November 16, 2012

An account of my weekend

This weekend was full of running, aching, sleeping, and fun. Saturday at 6:00, I lined up for the Little Warm-up Marathon, a special marathon designed for Marathon Maniac types to get an easy double in.

I ran with Stormy, Christy, and Michelle. Michelle was not in proper posing position, but she did one thing right--RUN. She finished 2nd female. Christy finished 3rd female. We run with fast women.

It was a perfect day for a fun run. I kept pace with my trio of friends for 18 miles, but slowed down a little over the last 5-6 miles which was a little disappointing. I put my iPod on and left the music dictate the pace, and kept the run at a jog rather than a walk.

I had set a goal of sub-5:00. The actual course was a little long. Garmins showed the course around a half mile long. I was happy to have covered the distance sub 5:00, but by the time I took pictures of my silly Garmin and jogged on the remaining .48 to the actual finish line, I had amassed a 5:05:41 finish time. No worries though as this was just a structured training run for me.

I can say that I finished 8th overall, 5th male, and 2nd in my age group. I doubt I would have fared as well Sunday at Rt 66.

Both Stormy and Christy ran Sunday at the Rt 66 marathon, with Stormy bettering his 4:46 Saturday finish with a 3:58 Sunday finish. WOW!! Randy Ellis WON the marathon. Long legs pay off!!


Sunday, while hundreds of my friends lined up to run a half or full marathon at Rt 66, I shamefully slept in. I had not planned on running, but had given thought to coming out to cheer them on. But instead, I lounged around, and after brunch, Dana, Jake, and I headed for Chandler Park to run trailz.

I sometimes refer to this as my private playground, as I rarely see anyone else here running or biking. The last time I ran here, I did run into John Noble and Aaron Ochoa. This time, as we were leaving we saw a mountain biker just taking off for a ride.

Jake was EXCITED!! new trailz to run, and lots of new smells. He also discovered he LOVES MUD! The wilds beyond Chandler Park have huge rutted out mud-holes in some of the Jeep roads, and Jake did not miss a single one of them. He really did not look muddy, but he was, and got a thorough shower when he got home.

This was Dana's 2nd time here, and her 1st time to see the big bluffs. We took the winding single track to start with, and ran by a series of crazy trick bike ramps. Jake ran right up and over some of the ramps.

I had seen an episode of The Doctors last week, where for whatever reason they were talking about exotic coffee made from beans that passed through the digestive tracts of cats or other animals. The coffee is supposed to be amazing--so of course when I saw this, I gave thought to bringing these beans home.

While examining the beans, I was attacked by a root-like creature (shades of Alien?) I managed to fight my way free though, tossing the creature aside, and hopefully I'm not impregnated with a mutated lizard.

But the creature's Mama was pissed!!

A lot of help Jake was!!

We continued west to the bluffs. A round trip from the last ball field in the park to the bluffs and back is around five miles, depending on how direct of a path you take.

This is a secret climbing and rappelling area, known only by the cool savvy types. Jake came right over to the edge, but Dana kept a safe overcautious distance away.

I decided to take another way back, which would have been a shorter way, had I not missed a turn. A good portion of this wild land is a huge plateau, with tall grass, briers, and scrub trees with 4WD roads meandering through. I have been through here, having been lost, and other times making my way through like a boss. Today, the boss was not around, and I made one or two wrong turns, and our 5 mile round trip ended up being 6.6 miles. I was operating on tired and achy legs, but accumulated another mile or two to go on my log book. Call it training.

I still am sure I have not seen all that the wilds beyond Chandler Park has to offer. It is becoming my favorite local place to run.