Date: 10/3/2022

Yes, I know, I’m publishing this on the post on October 4th, and it says October 3rd at the top. I wrote most of it on the 3rd, so leave me alone.

Back when I “started” training for the 50-miler but then didn’t run, I had an idea. Since I was doing the Wind River High Route, I could use that as pre-training. As in I would get a lot of miles and time on my feet during the trip, plus I could use those extra red blood cells as a kick start. Then I would dive straight into hard core training. It worked!

I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but it amazes me how much I’ve increased my weekly mileage and the distance of my long runs. My husband asks how long my run is, and I casually answer, “Nineteen miles.” No big deal. Back in May running 20 miles for the Bryce Canyon 30k was mind blowing. Now I just go out and do it.

What’s even more mind blowing is that I feel good. Sure, there are little aches here and there, but those happen whenever I run, regardless of the mileage. Getting older sucks. Even though I take Garmin’s VO2max estimation with a grain of salt, my VO2max is the best it’s ever been.

When I actually started training I told myself both running and walking miles count towards my total mileage for the week. Now I want to run all the miles and use walking as bonus miles. Thankfully I’m stupid busy and don’t have enough time to get in bonus miles because that might be what leads to overuse injuries.

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In other news, I have a job interview on October 14th. But let me start at the beginning.

As you may know, I started grad school this semester. Since I’m part of the Geosciences department, I get departmental emails. One email informed me of a job opportunity at the university’s GIS – Wildfire GIS Tech. After I finish my degree my goal in life is to do wildfire mapping, so I responded. Here’s how that conversation went…

When I read his response I was livid. He doesn’t know me! Who is he to say whether it would very hard for me?! I vented to a coworker and told her I wanted to give him a piece of mind. She told me to go ahead and write my response even though I was fuming, then come back to it in a half an hour and rewrite it. That’s just what I did.

Thankfully, my response was well received.

I spent a couple of hours updating and customizing my resume, writing a cover letter, and tracking down undergraduate projects to show the quality of my work. Less than 30 minutes after I sent him everything he emailed me back to schedule an interview.

Even though I’m the one who made all this happen, I can’t help but ask myself, “What the fuck are you doing?!” I work full-time. I’m taking a college class which requires me to flex my hours at work. I’m training for a 50-miler and spend 10-12 hours a week running. I’m still doing physical therapy at least once a week, which requires me to flex even more work hours. Why would I apply for a part-time job where I’ll be working up to 20 hours a week?!

Because I’m an idiot? Maybe. Probably. But really, it’s because I’m bored with my current job. I’ve been bored with it for the past year. When I started doing work for the training department it got a little more exciting, but it’s already back to being meh.

I want to do GIS work, that’s why I’m getting a masters in GIS! Sure, I’ll be so busy I’ll barely have time to relax, but I think I’ll be a lot happier. And my amazing husband is so supportive of this. He’s already agreed to completely take over all house and cooking duties if I get the job. I couldn’t ask for a better man!

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