Catching up

Where did I leave you… let’s see... oh yeah, Wednesday I ran the trail with Kerry, and Karma almost died from heat stroke.

- Thursday I ran with Rogue’s “Team Rogue” (which I am part of), and we ran 10 miles. My legs felt heavy, but I ran through it. (Team Rogue is the official name of the training group that's running California International Marathon in December. They're in week 1, and I'm on week 10. I have a little fitness lead on them, but they'll catch up pronto.
- Thursday night was the monthly Austin Duathletes Pub Run, which I hadn’t been part of in I think about 5 months. This month, had no theme, (thank god) except, well, everyone knew we were celebrating Erin, Kris and my birthdays. About a 4 to 5 mile run I think.
- Friday, I met Ken and Meredith for a run on a new trail. It’s really fun meeting Meredith to run on Friday’s as I get to learn new trails. This time, we ran what is locally called Ken’s loop. (no, not the Ken that joined us). Great fun was had by all, and I want to return to Ken’s loop next weekend, for two loops. Maybe Sunday.
- Saturday at 6am, I ran 12 miles with Rogue, mostly just ahead of a large contingency of my regular running friends, until Mark caught up to me and ran the last 4 or 5 miles with me. It was nice catching up with him, as it’s been about a year since we last ran together. In that time, he’s done numerous Triathlons, culminating in the Arizona Ironman, which he rocked!
- Saturday at 9am, Nedra joined me as my teammate, in an Adventure Quest race downtown. Why would we do such a thing? Well, first place prize was $500 worth of unrestricted travel vouchers! Not that I ever thought we’d win, but I figured we had a decent shot at it. What is adventure Quest? Click here for photos and details.
It all came down to strategery the night before, and then tactisizing with Nedra before the event. We opted to run the most Northern point first which would take us to the Wheel Barrow, and the first secret checkpoint. This proved to probably be a good approach as there was no line at the wheelbarrow when we got there, but apparently there was a horrible “time wasting” line later on in the race, which would prove to be fatal for some strong competitors. We ran our butts off to the point where both of our legs were screaming in pain, but it all paid off as we WON!! Yep! You read right! We beat out 60 or so other teams to win the event! Hellz yeah! That will pay for my plane ticket out to Timberline 26.2 in Oregon (which still hasn’t sold out, but no one has pony’ed up to join)
- Saturday afternoon, I went over to my friends Michelle and Patrick’s for their new home’s house warming party. They have a great new house, and I was very jealous. ;)
– Sunday morning came early (4:20am) and I was off to the trail series’ second leg – “The Loop”. The loop is a hilly, rocky, highly technical 10km course, that the 30 km does three times. (option of 1 or 3 loops). I’d write up a race report, but there really isn’t much to say other than I’m very proud of a few friends who did REALLY well out there. Jo Dee took 4th woman overall for the 10km! Ken took home 1st place Masters!! Kerry rocked the 30km sans stop watch and finished with a big smile. And, well, Meredith’s husband kicked everyone’s butt and finished 1st overall for the 20km! Sounds like Paul ran an awesome race, and I couldn’t be happier for him! As for me, I opted to give my weary legs a break and stopped about a mile into the 3rd loop. I could have finished the 3rd loop, but I just didn’t have much energy in my legs, and well, I honestly just thought I’d be digging myself into a hole for the rest of the week. (trying to recover from a tough weekend + still running abut 70 miles = not a good idea). As I lie here in bed after a 90 min nap, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. No regrets whatsoever.
- I finish the week with 63 miles, which is obviously, 5 miles shorter than I would have been had I finished the 3rd loop, but, it’s also right around where coach Sisson wanted me to be this week.

There you have it. A full weekend. Now I need a vacation day to recover.
Ok, Karma’s looking at me wondering if we’re every going to go. (I promised him we’d go walk in the greenbelt for a while, so it’s best we get going now.