Mornin' everyone.

We had a busy day at the Seacoast Half yesterday. I got to do some ofl the exciting jobs, like relocating porta-potties at 6am, trying to disperse a large puddle of water near our finish area, hauling and setting up barricades, and helping move pallets of cases of bottled water. But it was all good, and we had a gorgeous day, and I'm pretty happy with how things went. We had a couple of fires to put out during the race, but I don't know that many, if any of the racers knew that anything was amiss, which is how we want it to be. I saw Milktruck as he was finishing (looking strong), and we had a nice chat after the race. My one biggest disappoint was not catching up with LaT, despite looking for her before and after the race. The winner was a first-time half-marathoner who missed the course record (1:08:39) by less than a minute. The winning female had the second fastest women's time for this race (1:20:26), and the men's racewalking winner was decided in the last 60 yards between 2 guys were neck and neck almost the whole way. We had 150 volunteers, with more than half of them on the course, working to keep the racers safe, and they all did a great job. With sponsorships, entry fees, and donations, we raised about $132,000 for our beneficiary (a local food pantry), and they'll net about $110,000 after the race expenses are paid. As usual, the race committee is penniless, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Instead of a nap when I got home, I went for a 4+ mi. walk. I was a bit more aggressive than I have been, and that wasn't so good, so I was pretty achy for the rest of the day, and that is why I'm staying in this morning.

Have a greta Monday!

Jay

Sounds like IRC for the Seacoast Half Marathon, nicely planned! Good job to LaTortuga for improving on her Hartford Half time, woohoo! Glad to hear Milktruck and CW got a chance to visit, but sorry you missed LaT.

Great pictures, Steve! Looks like Tag was having a fun romp in the leaves. Love the orange shirt!

Holly, some of those wine lovers couldn't tell the difference in a brown-bag tasting, so don't feel left out. Hope you had fun!

I've been so busy lately it's just been kind of crazy. Some of that is self-induced, for sure, like spending the day in Seattle on Saturday. Holy Carp was it windy! The plane had a very bouncy, rocking landing at 11 a.m., but it calmed down by the time we left around 7:30 p.m. Spent the day wandering around downtown, doing some shopping and a lot of eating and a lot of walking. Garmin said over 7 miles for the day!

Yesterday I got out for 15.3 miles in temps that never really warmed up like I thought they would. I think it was mid-teens with a breeze from the West that froze my face in the last few miles. Brrrr! Need to dig out the neck gaitor I think. But overall it was a better run than I've had in a long time; slowing down the first few miles and keeping the pace moderate throughout seemed to help a lot. Today will be a mid-afternoon run. I haven't been running on Mondays, but work will preclude a Thursday run so that'll be my rest day this week.

Congratulations on a successful race, Jay.  That's a nice sum of dinero for the charity.  I'm sure they will be absolutely ecstatic.

Great pics, Steve.

Reading about Hallar dropping the table on his foot made me wince.  Ouch!

I forewent running the extra 2 miles yesterday and made up for it with 3 hrs of working with The Hub raking, filling garbage cans with green waste, and hauling them down the clients' steep driveway, then climbing back up to rinse, repeat, over and over. He worked harder than I did, going up and down a ladder to trim hedges, and we were both pooped at the end.  He gets to do it all over again today.  Poor guy. 

It's a cut back week for me, but this evening will be core/ST.  I gotta, gotta, gotta stay on top of that aspect of my training if I want to be able to finish Mt. Lakes 100 next year.

Okay - Back to the trenches ~~

Erika, can't believe they were letting planes land in that wind.  I was afraid to go outside just to walk the dog.

Too much to comment on, but Jay's race sounds great.

Twocat - I am sure Baxter did his best!

I did 6.5 miles at noon, on some nice local paths with a few big hills.  It was mild and damp.  I even saw the sun.  I've got 5 weeks until my next race, a 12K, so I better ramp up again to about 30 mpw.  The weekend was very rainy, windy and generally unpleasant so I did not run.  I did soak in the hot tub, twice, though. 

I'm not a fan of Dom Perignon but don't like real cheap "champagne" either. But yeah, a good solid cab will knock your socks off, and Caymus is a very good producer. *sigh* now I want to go back to Napa....

Enke, it was a very nerve-wracking landing, to be sure. Glad the departure was smooth.

So today we got snow. More than I was expecting, and I didn't have the right shoes for running in that. So decided I'd come home and do a treadmill run. And it just so happened I got my new shoes today! Well... tried the Brooks Launch 3, which from the description sounded like something I'd like. Nope. I don't think so. Felt big and clunky, even though they're really pretty light (especially considering I used to run in Asics Nimbus years ago!). Just didn't feel like "my" shoes. So, they're probably going back. Also got a pair of Saucony Kinvara 4's which are a frightening color and look a little weird, but I'll try them next.

4.1 sweaty miles on the treadmill, "easy" pace but sort of a struggle.