recovery

Had a nice moderately paced 7+ miler this morning with Shan and Mark.  Mark is nursing an injury and I'm still in recovery mode from hard effort Saturday in Bandera.

Bandera

I was almost overcome with emotion when I was talking to my wife on the phone after Bandera and describing to her how much I love it out there.

shoelace

25 more miles in the books in Bandera this weekend!!  A week or so ago I was asked to fill an empty leg in the Bandera 100 mile relay.  They already had a team in place but one guy had to bail.  Thankfully it fit perfectly into our weekend schedule.  All of a sudden I had a race and some logistics to figure out.  I just love the planning and logistics of a race, especially one that may be extra long or involve night time running.  

I'm very thankful that they had a live feed for the race.  If not for that I'd have been about 4hrs early getting out there.  As it was I was there a little over an hour before Gabe came in.  It worked out perfectly in that regard!

I got started at nearly 4am.  Gabe was totally whipped when he came in.  From the knees down he was covered in mud and the chip had gotten sucked off his ankle.  I'll never forget the look on his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out our crumpled race bib and said it "sucks" out there!!

I got going and it was total black sticky mud for what seemed like a long time.  I'm thinking, oh geez, I'm gonna be out here a long time in this shit.  I moved as best I could and got to Boyles in 90 minutes.  I was feeling good and made it to Equestrian and my total time was 3:15.  Really happy with that and on my 2nd Redbull I'm actually running to Nachos....running!!  I get to Nachos exactly an hour from Equestrian!!  I'm thinking I'm really gonna bust a good time and then the Redbull starts wearing off around mile 18 and I start tying up.

When I finally get to Equestrian the 2nd time with only 5 miles to go I consider drinking the last Redbull but decide against it.  3 Redbull's in less than 8hrs cannot be good for you.  I decide if I'm out of gas then I'm just out of gas and I'll have to do the best I can.  It's all I can do to do a slow shuffle on the runnable parts and I actually sit on a flat rock near the top of Lucky.  As I look around and down I see I have a shoelace nearly undone.....I laugh thinking I needed to stop anyway!!

October!!

For some reason I haven't much felt like writing in my blog lately.  Besides my foot being in a holding pattern my running is going well.  I was very pleased last week to be asked to be part of a 4 man team doing the Cactus Rose 100 mile relay this coming Saturday!!  I'd planned on doing a long run anyway so it's gonna work out great (except that I'm runner  #4 and will be running my whole leg in the dark).  Looks like I'll end up having another good mileage month for October!!

routine

Excellent 4 miler with Amanda this morning at Brushy Creek.  I ran there once about 7 years ago so I only had vague recollections but did recall parts of the course even in the dark.  It's so nice to change up the routine once in a while.  I really need to get in 10 Thursday morning since Monday will be my next run opportunity, and that may also be shaky....

woods

Yesterday I got in 12 miles in Barton Creek including three times up and down the HOL and this morning I got in an easy 7 at Townlake.  I could definitely feel the Sunday hills this morning but still had a decent time.  It was sure nice to get some time in the woods yesterday.  I really needed that.  5 miles tomorrow morning with Amanda and then a rest day on Wednesday.