Mornin' everyone!

Some great and fun racing over the weekend by Twocat, Aamos, Ribs (sounds like a blast with Billy and Frank), Dave, Paul, and, of course, the crew of Enke, Wildchild and Mariposai. The runners here are amazing!

Welcome back, dg; welcome home, Holly.

I had a pretty good weekend: The weather for our 5K on Saturday, after last week's horrendous rain and wind, was DDG (drop-dead gorgeous), with abundant sun, light wind, and temps in the low 50s. We registered about 1,070 people, and the few glitches we had were remedied quickly enough that they didn't impact the racers - that i why we spend months prepping for the race, so everyone knows the drill, and can make corrections/adjustments on the fly. I raced as well as organized, and got to the start line about 15 seconds before the gun went off. It wasn't my fastest 5K, but it also wasn't my target race for the weekend, so I did OK (31:52), and snagged 3rd place among the walkers. Finishing this race also meant that I won the 'walker' division of the Seacoast Road Race Series, and got a nice glass award, in addition to qualifying for this year's Series jacket. After the race, I went hope and hopped in the hot tub, and then napped (I had been up since 3am).

On Sunday, I left at 5:30 to drive up to North Conway, NH for a half marathon. Part of the Reach The Beach course (the road into Conway, where that unfriendly traffic cop held us all up) was on the same road as part of this course. It had rained overnight, but by 8:30 (walker and slower runner start), it was partly cloudy, breezy, and sunny between the clouds. Along the course, when the sun was shining on the nearby mountains, it was an amazing view! There was also a relay as part of the race, and one of the relay runners who took an early start was my 'rabbit' for the f1st half of the race. Several times, I came up on his shoulder, but he refused to be passed by a walker and would speed up. It was OK - moving him along kept my pace good. The first runner from the 9:00 start passed me at about 5.5 miles. We know each other and encouraged each other as he flew by (he won in 1:12). The relay runner handed off to a faster runner at the midway point, so I was on my own after that. I was still a bit fatigued from the 5K, but was also determined to walk a good race. There was one short, very steep hill at 12.5 miles that I had to slow down for, but otherwise did OK. I finished in 2:24:29, which was my fastest finish at this race in at least 3 years, and was good enough for 1st walker. Afterward, I hurt and was somewhat dehydrated, and my face felt wind-burned. 3 bottles of water, 2 bananas, and 3/4 of a gluten-free pizza helped a lot! The 2-hr. drive home did not.

So, yeah, I took this morning off.

Have a greta Monday!

Jay

it’s not easy to make Boston Billy and Frank Shorter pale in comparison but Dr. Kenneth “you-changed-the-world” Cooper is one of the few.

In this regard, though pool triathlons are the tri-sport’s equivalent of running a marathon on a treadmill, I went out of my way to do a somewhat distant pool tri in Japan in 1985 solely because it was sponsored by the Cooper Institute and I could have my own connection to his fame too. Somehow, I’m not surprised he’s one of Spareribs many friends.
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Good job Steve. Your barefoot friend’s uniform would be enough to have me takin’ off my running shoes too if I already didn’t have any.  It had me looking to see if she was carrying her high heels though
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I”m in awe that mariposai completed 50K on Cougar Mountain in the afternmath, and occasional continuation, of our Saturday night storm.  When I was running the Cougar Mountain Series in those days, it was already so dauntingly steep, treacherous, and easy-to-get-lost that it culminated with 13.1 miles in August.  Now they have marathon and 50K too. Even though I did my best to try to talk her down to 20-miles or the eight-mile frolic with the other goddesses, she is one of the few runners, if any, for whom the 50K constitutes their one-and-only run on its slopes. It’s like taking flying lessons in a Piper Cub and doing your first solo in a 747, if not going to the moon.  I am in absolute disbelief and awe. Congratulations to another of our super-ultra-goddesses. Wow. . 
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^{With another 14-yo student dying from last week’s senseless school shooting north of Seattle right near where I used to visit my aunt and uncle when I was that age, the goodness of this groups’ daily postings, running or not, continues to serve as more realistic proof of reality than reality is. thanks.}

Loved the article, Ribs!  I have been trying really hard to get my dad to work at least 4x a week.  It's a struggle, especially since we live half an hour from one another, so it's not like I can drop in any time.  But I plan to tell him about the 17 m/m.  He's not 80 in years, but physically he's probably very close.

Glad you had such a wonderful time and got shellacked with a smile on your face.

Well, Mari and Wild, you both impress the heck out of me.  That's amazing running, ladies.

Jay, you are just one of a kind, in the very best sense of uniqueness.

Greta article, Ribs!  Thanks for sharing it with us.

So Leslie, how come the cats don't scare off the rat?  Or don't I want to know the answer???

Goodie, jlynne might come to MI in June, please make it so!.

Oh Dave, I think your stats might be right; there seem to be more women running halfs (that's how tslebs wrote it so i'm going with that, not "halves").  I was 7/561 women at mine and 41/892 total, so clearly more wimmins.

Beautiful morning here; 8 post race miles at 9:15 for me.  And nothing this evening!

grins,

A

 

 

Who all is registered for the Michigan race, and who's thinking about it?

 

 

I'm in for the half.

Yay, Jay, it sounds like a heck of an event.

What an enjoyable article, Ribs.

Tet, the lady raced carrying one shoe. It was a three mile costume party.

The dog and I have been in dozens of races together. After much discussion, we've decided to start training for a relay. I got home from work 40 min before sunset and we hit the trails fast for our first training run. Tag got the first leg down quite well. However, when it came to passing the baton, we still need work.

We lost several minutes and the stick was all slobbery.