Going to San Antonio tomorrow morning to be with my Mom, sister and brother in law to meet with hospice for my Dad. Very upsetting shit.....we watched our fav show tonite....Bones....gonna listen to some music and drink some beer....Misty and her family are so incredibly supportive. Done a bunch of crying....good thing....he was a good man....volunteered for his country during WW2 after his older brother was killed....worked civil service for 27yrs.....raised 8 kids....my sister and i weren't his.....anyway, this is a running blog.

He doused water on the dry cement of my running and made it a permanent part of my life. He and I coming together seems meant to be. I was already a voracious track historian when he met my Mom in the late spring of '73. It was the summer before 7th grade, Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Billy Mills, and Jim Ryun were already my heroes. The spring of '74 he started taking me to varsity track meets in the Harlandale School District....and that was it for me. The magic and simplicity of track got it's complete hold on me and hasn't let go of me!! Thanks Dad, I love you!

Had an excellent run with Shan and Steve this morning. Our routine is to start at the footbridge under Mopac and run the 7 mile loop around I35. Shan, Mark Lindsey and I started this around Sep. '09. Along the way Steve Frederick has become a regular and a good friend. We've also had various other people join us as well but no one has stuck like Steve.

We did our run this morning in 1:03:11. It was our fastest this season. That time included a stop at the zero marker for a drink and Shan's shoe came untied along the way too. So....with our stops accounted for we had a really good run and we finished strong actually picking up the pace the last .5 mile or so!!

Trying to figure out how I feel about Ultrarunning not being such a unique thing anymore. The number of people running Ultra's has exploded.

The two Rocky Raccoon events are going to cap at 750. I would never have thought in a million years those kind of numbers would be out there running.

Those numbers make it seem like a big city marathon with all the bells and whistles, instead of the low key intimate thing it seems like it used to be.

I've always had a voice in my head saying," Shouldn't I be running for the sake of running.....not to feed my ego with sheer numbers of races finished, or to have a time goal for a race".

I'm torn

Rethinking the Bandera 50k 50yr age group thing for next year. A 50 yr old gentleman ran 5:36 this year. Oh well....

My last 2 runs have been blasts from the past. After running Forest Ridge and St Eds at Bull Creek Monday afternoon I ran 3 miles out and back at Barton Creek from the pool parking lot.

I'm not sure how many thousands of miles I've ran from the trailhead there but it's a bunch.

I stopped at Rick's spot on the way out to remind him I'm still out running and not forgetting about him. I so miss him!!

If I can stay healthy and focused I'm thinking I may shoot for the 50yr age record for the Bandera 50k next year. It'll take the full year to get ready to run a 5:40 out there. It'd be nice after paying dues in this sport for 10 years to have my name up on a record, at least for a while!!

Ran 7.5 miles on Forest Ridge and St Eds yesterday afternoon at Bull Creek in 1:35.

No running over the weekend. The nursing home my Stepdad is in called early Saturday to let my Mom know they were sending him to the ER. A nurse at the ER called with a diagnoses of pneumonia. They told Mom to hurry over to the ER to discuss DNR options. WTF!!

When we got to the hospital around 4pm Mom had just approved them using dopamine to raise his BP. An hour later the dopamine wasn't working and the decision was made to send him to ICU. The ICU Dr had a very sobering talk with us confirming their DNR decisions.

By the time we left the hospital at 9pm they had gotten his BP up to 103/65.

Thursday

Ran the 7 mile loop at Lady Bird with Shan and Steve this morning. We did it in 1:04:45. We had a good run, finishing strong. Temp was 49ish and we dodged most of the rain the forecasters were talking about.

Kudos to Steve for finishing 1st Male Master in the 25k at Bandera this past weekend. I've been looking at the age records for Bandera.......the 50 yr old (I can't believe I'm even writing about going for a 50 yr age group record) 25k record is somewhat within reach if I can push away from the table....and.....focus on some core and speed.

Rainy 20 mile planned for Saturday

Tuesday

Had a good run with the Tuesday evening running group.....fairly speedy run.....cold, slippery creek crossing. I think I felt better running this evening because I ran yesterday....just a feeling.