Things to do at night when it's cold

It's the dead of winter, but that doesn't mean you HAVE to be dead. While some people headed home from, work to the warmth of a fire and the smells of hot soup and warm bread, some crazy trailrunners donned headlamps and headed for the trailz. There are 22.15 miles of trailz on Turkey Mountain (if you don't believe that, just ask everyone, and then add all the estimates together and average it out) and we chose about four miles of the lot to explore. Philip led the way, and Alan and I did a good job in the caboose role. I demonstrated a textbook face-plant for Alan after climbing the necessary and hit the ground so hard that my headlamp continued down the trail for a few feet. Alan, who was studying the finer points of the zombie-shuffle, decided that maybe that wasn't for him.

We did a Snake Trail loop and upon hitting the old upper parking lot, decided on doing another short loop on the east mountain. I led the way, knowing a perfect place to see the light of the city and a rising full moon.

Midway down on the upper Yellow Trail, the view was even better than I thought it would be. A change in wind direction preceding the incoming arctic blast had cleared the air, allowing the light of the moon and city to illuminate this January evening.

After some chit chat, we headed back toward the lower parking lot. We ended up with around four miles, which felt satisfying to me anyway. These Tuesday evening runs are a real treat, and I think every trail runner should experience Turkey Mountain in the dark at least once.

Scenes from a night run

I headed over to the parking lot at Turkey Mountain to run with the Tuesday Night Crawlers, rolling in at 6:25. The usual crowd at 6:30 either stayed home, or met earlier. We have talked about meeting at 6:00, and we should since it's good and dark by 5:45 anyway. I decided to go out anyway for three easy miles.


I ran the Snake Trail, one of the easier routes, hoping to maintain 15 minute miles +/-. While that seems slow, it IS on trailz and it IS at night. And I AM a slow ass zombie.

Running alone, I stopped a few times to get pictures. Last time I took night pix with my new iPhone, they were spectacular. Tonight, there were just too dark. So, I used Paint on my desktop to lighten them up. They weren't good enough to spend much time with Photoshop.

Looking westward, the sky was illuminated . I tweaked the tint and saturation just a tad for affect.


Awe--a zombie-selfie. Notice the appearance of sagging jowls under my chin. I tried to tighten that up digitally without success.


 On the Snake Trail, what was supposed to be a picture or mysterious trees against a splattering of night clouds revealed a ghost-horse-tree. Pretty eerie.

I finished my 3 miles (actually 3.03 miles) in 43:40, pausing RunKeeper while picture taking. This included four falls. Three three point landings, and one crash. I don't mind falling at all when it doesn't hurt. The last one hurt a little.

Last Long Run, and a unwanted souvenir

Nothing epic this past weekend--just a last long run before starting a series of races. This next Saturday is FlatRock 50K--my 11th 50K there, with a couple of other 100Ks tossed in. I needed something long--30+ and I knew just the right crazy people to run it with me!


Kathy and Danielle, along with Russell met a few other runners at QT in Jenks, and headed east to NSU. This out-and-back yields 30 miles, and we had a couple of detours in mind to boost the totals up.


A nearly full moon lit the way, and while I did not wear my headlamp, I did not need it at all. OI had a moon shadow following me all night long.


The big detour was the trail that runs along 169 northward to 71st St. The payday at the end of the trail? A Braum's. I had a chocolate chip cookie dough single dip cone. Kathy and Russell shared their fries. We were there long enough to get our hydration packs filled and our bodies chilled. I was looking forward to getting back OUTSIDE to warmer temps, but it was maybe 64 with a good breeze. We ran and in a 1/4 mile out body core was warmed.


Something you don't see every day--a scrappy little crawdad that would pinched me good. We also scared up a skunk later in the run. I'd choose a good pinching over a spray any day.


A moonlit sky illuminated the vapor trailz in the sky. Several Xs, and even a Z were on display. Not very many of the photos turned out. Took a little photo-shopping to make the artwork visible.


Stop #2 was at the Sonic in Broken Arrow. We had piucked up K2 along the way, and he ended up wityh 20 miles meeting us near TCC, and running to NSU before running home.


Danielle is sporting a Pretzel Bacon Hot Dog. Might be the perfect ultra food.


At NSU, it is usually our halfway point. But tonight, with the added 6 miles out and back from Braum's, this was mile 21 in what turned out to be a 37 miler. But we still had 15 hilly miles ahead of us.


My pace slowed on the way back. It's not that we were going that fast anyway, but my ability to walk briskly went down the drain. I could shuffle, but even the rock steady zombie shuffle was about a minute per mile slower than it normally is. I was sop ready to be done. It should be pointed out that I have not exactly got all of my long runs in this session, but I have been quite active.

With about 4 miles to go, I felt a little tweak-action in ,my right knee. I tried to land lightly and shuffle smooth, and thought nothing of it. But when I got home, it was barking loudly. Now, a couple days later, and a handfuls of Vitamin I's downed, it is slightly better. I need it 99% by FlatRock--a race that will take a tiny injury and wreak havoc. Arkansas Traveller awaits the next week!!


Finally, the elevation profile of the NSU out-and-back course. Yes, there are a lot of ups and downs-- but there are no hills with more than a 100 feet of climbing, and the way I add it up, there is barely over 100 feet of climb both ways. It's a good hill workout, but it's actually pretty tame. For me, it's much easier to run than it is to bike it.

the hills of West Tulsa

I was sitting around playing on MapMyRun and strung a series of hilly roads in west Tulsa and Sand Springs that could make a good night run for the group of crazies I run with. It had it all--several shortish out-and-backs so we could refuel, and a QT for an aid station. Genius.picture courtesy of Arnold Begay
Eleven people were suckered in to give it a go. (Well, ten, besides me.) Is my hair really that white???

picture courtesy of Ken Saveth
A brave crew prepares for upwards of 30 miles of hills!


So off we went--leaving Russell's house and heading to the top of Lookout Mountain where KTUL Channel 8 is headquartered.


Thomas was a few minutes late, but easily caught up with our plodding pace.


Each of these out-and-backs had at least 200 feet of climb. 215 feet in a little less than a mile for our first leg.


The climbing begins. I'd run a tenth and power-walk a few steps.  This was good training for Arkansas Traveller, or Pumpkin Holler.


Peeing was apparently ok, but not dumping.


The sign didn't stop Jason--rebel that he is.


And speaking of rebels, Thomas reads the sign and promptly breaks the law.


This was our second climb if the night. 239 feet of vertical, and was possibly the toughest grind of the night. Kathy and I talked about coming back Wednesday to do repeats here. Any takers?


This road was another dead end, (hence the out-and-back) and everyone was in good spirits.

picture courtesy of Roman Broyles
We mad it back to Russell's house with about 6 miles under out belts. Chris had joined us for the first time, and was no doubt wondering WTH had he gotten himself into?

Our next out-and-back took us to 49th W Ave and north to 21st St and over three hefty hills. I have heard this road called Three Sister's Road, and Three Bitches Road. At the bottom of the first valley, we hit a nice cool pocket, but with a blanket of smoke from someone burning trash. It could have been worse--at first it smelled like BBQ, but someone else said it smelled like burning tires.

This leg had climbs if 71', 147', 52', 83', 174', and 94'. I stepped in a pothole and tweaked my gimpy left ankle, and bowed out at the end of this leg, finishing with 11.6 miles.


Here's my elevation profile, with 1,075 feet of climb. Not bad for a couple of hours of running in Tulsa.

Of the original 11, about four went back out for more mileage, which took them to Prattville (Sand Springs) and back. I will slug out some more miles today and tomorrow to keep pace with my training.

picture courtesy of Kathy Hoover
The bad side of me bowing our early was that I missed out on Russell's famous cheesecake. I have heard it was more epic that an EPIC Ultra, and that's pretty darn epic. Knowing the friends who chowed down on it after their run, I bet there's nary a morsel of leftovers. Fun times though. Let's do it again!
PS--the dumping pic was photo-shopped!

Saturday night, I joined friends again for a little night run. A mysterious post about a hilly run had circulated around Facebook. The course was a straight line, and the elevation profile was one that looked like it could be deceiving. In fact, it looked like a big lie. My kind of run!! The plan was to meet at RunnersWorld and caravan to Terlton, where we would run 5 miles out and back on Beknight Road. So, we carpooled and caravaned 30 miles or so, got our packs filled, fired up our Garmins, and away we went. The hills greeted us warmly and right away.

For trail runners in Tulsa, all hills are expressed in relation to Lipbuster, and it was said that these were not as bad. But a couple of them had more ascent yet were longer than the actual distance of our beloved Turkey Mountain standard. There were many more hills like this.

Thomas took off like a shot. My thoughts--if he was thinking about going 20 miles or more, he had blown his chances by running hard out of the chute. This pic was taken with the sun at my back., We had climbed 150 feet or so, at this point. I wanted a pic of Lake Keystone.

The puny looking elevation profile posted looked harmless. I copied and corrected the graph, and this more accurately conveys the task that was before us. Shark week was this week on the Discovery Channel, and this amazingly resembles the mouth of a Great White.


I also had concerns of this road being a semi-heavily traveled thoroughfare with Bubba buzzing by over hill and dale at 70+ MPH. There was no shoulder and diving into a ditch to keep form being ran over seemed like a probability. But that never was really a problem.

This was taken right after Russell had found a box that had once contained an adult toy. And I don't mean a remote controlled car. Kathy was still giggling.

I spotted a long lost GOATz tribesman, happily munching grass. I did put a notice on the GOATz FB page that one of theirs was missing.

Nobody splained this to me. Not sure what it meant.

We made it from a little quickie store on HWY 48 to the metropolis Terlton just before dark, but not before Sally's closed. Such a shame. Pie would have been so good!

Arnold had his truck stashed here. Read that--mobile aid station. We all refilled, and then made a side trip directly to jail.

This is it. Back in the day when this was used/needed, if more than two inmates were held, or if one of them was portly, overcrowding was a real issue.

This jail was the real deal though. The massive iron bars and reinforced concrete walls did not lend to the likelihood of a jail break.

From there, it was a west-to east return trip. We actually had a nice eastern breeze in our face for much of the way. A car stopped us about halfway back, and is was none other than Trail Goat, Thing Two, and their dad. They had ran the Waterloop in Muskogee, and then drove 80 miles to find us on the run.
They had ran their 5K, and then ended up doing 12-13 more miles with the likes of us, making them the only people in the history of the world to run in Terlton and Muskogee in the same day. I bailed after one out-and-back, having ran in the morning, P-90-Mow all afternoon, and knowing I had the TOTs the next morning. So, I had 23 for the day. Yay me. Most of the group did one more out-and-back, with 2680 feet of gain. Studly.

Next week, the Western Hills Endurance Run Invitational. 19+ miles with 1939 of gain.