our secret society

Last week, I leaked some classified information about a secret society of night runners. It was a calculated risk, but one worth taking seeing as these mid-week jaunts are seemingly more fun as more friends join in.Lately, we have had to endure some magnificent sunsets.

Our operation has temporarily lost a key member, as Lisa will have to take some down time due to an injury to her tibial plateau incurred during a day-running operation.










And so it goes. We use this road in this secret location to train. No pavement here--it's gravel, and real runnable were it not for the hills. But hillwork is why we come here.
This 1.5 mile stretch makes for a perfect out-and-back complete with a safe place to park.This session, Jessie and Tom joined Arena and I for a double out-and-back. We are secretly recruiting more participants. If you would like to be included in this operation, FaceBook me, or leave a comment here, and we'll give you the 411.

Life leaks away

Upon leaving an appointment southwest of Sand Springs, in a quiet wooded neighborhood, I noticed a squirrel running out a driveway toward the street. It was a healthy looking specimen with a reddish brown coat and a huge fluffy tail. I slowed down and watched as it stopped just onto the road and picked up something. What was it, an acorn? No, it was bigger. The squirrel was hovering over something, and I thought possibly it was something that might have fallen out of a trash can or thrown out a car window. Maybe he had found a half sandwich. I stopped as I drew near, and saw what the squirrel was tending to—another squirrel had been recently run over by a passing car. The squirrel had his wounded friend in his arms and seemed to be shaking it—maybe saying “wake up”, or “I’m sorry”, or “please don’t die.”

I paused there for a few seconds and wondered what I could do. The grief stricken squirrel looked up at me with a worried panic in his eye, as if to say “Mr, please please help us!” A wave of grief bowled me over. As a man, I rarely admit to crying, but this was tearing me up and there was nothing I could do. I drove on, knowing that eventually the injured one would be left to die, and would be pulverized by more cars passing through, or picked apart by scavenger birds. As I drove, I wondered if the squirrels were siblings--maybe brothers, or friends who played together every day? Was the agenda for the day to gather nuts and bury them for the coming winter? Was this a mother and father with a nest of squirrel babies somewhere in a tree?

Life is such a fragile thing. A commuter on their way to work probably never noticed they had hit an animal. The life leaked away with little fanfare, and no one will remember this lost life. If only I could get this sadness out of my heart.

Scary things in the night

Our band of night runners met faithfully in the hills north of Tulsa. Running in the darkness frees yourself from the stresses of the day, and feeds the inner self like no other outdoor activity can.But things look different in the night, miles from the hubbub of the city, away from the prim and proper paved lit running track neatly groomed for those hooked on the ordinary. Shadows lurk closely, taking chances where no streetlights can expose them.Lights in the distance may be a friend or foe. On our trail, you know they are coming for you. (To run with us, of course!)Actually, I am playing with the settings on my new camera. Arena may peel my head for posting this, but my pix with my new Canon SD 960 show some promise, and my photo-shopping tools are fun to play with too.
See, the dark scary guy in the shadows above was no other than Mitch!And it's Arena, dressed warmly, Garmin charged, and ready to run.
We ran 3 miles at the Botanical gardens, and would have gone 6 if I did not have a dinner engagement. This run includes HILLS, and is all very runnable gravel roads with an awesome view of downtown Tulsa. (click on the photo below to enlarge it)
Our secret group does not have to be a secret--we'd love you to come run with us.

It was another Sunday morning running with the TOTs. Cold. WIndy. Temps were sub 30. Windchills were sub 20. Our turnout was about half of what it was last week, but marathgons in Memphis and Dallas had a few of the regulars out of town. Still, there were 4 groups who traversed the traisl on Turkey Mountain this December morn.I have decided to NOT call my group the slow group. They are the steady group--the one that has the most fun, the one that stops to take in the sights whenever we darn well please.Slow?? I think not. Does Arena look slow here--blowing by the paparazzi in a blur?Our group of nine went 4.75 miles and ran the best that Turkey has to offer, bypassing the nastiest of trails. We'll do more rocks maybe next week. Take note of Rachel--the one with the pretty pink shoes. Yes, those are Vibram Five Fingers; this was her first trail run and she ran the whoe way wearing them. I was worried that the rocks would have given her fits, and that her piggies might have froze. She said everything went great--I want to believe that.

Even if you stay on the easiest of trails, you still have to keep an eye on where your footsies land.Lisa, who was running with a more spirited paced group, kicked a cable that was sticking out of the ground. Rather than doing a face plant or tuck-and-roll, she almost recovered by making massive strides, and oops--hyperextended her knee. OUCH! We came up on her and my heart just sank. She is a runner who is on top of her training and has Athens/Bib Fork Trail 26.2 coming up in a month, followed by a return trip to Colorado/Utah to Desert Rats in June.She had to be carried out and helped into their car. A trip to Urgent Care and x-ray revealed no broken bones, but possibly some stretched or torn ligaments. Let's keep her in our prayers for a speedy recovery.

Then, I had breakfast with Mitch, Arena, Rachel (the Vibram Five Finger girl), Ken aka K2, and a couple of friends who slept in--Eric and Polly.We got our moneys worth at First Watch, as I nearly bankrupted their coffee supply. I had a good visit with Eric, and I'm thinking he MAY add a 100K option to FlatRock this next year!!!! (I'm very excited!)

From there, I went to Chandler Park to watch a cyclocross race in which Kurt Egli was racing.(Pic borrowed from his FaceBook page.) After his event, Jason and I ran a little over seven miles on the trails and jeep roads southwest of the park. I forgot my camera, but you can see pics of the trails here. It was a good day.

Get that trash outa here!

If you have read this blog for very long, you have heard me rant about littering and especially trash DUMPING on my mountain! An area on the west side of the urban wilderness area is a favorite for low-life people to dump the crap they are to cheap to take to the city dump.Just imagine the trails where you are at one with nature running or biking, and then you have to look at this.

But the Turkey Mountain Urban Wildreness group organized a clean-up day and it was a whole army of Jim Dandies to the rescue!I failed to count heads but I think there were 30-40 people of like minds out on this cold sub-freezing morning to clean this mess up.
A lot of the dumping here is old tree limbs and brush--biodegradable stuff that is still a bit of an eyesore, but is a little more tolerable in my opinion. That is not to say that it is ok to dump in here though.
In most cases though, the piles of limbs were mixed in with filthy trash and debris, and had to be sorted through by hand and bagged to be toted out.
Fair to say over a hundred big trash bags were filled with household trash.
Not to mention enough old plywood to build a small barn--and a mattress.
Few things are as nasty as old carpet pad. It's sponge-like properties make it wet, heavy, and considering trashy people dumped it, it's probably was urine and vomit soaked. YUK!!
I worked for an hour sifting through a pile of old shingles that were crumbling and were near the point of turning to powder. There were chunks of shingle, old cedar shakes, tar paper, and a lot of roofing nails. Someone saved a $25.00 dump fee by trashing our playground. I'd love to know who it was so we could return their trash right to their front yard.
River Parks was awesome, providing a big flatbed truck and they hauled 5-6 loads FULL of gargage and took it to the landfill. Jason, Lisa, and I walked alongside 61st Street and loaded 4 huge sacks of garbage--pop cans, lots of beer cans, McDonalds trash, KFC cups, and over 40 20 ounce cans of Hurricane Malt Liquor. Never heard of it, but I bet if one visited a local liquor store and asked who bought massive quantities of the brew, most likely he/she is our dumper.
More gross stuff? You betcha! A Pepsi bottle, and I'm betting a ten-spot it's not Pepsi Cola inside. I was wearing gloves, and I did scrub the heck outa my hands after leaving.
I had heard rumors of there being a meth lab up on the mountain somewhere. Three times while out picking up trash, I heard someone say they found one--a "shake-and-bake" lab. This it usually a 2-liter bottle with residue of Drano, lye, anti-freeze, and whatever else they put in this stuff to make meth. These moblie labs cook within the bottle due to the chemical reaction of the ingredients, and the meth-heads can whip up a batch on the go. Since these folks probably don't believe in recycling, they dump their cookware with the rest of their garbage. While policing the roadside, I picked up a 2-liter Dr Pepper bottle, and discovered it was a cooker with some leftovers. Oh goody!
This stuff is so corrosive, it ate through the plastic bottle. Imagine what is does when injected into your veins?
We amassed a mountain of trash, and this pile was after a couple of truckloads were already removed. We barricaded this dirt road with several huge logs and brush, and reinstalled a cable across the road. I think some NO DUMPING signs might help (assuming the people who dum here are literate.) To all who came out and helped: Thank you thank you thank you.

playing

My first outdoor pix with daylight with my new Canon SD-960. It was a little overcast as we started our short 4-miler on the trails.I had to try a couple of different settings. The one below is with the "SUNSET" setting, which evidently cheats and adds a little tinting. Works for me.

This evening, I got out just before dark to try a few more shots.
The remains of a Bradford Pear tree that the ice storm three winters ago demolished. My cats and granddaughter like it as it seems like a cage. The sky color is a little off, as the SUNSET setting adds a bit to the color.A pic from "the cage."

Yes, I need to rake my leaves.

Across the street. Of course, I played with some of the basic photo-editing on my new computer. Goofy, I know.

I do like the sharpness in the pix with the new camera.
This one is slightly enhanced.
And this one is tweaked a bit more. I am toying with the idea of making a new backdrop for my blog. Something like this instead of the black. Every time I do change it, I hate it and change it right back. Maybe an old-dog-new-tricks thing??

Misc stuff

I'll never be a professional photographer. (There has to be someone reading this who is very accomplished in the art of photocapturing who just spewed his coffee through his nose!!) Yup, TZ is a novice. But I want to be better. I am at the point where I can recognise good clarity, too much light, fuzzy leaves, and many more technical terms.
The sunset was taken with my 3G iPhone, on the standard camera that comes with the phone, through my windshield, while driving. (I didn't text!!) Despite my haphazardness, God did all the work on this one.
No good reason for this pic. I took it accidentally with my phone with no flash, and the light source was a shaded lamp in the living room behind me. The only editing was in cropping.


This picture was cropped and tweaked.

It was actually a bad picture, and I jacked with the contrast and saturation until I liked it.




A couple of bottles of wine that have set in a wine rack for a couple of years. Aging is a good thing, right?
More playing with the basic photo-editing on the computer.
Finally, Miss Sassy takes nap number 8 or 9. She was snoring, and maybe dreaming of mice??