Congratulations, Stevie Ray!! Did 11.70 miles in the Arcata Community Forest today, my longest trail run in well over a month. Egads! And because Karen (my running buddy) is getting ready for a very hilly 50k next month, we did a lot of climbing. Double Egads!! Coach Bil showed up for about half of what I had left to do, and by the time we got back to the cars, my legs were seriously torched. Holy crappola. Karen had 22 on her schedule today, Bill about 10 I think, so I bid them fond farewell, happy to be going home. All I want to do right now is take a nice long nap. Unfortunately, I have transcription work to do, and we're going to the roller derby tonight. That should be fun! Speaking of transcription - I just got a butt load of it from the Public Defender's Office for some murder trial. So far, 7 standard size tapes with more to come, and I have no idea how long each tape is 'cause they rewound them to the beginning. The County has authorized no more than $300 for transcription purposes. Guess what my total bill is going to come to?? Okay - gotta get some work done. Have a great weekend, peeps!

DG, you so rock sistah..... YOUR FIRST race and took FIRST PLACE. Congrats. I am so proud of you. Final dress rehearsal. 10 miles with 6@marathon pace. The 17mph wind may not seem much, but when trying to run at MP was enough for my wings to curse the wing a time or two I am pretty happy with this outing. I nailed my MP pace to the second at every single mile. Now....will I be able to keep that pace miles after relentless miles? that remains to be seeing

Walt, I'm thinking often of your and your lovely Ellie. Thanks for popping in there and giving us the progress reports! {{{{ }}}} Rochrunner, sounds like a well-deserved medal! dg, 1st in AG is AWESOME!!! Was this really your first race??!!! How exciting! enke, hang in there! Coming back from crud is always tough. srl, WAY TO GO! I'm in awe! Well, Renee and I got out to the sand and splashed around in the puddles left from the huge soaking rain we got overnight. Did a total of 5 mi all at base pace, which isn't bad considering how spongy/sticky the sand was in some places and the wind on the way back. Yeah, I ran out of the wind first. There were these two nut-dogs (unaccompanied by humans) on the beach playing chicken with a huge pickup truck that were into the wind. So out-of-the-wind was the choice! I don't really mind coming home into the wind, as I'm usually warmed up at that point and overall more comfortable. Now to make dinner. Tonight is shrimp sauteed in rum, onions and a mango/coconut sauce, which then is put in a wrap with fresh raw spinach.

Do I recall from some earlier posts that you now have all 50 states?

As of about six hours ago, yes. Finishing the states was one of my earliest marathon goals all those years ago. I was going to write "back when I had hair" to be dramatic about how long it has been (which, in the big scheme, it wasn't that long). But really? Back then I had no hair. Now I have hair. Weird hair, though.

Congrats to srlopez on the 50th state, and to Deb, Tom, and Larry for their 5K, 10K, and 15K races! And congrats to Tammy on a PR 10 mile race. Some good runnin' there today! I did 3 magical healing miles with Tazzie and Ladybug with big fat snowflakes swirling around me! It was warm enough that it didn't stick, but the road, and therefore the dogs, were a muddy mess. We're gonna color Easter eggs after dinner tonight. Never too old to celebrate any and all holidays! Happy Easter to all of you.

I finished in 47:47 for an 8:32 pace and 4th in the 60+ AG. They handed out medals down to 5th in each AG, so at least I came away with some hardware (and a "PR" for this unique distance).

How did I miss this the first time around? Nice job, Roch!

Good job Tom and thank you also for encouraging dg to post a real RR. We aren't going to get pics as she is shy about photos. How I wish that were not so, as she is a knockout! dg, I am so proud of you. What a great pace. I hope you are satisfied with this and have some reflections about it. You are always so solicitous of others' feelings, injuries and overall performance. Let's hear a bit from you about your race experience. It is as important to us as it is to you. You don't have to write Paradise Lost, as some here do, just a few observations about your race and how you felt. Again, congrats. (And never sell yourself short on a win. As you continue to run you will find races where you ran hard and well and some ringer from out of town "stole" your award. So get the accolades while you can. Best to you.) Spareribs

Sounds like the Michiganders had a good race day today! And Deb got a 1st in AG for her birthday! Big congratulations there. Tom had a really good pace for the 10k! And Doug, I too missed your award earlier (different race, though, right?). And Larry rounds out the crew with the longest distance, good job! I like my new shoes. Took them out for a spin today. Started from DH's office, but the bike path was still a bit slushy and icy in spots. Decided to see what these shoes could do. First up was the Landreth. These really feel good. Put in 4.4 miles that looked like this: 8:14 7:52 7:47 7:47 7:56 (last .4 mile to DH's office) Switch shoes: next up Speedstars. Wow, these are light! Feel like slippers, but noticeably less cushion in forefoot and the heel feels "different." 7:49 (same route as first mile of first run, but warmed up now) 7:47 7:27 7:38 8:05 (last .2 mile for 4.2 total) Looks like a tempo run, but I did stop a few times to adjust the pad in my right shoe, retie laces, wait for traffic, etc. but the most exciting thing was the guy on the bike who wiped out on the ice right in front of me! If I'd been three strides ahead of where I was, we'd have had a nasty collision. As it is, his helmet made quite a "crack" sound as it hit the pavement. Good thing he had that on! Ripped his jacket and looks like he dislocated his pinkie, but other than that, ok. It was beautiful IRC today... bright sunshine, just a slight breeze and low 40's. Yummy!