Howdy Holly and all to follow! How's your DD's finger and your knee today? What a bummer about not being able to play on the golf team. Is the finger in a split, or does she just have to tape it?

Deez - so sorry to hear about your DS and his backslide with alcohol and drugs. I have a lot of these same issues in my family so I can appreciate what you're going through. He's in my thoughts and prayers today.

Hope the race went well Erika!

Mike - feeling any better these last couple of days? At least the weather has improved a little.

(((Starr)))

7.5 miles this morning. The weather was perfect. Unfortunately, I'm not. I've been downgraded to a run/walk system the last few weeks. I just have no sproink and am wondering (and secretly hoping) that this is still the after-effects of that staph infection and I'll be all better soon.

One of my friends from the Y has a daughter going through a divorce and her daughter's ex got the house. Since the daughter bought a new house, she needed appliances all around, and bought my DS#2's stove, fridge, washer and dryer for a lower than reasonable $1,100. These are all stainless steel appliances, a little over a year old. The good news is they're sold and will be picked up next week!

Went out for breakfast with DS#1, Will (6), Ben (5) and Nicholas (3).  Maple syrup all over the place and one full glass of chocolate milk dumped over. What a circus! Don't you just love grandkids?

Great start to the day, and new week, with Holly and Dave running,
jeanne’s DS selling all the appliances and her understatement of the year.
Dave's Planet Fitness should minimize the tendency to slack off
when trying to exercise on your own. Good luck.

Don't you just love grandkids?

.

In GS news up here, he got a five dollar bill
in his tooth fairy pillow for losing his first baby tooth.*

.

In actual running news, added to yesterday’s two-miler
down-and-back to the post office, is today’s down-and-back
to Mary’s Falls the start of a new streak? **
.

*_{Tooth fell out the other day when he was in the car with me on the way to pick up a friend to take to Vacation Bible School. I, along with everyone else, was under explicit instruction from mommy to get it from him when it happened so it would not get lost. If course he immediately dropped it on the car floor. Found it when we stopped at friend’s house where we got a zip-lock to keep it in my possession to give to mommy. However, he wanted to keep it next to him in the back seat and promised to leave it there during Bible School. No problem, . . . . . except for some unbelievable reason, as soon as he stepped outside the car, I heard “I dropped it!” . . . . and it wasn’t in the zip-lock any more but now mixed in with all if the lot’s tiny, tiny, tooth-sized bits of baby-sized gravel.}

_{Down on my knees with a knapsack with shirt inside protecting my knees, I  : was joined by another parishioner feeling sorry for me for about 30 minutes before we gave up. Came back with very unhappy mommy for some more searching and then afterwards again with GS and his friend’s sharp eyes joining in. No luck.
.
Dropped mommy off there the next morning on the way to fishing with GS, who, after getting mommy assurances that an explanatory note to the Tooth Fairy would suffice, had already long since given up having it again. As a concession to poor mommy who wanted to make one last effort, I had GS to help her look for a few minutes before we went on our way fishing when, all-of-a-sudden, and almost immediately, voila!, almost as fast as it takes to catch fish up here, MOMMY FOUND IT!!!! It was even tinier than all the little bits of baby pebbles. ‘ whew.}
== = =

.
**_{^{Started off checking out the Forest Service bear observation deck and, after about ten other early morning risers left because of inaction, immediately saw a big black bear coming out of the woods to catch a big sockeye salmon right under me. Except for the wire meshing along the railing, I could have sat down and dangled my feet over the edge to touch him on the head, . . . or had my foot bit off.
.
With the salmon in its mouth at such close up range that the head, neck and salmon filled the entire camera screen, next to the picture of the bear up in the tree after crossing the trail in front of Mariposai’s DS at the Tunnel Marathon, it’s one of my best bear pictures ever. However, the ranger said, “oh, that’s nice” and, after a perfunctory showing to DD, we went back to tooth talk as it was no big deal to anyone who lives here so I would appreciate it if anyone herein could pretend I knew how to post pictures on my ancient dial-up and say, “nice bear picture you took, tet” or something even though I am the only one who can see it. Thnax.}}

[[[dave]]]

.tet//.........at $5 a tooth, maybe you should talk to him about Volume Discounts....

OMG, Tet, I cannot believe she found that tooth among the gravel bits! My son lost a tooth the night before going to camp this year. I was already asleep when it happened. I think my son was up, thinking about his imminent departure for camp.  He absolutely adores it, but I'm sure there are still anxieties with any change. He had a loose tooth, and my theory is that he started working and working and working at it until he pried it loose.  My husband says he looked like a little vampire with a prodigious amount of blood around his mouth when he emerged from his room at midnight with tooth in hand. Yikes! My husband put the tooth in a dish, and focused on stopping the bleeding, which he did, and DS went back to bed.  When I awoke in the early AM for a run, I saw the dish on the counter, and wondered why my husband had placed a single kernel of popcorn into this dish. Not popcorn!!

Deez, sorry to hear about DS.  You are tough momma, and you've had a lot put on your shoulders these past 6 months.  Thinking of you!

Last weekends 18-miler followed by a 6 miler was rough on my TFL strain that has been nagging for months.  It actually hurts more when I walk than when I run, and it hurts more with my ballroom dancing than when I run! I walked for 2 miles after all of my running (Pokemon Go, and I'm not ashamed of it!), and I think that did me in.  My TFL was super cranky the next 2 days.  I called my chiro, and he did some Graston and shocking manipulations and I felt much better! 12.5 miles yesterday followed by 11 today felt good. They were all in super slow-mo, though, because of the heat and humidity. I'm hoping that the physiologic effects of training in the heat will confer some training effects despite the slowed pace.

http://www.outsideonline.com/2098556/heat-training-better-altitude-training

My son gets back from camp on Wednesday! I'm so, so, so excited to get him home, although he's had a ball. Those of you who are Facebook friends already know this story, so ignore.  My DS has been interested in race walking for the past few months. He competed at the Jr Olympics New England and advanced to Regionals in NY.  He was DQ'ed there for a bent knee (his big form flaw).  He had good spirits, though, and was excited to have had a chance to compete.  While at camp, he really couldn't do anything formal, but I did send him a book about race walking training.  He's an avid reader, so I thought he might like it.

The Casco Days 4-miler is a yearly race held in Casco, ME. It's a big festive event, and all of the campers from the surrounding camps are also invited to compete.  Last year, Will ran the 4 miles in 32: xx and was really proud of himself.  This year, I saw the results and I was shocked: 50: xx!!!  I wondered if something had gone wrong or if he had gotten injured or sick.  Of course, there is no email or phone communication, so I quickly jotted a sympathetic card and encouraged him that we will do some running together when he got home.

Later in the day, though, his camp posted photos from the race on their blog. There was one of DS, and my sister texted me and asked, "Do you think Will race walked the event?". That had never occurred to me! He never ever mentioned doing it in a running race.  But sure enough, the camp posted a video of him at the finish, with the other campers cheering him on and the finish line announcer saying, "We've got a race walker!"

https://vimeo.com/176875881

Of course, it's clear that front leg STILL has a bent knee, so we have to work on it. But it seems like this is a sport that he really wants to keep up with, so we will have to see what kind of resources we can rustle up for him when he gets home!

--Robin

Wow Robin, that's cool that your son is into racewalking.

Tet - your GS is so cute - offering his hand to you.

Catching up here and too much to comment on.  Just aware of all the injuries and slow-downs.

I went on vacation with my kids Wed until today, at my cabin.  Mr. Blue Eyes took a few days off work and showed up too.  We met his DD28 out there the next day and went on a 12 mile round trip, 3500 feet elevation gain hike - Marmot Pass, which I did last year on my own.  Beautiful, fairly easy hike.  But man o man, the pain going back down the mountain.  Calves got tight, but feet were killing me.  I was doing the "ouch" song.  And my knee was so fragile, I was really relying on my poles to get down the grade and take weight off my knees.  His DD was just flying down the grade, no poles.  How do they do it?  I guess I forget what it was like at that age.  It took us longer to go back down than up, that is how slowly I had to go.

So I was a bit more than worried about my trail race two days later.  Lots of hot tubbing and beach swimming the day after the hike.  Then Saturday we went to my race.  It is a small race, maybe 50 people in each of the 21 K summit race (5000 feet up to the summit, then back down) and the "10 K" race I entered.  When I did it 2 years ago, we only ran up 900 feet.  As we lined up at the start, the RD said "we changed the course this year, we added on another 1 mile up the mountain, which is an additional 900 feet, and the total distance is about 7 miles".  Then right before we took off, he also said "it's only 7 miles, so don't hold back".  I found that very funny!

Yeah, only about 2000 feet elevation gain, and only 7 miles.  For a 10 K trail race!

But there were all shapes and sizes doing this race, and I am glad I know the route intimately and my Garmin was working, so I knew when I was very close to the top.  But coming back down is what I feared the most (my knee).  My legs were still a bit sore from the hike, but you know what?  I ran down that mountain!  Sure I had to go slow sometimes, was not as graceful as two years ago, but I did far better than I expected.  That said, I was stunned at how fast the younger folk could run down those steep grades, like it was nothing.  I didn't want to blow out my knee.  The last 1/3 mile was flat, and I was booking it then too.  Turned out to be 7.3 miles total, and the summit runner winner passed me in that last stretch....they had started about 35 minutes earlier, but still, to run up and down 5000 feet elevation, 13 miles in 2 and a half hours...stunning!

Everyone got a nice North Face tech T - which had a retail label still on it for $25.  The race entry was 25, so I felt like I got my money's worth.

Waiting to see the Tet's black bear with salmon in mouth photo...

Olympic add-on also.  We're reading "The Games, global history of the olympics" by David Goldblatt - awesome readable description of the games - warning 400+pp

deez4boys, so glad you had a chance to run 3 miles after work today. You are a great nurse and you know I am your biggest cheerleader.

Enkie, what an amazing weekend you had! Great job on the race.

Tetsujin, your grandson is adorable and thanks for sharing your stories. HE is going to make a difference in the world, just like grandpa.

Running wise, I chased the Easy Pacer for 6 flat  miles this morning, not easy to do after an 18 miler in the mountains, but we sure had a great time running together, then was work, homecaring and watching Robin's kid racewaking video. How cool is that.

Ohh, I did fit in a brutal 40 minute boot camp video workout this afternoon just because I was feeling sassy.