Good Sunday morning to everyone.......... Beautiful 77 degree morning with 94% humidity made for a sticky 4 miles this morning. Enjoy what's left of the weekend! MTA: Congrats to Jim and Lynda on their race this weekend! Jewels

Catchin up yall, sorry my posts lately have been brief and "all bout me" please forgive. Thanks for all the pre/post race encouragement and congrats. Jewels good job for making time for runs with your school and getting DD 2 ready for her senior yr. Does the humidity ever drop down there to say even 60%?? Joe you are my hero man. You don't do a super 17 + mi LR with out a lot of base building and hard work. Hope u had a great week by the seashore!! Did you tell us if you had a marathon picked out/entered? So Buddy got any races on his calendar he is all trained up and all? Cindy I'm with Doug with the cold rain. Out west our rain is more polar bear plunge than Gene Kelly singin' in the rain. Sounds like you are listening to your best coach(yourself), and gettin thru the creaks that could derail your training.Kudos for making the "me time" to train. Carol you did the right thing on your 6 miler. nice job!! Funny I was going for 7 when I started my hip thing last fall. My bod gave fair warning at mi 5.5 and I kept going, by 7 it hurt every step. Took months to get over. Lesson learned the hard way. Oh and that Stupid viagra commercial bout ruined "Viva Las Vegas" for me!! Kelly hope the hammy is loosening up. Your quote last week was dead on "Marvel at the changes in your body and how good running makes you feel and smile smugly to yourself when you hear other people make excuses for their lack of fitness and why they're fat." Lynda and I threw on our new race shirts after yesterdays race to walk around the fair and expo, mostly to advetise for next years race for Jonathan. Wouldn't believe how many people said Oh I can't run cause of my knees etc, etc, or I am too old, or I did this in high school. We just smile. Arla I am sure you will pull things into place for the school year. You are a professional!!! Oh thats your basic 13 speed roadranger in the truck, my fave truck tranny. I never use the clutch once I am outa first, just sync rpms. Leslie BBQ at friends sounds like fun after your week. Funny how a run that expends enery actually gives you more energy as per your mid wk run!! When you come smokin' down hill on the trails how do you keep from getting to going too fast and crashing? When I did those trail runs in RMNP really scared me coming down. Bummer bout Deena's foot. MTA my friend didn't race sat, ran into them at the fair last nite, something about his lungs still being full of corn dust from cleaning out a corn bin that was going bad.

Look at those pics of snow!!!! It's giving me the goose bumps!!! (that's a good thing) I'm a winter girl! A few trees have started to turn here but it's still early. I was up on the tallest peak in VT today-actually went up and over twice! 23.8 miles just under 6 hours running time which means I turn my watch off for any significant breaks. My hamstring didn't bother me too much-we'll see how I feel tomorrow! Not much else to tell and it's getting late! G' Night! Kelly

Hi, All - Yesterday was a recovery day from the BBQ Saturday. Not sure if it's the alcohol or stupidly late nights that kill me (probably both). I think we all hit the hay around 2:00/2:30. Got to veg out in a hot tub, which I haven't done in ages, and it felt so good! Woke up the next morning to dog poop all over the floor in the room we slept in. Another couple who stayed the night had two dogs w/them. Really nice dogs, but nobody thought about them not knowing where they were and needing to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Poor thing. You could tell she had been looking for someplace to go 'cause there was a little trail of poop to our room. And I don't know who fed her what, but it definitely didn't agree with her system. But you can't blame the dog. I'm just glad we didn't get up in the dark to go to the bathroom! The house we stayed at has a really cool/funky yard. Lots of flowers that attract hummingbirds, and they were fairly dive-bombing us. I got a pretty cool picture of one and will get it downloaded to share . . . some day. I got lots of ideas for my own yard, though, and am read to start implementing them. 5-mile progression run this a.m., tacking The Hill at the end. Unfortunately, had to stop briefly halfway up as the legs were pooped. I'll blame it on the last two miles of the run. Had a 10:21 average w ith a best of 8:12. Joe - I love running downhill on the trails. Sometimes I wonder about the crashing, but so far haven't done it, knock on wood. I've had a couple of "oh crap!" moments, though! If the trail is unfamiliar, I'm more cautious; but like Headwaters or the Arcata Community Forest - it's all pretty familiar now so I just let go. Cindy - snow . . . Beautiful pics, though! Jewels - It's humid here today, too (but nothin' like yous guys). About 60 right now and drippy, drippy, drippy. Guess it would qualify as "mist" as this point. Had to use my wipers the whole way to work. Farmer Jim - I don't think your posts have self-indulging. Love to hear what's going on on the farm! Kelly - How's the hammies? Short work week for me this week as we leave Thursday to travel to San Jose for Conference. It's the Three Muskateers again (me, Denise, Catherine). We're gonna have a blast! Later1

Cindy was that mt Ypsilon in the pics? Were you guys up there? .

Don't know & Nope. Just sharing pics that were sent to us from Saturday....& it won't last....supposed to warm right back up to middle 80's by a coupla days out..... Nice mtn run Kelly! Joe: blah! blah! blah! I'd say that 60+ mpw does put you kinda up there! yer sposed ta be on vacation....means puters are like kryptonite! Jewels: Are you in a place that is "battoned down" this week???? Looks like most of FL could get parts of that one!! {{{{{{take care!!!}}}}}} Leslie: I'm glad you had a good time! .....poor puppy!! ..... I have that same lack 'o control! and @ my age/body type, I figure it's both the lack of sleep + beer that kicks my butt for as much as two-three days!!! TRYING not to do that right now....my stupid feet have taken enough of a bite outta my schedule!! aaand the same reason Doug missed his Sunday run...too much beer while out too late Sat. night.... went out a little later than I intended....got a little "direct sunlight-ish" for Mairead...9.47 sluggish hill miles...did alot more walking than I'd intended...but then, having that zero-energy-consistency-of-wet-dishcloth-legs mighta had something to do w/that.....going slower, I spend more time working w/Mairead...trying to convince her to run beside me, not in front! (I know! I'm supposed to be doing that ALL the time! ) gotta see if this still works: http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~yeli23/Flash/Fire.html >

Salty - Hang in there! It stinks when you feel trapped at a job. But keep your eyes and ears open, network, network, network, and something will come along. Please remind us - what surgery are you having?? I'd like to know whose idea it was to make these stupid brownies. I - $#%mdf*9

A few pics from our race The homestretch race to the finish the finish the age group winner directly ahead of me Kiesha coveting my Gatorade bottle, she likes to make them rattle Kiesha admiring Lynda's medal AG award from Jonathan

Found the recipe! CHOCOLATE BOY SCOUTS 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ½ cup all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup backed brown sugar ½ cup baby food prunes 3 Tbl. butter, melted 2 egg whites 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 cup chopped walnuts Preheat oven to 325. Combine cocoa, flour, and salt in small bowl. Set aside. Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer on low speed, blend together brown sugar, prunes, butter, egg whites, and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture and blend after each addition. Stir in walnuts. Spray an 8x8 inch baking pan with non-stick spray. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until edges feel dry to touch but center appears fudgy. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let cook in pan before slicing. For maximum moistness, store squares in an airtight container. Makes 12 Boy Scouts PER SERVING: 145 calories, 4.7 g fat, 25.1 carbs, 2.5 g protein, 62 mg sodium, 8 mg cholesterol. Calories from Fat: 27.8%