Friday Night Run With Friends...

About 2 hours in to the adventure! Lookin' Good!

Some of my friends can't understand how I can put in so many miles at Bluff Creek, but it's home to me. I started at 5:30pm, while it was still over 100 degrees out. I set up my little aid station with a note to Tanya and Holly who I knew would be out there soon. Once I ducked into the trees and into the shade the temp dropped quite a bit, mind you it was still way hot. I wore my Classic Vibrams because I was afraid the full foot of the Bikila's might be too hot. Well, that lasted 1 hour. The bottoms of my feet hurt. Switched to the Bikila's. Soon after that I met up with T and H who planned to walk/hike for 4 hours. Even if I wasn't going to hang with them, it sure is nice knowing someone else is out there.

I've never tried "5 Hour Energy" before - until tonight. Since I had to sleep last year during the 24, thought this might be a good idea. I took a huge swig of the Lemon-Line flavor and GAGGED! Yikes! It reminded me of a liquid cough medicine I had to take when I was hospitalized with pneumonia back in High School! Yes, bad tastes like that stick with you. Hard to tell if it worked, but I never laid down during the run to take a nap.

Before they saw the trails...

Switched from the Bikila's to my Asics as my toes started cramping. Now that is something new and different.

I walked most of the last 1 1/2 hours, but definitely kept a strong pace going. I think I'll be good by the time the "Double Dirty Dozen" rolls around. Moved my body forward for 4:45 and moved it about 18-20 miles.. And that's good enough for me!

 

Happy Trails.

My Best Training Partner

No offense to any of my friends, but I LOVE running with the Karma Dog!  Most of the gang I run with knows all of the trails very well so there usually not a problem if someone wants to speed ahead, or drop back.  We all know our way home.  But the Karma Dog will never leave me!

Karma and I met Julie at Bluff Creek for an evening run.  We figured a start time of 7:45 would be cool enough.  WRONG!  When I left the house it was still 95 degrees out!  With Karma, and no water available on the trail, we decided to do the 2 mile Dirty Double Dozen loop.  Julie is thinking about doing the 6 hour run for that event, so she was all about learning the course.  We set Karma's water bowl at the trail entrance.  I forgot my watch, and Julie didn't have hers set so we ran until we wanted to walk, then walked until we were ready to run.  Worked out fine since it was so hot.

Conversation flowed easily with this new friend of mine, and Karma was the perfect companion too.   She has finally learned NOT to trip my fellow runners.  The first loop was great - hot but great.  Karma gulped and gulped her water.  Previously I'd tried to get her to drink from my water bottle, but she wants nothing do do with it. 

With about 1/2 mile to go it was starting to get dark.  Originally we had planned for 6 miles, but the heat just wasn't going to allow it.  Not only were we tired, but now Karma was lagging behind.  I felt so bad for her.  She wanted to stop, but was no way going to let us out of her site.  When we stopped for a walk, a dribbled some water on her snooter.  This time, rather than running away, she started gobbling!  Yea!  She finally figured out that this bottle was a good thing!  Now, she's gotta start carrying her own...

Happy Trails!

Oh, My Aching Feet!

I moved my body forward for 3 hours today.  Oh yeah, it was a tough one.  I met up with Peggy, Beth, Melissa, Shay and Julie for a training run at Draper.  We stuck together pretty well for the first 6 miles and I felt great!  I wore my Vibram Classics for that first loop.  Once we got back to the cars, I switched to my Asics - didn't want to overdo it.  Shay and Julie left us there for home and some yoga, but we picked up Janice.  As we headed off to the yellow loop, I slowed the pace some.  We had run the first part at 5:1, but I needed to switch to 4:1 if I was going to last another hour and 45.  So, the gang dropped me - by my choice and it was a good thing.  My feet started to hurt!  After a while, I noticed I was practically limping - definitely altered my gait.  It hurt just to put my left foot down.  I ended up taking off my shoes and short cutting out of the trail.  Hobbled back to the car and put back on the Vibrams.

I did the rest of the run on various parts of the green loop and my feet felt fine.  Have I really become so used to the Vibrams that I can't run in regular shoes?  Never heard of anyone having that issue before.  But, the balls of my feet were pretty sore.  I may need to get the Vibram Bikila - with a thicker pad at the ball of the foot.  I finished the run at a 1;1 pace, but at least I finished!  I only need to tack on 21 hours before October!

Happy Trails!

Running By The Light of Fire Flies

What a fun evening run!  I met Cara and her daughter at Bluff Creek at 8:00 to put in some dusk miles.  Trying to decide if we should bring our lights, we realized we had know idea when sunset was.  WE left them in our cars, knowing we could short cup out and get them.  Sure enough, it was pretty dark when we at the furtherest possible area.  Running back carefully, it was awesome to see all the sparkles in the trees from the fire flies!  I look forward to doing this run again soon- maybe with the lights!

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon Trail Edition

Sometimes I really like to run alone.  Today was one of those days.  Scott had gone golfing, so I decided to skip church.  While running, I started thinking about this past April.  While tens of thousands of people were running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, I did my own marathon at Bluff Creek.  I ran 13 loops of the Double Dirty Dozen course.  I really wanted to be a part of the OCMM but my hips just can't handle running on pavement - so I did my own.  So today I wondered if there were others like me:  want to run the marathon but can't haven't the pavement?  Perhaps I could work with the marathon committee and help put on the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon Trail Addition!  I'll have to gt with Thomas Hill as I certainly wouldn't want to take from their event, just add to it.  Maybe I can get Tanya to help me?!?  Another TanKa production.

And suddenly, I was at the end of the trail!