Erin is training for a marathon and at the same time, traveling all over the country doing field work for her research in grad school. Here’s what she wrote:
“So far, it is going really well – I feel super strong and I have been getting in my runs for the most part. I took this week a little easier because of some foot pain, but I am still planning to run the 10 miles tomorrow as I felt pain-free and strong on a little shake out run this morning. Starting Monday, I will be beginning the Indiana University field course. As an instructor, I have a little more leniency, so I am hoping that every Sunday I can still drive into Bozeman to do my long runs and have a proper recovery day in town. The course runs for 6 weeks and I will be hiking between about 8am and 4pm every day in the Tobacco Root Mountains in MT. I am hoping that one or some of the students will be runners so that I can run with someone either in the mornings or afternoons. I prefer to run in the morning, but I doubt students will be getting up and I am slightly worried about running on my own in the early morning hours due to black bear and mountain lions in the area. We are back in the mountains at a field station, so I won’t be camping at all – but every run I do will be on soft trails or dirt roads. As a result, I’m hoping that I can hit Bozeman up on the weekends or some other town to get some pavement on my long runs as the Santa Rosa marathon is all on asphalt.
