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.

The Zombie and the Melon

Susan aka Melon is training for the Marine Corp Marathon and usually runs with Dana on Saturday mornings, but Dana had to work so she sent a sub--me! Melon ran 10 last Saturday--her longest run in 17 months--so I figured it might be a cutback week. I figured wrong. Her schedule had her going 12 miles. The girls had been doing their runs on the bike paths around Zink Lake so I thought a change of scenery might be good. We headed to Bixby to run the trailz (mostly paved) at Washington Irving Park.

There are ~one mile of trailz in the park itself, and they connect to two miles of bike trailz that run along a storm drainage channel. The park is called "Memorial Park because of displays such as this. A steel beam from the World Trade Center is a chilling reminder of the tragedy unloaded on us 12 years ago. There is also a memorial to the Murrah Building bombings, and to the children that lost their lives there.

And someone took a shining to Washington Irving.
Besides naming the park after him, they bronzed a likeness of him.
It is said that he crossed the country and camped near Bixby on one of his journeys.
Here, I show a total lack of respect to the renowned author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle.

Leaving the park, we ran west to the trail lalong thr drainage channes. We tool a trail spur to the south to an overlook of the lazy Arkansas, which was not so lazy today. Recent rains had the mile-wide river bank full. I know of two geocaches out there somewhere.

I had ran these trailz on our night run last week, and I thought they'd be boring--flat and you could see where you were going for at least a mile at a time. But everything was so lush and green, and the conversation was lively--and the time just flew. We had a gentle north breeze in our face, but once we turned and headed back south, we warmed up and the sweat-fest was on.

Getting back to the park, we ran the southern part of the trailz. I opted to running on gravel for most of the way through the park--hate the pavement ya know.

We refilled out packs at the car and headed south for the second half of our run. 6-ish miles down, and a little less than six to go. The run across the bridge was a cooker. No wind to speak of, and the sun popped out from behind a cloud cover and proceeded to catch up the heating process.

Once across, we picked up a trail that parallels the river heading east. A super-nice cross-wind cooled us down, and a continuous tree cover and cloud cover shaded the way.

Melon was feeling good. We were steadily improving on our pace, shaving a few seconds of of each mile.

The only bad thing about this trail is that it just goes a mile. How cool it would be if it went on for miles and miles and miles. We hit the end, and continued onto some roads that skirted the outside of several ball fields to get out mileage in.

These rural country roads are actually a great run. Mitch and I ran this route a couple of years ago, running all the way to Lake Bixhoma and back. There is not as lot of traffic to deal with, and most of the people that drive by are friendly, although they probably can't imagine why someone would just be a runnin down the road.

We turned around at the exact mileage to make 12 miles by the time we reached my car. That worked out great. The return trip was beautiful. You could see the river bridge and where our finish was from two miles away. Melon and I slowed down slightly at this point. We were no longer shaving off seconds, but were maintaining our average pace. Considering she ran 12 miles in decent temps but high humidity, and this was the furthest she had ran in a year and a half, I think she did great. I got good marks for the course, and for being a good cheerleader, and an under-the-breath cussing for being a slave-driver. Couldn't ask for more. Jimmy's Egg was glad to see us, and I was glad to have coffee and bacon. :-)

Warrior Princess Angel Run

Saturday Chrissy and Michael Whitten put on the 3.5 year annual Warrior Princess trail Run.

This years event has moved from Keystone State Park moluntain bike trailz to Chandler Park. There were 40 or so runners who elected to do the longer event--running for 103 minutes through the labyrinth of trailz winding through the bluffs overhanging Avery Drive and the mighty Arkansas. A few of the crowd knew what awaited them once they dropped down into the maze, but I am sure a few were surprised.

RD Chrissy gives out some last minute directions. It has rained just before the race, and caution was issued due to the slick rocks and mud. Still, I didn't see any blood and only saw one person slip in a muddy descent.

Arena has a smile of confidence, having traversed these trailz once on a TOT field trip. Jenni was on board to help Mitch with the timing, and I particular like this pic because it shows it is possible to inflate a balloon to the point where it's bigger than Mitch's head.

The "GO!" was declared and we were off for 103 minutes to commemorate Little Lillian's 103 days here on this earth.

I ran with K2 for much of the way. We clicked off the 1.03 mile laps like clockwork, running each in 17 minutes and change. While there were not any tremendously long steep hills, there were a few ups and downs, and several sections where the trail was rocky enough that walking was a good choice.


A good portion (but not all) of the course was an out-and-back, so you got to see other people as they ran their race. "Good job", "keep it up", "looking good."

Picture taken by Ken Saveth

Because part of the trail was through narrow hallways between craggy rocks, every now and then it was momentarily crowded, but never a real problem. But if this race grows like I think it will, we may have to rethink the course.

Picture taken by Rafael Santiago

Chrissy had professional photographers on the course, and many many pictures will be available for viewing soon.

Unlike the Snake Run, there was no "finishing lap." If you were on the course after 103 minutes had passed, the lap you were on did not count. K2 and I finished with a mere 15 minutes to spare. I wanted to go out for another even though it was gonna have to be my fastest lap of the day. K2 was good with stopping at 5 laps, and I ran out hard to try to squeeze another lap in. All things were clicking, and I ran all but one brief uphill, and passed a few runners along the way.

Picture taken by Ken Saveth

Picture taken by Ken Saveth

Rounding the last corner, I crossed the Leap of Faith for a 6th time and made it in with almost 3 minutes to spare, meaning I had ran the loop in 12 minutes. I was very happy with that, and laid around for a few minutes composing myself. Results are not yet posted, but I will put a link here when they are. This is a race you will not want to miss next year.

itchy madness

Compared to mosquitoes and chiggers, I LOVE ticks.
Since I have been working outside, mosquitoes have been feasting on my ankles. They are rarely a problem when I run, but with the rain we've had, I feel my blood is drained by the end of the day at work. These little bitches are relentless. Chiggers are making a huge comeback too. My last 3-4 trail runs have netted 50+ chigger bites that itch for a couple of weeks. (Chiggers are so small, and this picture is magnified about a zillion times. You really can't see them, but they are there.)
Give me ticks any day.

Geocaching--cleaning up loose ends

I finished up with work a little early today, and decided to break a long ugly streak of NOT geocaching. I decided I would give Chandler Park another try. I had several DNFs there, and it was time to right the ship. The three with pink circles were ones I had spent time searching for with no luck. Despite the tickiness of the woods holding the caches (and where there are ticks, there are chiggers!) I had a good feeling about finding these. There had been logs of recent finds,m so I knew they were there, plus the geocaching app recently had an update and it seemed like it might be a little more accurate.

The pink circle on the right was my first search. This was Oklahoma's 100th Centennial cache,. Jake and I stomped around in the woods for about an hour a few months ago. At first, it seemed like the same old song, but on the way out, I saw a mini-cave that looked like a good place, and sure enough, there was an army ammo box nestled under a rock overhang!!

The center pink circle was Drunk Slide. This is one where the GPS says it's 160 feet away, but it's also 160 feet DOWN the side of a steep nearly vertical descent. There are a few tree roots and scrub trees and rocks to hold on for dear life, and it was slightly muddy. Every 30 feet I went, the GPS would bounce around saying I was further away. Maybe it was the fact that I was on the side of a bluff, or the thick tree cover. How can I be 61 feet away, scrap my way towards the target, and then be further away? But before I stumbled downward another 60 feet, I saw it hidden practically in plain sight, but on the edge of such a steep drop off that no one would even stumble onto it. Drunk Slide captured!

The third find--the left pink circle--was Sober Up. This seemingly is a sequel to Drunk Slide, and it was dangerous in another way. It involved a journey through the halls of the Chandler Labyrinth, and then a short descent to a HUGE boulder hanging on the edge overlooking Avery Drive. I rounded the perimeter, looking for what was supposed to be a micro-cache. No luck. I then climbed on top and looked all over, hanging over the edges, looking in every nook and cranny. I put my hands in places that only a mouse could go (or a snake after a mouse!) I finally gave up, but spotted one more possible place, and it meant sticking my hand way up into what could have been a home for a rat rat or sleeping viper, but I scored the cache. This was one of the best days caching ever--three for three in less than an hour--and they were all hard ones!! Kinda has me stoked to go for more. I have two more to find in the main part of the park, and there are two or three more further west in the Wildwoods. Another day soon.

Tuesday on Turkey

The Tuesday trail running assembly was huge yesterday, with 60+ runners mulling around at 6:30 ready to swarm the trailz and sweat. It was in the low 90s--perfect July weather, but what was not perfect was the 90% humidity to go with the warm temps. In less than 50 feet of trekking, my shirt was certifiably icky--the pungent aroma of zombie perspiration. The trailz had a feel of the jungle, with all vegetation in hyper-green mode. We divided the slower group in half before we even left the parking lot. There was a fast group led by David, a medium group led by Matt, and the slower group morphed into two packs before we even left the parking lot. Edward took the zombie shufflers, and I led a group of walkers.

 From left to right--Tonya, Erin, LaTonya, Kayla, Katelynn, and Dusti. These were no ordinary walkers. They had the power-walking thing going on, and it was all my short dwarf legs could do to stay ahead of them--I stealthily snuck in a shuffle-step every few seconds or so to keep from being perceived as a pitifully slow walker! We ran a serpentine route that I like which includes a climb to the top, a bit of blue, possum skull, more blue, a good dose of bunny, and a yellow finish. Most of the trailz were clear, but there is still a good sized tree down on the eastern side of the blue trail.
Snakes seen--0.
Ticks--0.
Chiggers--6 for me.
Pesky flies--5000.

Saturday in the park

I didn't race this last weekend--in fact, I didn't run long really at all. But I did get out for a few miles early with Dana and Melon.

We were up right at sun-up, and did an easy seven in such cool temps for late July that is seemed just plain wrong.

We ran the Zink Lake loop, and went south to 41st st and back, and burned off just enough calories to justify bacon, eggs, hash browns, and homemade toast.


Melon took our pic near Zink Dam. Clearly, I was coffee deprived at this point.

Saturday was my birthday, and I spent the remainder of the day mowing grass, and then dinner with a few close friends. I also have the matter of my 54 somethings to do, which I'd like to do next weekend.My friend Ken Saveth and I usually do something crazy together to celebrate another calendar year conquered. Stay tuned....