungry….did I eat the last hour? Once you get past hour 3, they fly by

Need to take electrolytes

Need to drink more

Turn off that Garmin 180 metronome/no way we’re hiking that fast on this race!

Photo op! Don’t drop my phone in the lake….

Who cares about the spur trail to a view, carry on! We want to finish

How close am I to last place?

Pets

Once a run, call Kenny out of breath, sometimes crying, sometimes exuberant, sometimes saying I gotta go because it’s too tiring to hold the phone up…

Beautiful weather

Are there bears out here? Moose? What am I going to do if I run into one?

Is there a murderer in the woods (this is by my house in the dark)

Scared due to weather…am I going to get lost up here? If it rains, I’m never going to get down these rocks…

Am I on or off the course?

How the &%$& am I going to get up that rock? Please don’t have any scary ledges on this trail….

Just one more “Nashoba” to go (1000-2000′)….watching elevation gains as you go up

We’re almost half done (at about a third of the way)…

I am a badass motherfucker…

I am the trained!

I am lucky to be out here

I’m going to kill myself running downhill with abandon….hope I don’t fall

I know I should run this section but hard to get started…

I get mile alerts….that was slow! that was fast! Speed up…Need to stay consistent the entire time

I love my husband…