Saturday runs

Today, I ran with Bobby, Kathy, Roman, Wes, and Deon. We met early to tun the Half and Half trail, and had a super great run. The event on December 16 will be an awesome one. I predict a few PRs will be set.

Roman, Bobby, and I had a feeding at IHOP, then I came home and Jake talked me into some more miles.

I had a notion to run at Chandler Park, provided I could keep a certain brown dog from dive-bombing the mud puddles. We started on the trails that go between the boulders. No mud there.

There are lots of great views, bald eagles to be seen, geocaches to be found (I looked for two and one was either missing or extremely well hidden. The second was straight down a steep decline of loose scree, and it was freaking Jake out a little, so we just ran.

Jake seems to love it here, and he is on a constant hunt for new trailz. He will be up high on the side of a hill and see one below him, and way he goes to check it out. Such a good trail dog!!

He zipped along through the rocks, pointing out to me that the trailz often circle clear around the rocks. Um, Jake, I knew that.

This is an amazing place, but there has been a lot of colorful graffiti lately, and that's a shame. The paint will fade, but this area is a hidden gem, and could be such a draw if it were marketed. Or maybe it's just better that it is kept a secret.

We pretty well exhausted the trailz around the rocks. It would be cool it these trailz stretched westward to the other taller bluffs. But that'd be some insane trail cutting.

(Insert upward tree/sky shot here)

Heading south and west, there are miles of jeep roads. Today, we managed to stay away from the ones with the mud holes. Jake will not need a bath tonight. I did not know how I'd feel--and I also did not want to be close to darkfall, so I stayed on routes I knew. Surprisingly, I felt pretty fresh despite having ran 16+ miles in the morning.

I kept my pace overall right in the 13-14 range, and only walked up the steepest hills. (There are a few of these.)

On the downhills, I flew. Jake's zigzag patterns were straightened out somewhat, as he did not have to wait on me as much as usual. It's nice to feel good. Maybe all the pie I ate yesterday paid off.

We ended up with 8.69 miles, giving me 25.1 for the day.

I have the OU/OSU game taped, and have tried to stay off of Facebook. I heard a "pistols firing", and a "Go Pokes", so I guess the Cowboys are doing good. We'll see.