Wish me luck this weekend. I'll be running the Mother Road 100, and gunning for 21 hours. The race starts at 9:00 Saturday morning, and I'd love to beat the sun to the finish line!

Pictured above from the 1st running of the Mother Road in 2006 are Johnny Spriggs who paced me from mile 78 to the finish, Randy Ellis who strolled to an easy finish HOURS ahead of me, then me, and Kathy who paced me from mile 50 to mile 78. Randy and Kathy are running the race this year, and I will have my work cut out to stay up with them. Johnny is off to Texas to run a 50K Saturday and a marathon Sunday. Now who is crazier?

A full race report to follow on Monday.

A new toy for grandbaby (and Grandpa)

This afternoon, I bought my granddaughter her first wheels. Oh she had a Little Tykes scooter and 2-door sedan, but today I bought her a JEEP.Now normally Jeep brings 4-wheel drive to mind, and this vehicle has only 3 wheels. But in this case, less is more. This unit is EFFORTLESS to push, unless you are going up the west side trail on Turkey Mountain below the parking lot. But the bonus here is that it makes hill-work more like WORK.

I bought this ATV at Babies-R-Us, brought it home, loaded up Makenna and she and her grandma, Mon and Dad went for a little run down the lower paved bike trail.I ran ahead a little and met up with Bobby, Susan, and Michael. Bobby and I ran out 2.5 miles and back. Then I ran back and finished up my 8 miles with the fam. I did manage to run the whole uphill pushing Makenna in her new wheels.She laughed and chattered the whole way, although I think she got a little sleepy before her ride was over.

Devil's Den

Dana and I drove over to Devil's Den to run on the Butterfield Hiking Trail. This is a 14.5 mile loop through the Boston Mountains in eastern Arkansas between Fayetteville and Ft Smith. We packed stuff for lunch, iced 4 water bottles, brought a change of clothes and headed out. It was a 2 hour drive from Tulsa, including a Quik Trip stop, and a McDonald's stop.

We probably picked the most perfect time to do this....the leaves were so brilliant in color, they almost looked artificial.This state park has lots of camp sites and several cabins. I'd love to have a HUGE Tatur outing there someday.This is a borrowed pic, as the same one I took had my finger right in front of the lens!

No map or brochure for me. I know this trail. (It's a man thing, I know I know.)

Garmins charged and set, camera in pocket, two water bottles each, and we were off. A lot of the trail was quite rocky. I had ran this trail three times before, and I swear I do not remember it being so technical. Out of the 14.5 miles, I would say over 80% of it was very rocky...."rock quarries" is how Dana so lovingly described them. There were also a lot of fallen trees. We wondered if they were from the ice storm, or maybe a tornado or high winds.

By running the course counter clockwise, we got the worst climb out of the way early in our journey. This direction also provided a bailout point at mile 12 if we were running out of daylight. I have a lot of trouble getting the severity of the ascents captured in a picture. While this pic does not look as though I am falling over the edge of the Earth, it was quite a drop should the small tree have gave way.

Another difficulty of the trail was the fallen leaves. The leaves on the trail were smunched down just a little, but the newly fallen leaves made it invisible camouflaged the trail in several places.The trail was marked with blue blazes, but most of the paint had faded and was very hard to see. Plus, some of the blazes were probably on trees that were now laying on the ground.

After 4 hours on the trail, hobbling over rock gardens, stopping and scanning for a hint of where the trail might be, and climbing over or around huge dead trees, we finally got to the section of the trail that I had bragged so much about.A 1/4 mile long bluff that is 60 feet tall was the highlight of the trip. I had never noticed the face in the rocks until uploading the pictures. The right "eye" seems to be a portal in an elevated cave. Usually, there are rapellers and face climbers practicing their skills here, but today we saw no one.Doesn't look like it, but I am one step away from a 50 foot fall.

While not actually a cave, this area seemed like a good hideout for outlaws back in the old days.

Back on solid ground after some climbing.

The continuous rocks beat up Dana's feet, and the little ones got inside her shoes and chewed on her little piggies.No speed records set today. Two years ago, Earl Blewett and I ran the whole 14.5 in well under 4 hours, but today it took Dana and I six hours, and we did take a paved road 2 miles back to our car which cut about 1/2 mile off the trip.

Next time, and there will be a next time, I intend to explore some of the other trails in the state park....there are several. Some that were scenic, and slightly less rocky would be acceptable.

I've been TAGGED!

My friend Cassy has tagged me, so here is my sixth picture from my sixth file. (This could have been scary, like if it were the 7th file!!! YIKES!)This is Kathy from the 2007 Barkley Book Fair. The Barkley Book Fair is fashioned after the infamous Barkley Marathon in Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. In this race, runners have to run 100 miles in 20 mile loops over the most rugged terrain that race director Gary Cantrell can conger up. To know that runners complete all of the course, Gary hides books in the woods and runners have to tear out the page that corresponds with their race number. This race is so hard that out of the hundreds that have tried it over the last 15 years or so, less than 10 have finished it.

I thought we should have a race like this right here on Turkey Mountain. I designed a day course which is hard, and a night course that is as tough as I can make it. In this picture, Kathy had just finished the night run and the last 1/4 mile of the trail came in the back door of the trail that the same sex lovers frequent. Now the book chosen for this less than sacred checkpoint could not be just any kind of book, but one that was true with the characteristics of the surrounding trail. And of course, I was careful to assign race numbers that corresponded with tasteless pages in this magazine. And yes, I did go to Barnes and Noble, select a nice gay magazine, take it to the checkout stand, and paid for it (using Brian's credit card!) But notice the enthusiasm in Kathy's eyes. I think she actually enjoyed her page.

I now tag......hmm, to whom am I going to give this honor? I can't make up my mind, so, Bobby and Candice, you are both tagged!!! Post your sixth picture from your sixth My Pictures folder and tell us the story. And no cheating!!

The bad and the ugly

The lesser good of the weekend was what happened during a 4 mile trail run Dana and I were on Saturday afternoon. We had parked our Jeep at the top of Lipbuster hill with our ice chest of cold drinks and snacks. We had intended to get in 10-12 miles on some of the easier trails. We were nearing the parking lot and noticed we had heard quite a lot of sirens, and the closer we got, the more it sounded like they were right at the top of the hill. We picked up the pace and popped out of the woods right at the curve where 61st Street tuns into Elwood. There were fire trucks everywhere, and an ambulance had just pulled up. We scurried around to our Jeep to get a drink, but mostly to get right in the middle of what was going on. It seems one of those super speedy motorcycles (crotch rockets, I think they call them) zipped up the hill at warp speed and failed to negotiate the curve.He laid his bike over and it slid under our Jeep, tearing the running board off, folded the heavy steel mounting bracket over like it was paper, and left some red paint on the wheel.The rider, a 31 year old dude evidently was thrown off of the bike and tumbled some 40 feet away and was laying on his back quite dazed.It is likely that had the bike not hit the tire on my Jeep that the dude would have crashed into the huge rocks which would have been less forgiving. And of course, the guy could have been slung underneath the Jeep which would have surely been fatal.

After the police did their report, we were gonna drive it home, but discovered the wheel would not turn to the left at all. It seems the blow of the the collision had bent the tie-rods between the wheels. So we ended up calling AAA to have it towed.

Remember back on July 3rd when a group of us heard Brad the motorcycle guy crash his bike into the ditch down by the lower parking lot at Turkey? Well, the driver of the tow truck proceeded to tell me about a buddy of his who ran through the light at 71st Street and ended up in a ditch upside down for three hours until he was discovered. I then told him about Brad and his wreck on July 3rd, and he got real quiet. "Brad? My friend was Brad." It was the same guy, just his facts were a little off. I told him that Brad's wreck was at 68th Street (a mere 3 blocks away) and he was in the ditch for 30 seconds before we found him and the fire dept was there in 5-6 MINUTES, not the three hours he claimed. Not sure if this was a case of bad exaggeration or what. I did hear that Brad was out of rehab, living in Wagoner, and not doing all that well.

Monday was a day of phone calls to this insurance agency, to this 1-800 number, on hold, transferred calls, on hold, waiting for calls back, and total frustration. Finally, after 10 hours of spinning wheels, we have a rental car (a PT Cruiser...UGH!) and a go-ahead to have the repairs done, all 2,468 dollars worth!In retrospect, if this is the worst problem I have in life, I am doing pretty good.

weekend in October

This weekend was the 31st running of the Tulsa Run, a 15K which is the largest race in Oklahoma. I have ran it in 2002 (5K), and the 15K every year since with the exception of 2006 in when I ran the Mother Road 100 on the same day. I am not a huge fan of road races although I do my share of road marathons, but this race is so much fun. I have a ton of friends there, and the course lends itself to running fast with some rolling hills, and also a lot of flat stretches where you can really pick up the pace. A lot of the course is out-and-back so you get to see who all is ahead of you and behind you. Us runners always seem to be good about saying how good everyone looks or in my case, lying about how good I look. (But this year, I was looking FINE!) I was part of a team that ran as a boxing match. My good friends Kathy and Debra were the boxers, My Heartland pacer Roman was the referee, and I was the ring girl.Sorry if you were eating while reading this! If you got throw-up all over your keyboard, just send me a bill!

We were not the only ones in costume.Don't know this girl, but her boyfriend is a fruit.

I am so lucky to run with so many princesses. These babes are in my Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday running group at RunnersWorld....as are these fine looking ladies.


Someone must have thought this was nice enough to snap a pic!

I did manage to get 4 miles in on trails both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Saturday night, went to see Appaloosa, a western with Viggo Mortenson, Ed Harris, Renee Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. T Z gives it 5 stars. Good enough to make up for a 5 dollar drink and a 6 dollar bag of popcorn.

More grim details of the happenings over the weekend on tomorrows post.

Seven miles of pictures and a 16 mile run

Today I had the time and yearning for a long run. Started from my house to get an easy 16 in.











Seven miles later, I was approaching the 11th Street bridge. I crossed over and ran up the east side of the river and headed home. There was a fierce southwest wind, and it clouded over and was fairly cold. I put the camera away and picked up the pace on the way home. Trail Zombie is all happy again!