Map for the NSU and back 50 miler

If I have done it right, below is a link to MapMyRun.com in which I have mapped out the Turkey to NSU and back run for this Saturday night. According to Mapmyrun, it is 51.5 miles there and back, using the proposed detour around the snail construction. (Oops, I meant TRAIL construction!)

We will meet at my house at 718 W 67th St just west of the main parking lot at Turkey Mountain at 9:00 pm, and leave at 9:15. We will go north on the new paved trail on the west side of the river and go to 11th St, cross the bridge, and head southeast on the river path. At 31st street, we will go east to Cincinnati and head south to 34th St, east almost to Peoria, cut through a parking lot to 35th Place, and west to Madison, south to 41st, jog a 1/2 block west to Detroit, and then south to 47th, west to Boston Place, and south until the path that leads to the crosswalk across Riverside at the stoplight. It's not as difficult as it might sound. If anyone gets lost, call me at 814-6433, or just run in the grass along Riverside. Let's just all try to stay together at least until we get through this point. From there, it is just the same bike path that we all know, except we stay on it until we get to NSU.

There will be a lot of folks joining us along the way. Cell phones will be quite handy coordinating our meeting places.

Who's up for an easy 50?

Happy birthday, Makenna

Saturday, 

Last Thursday was my granddaughter Makenna's first birthday. Geeze, time does fly! Dana saw a picture of birthday cake she just had to make for the occasion. It was a mama cat with two kittens. This cake was constructed out of two pound cakes baked in loaf pans. She carved out the head, body, ears, and tail for all three felines, and iced and decorated them. I was so impressed! The eyes were mini M&Ms, the whiskers were chocolate Twizzlers (yum! I'm polishing off the remains of that as I type!) and the ears were triangles cut out of pieces of Starburst candies.Birthday girl was so excited about the cake. She is starting to say a few words....of course Dada, and dog, cat, NO, besides a whole string of jibberings that I haven't figured out yet. Makenna got a whole kitten head for herself. She seemed to prefer the orange-ish kitten, and marveled at it for a while before pinching off just a small taste of it.Once it passed the taste test, it was hammer-time! Makenna spends a little time watching Sesame Street, and in true Cookie Monster fashion, she devoured the cake.
After a thorough power-washing, it was time for the presents.
Makenna now drives a fuel-efficient Little Tykes two-door coupe.

Books are cool....especially ones that play music, oink, moo, meow, and bark at you.

Touched by the spirit of giving, Hooch gives a warm doggie kiss.

Makenna graciously allows her dad to play with her toys.

Did somebody say CAKE?

TATUR represented at the Leadville 100

A member of TATUR is at the Leadville 100 right now as we speak and is giving it a go for the third time. Brian is also raising money for a good cause, to help the children of coffee bean farmers in third world countries. Anyone want the best latte they have ever tasted, visit Brian's shop: Double Shot Coffee Company at 18th and Boston. They are truly works of art.

Check Brian's blog periodically to check on his  comments:  Links to this post

A day in a life of a zombie

Tis usually so-so to bad news when the boss calls before 8:00 am. This morning, I just let the phone ring, and made coffee before calling him back. In his usual gruff voice, he asked what I had going on this afternoon. That usually means he wants me to make a trip out of town to run a lead that he does not want to do. (Quite the pessimist, aren't I?) But to my shock, he asked if I wanted to play some golf!!!! :-) :-) I gave this some thought for about a half a nano-second, and said HECK YEAH! SO after making a couple phone calls and figuring a couple of jobs, I headed out to White Hawk. Shock two was when he picked me up at my truck in a golf cart and had already paid for my cart and green fee. He also bought drinks (water) and lunch (hot dog and diet coke). 
What did I do for thanks???? I beat his butt all around the course. Actually, I had 5 or 6 pars, quite a few bogies, and a couple of disasters. He also had a few good hole as well. It was a very enjoyable afternoon. Take away a 6 on a par 3 and a 9 on a par 5, and it would have been a respectable round for someone who plays only a few times a year.

After golf, I had just enough time to get to the trails to meet my Wednesday night buddies for our run.We are a high tech group of trail runners. Here, we stop to review a previous trail race on a laptop Brian had set up on the trail.

We also wear high tech shoes!Cool shades Aaron sports his new Inov-8s. We have been trying to get the Inov-8 rep to visit us at RunnersWorld for months, and would like to sell their shoes. The rep calls, but has yet to set up a visit.

Pictured on the front are Glenn and Brian with the antennas, and in the back, Bee-Sting Bob, T Z, Kurt, Shelley, Mike from Kansas City, and Vicky. Cool Shades Aaron took the picture.

After running to the end of the mountain, Brian, Bee Sting, Mike, and I ran to the mi-chi trail where the mudslide wiped the trail off the map. It was my opinion that this section needed some major attention before the Turkey and Taturs race.Brian loses it and slides all the way to the bottom.He then decides that it was FUN, and wants everyone to have a turn at it!! :-)Tired ultra-runners should have no problem ducking under this tree.

Mike and Bee Sting Bob bush-whack their way through the mudslide area.






I had envisioned a series of rickety bridges on the side of the mountain. Maybe we'll see some bridges for the next Barkley Book Fair.

Let the games begin!

I am launching a full blown attack on the wasps on the snake trail this week. The possibility of our runners being stung during the Turkey and Taturs race is not something I will tolerate. To ready myself for this endeavor, I have been conditioning myself to not panic while being pursued by these wasps by experimenting with honey bees. I do actually have on underwear in this picture!


My grandfather was very allergic to bee and wasp stings, often having bad swelling problems and pain and itching that lasted for days. Some people when stung on the neck or face have trouble breathing. Other people stung only have the aggravation of having it hurt like hell, but no other bad affects. This is no one I know....just a picture borrowed from the web.


This is an actual picture. It was taken right here on Turkey Mountain. (Actually, that's not entirely true....it was posted on this blog while I sit at my computer.... right here on Turkey Mountain. Not really relevant, just shamelessly posted for shock value.)

But those winged menaces had better beware! I am coming after them!And I will be armed! Check out my new electronic bee whacker!And if this fails, I have plan "B" all lined up.

And yes, I did some running this past week. I have been hitting the trails pretty hard and racking up some decent miles. Tonight, I ran with Jason and Jessie, my son and daughter-in-law, both of whom have ran a little, but are fairly new to trail-running. We got 4.3 miles in tonight and got rained on just a little right at the end of our run.

3 quick things

Friday, August 8, 2008

Justa quick coupla things before I head out the door.

1. I finally reached a milestone in my running. I collected my 100th tick on the trails this morning. YAY!!!

2.Wednesday night is turning into quite a great night for trail running. There were 10 of us romping on the trails last Wednesday. Come out and join us!Pictures clockwise are Dee, Vicky, Mike who was in town from Kansas City and joined us for a run, Rob, Kirk who is Bob's brother-in-law, and then Bee Sting Bob himself, Dustin, Me, Andy, and Cool-Shades Aaron.

3. Speaking of bee stings, the snake trail is still being terrorized by these aggressive hornets. I am fairly certain it is not the red hornets pictured previously in my blog. Dana was stung this morning again although we tip-toed very quietly through this section. Wednesday night, several of the runners were dive-bombed. I manged to capture one of the meanies and was gonna take his butt home to see if I could find his likeness on the internet. 
I did not have my camera with me this morning. I had hold of him by the wings, and I thought he was dead. But a few minutes later, he started growling-humming-buzzing or whatever it is they do, and I looked and his stinger was going wild trying to nail me on the fingers. I of course let him go and ran like a deer down the trail!

I googled and googled and could not find any pics that looked like this hornet. This is the closest I could find. It is not a yellow jacket at all. These hornets are black but not shiny black. It has a yellow-orange wide stripe on his stinger. They are actually pretty small....maybe 3/4 inch in total length. They are quick and very direct in their attack. I am gonna take some paint or signs or something to mark the area where they are, and still try to find their nest to destroy it. More details later.

More googling: It is a Mason Hornet. They may have yellow striping, or red, or orange. Ours has a burnt orange stripe....must be from Texas. Hmmph!

Mud slide? Earthquake?

This sign was posted on Keetonville Road not far from where I used to live two years ago. I was over that way and wanted to get a soy latte from the Pecan Porch on the Port Road, but to my disappointment, they had gone out of business. I had heard that the heavy rains had destroyed the portions of Keetonville Road near the Verdigris River, and of course I had to go check it out. Reading the sign, I shrugged and hopped over the old makeshift iron gate that someone had rigged up to block the road. Had to get a closer look, ya know!

The first sign of damage was a huge sink hole which had allowed a half moon sized chunk of road to crumble away. My thoughts were why not just fix it?
A couple hundred yards later, it looked like the side of the mountain had suffered an earthquake.
Still think a 4 wheel drive vehicle would have no problem getting through here.
This used to be one of my favorite running routes. From my house northward all the way to highway 20 and back was seven miles, complete with a river view, several hills, and lots of peace and quiet. Night running always brought a lot of glowing eyes into play. Sometimes the eyes were far enough apart that my pace picked up considerably!

They have no plans at all to rebuild this stretch of road. People living just on the other side of the road damage have to drive an extra 10-15 extra miles or so around through Claremore or Owasso to get through what was otherwise a short 3 mile trip. But I think it's still a good place to run, provided the warning sign is just a bluff!

Thursday, July 31, 2008Friday, August 1, 2008