Half and Half Invitational

Sunday morning, I ran the farthest distance since October 5th. The Half and Half Marathon scheduled for next Sunday makes a provision for volunteers who want to experience the thrill of the trails by having an "by invitation only" run the weekend before.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
Ten of us gathered at the Turkey Mountain parking lot to take on 13.1 miles on the trailz, and another 13.1 miles on the paved bike trail.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
We left out at 9:03 by my watch, and headed up the Powerline trail and quickly tucked into the woods for the climb to the top of the mountain.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
As I posted a couple of days ago, the trailz of Turkey Mountain are blanketed by 4 inches of snow, but there had been a little melting and refreezing, and most of the trailz were packed down by runners and a few bikers.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
Heading down the north end of the mountain, we turned and headed west for a ziz-zag route that wound back to the old upper parking lot.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
The peaceful water of Pepsi Lake.

From the upper parking lot, we headed west following the trail nearest 61st Street all the way to the Pipeline trail. Our group of 10 had evolved into one speedster (Derk), a moderate paced group of Kathy, Russell, Barbara, and Jason, then the rest of us (Roman, Cindy, Edward, Chrissy, and me.) Roman, Cindy, and Christi wind through a green area. These plants look like jungle foliage, and stay green all year long.


Part of the trail runs through an old abandoned home-site, and years ago, the settlers had planted a lot of pine trees. This is a beautiful area, and we stopped for pictures and hydration.

Roman has high spirits. There is never a shortage of conversation when running with Roman.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
I had heated up a little, and pocketed my stocking hat. I had dressed perfectly, and managed my core temp by zipping and unzipping my jacket.

This trail is in the area where the developers scraped the vegetation several months back. Most of the natural weeds have grown back, and a trail has been re-established. I think this stretch is still pretty, although I still liked it the way it was before.


pic swiped from Barbara Pinkerton
The turnaround (mile 6.5ish) is at the Westside Y. The group ahead of me were in the midst of a curling tournament, and I made a tactical move and bopped in and out and was temporarily in 2nd place! Woo hoo!! But that was short lived. Still, I was running well, and my knee and ankle were holding up fine.

I was soon passed by Barbara, Jason, and Russell, Roman, Christi, and Cindy caught up and we stayed together for a few miles.

We paused for a second at Jake's Pond for a quick pic before taking on the Snake. Running the course in reverse, we ran the east side of the Snake, right through the middle of the Snake Loop (on a trail I call Deer Run), and then the west side of the Snake to Rock City and then to the switchbacks of JellyLegs.
I had met the TOTs at 7:30 before the race and only one showed up, but being the fearless group leader that I am, I led our twosome of a group on a 3-ish mile super-easy run. That extra mileage was beginning to put a damper on my overall efforts this day.


pic swiped from Roman Broyles
At the parking lot (mile 13.1), Kathy was regrouping and deciding if she or if anyone was gonna go on. That added element of doubt sucked me under, and I stopped at the halfway point ending up with around 17 miles for the day. This is progress though, since I had almost stopped running altogether. Last weeks 10 miler with this 17 makes me think a 20 miler next weekend would be about right.

Kathy, Barbara, Cindy, and Russell continued and got a hard earned 26.2 miles under their belts. Way to go!!!

Turkey in the snow

I read on Facebook friends plans of running on the treadmill in order to get their miles in when it's cold, and especially when it's icy or snowy. I say, there is no better time to go outside for a run. Apparently, there were a few who agreed with me Friday. Geoff, Russell, and Chris, along with my buddy Jake met at Turkey Mountain for a few slow miles on the trailz.

 
Jake led the way, and we meandered up to the top of the mountain before deciding exactly where we wanted to go. As you can see, we weren't the first ones out. A few runners or hikers had plowed through the snow, as well as a mountain bike.

We then took the Bunny Trail north (renamed the Snow Bunny Trail) and exited to the upper yellow after a mile and then headed north.

AT the Spider, without trees to block the north wind, it was a bit nippy, but most of the way we were comfortable. I had on a light tech shirt, a fleece Patagonia shirt, and a Gortex jacket, and a thin pair of tights, and was plenty warm.

 
I have a pair of Saucony Razors with built in gaiters that are dreadfully uncomfortable, but great in the snow, and they kept my feet warm and dry. Jake is just tough, running barefoot the whole way.

From the Spider, we headed down the pink trail all the way to the creek bed, and then turned north to run the west edge trail around Pepsi Lake.

Pepsi Lake is not much more than a puddle. This pond when full, is over 20 feet deep. I bet you could wade across it now.

 
Geoff practices his best bad-ass face, and Russell impersonates a zombie.

My Canon had a dead battery, so I was taking my gloves on and off to take pix with my iPhone. Somehow, I must have selected a B/W filter, but I like the pix.

 
Russell took pix, as did Chris. I bet we looked more like a amateur photography club that trail runners. Russell took this one.

Chris always takes uber-colorful shots--with a filter or a little photoshop enhancing. Other than our clothes, there was plenty of white and gray--and not much else.

 
After 5 miles, we felt a little tired but satisfied. Russell captured the zombie shuffle in action. We hung out at the parking lot and discussed calling the cops on a group of obnoxious drunk kids who were yelling and pushing each other around like they were fighting, all the while passing a fifth around. I am sure they drove there, and Chris said they had wrecked one of their cars on Elwood when he was driving in. Another of their cars was blocking the main drive around the lot. I hope the cops hauled them all in. Other than that, it was an awesome outing. You really should see Turkey Mountain in the snow. It's amazing.

Chandler Park with friends, metal detecting, and a surprize geocache

It all started with K2 posting something on Facebook. I wanted to run at Chandler Park (actually the WildWoods west of Chandler Park), and reading that K2 wanted someone to run 10ish miles with him led to an invite, and the plans were made. Terrianne had also responded to K2, and the three of us met in my driveway at 7:30 and left out to west Tulsa.

I started us out with an easy loop on the east side of the wilderness area, and I was a little disappointed to see that someone has been clearing land and making new roads. Some kind of development is forthcoming and I don't like it. But we got a little under three miles in before heading west to bigger hills and cooler trailz.

A lot of the trailz are actually double track (fancy-speak for two lane jeep roads) with some tight single track and some wide enough for 4-wheelers to maneuver through.


Terrianne and K2 wait for me--had to have a pee break. Shortly after that, we heard voices through the trees--kind of like something a fox would say if a fox could talk. And them lo and behold, Trail Jesus stood before us. TJ (aka John Nobles) was out with a few friends scoping out the course for a fat ass run called "The Worst Christmas Party Ever."
According to Cole Starkey, he and TJ

"have been spending the last few mornings on the trails. Every time we are out there my mind is blown, such variety and beauty throughout this otherwise unused trail system. It looks like we will be keeping our promise of using each trail only once to get to our 24. Will be going out Saturday and Sunday mornings as well if anyone wants to join in on the training and get a sneak-peek at this one-of-a-kind course."

The race supposedly finishes here--and if you are running and gunning it into the finish, you had better shut it down IMMEDIATELY after crossing the line. The first step past where Trail Jesus is standing is a big one.
The view from here is amazing. You can see forever (or all the way past Sand Springs, which is just like forever.)

From there, we went to the bottom of the 60' bluffs through a narrow slot between huge rocks.

I maintain that the earthquake a couple of years back caused these rocks to move closer together. I had to definitely turn sideways to get through. I even had to take off my Camelback. It could also be because I ate much dessert Thursday and again on Friday. As seen above, K2 also had to turn sideways. I offered him my BodyGlide to help with his passage but he made it without it.

I always like to take a different way out--just HATE going back the same way I came. I thought there was another trail that led out, and took great efforts to find it. But I finally gave in and we backtracked a 1/4 mile back the way we came. Next, it was the maze. Up on the upper plateau, there are jeep roads that just go on and on and on. The tall grass is 8' tall, and there are scrub trees, and persimmon trees, and BRIERS that are 8-10' tall, and you cannot see anything other than the gradually turning rutted out dirt roads. There are two ways out of this maze, and several turns that make giant one-mile circles. I was up here once late in the afternoon, and it got dark on me. I had a headlamp, but made three one mile circles before I found a way out. I DID not want to go in even ONE circle today, and was oh so careful to make sure I was making the correct turns. In one place we came onto a ginormous mud puddle with a swampy mud bog on either side of the road and man-eating briers licking their chops hoping we'd even try coming anywhere other than right through the middle of the mud. We turned around and took a road that I was sure a big circle going nowhere but where we had already been. But luckily, we found the road kept bearing south and it eventually came out on the Powerline. Good news.

This huge plot of undeveloped land has in years past been a good place for people to dump the cars they'd stolen and stripped--often setting them afire. Once on the Powerline, we saw one of these cars, stripped, burnt, and flipped over. The odd thing was that there was a brand new tarp tied to the back of the truck, and it appeared that someone had been living under the truck with the tarp serving as their enclosure. The remains of a campfire, a can opener and a few empty cans seemed to bear this out. Here, K2 takes a load off, relaxing as the inhabitants before him did.


We dropped down through a narrow hallway to get to the trailz that led eastward. Terrianne is still all smiles. She was a good sport.

This Powerline trail is about three miles long, and has longer and steeper climbs that Turkey Mountains Powerline trail. It seems like it's much further, and just when you think you've got to the top of a long climb, there is another 100 feet to climb.


There was a few groans once we topped what we though was our last limb, and saw we still had this.

Rather than going down the last hill, I took us north through the woods and on top of a ridge. This eliminated one downhill and uphill. I am sure we had done enough ups and downs. Besides, this is a nice trail.

One last climb, and it was flat all the way back to the park. We ended up with 9.7 miles, and took over 3 hours to do it. We had a few stops to chat with TJ, pee stops, and hey--it was not a race.

I love running here, except after a rain. I may go back tomorrow too. We'll see how my knee and ankle feel in the morning.

When I got home, I had a call from my brother Fiver, who wanted me to show him a couple of abandoned home-sites on Turkey, as well as the moonshine camp. He is into the metal detector thing, and wanted to see what kind of gold/silver coins he could find. I was glad to do that, and Jake was glad to go with me.

We hit the moonshine camp first, where there is a geocache hidden and I have not been able to find it despite having looked several times. Fiver descended into the lower level of the ruins and scanned his gadget over the ground and it beeped immediately. He said it was a tight signal and there was something there. And wouldn't you know it? He found that geocache in a matter of seconds.
I have paid my dues looking for this one, and even though I did not have a pen, I am claiming a find. (I did go back later with a pen and signed my name. It's official. I now have found every geocache on Turkey Mountain.

Metal detecting was otherwise not-so-good here because of all the tin laying around and buried in the ground. So, we left for the other abandoned home-site. I thought we'd have better luck there. But, here, there was so much trash laying around that every hit was an old buried aluminum or tin can.

The following BitStrips are mine and Fiver's take on our adventure.

Fiver DID find two pennies--both buried about 8 inches deep. He also found an earring--probably silver and if it's a diamond, it's a big one.

Fiver did say that there was too much trash laying around and buried for it to be a "good" place to search.

Happy eating

In considering my eating plans today, I hope to stick with my gluten-free/all organic diet. Having adhered firmly to this regiment for 11 days now and seeing a 7 lb weight loss, I don't want to undo my efforts all in one day. I DO love my fare (ample) share of turkey and all the trimmings, SOME of the casseroles, and PIE. I am sure many years on Thanksgiving day, I've consumed over 20,000 calories in one sitting. This got me to wondering what the world record for most calories consumed in one meal. Google listed the following story, taken from MAIL Online magazine.

A New Jersey woman who hopes to become the fattest woman in the world got 30,000 calories closer to her 1,000 lb goal with a festive feast that could have fed dozens of revelers. 644 lb Donna Simpson, sitting in a reinforced metal chair, chowed down on the world's biggest Thanksgiving dinner as she ate for two straight.

The single mother-of-two tucked into two 25 lb turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 15 lbs of potatoes (10 lbs roast, 5 lbs mashed), five loaves of bread, five pounds of herb stuffing, four pints of gravy, four pints of cranberry dressing and an astonishing 20 lbs of vegetables.

Big business: Donna's high calorie diet costs her $800.00 a week - funded by a website she has set up for 'fat admirers' who pay to look at photos of her eating.

After polishing off her enormous main course, she still had room for dessert and ate a 'salad' made of marshmallow, cream cheese, whipped cream and cookies.
Donna's two children, Devin, 14, and Jacqueline, three, enjoyed a more modest feast.
The 5'2 Donna defended her $245.00 meal, saying: 'I eat as much as I want, whenever I want but at this time of year I really go all out.'

'Thanksgiving should give you carte blanche to do whatever you want.'
Donna, who insists she is healthy, told the Sunday Mirror: 'People who feel guilty about eating are hilarious.'

Donna hopes to one day be the Guinness World Record holder for fattest woman. She is already on the books as the world's fattest mum, having given birth to Jacqueline in 2007 when she weighed 532 lbs. She makes a living from being fat, getting paid to make public appearances and keeping a website where people can pay to watch her eat.

WHAT SHE ATE
2 portions of 25 lb oven roasted turkeys
2 portions of 15 lb maple glazed hams
10 lbs of roast potatoes
5 lbs of mashed potatoes
5 lbs of chopped carrots
5 lbs of sweetcorn
5 lbs of roasted butternut squash
5 parcels of house-baked bread
4 pints of cranberry relish
4 pints of home-made gravy
5 lbs of herb stuffing
1 tray of mixed green salad including salad dressing 

CALORIE TOTAL: 30,000

Already a Guinness world record holder for being the largest woman to ever give birth, Donna hopes to gain 350 lbs more and officially become the fattest woman in the world.

She got the Guinness World Record as  the world's fattest mother, when she gave birth in 2007 weighing 532 lbs.
She needed a team of 30 medics to deliver her daughter Jacqueline during a high-risk Cesarean birth.

Donna met Jacqueline's father Philippe on a dating site for plus-size people, even though he weighed only 140 lbs. He supported her 12,000-calorie a day diet and was a 'belly man' who loved her enormous shape.
Donna has always been plus sized.
When she  was 19 she met her first husband, who worked as a chef at a steak restaurant.
'He worked night shifts and would come home at 2 or 3  am and bring the leftovers with him,' she said.

She insists she's healthy even though she needs a scooter to get around and can barely walk. Her Thanksgiving feast cost an astonishing $245.00.
'We'd stay up and eat huge piles of steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy with butter.I started gaining weight quickly and my husband liked it. He said I was sexier when I was bigger, and I felt happier too.'

When she was 27, Donna weighed 350 lbs, and fell pregnant with her eldest son, Devin. Her marriage ended soon after and she turned to food for comfort. By the age of 31, she weighed 602 lbs and decided to try and lose weight. She lost 70 lbs in six months and was due to have a gastric band operation. But just before she was due to go under the knife, her friend died during a similar operation. 'That was a sign for me,' she said. 'I decided it just wasn't worth it. I like being the way I am.'

Donna, then 532 lbs, came across a website which celebrated obese women. When she admitted her real size, Donna was flooded with emails from men. 'They sent me gifts through the post, like protein shakes to help me put on weight faster,' she said.

And she's unrepentant of her weight-gain goal, despite risking her own life in the process.
'I love eating and people love watching me eat,' she said. 'It makes people happy, and I'm not harming anyone.'

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.