T-minus 299 days

The past few weeks have been very exciting in terms of thru-hike training and preparations.

Exciting Thing #1

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to run a Spartan Super. The course consisted of an 8 mile loop on a few of the double black diamond trails at Blue Mountain ski resort. This race also included 29 obstacles including barbed wire crawls, jumping over walls, uphill 40 lb sandbag carries, rope climbing, and mud….. lots and lots of mud. To say the least, the race was hard. We were told that the Blue Mountain Super was the second hardest course on the East Coast but….. I FINISHED. After viewing our final times, we found out that we placed in the top 38%. Pretty good when you consider that my competitors were people double my size who run multiple Spartan Races every year.

After 8 miles and 29 obstacles, I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but we are basically the shit ??? #spartanrace #spartansuper

A photo posted by Colleen (@colleengoldy) on Jul 11, 2015 at 2:26pm PDT

Exciting Thing #2

In the past week, I took a trip to REI and picked up a few things that will potentially be used on my thru-hike. Included in this list are a new pair of Vasque boots and a Sawyer Mini water filter + chloride dioxide water treatment tablets. I also picked up a new Osprey day pack and some Darn Tough socks. What better way to test out all my new hiking gear then an overnight hike! My boyfriend and I will be hiking a portion of the Loyalsock Trail in PA this weekend. I am beyond excited.

Exciting Thing #3

I officially have an article written about my thru-hike in a local newspaper, and you should totally check that out right here!

See? I told you. Lots of exciting things. Now let’s hope that my muscles will eventually stop being sore from the race and that we have nice weather to test all the new gear this weekend!

Happy Hiking!