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| Location of my bachlorette party |
Four lovely ladies joined me on this camping excursion. They
schlepped borrowed tents, bottles of wine and a chocolate cake made in a bread
pan, with two muffins perched on top. It only took a little convincing to move my bachelorette
party from Jackson Hole’s bustling bars out to the serene Gros Ventre
camping area directly across from the Tetons.
It helped that I had a rock solid excuse for not drinking a
sip of any concoctions my friends would otherwise dream up: I’m five months pregnant.
That magical evening on Shadow Mountain helped to quench a
thirst that’s been building in me all summer for my beloved outdoors. When I first learned I was pregnant, my second thought was, "what will happen to my ultrarunning?" (My first thought was panicked
excitement).
That’s how whole-heartedly devoted I was to ultras. I had
structured my whole summer around the two 100-mile races I was signed up for. I
had a job that could accommodate long hours of training. I had tracked down a
crew and pacers months in advance. I was calling random names and numbers given
to me by friends of friends to find people to hit the trail with.
Hours after I took that positive pregnancy test, I dug out
an article from Ultrarunning magazine on running during pregnancy. Several experts were interviewed in the article, with this
general consensus:
