Three Headbands, One Start Line.

Look at this trio.

Headbands on, blue sky doing its thing, and that's me, Blair, and Bella about twenty minutes before we lined up for the Spartan Sprint 5K. And here's the part that still doesn't compute: Blair and Bella had ALREADY raced that morning. The Super 10K. Ten kilometers of Blue Mountain's finest bad decisions, finished by 11:52 — and then they looked at a second race and said, "yeah, sure, why not."

People pay for therapy. My family just runs at mountains until the feelings sort themselves out.

Yesterday it was feels-like-minus-three at Jayden's kids race and I was bundled up like a marshmallow. Today? Sunshine, 17 degrees, and I'm standing at a start line trying to convince my legs this was a good idea. Spoiler: it was. But at 12:53 in the afternoon, staring up that mountain, my brain was still fully in "preparing for demise" mode.

But look at their faces. That's the thing about doing hard stuff with your people — the nerves are still there, they're just shared. You can't be scared alone when you're squeezed into a selfie with the two people who'd drag you over every single wall.

Tomorrow: checkout at 11, Ember's birthday, and a car full of medals and muddy shoes. Home to my littles.