Sunday Routine

It seems like Sunday means running the backwards, O-less, Bruiser.  This Sunday was no different except the Squirrel was still missing.  Rick and I made it to the park a bit after 9.  The weather was perfect for running, cool, clear and a gentle breeze. As we were starting our run, we met NJ Dave(I wish I remembered Unstrung's trail name for Dave; he deserves better than NJ) just finishing his. 

Rick and I enjoyed the greening trail.  Fox east is beautiful.  As we ran, we seemed to run out of green.  I still took out the camera for some capturing.  After our 10+ miles we headed to E&Ls.  I was stuck between two options.  Rick split both with me.  Sabrina said he was perfect.  Just about!

Squirrel-less on Saturday

I posted a pathetic personal ad on the Trail Monster forum looking for some company on my 16 mile Saturday run; the Squirrel was heading to Georgia for her niece's first birthday.  It was the first time in our Peak's training that we weren't doing our long run together.  It's funny cause, not so many years ago, I'd say I didn't like running with people.  Well, maybe I don't like running with people, but I certainly like running with Monsters...especially if they are squirrels.  It didn't take long to get a very appreciated offer to share some miles; Unstrung was available after 9:30 (she had a musical engagement (a gig, tee hee :0) till late the night before).

So I headed to the Brad (I'd have been late if anyone was waiting for an 8 am start) to get in some miles before meeting up with Xar.  I decided to head out the Connector till I thought I should head back to the parking lot.  I do like running alone.  I enjoyed the trail, the peace, the time to think.  Still, I was looking forward to the emergency meeting of the IRS.  Xar had said that she'd be able to be at the Brad by 9:30ish, so I decided to breeze through a bit before.  Of course she wasn't there.  I ran across to the east side to get  in 20 - 25 ish minutes before heading back to the lot to see if Xar was in.  Coming back to the lot, I saw her red car and then her.

We headed out on a very fun run on a good part of the BBU.  Please refer to her blog for a very, very good recount of those miles.  For running after one of her longest runs, she was running very strong.  We did take our time in that we allowed ourselves to stop whenever there was something interesting to see.  So here's the day in pictures:

Somewhere on the BBU

Climbing the walls

Unstrung

One of the crevices along the way

OK, not interracial, but...interelemental?  Whatever, a tender kiss

Add caption

Little sister wrecking my sand castle

Rebuilt even better

Squirrel table

someone's home

crazy, happy golden

One of a very few little ones to make me not look at the cute puppies near by

Ian's fortress

from the other side

Tami's last day

Bemoaning being too tall for the monkey apparatus

heading off to finisher her marathon

Traveiling for Work = Treadmill

TNR was solo and on a treadmill.  I ran a hot, boring 4 miles.  The TV mounted on the unit was too close for me to really focus, even if it had been good reception.  The next night I ran after going out to dinner with my tradeshow booth mates.  I had a very yummy version of linguine with clams and two glasses of wine.  What was supposed to be 10 miles was just over 10K. 

Expletive Retracted

I'm glad I didn't write up Saturday's long run right away.  The Squirrel captured the day as it was.  In fact, her account, if I could write as well, was almost exactly what mine would have been.  I am amazed at how in sync our shitty runs were.  Mindy first said she wasn't feeling it when I asked if I was going too slow.  I was definitely not feeling it.  The left side of Brad was never cruel before (the O during the Bruiser?  a laugh).  We were trying to get in 16ish before heading across to the mountain side to get in the rest on a stretch of the BBU.  We knew we didn't want to run the O.  I figured to run as much of the trails as they came trying not to rerun much.  I thought it would be fun and make things go faster to just run...Not so much.  I think it contributed to making it feel like we'd never finish.  Certain locations mean certain miles, but this time they didn't.

I don't know how many times the, normally, steady Squirrel needed to catch herself from falling.  When we finally, FINALLY, crossed over to the mountain side, bailing after 14.5ish, she really nearly took a digger on one of the stupid things (waterbars) that seem more like hurdles on the Northern Loop.  I said, "Wow, it'd be embarrassing to fall on one of those!"  Was it the very next one that I did just that?  So.  Not only did I fall over it onto my probably-never-gonna-be-totally-right right knee, but I stubbed my already sore toes very hard.  I swore loudly, repeatedly.  We walked just a bit.  Not even 1/4 mile later, I fell on the Ski trail.  At least this one I was able to do a bit of a roll-out (my Sensei would be embarrassed by my falls).  I did take some time to regroup.  I wanted so bad to say I was done.  I felt like I was done.  Somehow, I think we both knew if either of us said it, even half kidding, we were outta there.  Onward.

Along the Connector, we started realizing that we were complaining, not just commenting on our state of being.  Complaining, maybe whining.  Well, we were gonna do it right.

Mindy must have had her Squirrel senses working; not long after she said she had Nathan on her radar, Nathan appeared.  It was very good timing.  It was good to see a smiling face.  Even better to see a smiling face that said it was going to join in on our run. I'm pretty sure we warned him it was the run from hell and that we were all about vocalizing about how shitty it was.  Did he say at least it wasn't hot?  Well, that's when it got hot.

Still able to appreciated the beauty

On the dirt road, we asked Nathan if he wanted to see Wiccahenge.  We joked that if we crossed through the stone arch, my knee would be healed.  We passed the stone circle, heading towards the barn, but were stopped this time by barking dogs.  One came down to greet(?) us.  The young golden retriever's body seemed to welcome us whole-heartedly.  He was wagging from tail to his neck.  Yikes!  How could he be showing his teeth like that.  It was the oddest contradiction.  We were sure he was some animal spirit.  The sound of mower from the barn made us move off.  The golden sat and watch us go.

Mindy asked about our mileage.  What would we have when we got back to the parking lot?  I did some rough calculations and figured we'd be about two miles short.  She proposed running a mile up the power lines.  Hmmmmm....I didn't really want to be out in the sun.  The I thought about being at the summit and just be able to be done when we reached the car.  The Squirrel said, "Let's make that happen."  Smart, smart Squirrel.  The power lines were actually pretty nice.  We were more exposed to the direct sun, but the footing was kind.

Waiting for the bus

"Mindy, you don't have to point; we all know you're a TM!"*

Starting to believe

As you can tell from the pics, we could still have fun. I'm not even sure where, but Mindy did tell Nathan a couple of times that he could leave us if he wanted to.  But he never did.  I think it was around two miles to go that the Squirrel started picking up her pace.  It may have been the fastest of the day.  She pulled me  home.

All done

For the second time that day, the Squirrel's super-senses were right; Edna and Lucy's had TBLTs waiting to restore us.

Sunday, Rick and I headed to Brad to meet up with Mindy.  I still felt pretty tired.  I had a good amount of shoulder and back tightness as a result of my falls.  Oh, I forgot to even mention the 3rd fall of Saturday's run.  I don't even know where it was, now.  Somewhere after the power lines I'd guess.  My sore knee was stiff, but only a little swollen.  It used to swell that much just from running.

The weather was pretty dreary.  It was in the low 40s with a drizzle.  I tried to think of where we would get in our 10 miles.  Nothing sounded appealing.  I did tell Rick to put his road shoes in the car in case we ended up on the Animal Loop.

Mindy was in the lot waiting for us.  She didn't seem to have any particular route in mind.  Would it be best to just do the AL and call it a day.  I almost voted for that till I noticed how windy it was.  On the roads we'd be more exposed.  OK, how about getting back on the horse?  Should we run the east side?  We all agreed on the backwards, O-less Bruiser.

Brad does still love us.  We both felt good.  In fact, we felt better with the miles.  One nice thing about the mist, it helped make the little stumps stand out from the leaves.  I don't think we even thought of stumbling.  The conversation flowed.  We analyzed the run from the day before.  We decided there was a reason for it.  It was our mental test and we'd passed.  I stopped hating Saturday's run.  Maybe, just maybe, I kinda liked it.  Scout and Squirrel, ready as they'll ever be.

After the run, at E&Ls, of course, we all felt it was one of the best runs in a while.

 * Nathan's clever way of pointing out Mindy's pointing :)

Back Cove Loop...Not This Day

I brought my running clothes to work.  I figured I'd run a loop of the Back Cove.  Heading out to the car, all I could think about was how crowded it was on Tuesday.  Today was an even nicer day.  Then it hit me; the Brad is only slightly off my commute home.  It was an excellent call.  Brad was beautiful.  Just ran 3.6, but the Squirrel and I will be all over him tomorrow.

Thursday Field Run

Rick and I ran the fields for four.  I turned my left ankle pretty good.  I was pretty it would be tender, but OK.  Well, instead it was my knee that was tender the next day.  Nothing that would cause problems though.  His knee that had been grumpy felt fine. 

No Fear

The IRS meeting started at 9pm with its quorum.  Just heading down the driveway, we noticed two glowing eyes watching us.  It could have been anything, but it didn't move and was far enough away that neither of us were particularly concerned.  Across the street, heading up the hill, Xar noticed the deer first.  There were three.  They looked, looked, and begrudgingly moved off to the tree line.  We could see them watching us from there. 

We ran down to the beaver swamp.  Just after the turnaround, Xar said something like watch out or look or....There was a porcupine very close to us at the base of a small tree, sort of behind some weeds.  He acted like the proper porcupine, though and turned his back to us.  I wanted to get closer, but that made him move  off.

Going back down the hill, our deer were back.  It was sort of a repeat of the first time, except they barely moved 1/2 way to the tree line this time.  I was amaze by how nonthreatening  they found us.  From there we ran down to the motocross trail and on to Davis's.  The peepers were peeping their hearts out.  They did quiet slightly as our noise neared them.

Back across the hill again, the deer were back to their original spots.  They moved away, but not much.  Down to the beaver swamp, we thought we might have heard something in the bushes, probably the porcupine or the like.

I am pretty sure this was our quickest-paced IRS meeting.  We also did less dilly dallying than usual.  We got in just over 7 miles.

BC Plus Some E. Prom

Scout and Squirrel continued the southern chapter of TMR TNR with a Portland run.  We met up at the Back Cove.  It was hard to find parking.  We had decided on eight miles.  Instead of 2 plus loops, we went onto the Eastern Prom for some miles.  I'm glad we did; it was too crowded at the Cove.  No kidding.  The warm day was offset by a nice ocean breeze. 

I had hoped the bathrooms at the little park along the way would be open.  Nope.  Another negative to not running in the woods.  The ferry terminal was also closed :(  Mindy noticed the Marriott a street or so over.  She smoothly acted like we belonged and located the restrooms. 

Returning to the Cove, it seemed like even more people were there.  We nearly had our eight when we got back to the cars, just had to tack on a little.

Pete and Mindy's Russian Easter Run

Linda carpooled with Rick and I to the run start.  We were the first there, but Randy ran in next.  It wasn't long before a good group had amassed.  Pete lead the way on his mountain bike.  Mindy and I stayed back a bit to make sure Linda had her bearings.  She wanted to stay closer to the cars since she was testing out a testy knee.  We left her after just under a mile.  The others were long gone.  Oh, well, we had lots of catching up to do ;)

On Saturday's run, I think Mindy had said something like, "It's not up to Brad's standards."  Well, not much is, but  I was pleasantly surprised by the terrain.  The tails had plenty to offer.  There were no real hills, but there were up and down parts, plenty of roots, and pretty trees.  Around 4 (?) miles in, Mindy decided to go the opposite way on a trail in hopes that we'd run into the others.  Jackpot! 

While the run was lots of fun, it was more fun to head back to Mindy and Pete's.  We met the girls:  Vera, Opal, Myrtle and Betty.  Tuttle was adorable.  After a while and some food sneaking, I was able to pet the sweat, old man.  Jonsey couldn't overcome his nocturnalness to enjoy the party.  Mindy and Pete served us yummy Russian Easter goodies.  I can't believe I forgot to try the cake.  I guess I was just too full.  The party culminated in a fly over by a beautiful, low-flying, bald eagle.  Randy lead a fervent chant of "USA, USA!"

24

Saturday, it was all Scout and Squirrel for the full 24.  Lots of Monsters were busy having great runs at the Merrimack River 10 Mile Trail Race.  Lots of others were heading to Boston to prepare for the marathon.  That's OK; we really don't run out of things to talk about.  Sometimes, when the talk drops off in the very final miles as we concentrate very hard on the footing, I talk to her in my head.

The plan this time was for just one stop at the car to cut down on, well, time.  We decided the first of our two loops would be the BBU loop without lunchbreak.  So we started on the east side adding a little to the loop to make sure we'd have 14 before starting our 2nd loop, our now favorite way to end the miles: the Bruiser backwards without the O.  Well, after the east side miles, I wanted to drop my arm sleeves at the car.  Mindy was fine with this cause she could lose her gloves.  Then I could also use the out house rather than the outside. 

Well, our stop coincided with Sara, Mary, Ruby, and Sadie meeting up for a run.  Tami also wandered over.  So we didn't cut any extra time off, but probably added more than a normal stop.  Oh well, it was fun to visit.  The pups were so happy to see each other, they didn't even care that Mindy and I were making a fuss over them.

Heading out onto the mountain side we were amazed by the dryness, even more so by the slipperiness of the dry oak leaves.  It wasn't as bad as ice, but it was an added thing to be aware of.  Mindy's Garmin had come back all refurbished.  It was amazing how loud the mile alarm was.  What was even more amazing was that miles 7, 8, and 9 alarmed just seconds after the previous mile rang out.  Seriously.  I thought we must have had some time loss.  More alien abductions while running???  We marveled at the blueness of the sky.  Coming off the mountain, into the parking lot, I remarked how nice it was not to have the toes screaming at us like they did last week. 

We stopped at the car (this was the planned stop).  Mindy topped off her hydration pack.  I ate another something.  We headed off feeling pretty fine.  Still, with about 5 miles left, our conversation predictably dropped off.  Now, this entire run we'd been remarking on how dry it was.  So, of course, when I finally fell, with just two miles remaining, it was into the only water on the trail.  AND, of course, I was carrying my brand new camera on its maiden run.  I'd stubbed my right foot hard on a rock and propelled forward, landing on knees and hands...and camera.  OK, knee?  Eh, alright.  Camera?  um gritty, but still seemed to work.  Toes?  OUCH!  Oh well, two miles to go.  Things worked fine once we got moving. 

Somewhere along the Island, Mindy's Garmin rang out.  One more mile left :)  Pulling into the parking lot, we'd just topped 24.  Perfect.  Though Mindy had gotten a premonition of TBLTs, we weren't too disappointed because E&Ls had the yummy Cabbage and Bacon soup.

Only one more long run before the taper!  How can that be?!

Field Four

4/12/12  Thursday.  Rick and I went out for a squeezed in four - squeezed between work and heading out to pick up my new glasses.  We did beaver swamp/davis field out and backs.  Nothing much of note.  My legs were more tired than I expected.

A Pointed Run

4/11/12  Wednesday.  IRS.  Brothel had other business that kept her from the normal start of the IRS meeting.  I figured I'd just head out at the normal time and make sure I was near the driveway around when she was expected.  That gave me a legitimate reason not to go too far; I could pretend I wasn't scared, just looking for the quorum. 

Well, I didn't have to stray to far to have the wits (interesting that wits and shit can be used almost synonymously) scared out of me.  First, I nearly sprained my ankle in a hole that I really should have been on the look out for.  Then I almost stepped on a mole.  Up, over the hill across the street, things seemed to settle down.  Nealy back down, under the weird, old apple tree in the open field, I saw a black shape.  It looked like what Xar and I had seen last week.  I decided to get a closer look to confirm our suspicion of porcupine.  About 20 feet away, I was about to declare us right and start talking to the creature, when it came at me!!!  Porcupines (in my experience) never approach you.  They either turn their back to you or move off. 

I sprinted away.  My heart raced as I told myself I was certainly faster than a porcupine, but the little voice in the back of my head was saying that porcupines don't come at you; are you faster than what does?  By the barn, I allowed myself to look back.  Clear.  Back across the street on our driveway, I made the chicken decision to just do laps around the pond till we had a quorum.  Mileage-wise, it equates to laps around a track.

When I saw headlights turn up the drive, I gave a little cheer.  With reinforcements, the IRS convened to our normal conference space.  Heading back up the hill across the street, we saw two dark shapes.  They saw us, too, and moved away.  Yup, they were porcupines, the very dark kind.  Cresting the hill, we saw another dark shape.  That porcupine was also good with heading away, but he didn't rush.  Xar and I made sure to keep our headlamps peeled so that we didn't inadvertently run into one of the prickly guys.

After that, our big interest was nightcrawlers.  I was explaining about the proper way to insert a hook (I did that in my youth, but no longer have any interest in piercing the crawlers' flesh or letting fish peck away at the still-living hooked worm).  The worms I caught seemed to be mutants; they did not possess the starting point for insertion.  Hmmmm....

I felt bad about calling it quits just under an hour of running with S.G.R.O.M.G.L., but I still hadn't slept well because of my neck/back knot.  I don't know that I slept any more than I would have by stopping then, but...

I wonder how long before the IRS deals with near skunkings.

Blog Post To Be Named Later

Eh.  Just have to start.  The only minor problem going into Sunday's (Apr 8th) 31 miles was my lack of sleep.  I'd developed a knot in my back (sort of under my shoulder blade) that made my neck hard to move.  It started on Friday.  Every time I'd fall asleep, any movement would make me move.  I knew the running itself would be ok, because it had loosened up pretty quickly during Saturday's little miles.

I was happy with myself to have gotten to the Brad before the Squirrel; she has had to wait for me too many times.  I was happier to see that Jeremy was in the lot.  He said he'd come to support us!!!  It was so much fun to have his energy in our first 10ish miles.  We'd decided on running a chunk of the Big Brads for our first loop.  We used the excuse that we'd need a little extra mileage on this loop to finally explore an enticing place along the dirt road.  The Squirrel and I had noticed it several runs back.  I think we knew we'd be checking it out on one of our runs.  Jeremy needed no encouragement; he was all in.

So we headed up the dirt drive, noticing all the rock pillars, varied birdhouses, and gardens along the way.  On our earlier runs, we'd made all sorts of speculations of what the place could be.  I'm still not sure.  There was a nice horse barn with horses and chickens.  The most curious spot was the most Stonehenge-looking arrangement of rocks.  Of course we walked through the stone gateway...to where?  Inside a little circle of rocks there was an altar of sorts.  Curious.  As much fun as the exploring was, we were going to be out long enough.  Back to the run.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

When we returned to the summit, Mindy and I were headed back to the cars to refuel.  Jeremy was off for hill repeats for the rest of his miles.  S&S's plan for the day was three different loops to get all of the mile.  The next was up the Ski trail, the summit, to lunch break hill, then pick up the Animal loop from there.  We thought that this would be a good way to crank off some miles still we good elevation gain and mostly dirt roads.  Probably 2/3 the way down lunch break, a loud, ferocious bark came from nowhere.  Well, that's how it seemed.  Jeremy had heard us coming and hidden behind a big rock.  Mindy and I rewarded him with huge screams and there may have been some jumping involved.  After we recovered, laughed, threatened Jeremy, we continued on.

We were right about the terrain, but not so much about being able to crank out some miles faster on the AL.  We met up with a semi-friendly, semi-aggressive dog that hounded us for quite a while.  I'd day he cost us at least 15 minutes.   We didn't even stop to see our regulars along the route and the llamas, goat, and horse were all near the fence :(

Heading back into the park, both of us were appreciating up hills more than downs.  Our toes and feet were pretty well complaining about the downs.  Before we reached the cars, I'd already decided I was changing shoes in hopes that just the difference in style would help.  Into the lot, we saw Unstrung heading our way coming from either the switch back or South Ridge.  Perfect timing!  She was going to share our last 10 miles.  Turned out it would be our last 11.  The first two loops were a little short of what I thought they'd be.  Jeremy was back in the lot, too.  He'd just finished his run.  I couldn't resist punching him a little.

It was wonderful to head out with Xar.  It gave new life to our adventure.  We filled her in on our first 20ish, chattered for the first four, but then the conversation dropped off, coming in shorter bursts.  We were all focusing on the trail and remaining vertical.  The Backward Bruiser Minus the O is a wonderful way to finish a long run.  The last two miles may be the kindest the Brad has.  We appreciated him being gentle.

Done. 

Ridiculous

OK, I admit it.  I am being ridiculous.  I've tried to write my post for Sunday's Scout and Squirrel 50k adventure.  I'm stuck  on a title.  Yup.  That's it.  Meanwhile, I'll mention that, Saturday, Rick, Mindy and I got in an easy 3.2 on the east side of Brad before meeting up with Mary and Ruby to tame the Terrace Trail with our rakes.

We celebrated our trail taming at Edna and Lucy's, where Mindy and I came to the realization that we wouldn't have E&L to crash at after our Sunday run; they were closing for Easter.  OK.

I swear I'll write up our run.  Meanwhile, there are excellent accounts available.

Tonight was TNR South or TNR S&S Edition.  We got in our usual 7+.  Amazingly, neither of us had any muscle soreness or really any other issues.  We were able to concentrate on our normal solving the world problems as we see them.

Night and Day

The IRS meeting was Wednesday night this week.  It was a wacky Wednesday at that (sorry, Dr. Seuss, I'm not stealing your title; it was really a wacky night).  It all started like a typical late-night run, if there is such a thing.  Unstrung and I decided to see if it was still runnable heading towards Triffittville.  The going was certainly slow; lots of prickers and other plant life had been released from their frozen prisons.  Oh, and my headlamp was nearly out of charge.  The nearly full moon helped - some.

Whoosh!  No, not really the right sound.  It was WAH-OOSH!   We'd started a turkey from its treetop roost.  Just when our hearts recovered, our laughter made the sky erupt with large, dark frightened birds.  Did Unstrung become more unstrung?  I don't know; I was too busy listening to me scream.  I think I was flapping my arms as much as the turkeys.

OK, that was far enough along that path.  Besides, the going was a little too slow with all the prickers reaching out to grab us.  It was along this stretch that Xar planned one of those videos that were making the rounds a while ago, "Things Trail Runners Say".  It was just sentences interrupted by ows and oh-shits and the like.  That was how our conversation went till we made it back to the hill across the street. 

Things seemed to get a little back to normal.  The lack of light was less of a slow down where there were less trip hazards.  Then.  Aaaahhhhh!!!!  This time a dove took wing from its sleeping spot.  It went up so close to me I either felt the tip of its wing or the wind from it.  The weird noise they make when they take wing also is a little freaky at night.  Again, I don't know Xar's reaction cause mine was so big. 

When we headed back to the beaver swamp trail, it all seemed so spooky.  We marveled that it could be so.  We'd just run this very stretch not 45 minutes earlier.  Unbelievable.  It was like we were in a horror movie.  Unstrung thought she heard something in the woods.  Then I heard a snort come from them.  I theorized that it was deer.  We decided we couldn't turn back till we reached the beaver swamp.  We couldn't give in to the fear.  Of course, it was fine.  We got back to the house with almost 8 miles covered.  I know there were lots of funny things said about our experience, but...it's been too long since we ran.  I need to start posting right after.

Unstrung unsuspecting

The mood setter (and light giver)

um?  during flight?

Probably some of the turkeys that were so scary the day before

Thursday, I ran pretty much the same route (without trying the Triffittville part - too thorny).  Of course, nothing was scary.  Birds didn't jump out of nowhere.  Heading down the beaver swamp trail, I startled a deer.  I stood watching it run through the woods, tail high, zig-zagging through the trees.  I bet that was who snorted the night before.  The second time down that trail, I startled two deer in that same spot.  Poor guys were probably trying to settle in for the evening.  Coming out of the trail, heading back down the hill, I stopped to watch 6 deer.  They noticed me.  One immediately bounded away, tail high.  Four others took a second, but followed suit.  The last one stood ground for quite some time.  The others waited at the field's edge.  Finally I said something about joining the others and (s)he listened. 

The difference between Wednesday's 8 mile run and Thursday 5 mile run was much more than three miles. 

Squeezed In

Wednesday, Mindy, Ian, and I went to the Pownal Elementary School for a meeting to firm up some plans for the Big Brad Ultras.  Mindy and I thought we could squeeze in a few miles between work and the meeting.  Amazingly, all the lights in Portland were routing for me, too.  I made it to the Brad in record time and was able to get in a little over a mile before Mindy could get there.  It was time to stop before we knew it.  Had to rush off the mountain to get to the meeting on time.  I felt like I could have run all night.  Oh, well, we stopped for a good cause :D

Doublemint Run

I thought I was being clever with the play on Doublemint Gum, but I realized that was "two, two mints in one", where the run was two, two runs of one course.  Close.  Mindy and I were in our back down week.  I think the "plan" was actually calling for 10 and 8 this weekend.  Well, we did two tens, both on the same route.

Saturday, it was Mindy, me and a new trail runner, Sue.  Sue was up for the distance, but was worried about keeping pace.  Mindy and I assured her that we weren't gonna be pushing the pace at all; whatever she had would be what we would do.  She was a good sport, handling our sight-seeing on the Tryon Wiggles just fine.

Sunday, it was a larger crew.  We started out with Ian, Zak, Randy, Danielle (who'd already put in miles towards her long run), Mark (new to running with the Monsters), Mindy, Rick, and me.  I had to drop off the back to pee.  Rick waited for me.  A little further up the trail, Mindy was hanging back for us, too.  We'd all joined up again along the Lawrence Rd stretch, when someone stopped Rick, Mindy and me for directions.  Did we know how to get to Bradbury?  Um, ye-ah!  Somewhere in the directions, he asked if we were Trail Monsters.  :D  Did he know about the Big Brad Ultras?  Yup.  He was gonna do the Pineland 50 this May.  I hoped he ran into some TMs on his run, but I don't think anyone saw him on the trails.

Dark blue area with lots of arrows - the lost zone

That took long enough so we had no designs on catching up with the rest of the group.  Just when we reached the power lines, we found Mark waiting for us.  He decided he'd be more comfortable with our pace for a while.  I hope he still felt that way after we spent 1.9 miles on the 1 mile of trail that is the east side equivalent of the O.  I think we all had fun.  I know Mindy and I were fine (I think this bodes well for Peaks 50, that and our Scoutland to Triffittville bushwackfest!).

When we finally made it back to the Connector, Rick lost a shoe in the mud.  Somewhere before getting back to the Boundary Trail at the Brad, Rick's knee started acting up :(  I gave him the key to car.  Mark, Mindy, and I kept on the planned route.  We met up with Danielle somewhere on the Tote.  She ran with us back to the parking lot, but needed to tack on some tenths to get to her 20 mile goal.  Rick was already back.  I hope he was able to stop before doing too much damage.

Chuck, Katy, and her mom, along with River and Brooke, showed up just as we were heading out to E&Ls.