Good morning!  Time for everyone to head to Laramie for the big marathon party weekend!

(Is it too late for Mike E to back out of this?)

Party on, Wayne.
Party on, Garth.

Party on Steve and MikEy and Carolyn et al.

0531

63F

96%

13 really good miles.

Two weeks to Idaho.

Saved a turtle on the way home.  

I knew that would light him up!  Maybe one day we'll have one of those Bobby Flay "Throwdown" cookoffs, IF, as Twocat says, we ever meet in person.

Truth is, Twocat's ribs will end up being better than mine because he follows the exact process.  I cheat a bit.  Let me share with you what I did last weekend with a whole beef brisket:

I gave it a good trim, leaving a lot of the surface fat on it of course but taking off the big pieces.  Then I gave it a thorough rub with my own concoction and let it come to room temperature.  Meanwhile I had soaked a whole mess of big oak chunks in water all morning.

I have a kettle grill, a Weber, and I burn only charcoal in it. I don't have a gas grill and would never use one.  I made a small fire on one side of the grill and put a drip pan on the other side, and put the brisket over the drip pan and put 3 wood chunks on the charcoal. I opened the top and bottom vents and put the lid on, which generated a lot of smoke.  I put the brisket on at 3 p.m. and took it off the grill at 9:15 p.m., and while I never used a thermometer, it was a very low heat and all I did was ensure I had a few pieces of charcoal and wet wood on the fire.

I wrapped the brisket and put it in the fridge overnight.  I took it out the next day at 1 p.m., unwrapped it and let it come to room temperature, then I mixed 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of bbq sauce and poured it in the bottom of a large pyrex baking dish. I put the brisket in and turned it over to coat, then covered the dish with foil and sealed it.  I put it in the oven at 225 for 3 more hours.  I got a good bbq ring in the meat, great smoke flavor and meat was tender without falling completely apart, as it's supposed to be.  We had a great family dinner and I gave the rest of the meat to the starving artist.

So you see, if I had a real smoker and could have better control of the heat, the right way to do the brisket would be about 13 hours and not the oven trick, but I doubt anyone can tell the difference between my method and the "true" method.  I do a variation of this method with ribs, grill first, then finish in oven, but it takes considerably less time.

Today was 3.4 miles easy with my RP, day off tomorrow and racing a 20K on Monday.  Have a great weekend everyone.  Spareribs

I assume the lack of action on today's thread is not because nothing is going on but rather that a lot is happening and people are too busy to post.

Nice long run RCG.

This morning, it was about 60° and there was a little wind.  I ran slowly to the high school, then did 3 laps around the track pushing a bit on the 1st and 3rd.  The return home gave me a total of 3 miles in about 30:30 for a 10:09 pace.

A good day and good runs for all.

TomS

(Is it too late for Mike E to back out of this?)

 Have fun Carolyn.  If you get to chat to anyone, be sure to ask ‘em

how many marathons they have run before they took on Wyoming.

I bet you’re the only marathon virgin there.

.

ps - It's always too late to ask a veteran like MikeE if he wants to bail.

I bet he likes it so much he’ll wanna be back next year. You too. me too.

.

Well someone’s gotta report a run but I didn’t think it would be me.  However, all the Wyoming Marathon chat, to say nothing of warm/sunny day, spurred a rare non-event run, second one this year and second one since February 2009.  Like no. 1 in February, ran across the Lake Washington floating bridge for a meet-up, even getting a couple of call-out “thank-you’s” from cyclists for the cardboard debris I was picking-up and carrying out along the way.

.

ps roch – tell your IM buddy to get married to a supportive spouse if he really wants to improve. My 81yo IM mentor will be back in Kona in October for the 27th time.

.

SECRET ps to MikeE – not that I would do anything like this if I could be there with you guys but Carolyn’ll be so nervous at the start that she won’t notice so maybe pin a big black magic marker paper on her back with something that’ll make her start wondering why everyone knows her name and is congratulating/encouraging her, e.g.

“SECRET

It’s Carolyn’s

1st Mary!!!

or pretend DW did it ‘

GO CAROLYN

It’s my wife’s

1^st marathon!

That brisket sounds good, Ribs.

Quite a day of running for me and my two. I did 7 easy this morning, one of them with my oldest. Then later today, we went to the Patriot's Invitational track meet, where my two were to run. Ellie, my youngest, has been pegged as a sprinter, so she did the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Her older sister did the 800, which she apparently did not like one bit. Now, funny thing: I did a last-minute registration to run the 800, since only competing athletes were allowed in the infield of the track, and my girls needed a little help with the logistics of a track meet (getting heat and lane assignments, setting up starting blocks)......so if I ran, I could help them out.

So I ran the 800 in 2:27, in what was easily the most painful two-and-a-half minutes of my life. All this marathon training has left me ill-prepared for these lung-busting shorter races. I still got 1st OA, beating every other age group in my heat. Yay! I'm not really tempted to do another one of these, though. I've always regarded the 800 as the fistfight of track events, and I'm not too keen on beating myself up again....unless dry-heaving in front of your daughter brings you closer together......Awkward!

I was especially proud of Ellie, who, poor thing, took a tumble in the 200, but got right back up and gained ground again in her heat to finish third. And her sister, Lula, did an admirable job of pushing through quite a bit of discomfort to finish strong in her race.

Fun stuff, these track meets.

nothing seven more miles is goingi to add to what you did/survived today, to say nothing of more tomorrow.  Depending on what happens tomorrow,in Wyoming,  maybe we'll recommend MikeE come and be your pacer (and maybe other goddesses joining you) on some 50-100 miler somewhere next year. Sounds like some photos would be worthwhile though.

Rhoon - ouch!

I think we need to have the BBQ cookoff, and I am volunteering to be one of the judges.....

So busy yesterday with yard work, a trip to the pool with the kids, and church in the evening.  I tried to hook up with Norm for a run, but our schedules are not working together well this weekend.  However, we did vow to meet up at the Flying Monkey in November....

5.3 recovery miles on Saturday.  Friday's 10 miles of fartleks and 9 holes of golf walking a hilly course really did my legs in, and they were tuckered out.  Hoping they are recovered enough for a LR today.

Good luck Mike and Carolyn!