This morning 5 brave souls hit the trails for a little mud running.
It had rained for hours last night and there was no short supply of slick squish mud on the trails at Turkey Mountain. Clockwise--Polly, Bob, Glenn, Brian, and the Zombie posed for a quick pic with the help of the timer on my Olympus camera.

Nice shiny white shoes just before their baptism in MUD!

We ran up the hill and through to the upper parking lot and westward to the 10K portion of the Turkey and Taturs course. Some of these trails are flat and easy, and the rest is rocky and treacherous....just the way I like it!Welcome to the jungle! Bob and Polly find their way through a slightly overgrown trail.

There were lots of water crossings and water falls today.Brian stops for a drink.... 

while Glenn stops to wash his hair!

Slipping and sliding down the hill.

Brian considers body-surfing the falls.
Go on, Brian! JUMP! You're holding up the line!

Along the way on the Snake trail, we stirred up a nest of hornets. Vicky had told me last week about getting stung somewhere through this section, and today, they nailed Bob. He was stung on the arm and just below his neck. Nice welt, dude!

We ended up with 7.2 miles or pretty close to it. It was a good run.Polly considers going out for another 3-4 miles, while Glenn is all grins thinking about the cold beer waiting for him at home!

An update on the motorcycle guy

I recently have heard that Brad, the young man who had the bad motorcycle accident a couple of weekends ago, is still in St Francis in the neuro-unit. He is paralyzed from the waist down, and is not in the best of spirits. He does not remember anything about the wreck at all. This is all I know right now, but tomorrow Brian and I are going to visit him.

I just got in from where the wreck was. All along, we had thought he was probably going north towards the big hill. Some thought maybe he was coming down the big hill. But where he landed, 68th street "T"s right into Elwood. I walked this section and found a lot of fresh scrape marks in the asphalt that led exactly to where he landed. There is also some skid marks. I think he was coming down 68th street way to fast, and his his brakes hard and laid his bike over. from the first scrape mark, I counted 34 paces to where his bike landed. That's 90-100 feet, and would indicate he was moving pretty fast. That stretch of road is also uphill and he went up and across Elwood, and then down into a deep ditch which right now is underwater.

He is fortunate to be alive. Keep him in your prayers. I'll let you all know more after Brian and I visit him

Funny video!

Training for the hundreds that I have this fall involves a lot of running. I have been doing so many miles that I worry about an over-use injury. I know I need to cross-train, but swimming is completely out for me. I hate weight lifting, although I could definitely benefit from hitting the gym every once in a while. Biking is good, but I never seem to feel like I get a good workout while riding.

But finally, I think I have found my answer!

click here----> I need one of these!!!

Funny video!

This link below is to Dean Karnazes' blog. Click on the link (the "click here") at the bottom of his July 2nd entry. It's a good for a laugh!

http://dean.runnersworld.com/

Ya know, this might help this problem.Standard issue trail-running gear.

Saturday

This morning, I opted to run with my friends at RunnersWorld on the paved river trails. My body just needed some easy miles on pavement.Rachel and Linda are followed by Bobby and Ed with whom I ran most of my 8 miles.

The goose population is thriving on the west bank of the Arkansas.Running on Turkey through the muddy clay sections, you get quite a lot of gunk caked up on your shoes, which is aggravating. Running through goose-land leads to gunk caked up on your shoes which is a little more than aggravating!

I ran in to a couple of my ultra-friends on the west side.Earl and Dan are both training for the Mother Road 100....100 miles on old Route 66 in western Oklahoma. Dan smoked the course 2 years ago for his first 100 mile finish. Earl had problems along the way and eventually had to drop. I am sure he wants to right that ship.

Upon taking their picture, Dan snatched my camera away from me and took my picture!
Hey! I sweat a lot!

Afterwards, Dana and I hit the trails at Turkey for a 4 EASY miles. We ran the snake trail, and she made it right by the dreaded tripping-stump, giving it a quick cussing as she passed.







We stopped for a few pics at Rock City before heading home.







Now I have my list to tend to:
1. Mow grass
2. Weed eat
3. Fix electric fence
4. Bathe dogs
5. Clean off desk

(I have my doubts I'll get too much of that done!)

While Wednesday had it's share up ups and downs, Thursday had it's share of adventures as well. After a ho-hum day at work, I ran with my roadie friends at RunnersWorld at 5:30, and attended a nutrition clinic afterwards at the store. For a report on that, go to RunnersWorld-Tulsa

Afterwards, a few friends and I had planned on running long into the night. I intended to get in 20 miles, others were going different distances, some on pavement, some on trails.Left to right are Roman, Kathy, Bill, Vicky, and Glenn, with Brian gnawing on a chicken leg. Not pictured are Tatur Dave, who showed up just a minute or two later, and of course the Zombie who was taking the pic. We met in the lower parking lot at 9:30, with thunder and lightning to the south and east. My thoughts were that the storms were moving away, and that turned out to be correct. Kathy and Roman took off to do a little road running, and we lingered, trying to decide which way we were gonna run.

A few minutes later we heard the roar of a Harley heading up Elwood, and then a loud sound of scraping metal and then a thud. We immediately knew that the biker had laid it over. We sprinted to the road and to the trail that runs adjacent to the road. In about 60 seconds we found him in a very deep ditch with his motorcycle on top of him. This poor guy was wadded up like a pretzel with all the weight of his mangled bike pinning him underneath. The smell of gasoline filled the air, and the sounds of gurgling moans from this man had me fearing that his time was very short. We had already called 911, and we did our best to convey to this guy that help was on the way and he was gonna be alright. I refrained from taking pictures of him pinned under the bike....somehow it just did not seem right. The people on the phone at 911 told us repeatedly NOT to try to move him, although I knew the six of us could have lifted the bike off of him. Just before the fire dept got there, the man began to talk some. He said his name was Brad, he was 25 years old, he was from Chicago, and he did not remember if his girlfriend was with him or not. This sent us running back and forth up the road looking into the deep ravines and weeds for a possible unconscious body. We never found one.The fire dept, police, and EMCA workers were there in 5-6 minutes, although it seemed longer. They went right to work and 3 firemen heaved the bike off of the guy like it was weightless.They put Brad on a backboard and strapped him down and took him to the ambulance. Other than a few little scrapes, Brad had no apparent injuries. He was not wearing a helmet, and was 2 feet away from a huge rock which would have bashed his head. I still wonder if he might have some internal injuries as twisted as his body was under his bike.The ditch he was in was so deep, he would never have been found had we not heard him from the parking lot. He was having trouble breathing and probably would have suffocated before he was found.

We did run after that, going for about 4 miles on the trails, and four miles on pavement.I bailed after that, as did Brian and Roman. The rest went out for a few more miles.

What a whirlwind of a day. I was out the door at 7:30 to go to an 8:00 appointment, which involved measuring a 12/12 pitch roof. While I don't mind scrambling on the side of a mountain like a billy goat, somehow I am not comfortable doing it on a rooftop!

After leaving, I saw that my car was on E, and had been since yesterday. No problemo, since I needed a Quik Trip coffee anyway. But at the gas pump, I could not get the fuel flap to open. The release would not pop the flap open at all! (I did go ahead and get my coffee though....Priorities, ya know!)

I decided that I had no choice but to go to the dealership to get it fixed. The dude there was able to pry it open, and then showed me how something had been bent by someone probably trying to steal my gas! Someone is not the sharpest crayon in the box, trying to steal gas from a Hybrid! He would not have got much, even if the tank was full!

Then, my next mission was to get to another gas station. But, I ran out of gas before getting there. I had always wondered what would happen if this happened in my Hybrid, and the Prius preformed like a charm. The electric motor kept me going, and I drove on the 1.5 miles to a QT as if nothing was wrong.

Then, I had a 10:00 appointment with Oklahoma Blood Institute. They wanted my blood. It's nice to be wanted! But on the way there, an 80-something blue-hair ran right into the back side of my car. I could see her turning out from a parking lot as if I was not there. I swerved as far as I dared without hitting another car, and she just drove right into the side of my car just behind the back wheel. Geeze, I was MAD! But when I saw she was an old lady, the anger went away. It was a miracle, since I was seconds away from going off on someone! Turns out, the back bumper wraps all the way around to the wheel, and I think it all is plastic. Other than a deep scratch in the clear coat and some of her white paint in my gray paint, nothing is really all that wrong. :-)

The tech that drew my blood was a newbie, and it took 2 sticks to get a vein. OWIE!!! And I am not sure where she got the needle, but it must have been from Texas, cuz it sure was BIG! I have a pretty good bruise to show for it.

Later in the afternoon, I sold a HUGE job in which the guy paid me up front in full. Another BUENO! My boss might actually pay me before the holiday and we can buy a few deeply discounted hot-dogs and day old buns.

Around 6:30 I met some friends tonight on Turkey Mountain and ran about 4 miles on the trails.Pictured above are Dee, Vicky, Glenn, and Aaron. We ran some nice soft easy trails all the way to the end of the powerline overlooking downtown.Along the way, I scanned for any missed ribbons from the BBF. Brian, Kathy, and I had made a mass sweep yesterday due to the prompting of some anonymous griper on the TATUR chatroom.On the return trip, Aaron took a fall. he bounced right up, and seemed none-the-worse for it. But after our run, he was sporting a nice little bloody knee. Make that 7 points for the fall, and an extra 2 points for the blood!

Another weekend, some more fun running stuff....

There is a recurring theme in my blog, I know. Seems like every weekend there is a long run, some friends, some silliness. Keeps me away from the mental institution, so it must be good.

Saturday morning, I overslept about 30 minutes, and did not get to go to Boulder Park to see my road running friends. Since I do the blog for RunnersWorld, I usually like to be there taking pictures and finding story-lines. But Kathy took several pics and I'll be able to work with those.

Instead, I was early for the group run on Turkey Mountain. We meet every Saturday at 7:00 am for a few miles through tick-land. (Just 2 ticks for me this morning!) We have had as many as 10 runners show up, and I suspect we'll have many more in the coming weeks. But this morning with dark gray skies and rumbling thunder a few miles to the south, we only had a crowd of three.We ran the red loop, snatching some of the remaining markers from the BBF as we went. Then, we climbed to the top of the east mountain and ran the 1/2 mile downhill bunny hill. Vicky had never been on this trail, and her and Greg seemed to like it. We then took the upper ridge trail north to Sitting Rock, and then proceeded west and did a little of the BBF night course from the 2006 run. I had not been on this trail in a year or more, and a couple of fallen trees have just about buried this forgotten trail for good. The Dr. Seuss bridges were still there, but little by little, the planks are rotting away. I would not call them safe at all....fun, but not safe! Then it was westward on some of the more obscure trails, overgrown with natural grass (weeds), and very slick rocks. It was a great place to stock up on chiggers, and to break a tail bone. Fortunately, I only partook of option one.
Vicky and Greg cautiously descend to Mooser Creek.

After a 5.5 mile scriggly loop, I bid them goodbye, and drove across the river to run 4 miles with Dana. She has picked up her pace, and ran 4 miles in 44 minutes and change, even with a few short walk breaks mixed in.

Then, I zipped back home, showered, and went to a golf tournament with my sons Chuck and Jason. It was a scramble format, and we reeled of 16 pars in a row before birdieing two holes, parring one,
and bogieing the final hole. (!@*%&!%%#!@#!!)Jason and Chuck wait out a rain delay.

10:30 pm, I met what I thought was gonna be 6-7 friends to run a night run on the Turnpike trail. Instead, 14 runners showed up, most of them TATURs, and most of them running 14 miles into the night.From left to right: Johnny, Brad, Ken S., Susan, Brian, Cindy, Carmie, T Z pouring water on Dan, Caroline, Rob, Kathy, and Boy Dana. Deon is missing….maybe he was taking the picture?

Temps were in the mid 70s, and humidity felt like it was in the mid nineties. I had the soaked-shorts thing going on after only a mile. Despite having run 9.5 miles in the morning, I felt fresh, and ran like a kid with new sneakers. There are a few nice hills on the Creek, and some peeps ran them, and some walked.
We had an ice chest stashed at 4 miles out that we also hit on the return trip, and at 7 miles out at the turn-around.T Z gives Tatur Uno a geriatric supplement drink to wash his Geritol down.

Special thanks to Cindy's husband who sagged for us and offered a taxi service for those bailing at 7 miles.

For another report from Brad, click here: Brad's blog

After our 14 miles, Rob and I ran for another 12.5 miles just to say we had ran a marathon, We did manage to finish under 6 hours including our stops at the ice chests.
Kathy caught completely off guard by the photographer.

Rob jams to his Hannah Montana tunes.

Deon, lost in space.