and you all wonder why i go crazy before a race

check out the emails i've received over the past couple of days . . .

from georgie on sunday . . .

'of course i can't find your plane reservations . . . you get in around 7pm on thursday, right? (i actually get in wednesday at 6:20pm.)

it gets better . . .

'send me your reservations again every hour on the hour so i don't lose them . . . btw, i have them somewhere . . . but this is easier for a slug like me. is the race this week?'

not race related, but quite amusing regardless . . .

'do you have the grammy award show in canada?' yes georgie, and we all live in igloos too!!!

and this one's good . . .

'on second thought ya better rent a car (to get back to the airport) cause i'll probably have been helicoptered out at mile 33, which is when i will have keeled over from deep anxiety attack cause my car will be 200 yards from the end of lap two.'

and one more . . .

'kendra . . . the weather here in texas has been absolutely horrible . . . inches of rain . . . grey and cold. if the rocky raccoon was this weekend, it would have been impossible.'

and finally, a really cute one from my sexy fast running friend ali . . .

'hey kendra, just been looking on the rocky racoon site after reading your blog. now i can not see your entry on the list and they are getting close to their limit. now i know you are super organized this time, your blog says so, (and the blog doesn't lie), but have you forgotten to enter or have you changed your name or am i blind?'

ask me how much i panicked when i read that one!!!

anyways, the next time someone asks how i get before i race, i'm going to make them read this!!!

0 weeks 6 days

got this from trailman today! kinda cool . . .

'after a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. it is not logical, but it is often true'

spock

and then he informed me that the above picture, although good, wasn't from that particular episode. soooo, just in case there are more trekkies out there, i'll include the right one!! sorry kev!!!

anyways, less than a week to go. not feeling as mental as before previous races, but i'm sure that will come. i'm actually a bit more organized this time, having my e-ticket printed off, insurance purchased, and rides to and from the airport arranged (thanks wayne and christine). week of training was pretty tame - only putting in 20 miles. couple more short confidence runs monday and tuesday and then i'm off to visit my buddy georgie and hopefully run a hundred miles!!

what could go wrong???

Sunday Night..... New Orleans and the Vikings tied at 21 and instead of enjoying the game, I'm looking at reruns of Sponge Bob, frantically looking for an episode when Spongie plans to do something stupid and succeeds !!!

My 13 year old just set me up on facebook.... I plan to post my epitaph when the daunting Dorah comes to the great state..... I alway get confused how to spell " Dufus "... as in You wouldn't be dead right now if you weren't a Dufus to try to run 50 miles !!

Just heard from both Sat and Jo, the affluent world travelers from the Trans Rockies experiment. Awesome couple.... part of an awesome group of fellow runners that I would love to live proximate to so we could share local adventures ( and food, of course ).

Well, I ran 10 on Friday and 10 on Sunday..... I think this is pretty much it for runs of any distance. I'm gonna " Jog " some and do a little eliptical work and im[portantly, get a massage or two for Cary the Hun as previously " blogged ".... the 60 lb weakling that beats me like the Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys a week ago.

Unlike Kendra, who plans runs that are social events.... I run alone ( no insane friends )....so I am looking forward to hooking up with what appears to be a fairly large group at the Rocky Raccoon.
So far, there are over 650 runners and they are actually concerned they will top out at the maximum 750 authorized runners in the state park.

The Huntsville, Texas State Park appears to be fairly scenic in Texas Terms.... we will be basically running around a large Lake and is on a packed trail. Kendra, not to spook you... but the one thing that could " Pee on our Cheerios " is for us to have rain.... the Texas soil has a high clay content and if the Trail is wet, the clay sticks to your running shoes like glue.... heavy and mushy and just plain fun killing.

On to Happier thoughts.... we have confirmed our reservations at the spacious Super 8..... they are thinking about having a free breakfast in 2015, so we're staying at a facility with aspiration.
Doesn't matter, I'm bringing a bucket of Tylenol PM to help with the ambience.

Anyhow, I'm gonna sign off...... I'm getting excited to run and to see a good friend. I look forward to meeting all the other folks that will be there and hope to take a siesta from this crazy world and enjoy the run.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that the mealy mouth, ultra conservative, spineless, panty waisted Frederick the Apple, the infamous 2nd half of the world reknown Knuckleheads has decided not to come to Texas to be our NASCAR sharp support team of one. Fred, you have betrayed the Alphi pho code and are out of the Homo club forever !!

Back to the game, looks like Bret Favre has just been Terminally tackled...... this should be interesting.

2 weeks

the temp read -6 in the mazda as i drove over to coolis' to meet up with the guys. what a turnout! vents was back after a lengthy layoff due to injury - he looked kinda scairt! no worries baby - you'll never be last as long as i'm running! captain and digger drove up from the city, with digger amazed at how much snow we had up here 'in orangeville'. moose looked like his eyeballs were going to fall out and he smelled kinda sour, having left shoeless joes only 6 hours earlier! robbie came over from waterloo and brought a new recruit - what was his name??? and onions arrived sporting a pair of shorts and his new gps - a christmas present from the lovely lucy. this is the guy who didn't even own a watch up until now! hopefully he won't pull a 'laaaaaadies man' and disappear after a couple more runs! the plan was to run over to 9 and back, and see who was left standing. the trails were in amazing shape and we made for a decent pace. once back at the cars, me and digger stripped down to shorts, much to the captains' dismay. it took a bit of convincing . . .

but he eventually joined us for a picture.

vents figured that was good enough for him, so he headed out. the rest of us took off for k2 and met up at centerville creek, where we shared stories of running into low branches, falling on our heads, and dropping things on our head. we then came back up and opted to finish with the dingle, warning the new guy - what was his name - that it's uphill both ways! at innis lake we stopped briefly to discuss the tree that was hanging over the trail about halfway down - careful guys!

and got a picture of the new guy - we decided to call him steve.


as i was climbing the first hill on the way back, bringing up the rear as usual, i thought i heard someone yell 'duck', and assumed they were at that branch. once at the top, i found out that it was robbie who yelled, and that he had managed to run right into it, not yelling 'duck', but something that sounded almost the same! hehe! stoopid robbie! finally got back to the cars and after saying goodbye to moose and the new guy, the rest of us drove to timmies for a coffee. outstanding run! trails were in the best shape so far this year!

3 more weeks

i guess the surprise of the weekend was georgie finally getting around to posting on 'our' blob! about time mister!!! thanks for helping me guilt him into it mimi !! and yes, what georgie says about her is true! she's one of the few chicks i know who could wear one of those skort things, and still look stunning even after running for 5 hours! this is her on the left with 2008 TR team cheetah partner sjohn.

saturday was a beauty day out on the trail. parked on duffys and ran the humber valley at least twice. lots of people out hiking. even came across christine and kevin on their bikes . managed to get in a good solid 6 hours. spent the evening watching a few episodes of 2 1/2 men. love that show! might have had a bit of ice cream to replenish low carb stores . . .

sunday i got up feeling pretty stiff. wasn't sure what condition the rail trail was in, so i dug out my blue screw shoes just in case. i took my time getting ready and eventually got going by about 10. ran over to kennedy road before turning back and then kept going to palgrave to finish off my distance. it makes you wonder what goes on sometimes when you're out running for hours! now who could have done this . . .

wait a minute, i know those tracks!!! it seems homey was up to his usual tricks!!!


and so, i made it through my last weekend of big mileage. put in 10 hours and 48 miles.

we'll see in less than 3 weeks if i've done all my homework!! argh!!!

Well, I have been humbled into once again posting on this esteemed site..... prompted by the indomitable Miss Kendra and a mutual running buddy, the genteel fashion savvy Mimi !

This post is done with energy in that I just has a massage from one of Texas' finest.... Carrie, the Hun ! Yeehah..... she weighs about 60 lbs and beats me like a bad habit when I get on her table... Awesome massage especially now that I worked up the courage to remind her that glutes need to be rubbed at length to optimize a runner's massage. Yes, may I start by purging my need to let the world know that I like my butt rubbed.

So how is my training ? I have no fricking idea, is the honest answer. It is hard to benchmark now that I am almost 57 years young. I asked a running coach recently why I feel just as strong and just as fast as I did 25 years and yet my times are 60 % longer. She gracefully told me that there was too much sugar in all of my birthday cakes.... bitch ! She also confirmed that my hairline is receding on the left side... I maintain that it was a windy day.

I have run in excess of 15 miles about 25 times but have not done the real long back to back runs that my scripted training plan calls for. I'm listening to my body and intuitively think that a day of recovery is appropriate as opposed to a back to back. I am somewhat comforted by the fact that I did not follow the script for the Trans Rockies several years ago and " Survived ".... although the aforementioned Mimi the genteel told me the night before we began our adventure that she followed the training plan to the T and Freaked me out. Side bar..... the night before the Trans Rockies began a relationship with 8 other close friends that ate more food in 7 days than the Dallas Cowboys will eat in the next 4 weeks leading to the inevitable Super Bowl. Kendra, we have to find a way to get a DVR into our luxurious Super 8 motel for the Sunday football games.

So the honor of spending some time with one of the sweetest people on the planet is just 3 weeks away. I'm really looking forward to that as much as the run itself. Kendra has Texans to hug and I believe that her spirit could even solve the illegal alien problem here in the great state. She could have each side of the border hugging each other in just a few short days.

I would be remiss not to point out that the double dealing, lowdown, lowrent, lazy partner of the infamous knuckleheads is not participating in the Rocky Raccoon...... I will have a plaque on my casket reminding him that he has wimped out ! He will undoubtedly outlive me now that President Obama ( I never know how to spell his first name ) has given us National Health Care !

Anyhow, I am gonna try to be diligent in posting my thoughts through February 7..... I really would appreciate any thoughts / philosophies that folks have to help me plan and execute this stupid endeavour.

warming up and low branches

so be careful if you're out running on the humber in the dark, especially if you're over 6 feet tall. moose, our favorite chiropractor, was moving along early monday morning, not paying very close attention to the trail, when all of a sudden he found himself 'charlie browned' and not knowing how he got there. apparently he was dicking around with his mitts, failed to notice a recently downed branch, and brained himself quite nicely!

temps this week got a lot milder. ran in rolled-up tights on thursday on the humber. trail conditions were pretty good! did 3 hours wednesday from humber station to hwy 9 and footing wasn't too bad. got a couple of nice pictures of the haunted forest by the gore.

planning my last 'long run' weekend starting tomorrow. then i can taper and get my poor old body ready for this next big adventure.

rumour has it that georgie started tapering a few weeks ago. 'what could go wrong?'