Good morning good people! I'll leave the recap duties to Jay, but wanted to tell Carolyn I hope she did well yesterday, hope that Twocat is tolerating being a couch potato for a few more days, Tom White will continue to rock his PT sessions, and Leslie finds a new car.

Got the Tough Mudder today. The forecast looks pretty good - sunny but cool. That jump into "arctic enema" might not be so enjoyable today. Got both my sons, my daughter-in-law and her sister on our team, and my DH is coming along as official photographer to chronicle the event. Hoping to post more about it later....

Have a great day everyone!

Mornin' Jlynne, and those still waking.

Nice start, Jlynne. But I'm not going near that "arctic enema" concept or comment. Good luck and have fun (and post pictures) in the Tough Mudder!

ETA: Good luck to you too today, Mike!

Yesterday morning, I had a knot in my lower back the size of a Chevy Tahoe. I got in touch with my favorite massage therapist, and she squeezed me in for a 1/2 hr in the early afternoon. She did some great work, which I followed up with alternating ice/heat therapy. Then I left for the 5pm, 5-mi. race. The weather was near perfect for this time of the year: temps in the low 70s with low humidity and a slight breeze. A lot of my racewalking and running friends were there, and it was great to catch up with many of them before and after the race. I did more stretching and easy warming-up than I'd usually do, just to try to make sure my back would behave. Then the race was on. Near the end of the first mile, a runner came along who was going just a little faster than me. So I picked it up and kept pace with him for a bit. Then he yelled (he had earphones on and couldn't hear himself) that I was embarrassing him (presumably by keeping up with him), and he took off. But he couldn't maintain it, and I passed him about a half mile later (tee hee...) and never saw him again. Then another runner, a woman this time, also with earphones, passed me. I made it my goal to stay with her. I did OK for a while, but she pulled further ahead on the downhills than I could make up on the uphills. In the end, she finished about 15-20 yards ahead of me. But she had done her job, and I set a 10-second PR for this race (this was my 4th year doing it) with a time of 52:27. I was on the massage table (yes, again...) when they started the award ceremony, and call my name a short while later. So I had to cut the massage short, which was a shame because it was feeling really, really good. I was the first racewalker, and earned a $50 check and a light-up arm band thingee. When I downloaded the race from my Garmin later on, it showed my pacing to be very inconsistent: the graph is much more mountains and valleys than straight lines. It didn't feel like that during the race, so I'm mystified about what that is all about.

In deference to TwoCat's command that I not get injured, I took this morning off, but may go out for a easy workout later in the day.

Have a greta Sunday!

Jay

The local TV weather people have had a good week predicting the cold front that was due this weekend, and they were spot on.  Today it was 67 degrees and people were just going crazy.  I ran 8 at Grapevine in the hills while the Saint walked 6.  Felt great in the cool air.

Not much going on here, but we had an interesting adventure the other night when a hummingbird got into our outside skylight and didn't know to just fly downward to get out. Butterflies do the same and then die up there.  So the poor bird was exhausted and just fell to the porch and couldn't move.  We put a paper towel soaked with a simple sugar solution under its beak and it regained its strength overnight and flew away in the morning.  We thought it was a goner, so that was our good deed for the day.

Nice win Jay!  Spareribs

It's noon...and I've run 10 miles, gotten my son to his X-country meet, did the course walk through briskly with him, and then skedaddled to my ballroom dance lesson..1.5 hours with the instructor.

After my 18-miler yesterday, I'm ready to just lie on the couch for the rest of the afternoon, stalking Carolyn's Facebook page in search of news...

--Robin

For various reasons, I decided not to do the 5-mile trail run at the Run Woodstock event in Pinckney, Michigan today, but wanted to report a successful and enjoyable meet-up with dg9, Econo, and Ben. I'd never met Renee before: she is every bit as nice as I expected she'd be, and her son Ben is one amazing young man. And of course, Debbie is always a special favorite. We chatted a bit and then all went out for lunch in the nearby town of Dexter. I was only sorry that I didn't get there in time to see Holly again after her weekend adventures, as she was already on her way back to Ohio (we don't have that wall built at the border yet).

Hope you all had as good of a weekend!

Nice to hear about the Michigan RA gathering - Roch, dg, and Econo!

Jeanne, congrats on doing another tough mudder with your family!

Jay, good job beating those runners! I'm amazed you could even race after having back issues in the morning!

Well, I survived my 100k race - hardest thing I've ever done!  I finished in 17:37 and was second woman overall.  Four women started, and I think only two of us finished, so yeah, I was 2nd out of 2!   I ran most of the first 30 miles with the 1st place woman, Rebecca - we even ran 2 "bonus miles" together in the dark when we both missed a turn.  I was ahead of her for the next 30+ miles, but she passed me with 3 miles to go, and I couldn't keep up.  It got hot in the afternoon, and I was mostly walking, but when it cooled off in the evening I was happy I could run again.  The aid stations and the volunteers were excellent, and I saw a lot of friends on the course, both running and volunteering.   Today my feet are sore and I have a blister on the bottom of my right foot, but otherwise feel pretty good!