Harsh Weather - Excellent :D

I was bummed when the weather was for freezing rain; I really wanted to run with the Squirrel and Xar at Brad.  Even though the National Weather Service had 100% chance, I held out hope.  That is till I woke up.  The trees had a light coating of ice built up already.  The driveway was icy, but at least it was a bumpy.  Linda's light was on.  I ever so carefully crossed the drive to have coffee and catch up with Linda.  By the time I headed home, the bumps were filling in.  It was getting much slicker.  I emailed Squirrel.  This Scout was going no where.  Xar checked in right after.

Looking at the radar, Rick thought there might be a lull in the precipitation around 9ish.  I figured I'd get a few chores done, then head out with Piper.  The lull never materialized, but I figured it could always get worse; might as well go.

I couldn't run down the driveway; it was just too slick.  Instead, Piper and I ran right through the crusty snow.  The plan was to cross over near the bridge then head to the back fields.  Just after the pond, there were tracks from Linda's grandkids' four wheeler.  Whoa!  I should have screwed my shoes.  Back to the untouched snow.  It wasn't long till I reached the snowmobile tracks.  The added texture made them a bit less slippery.  It was a little hard on the feet, but definitely runnable.  Piper?  I called her.  She came into view and I kept on.

I realized Piper wasn't running out ahead, but lagging behind.  Poor thing, her paws were struggling on the hard ice.  I knew it was unfair to her to keep going.  We retraced our path.  In just the few minutes we'd been out, it was already more dicey.  She slowed more.  By the time I dropped her off, my Garmin said we'd gone 1.6 miles.  OK, no Squirrel, no Xar, now no Piper.  Hmmmm, I decided to run with my camera.  I'd forgotten how much I like running with it. 

By the time I reached the snowmobile tracks, they were too slippery to use.  Back to the virgin snow.  It was more work for sure, but I wasn't going to end up on my ass.  Every blade of grass, every weed, every branch looked special in its ice shell.  My camera hand froze, but I didn't care.

The deer had drawn a huge heart for me with their footprints.  Not using the snowmobile tracks, I could run anywhere.  Every now and then, I'd smile at the world.  It was rough and beautiful.  I loved the contrast.  I loved that I was out there in the nastiness.

The little river was thawed or at least too risky to try.  I decided to run over to the hill across the street.  Yikes!  Now the crust was getting so thick that my ankles were getting beaten up.  I was sure they were going to be bloody.  It didn't take me very long to develop a new technique.  With some high stepping, I was able to withdraw my foot without hitting the edges.  This was even more tiring.  My arms were getting really cold.  Someone in my head said I really would be smart to head back.  I smiled as I kept going.  My reward was the path to the beaver trail was no so crusty or deep.  The trees must have protected the snow mobile tracks.  Sweet.

Then it was time to get back.  With all my picture taking, my 6 miles was stretching into an hour and 40 minute run.  I had cold arms, hands, and a bit of a sore back.  Back in the house, I stripped off the wet clothes, put on warm ones, ate lunch, uploaded my pics to FB, then took a 3 hour nap.  I love winter adventures!

Haliburton Wrap Up and Beyond (Life continues as normal? really?)

I started this weeks ago, but fell asleep before I got any of what I wanted to down.  Let's see if I can remember it, get it down, and really move on.

I think we all pretty much woke up from our naps at the same time.  We decided to go to the same restaurant as before for dinner.  I was sore, but not at all as bad as I expected.  At the restaurant, I remembered trying to soak in every second with our group.  I was in love with them all, with our experience...We ran 100 fucking miles!  The food was good and welcomed.  I loved hearing the stories of the crews, ours and the film.  I think they had epic adventures as well.

I can't really remember much after dinner.  I know we said bye to Ben and Matt, who planned on being gone before the rest of us were up.  Grrrr.  The start of the finish of it all.

In the morning Ann, George, and I were ready to go out into the world for coffee before the rest.  Ben and Matt were already gone.  I was surprised that I slept through them leaving.  100 miles, it does a body good.  We headed to Village Court Donut and Cafe, the place we discovered on our first morning.  We placed our orders with the same pleasant woman who'd waited on us before.  From the back came another person.  She erupted in a huge, welcoming smile.  "How are you feeling today?"  It was Toni from aid station 3.  She'd been up nearly as long as us and was back at work.  We traded stories, learned it was her 5th year of volunteering, that she lost 100 pounds since last years race and planned to do the 12k at the next race as well as still volunteering.  She told us how the aid station people got to know the runners and when to expect them.  They'd call back to the other aid stations to see when runner so-and-so went through.  More Hali love.  Before we got out the door, she came around with big hugs and see you next years. 

We returned to our cozy house with good coffee and yummy, yummy breakfast sandwiches.  I think the Squirrel was stirring.   Ann, George, Rick and I had been thinking of heading to Toronto for a night or two of George's normal NYC post-100 recovery technique.  Turns out it was the weekend of the film festival; all the hotels were outrageously priced.  We decided to head to Niagra Falls instead.  Mindy and Pete were gonna head home instead.  More reality.  The group couldn't stay together forever.  The event was going to be done.  Bye guys, see you soon.  Love you both.

George and Ann lead the way down to Niagra.  The ride was pleasant.  We did a few rest stops.  The legs appreciated the movement.  I still was amazed at how not terrible things felt.

We settled into our rooms before heading off to find the falls.  It was a weird place.  But we found a decent pub with outside seating pretty near the water; near enough we intermittently felt spray.  Mmmmm.  More recalling of the event, more soaking up the goodness of the team.  We had a couple of pitchers, ate well, then walked to the falls.  Weirdly, I had the sensation of it looking fake, while pictures of the falls looked real.  Finally, we headed back to the hotel.  I hated saying goodnight cause it meant we were that much closer to being done.

We had breakfast together before heading out.  Crossing back into the states, the adventure was that much closer to being done.  We stopped for lunch at a place frozen in time; the time seemed to be the late sixties.  The service was slow, the food - meh.  Not long onto the MA Pike, we saw a long stretch of stopped vehicles.  With not much time for thinking it out, Rick made the call to hop off the Pike.  We'd try to parallel it till we could get back on where it was moving.  Ugh!  We were on very twisty, old roads.  We kept expecting to pop out somewhere, but the road twisted on.  Text from the Jedi Princess; they were stuck on the pike.  In a way, that meant we were still on the same adventure.  I half expected to see them when we rejoined the pike.  I think they ended up reaching 495 about 1/2 hour before us.  Bye Jedi and Princess Ann.  You were both such a big part of the adventure.  Again, I wouldn't have even thought of doing the 100 if I hadn't paced George.

So.  Scout and Squirrel ran 100 miles in the wilds of Canada.  Recovery went well.  I expected to be more sore.  I really wasn't in pain by the 3rd day.  But I was tired.  I still think I have some residual tiredness.  I sleep better.  I still have sleepless nights, but they are followed by nights where I cannot stay awake.  I miss our little band.  I feel like we were a fellowship.  Not the nine, but a pretty special band any way. 

People (work people, non-TM people) are always impressed, surprised, incredulous of the 100, but they don't understand it.  Haliburton. 

Jedi, Awards, Nap, Dinner, The Next Day, and Sinking In

There are so many things that I forgot.  Reading the Squirrel's blog gave my memory a bit of a jolt.  Ann gave me the best neck massage.  She reminded me that she had lots of practice; the Jedi's neck was a wreck for almost a year.

Oh, and I also had a pretty bad pain in the upper part of my left calf.  I have a really tangled mess of veins there.  I think that had something to do with the issue.  It made it so that I couldn't bend/lift that leg all the way in the last 10 or so miles.  Not that big of a deal, but it did make me fall once and almost fall lots of other times.

OK, back to the finish.  Helen, the wonderful, revered race director brought around some grilled chicken.  I took a piece.  It was practically an entire quarter.  I pulled off the wind and skin, then gave the rest to Rick.  I wasn't super hungry, but thought I should eat something.  Where was Mindy when this was passed around?  Where was Pete?  Maybe changing?

Ann drove in our Rav.  That meant George was on his way!  I was so psyched that we actually got to see his finish.  I've always felt a little guilty that we left Virgil and TARC before his finish.  Yeah, we were cold and tired, but that seemed like a weak excuse.  Lots of cheering.  Some hugs.  Then changing of clothes.  Ahhhh...

Back around the fire waiting for the final finishers and then the awards, Mindy and I started recounting the trail.  Were we already sounding like it wasn't the last 100?  Yeah, I'm pretty sure we weren't cured.

The awards ceremony, which included a brunch, wasn't till 1pm.  We hadn't bought the guys or film crew tickets (runners automatically got them), but Helen took pity on them and soon the entire crew was together.  Less than three very much. 

So, I had thought that S&S wouldn't need any pacers.  Need is an interesting word.  Do I think we still could have finished.  Yes, probably, maybe.   But.  Pete jumped in at the perfect time.  He was positive and encouraging.  He didn't let our resistance put a damper on his enthusiasm.  It was even perfect that we had a leg between the pacers because we got to prove we could to ourselves put the peddle to the metal.  When Rick joined us, I was happy to know we'd have a semi-awake person who loves us guiding us in. 

The brunch was probably more yummy than I cared to find out.  I just wasn't as in to eating as I thought I'd be.  I wanted the buckle.  They did the awards first.  When they gave out the over 50 award for the men, I suspected I might win the women's.  They called out the Squirrel for 3rd!  She was almost not going up; in shock and protesting that we finished together.  I know we come up with an order for the ties when we time.  I was fine with it.  I was more than fine.  YAY!!! Squirrel!!!  Well, then they called the person who was first in the over 50.  Shit.  Really.  Bear Bell Woman was over 50???  I would have guess 38-42.  The Canadians are well preserved!  The interesting thing is that she was actually 3rd woman by a lot.  I guess they give better prizes for first in the over 50 than for 3rd overall. 

On the way home, I was somehow given rights to first shower!!!  I did not protest at all.  Then it was naps all around. 

So the title isn't right.  I give.  There will be another post to cover the rest.

Haliburton 100 Done

So every step from here on out was new territory.  Oh, I know we'd just run this loop, but not with 50 miles under our belts (belts!).  More people telling us to have a good night.  Hmmmm.  We blew through aid station 2 and 3, but stopped again when we got back to 2.  Yeah, the order is weird.  It went 2, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1(start) cause it did a loop around a lake to start.  The guys never met us at 3 or 5.  3 was too soon after 2 for them to bother with.  5 was off limits to crew because of road damage.

It took a few steps after leaving the start again to get moving smoothly.  Stopping for any length of time made us cold and stiff.  When I had changed back at the 50 mile turn around, I controled myself, keeping my short sleeves and shorts on even though I was cold.  But.  I did put on my sleeves.  If you don't own a pair, I highly recommend them.  I had them up, down, on, off, one sleeve up and one down throughout the night.  Every aid station I had to remind myself I would warm up quickly cause I'd be shivering quickly after stopping.

When did it get dark?  What mileage were we at?  I don't remember.  I used my favorite head lamp to start.  It's light and the most comfortable to wear.  Unfortunately, it's a rechargable that only lasts five or so hours.

Oh, also at the turn around, I recognized that I didn't keep having shit in my shoes end up under my one left toe.  I decided the entire pad of that toe was a blister and tried to pop it with a hand-sanitized safetypin.  It wouldn't pop.  I still thought it was just a deep blister.  It wasn't till the day after that I finally figured out that my toe that Piper broke was just permantly weird feeling.  Now it just feels like I have my sock wadded up under it or it's numb.

Back to the running.  I think it was between aid station 3 and 4 that I started falling asleep.  The footing was technical.  I was staggering.  I told the Squirrel something.  I'm not sure what.  I also kept startling myself awake with odd dreams.  Sometimes it was of trail hazzards, sometimes it was the kind of dream that makes you jerk cause a ball is coming right at you or you think you tripped on a root.  Shit. Shit.  Shit.  I have trouble sleeping until I don't and then  I cannot stay awake.  How was I going to finish.  Fortunaely we weren't too far from the aid station.  I plopped into the chair the guys had waiting for me.  I complained about falling asleep while falling asleep in the chair.  I don't know who suggested coffee, but soon I had a small cup of black joe.  It was horrible and my hand shook with cold as I tried to drink it.  I don't really know how Mindy was doing at this point.  After I got the coffee down, we got back on our feet to go.  Was it here that Pete joined in as pacer?  Maybe.  When he did join, we had to wait for him to get ready.

Wow.  I was awake.  All my little complaints seemed to melt away.  Coffee.  That simple.  Wow.  We moved well.  This was a good, late leg for me.  I knew, though tried not to be too sure, that we'd make it.  Coffee.  I less than 3 coffee.

I think the next aid station was the one where we sat by a big fire.  I wanted to empty my shoes.  A volunteer was being very, very, maybe a little too, helpful.  Not only did he take my shoes off of me, he tried to dry them out a bit by shoving paper towel in them.  I was reassembling them when Squirrel asked for something to blow her nose on.  The guy went to give her the paper towel that just came out of my shoe.  I siad, "No!  She needs to blow her nose."  The guy nodded and handed her the paper towel again.  He obviously didn't understand that was just wrong.  Was it Ann that got her something acceptable?  Probably. 

Rick asked if I wanted to trade out my head lamp. I figured I'd be good for one more leg and trade at the next aid station.  Pete headed out with us again.  I think he needed to suggest running a bit as we were giving to walking.  I thought my headlamp had totally died.  Mindy's light was so powerful that the little light mine was casting did nothing.  The shadow I cast in her light was too dark for me to run comfortably.  I know Pete wanted us to run, but I was too afraid of falling on the technical trail in the dark.

Speaking of dark, I don't think I've ever experienced true darkness till Hali.  It was amazing.  When I turned my light off for peeing privacy, I discovered that the dark was dizzying.  No lie.  I couldn't stand without turning on my light.  Amazing.  I'm not sure at what point, but the stars did come out; the skies cleared.  They didn't really add any light for us to see by, but how brilliantly they shone!  It was good to look up, to appreciate where we were, to stretch our necks, ahhhh.

All through the night, not the dreaming part, I was still seeing things that weren't there.  I normally see faces just about everywhere anyway.  I was seeing snakes on the trail, little animals scooting along my peripheral vision.  Mindy was having the same.  Then we did see an actual deer.  It was huge for a doe.  And oddly colored.  It was very pale, almost white, yet it had white spots.  Mindy noticed yellow eyes.  We decided it was our wolves in deer clothing making sure we were OK, perhaps seeing if we were ready for our ride in.

Pete was with us at when we hit 71, one of our milestones.  I think he was a little disappointed that we were more happy with it.  Just getting it done.  At least he was with us when we saw the baby head.  It was a real rock the size of a baby head with marbling or striations that looked exactly like a doll face.  Yikes!

We pulled into the aid station seven well ahead of the cut off, but Mindy had a big, we're-not-going-to-make-it moment.  After the technical stretch we were just through, how long it had taken, she was pretty sure we couldn't do it under the 30 hour limit.  But (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jedi) I'd seen it before.  That's exactly what I told Mindy.  We had it; we were all over it.  I saw George rally enough.  I knew us and knew we could.  We had just over 25 to go.  Did I say that it's an interesting turn around.  They don't put the aid station at the turn around point.  Rather you hit aid station 7 then run like 1/2 mile up the dirt road to a sign that says, "100 mile turn around".  Then you turn around and hit seven again.  Like before, we dropped our hydration packs to be topped off.  It felt so good to be free of it for this little stretch. 

When we got back, Rick said he'd pick us up at aid station 6 and run us in from there.  Pete was done; he'd run his farthest ever!  Knowing that Mindy was worried about time, I set out at a good clip.  We worked mostly in silence on this stretch, but we were working.  Rick had told the film crew we'd probably get into aid station 6 by 5:30am.  I think they set their alarms looking to get some sleep.  But!!!  Scout and Squirrel pulled into the aid station a full 1/2 hour faster!  Rick was shocked, but ready to head out by the time we were.  I don't think we took much time at all at the aid station.  The film crew missed us.

Mindy, not a coffee, drinker decided, after my resurrection, that maybe a cup would do her good.  What did she say?  Something like, I can't believe you people drink this shit.  But, I think she felt the effect, because she did not limit herself to one cup.  I waited a pretty long time before having more.  I wanted to have it in my back pocket, like knowing I could always pull out Underdog's secret energy pill.

I was very happy to have Rick with us.  I had worried that our legs might not hold on some of the technical downs.  Not that Rick would help us down, but he could run ahead for help if we fell or just having him there, we wouldn't fall. 

Mindy started appologizing.  She kept feeling like she was slowing us down.  I said what about all the times I slowed us for real because I had to use the woods.  She was all, that's nothing, that's just what we do!  I tried to convince her she wasn't, but we were going how fast we were going to be going.  Even after, when thinking about our longer aid station stops, we were not sorry about them at all.  It all seemed like just what we needed. 

We heard birds!  We saw some daylight.  We picked off some runners.  I think somewhere along the line I realized we were only passing people on the last 25, never getting passed.  OK.  When I saw someone ahead, I say lets pee now.  We wouldn't want to pass just to need to pee and be passed we our pants down.  Does it sound weird saying we were peeing?  Well, not sure how far into the race it started, but we both were peeing machines.  So as not to waste time, we figured to pee when the other did so that we wouldn't be out of phase, taking longer.  Remember when I said I turned off my light for peeing privacy?  Both Mindy and I used to look for good places to get off the trail when it was light.  Now?  It was just drop the shorts and squat - even when we were on the dirt roads.  Whatever.

At one aid station, 4?, Mindy asked a volunteer what mile we were at.  The answer was 140 km (or some amount about there).  Mindy retorts she wants to know it in Amercian!  The poor volunteer tried some math, but...

Mindy started realizing we were going to do it.  My eyes teared up a couple of times thinking about finishing.  I had to rein it back it.  Things can happen.  Don't celebrate yet.  We were both tired.  Stuff was grumpy.  My feet that always hurt, had only just started.  Aid station 3!!!  Yay Scout and Squirrel.  Did Rick point out that everyone knew us?  I think both the guys had mentioned that on an off during the event. 

Rick said Pete was joining back up with us at 2 to run in with us.  Ann was at 2!  We asked about the Jedi.  We hoped he stayed on the trail and would be right behind us.  At two, the guys told us what to expect for the last, what was it...1.8 miles.  It was on dirt road.  There'd be two hills then it was sort of down to the finish.  When we did the second up, I complained when there was another hill up ahead.  I think Rick didn't realize that first one was really two.  I think I grumbled even though we were that close.  We walked the last hill.  Gonna run it in. 

There was a guy ahead.  Soon we were with him.  Pete said come on run with us, we'll bring you in.  In my mind I was all, hell no.  Scout and Squirrel are finishing together, not Scout, Squirrel, and miscellaneous dude.  But, Pete got to be good and encourage him, he got to have a better finish cause misc. dude tried to stay with us for a bit, but we kept running, maybe even adding a little speed.

Then I saw that the gate to the forrest was closed.  WTF?!  We have to go around?!  It really was no big deal, but you would have thought they were making us go an extra mile instead of the width of the road.  Mindy wasn't complaining, just me.  But there was the finish!!!  And! And!  Unlike lots of events, people stayed for all the finishes!!!  We were cheered like rock stars. Went we entered the finish area (didn't seem like a line), we hugged, then both grabbed our heads like, "What the hell did we just do?!"  I only know that from the picture some guy took at the end.  It's my favorite shot.

I don't think it was long before we were in chairs around a fire.  Some guy kept bringing me water.  Our feet hurt, but it wasn't at all as bad as I expected.  I was still wide awake.  We just needed Jedi to come in...

Next installment will be the wrap up.

The First 50

So, there are so many things I missed on the long road to Haliburton, but the important ones will resurface in the telling of the actual miles.  I know Rick was relieved when we were out of the driveway just before the last minute deadline.  The time at the start before the race is kind of jumbled together.  I know I had a cup of coffee and was thrilled to see how the bags of milk were used (the Canadians have pitchers that house the bags - curious).  I know I was in line for the washroom (Canadian for bathroom) where I met a road runner from N. Carolina who was doing the 50 miler.   He said he liked to do a 50 now and again so he never felt the marathon was that hard.

Soon it was time for the pre-race prayer and piping down to the start.  I was beyond surprised to find myself tearing up.  At the start?  WTF, me?!  Relief to be starting?  I have no idea, except that I certainly felt emotion.  Then Ann brings out a "Time to Shine" poster for us!  I would put a heart, but blogspot doesn't seem to like them.  OK, from now on I'll "less than 3" it.  Ann, we all less than three you!

The start was at 6 am sharp.  Yay!!!  Scout and Squirrel were doing it.  The Jedi went out ahead of us a bit.  We had to use the headlamps; Hali is in the most western part of our timezone.  OK.  This was good.  We were doing it.  We settled in to a sort of rhythm.  Well, the LSD rhythm.  It didn't take too long before I said I thought we had to be running some of the ups, the very runnable ups that the other people were walking.  The Squirrel agreed.  We put on our very politest, "Excuse me, on the right/left" and pushed on.

Not too long in, I needed a visit to the woods.  This is one of the "long road to Hali" things that I didn't cover.  Around January, I started with GI issues.  They never really resolved.  I've mostly stopped losing weight, though I'm down about 16 lbs.  The Squirrel has been very patient.  We just know there will be lots of stops for me.  She walks till I rejoin.  Did Mindy use the woods this first time, too?  I just know we both were looking for hand sanitizer by the first aid station.  They didn' t have any.  Guess that's something for crews or drop bags.  Our crew, who turned out to be the best 100 crew ever, took 2 stops to get the kinks out, figure out how to deal with the other crews, set up where, have what we need when we needed it, but they did get it together.  I had to think back to realize they weren't perfect to start.

The weather was decent, but not ideal.  The temps remained in the mid-60s for the day, but it was humid.  We also had little bouts of rain, just enough to make the roots, logs, and mud slippery.  Still, it was not upper 80s or whatever the VT100 had.

Somewhere along the way (in the 30 mile range?), I wondered why we were doing this.  It felt just like our 50s, but we weren't going to be done in just 15 or 16 miles.  OK, suck it up.  Mindy had blisters starting.  I kept having trail debris fill my shoes.  So, for every aid station we could blow through just saying our numbers (thanks Tailwind :), we had our share of sitting in our chairs being tended to.  Mindy took some real time to pop the blisters somewhere around here.  She wanted to get on top of them so they were a real issue later.  And though I thought I had all this crap in my shoes, there never really was that much.  It also always seemed to be in the same spot.  Curious.

The guys told us Jedi was 10 minutes ahead, 15 minutes ahead, then we were getting closer.  I'm not sure what mile, but we went by just to have him pass us by not stopping at the aid station.  We headed out of the aid station talking to Garth, a really cool local who was running his third Hali 100.  The first he DNFed, the second, though in the worst conditions of the history of they race, he finished.  He said he was at mile 75 pretty much with lots of doubts of whether he could possibly finish.  Garth said he learned a real lesson in perseverance that day.  Wow!  What a difference from Downer Guy we'd met just a few miles earlier.  Though we told him we were doing our 1st 100, DG proceeded to make it sound like the worst possible decision anyone ever made.  Ugh. 

Talking with Garth, I had an eye on Jedi, not more than 150 feet ahead of us.  Garth's wife was the head of aid station 5.  She was an ultra runner, too.  From the sounds of it, maybe the better of the two of them.  You could tell he was proud of her.  "Hey!"  We were being yelled at by Straw Guy (an older runner who wore colored straws in his hat.  He handed them out to the women he wouldn't mind marrying).  We'd missed the turn!  A very obvious turn!  We yelled up to Jedi, made sure he turned, and headed back after SG.

Finishing the 50, we decided to take some time to attend to things before heading out.  Squirrel wanted to tend her feet some more.  I wanted to change.  I asked where was a good place.  Pete said there was a wash room and pointed.  Turns out it wasn't the building he thought, but one much further than I really should have gone.  I should have just changed in the crew vehicle.  Oh well.  I was happy with our 12hr 8 min 50 time; we were OK.

Well...lets go just a little past 50, at least past S&S's longest run.  It was cool heading out and weird too.  As we'd pass the 50 milers heading in, they'd say, "Have a good night."  I loved it and yet...the night was coming.  Nearly around the lake, I told the Squirrel when my the Garmin said we'd gone 55 miles.  That beat Peaks 54 (by the way, why my license plate reads "SCOUT54").  Into new territory...

The Long Road to Haliburton

When I started running 50s, people started asking when I was going to do a 100.  Never.  That was my answer.  I meant it.  Rick never believed it, but I did.  After Mindy and I did our first 50, Peaks, together, I was sure she'd be running a 100.  She seemed to get stronger as the miles piled up.  I also think the seed was already planted in the Squirrel.

Then I paced George, the Jedi, at Vermont 2012.  I was blown away by the effort, determination, and attitude of the back-of-the-packers.  These people were putting everything they had into finishing.  It was beautiful.  Inspiring.  Hmmm.  Maybe.  I started looking on line at the different 100s.  The Squirrel was looking, too.  I nixed some just cause of temperature.  I was afraid of heat and humidity.  When I saw that the highest high for the Haliburton 100 was 75 degrees, I decided it was probably the one I would be able  commit to.

Mindy and I registered as soon as it opened.  Were we already training in the winter?  It seemed like it.  We had our kind of adventures with extreme snow, deer carcasses, laughing, chatter, and hard work.  Then came the official training.  Mindy had Ian tweak a 100 mile plan for us.  We DNFed at Wapack, kicked arse at Tarc, and cranked out the miles.  Towards the end, Mindy said we needed to buckle so we wouldn't have to do it again.  We were tired of the hours and hours of running.  Not so much because of the hours and hours of running, but because they were planned.  Our weekends were dictated.  After our UXB (ultra extreme badass) run, we needed to get away from Brad's twisty, rooty trails for a while.  We ran our last long runs at the Androscoggin Riverland State Park, Andy.  It was good to run on less technical, less twisty trails for a while.  They did have more elevation, though.

There were hard parts along the way.  Tuttle and Spot.  I guess since our dogs were of similar ages it shouldn't be too surprising we lost them around the same time, but, somehow, it seemed important.

My work interfered.  I had a stretch where I worked over 20 something days in a row.  Mindy met me whenever I could get to the Brad.  Some of of long runs were much later than they should have been.  I bonked on a few humid runs; Squirrel pulled me through.  Then I discovered Tailwind.  I was running on Unicorn Dust.  Squirrel switched over, too.  Hmmm.  It made things easier to not have to think about food.  There was more room in our packs, too.  I wrote the company to see if they thought it would be OK to use for up to 30 hrs.  The answer was prompt.  They assured me it was more than fine to rely on Tailwind alone, but that I might find I wanted solid food on a run that long.  I could eat, just subtract the calories from what I was supplying with the wind and add some water.  Mindy and I felt like we'd just stick with Unicorn Dust.

Mindy and Pete got two new pups.  I had puppy envy.  My work hours didn't allow for a puppy.  Then I realized I could have a dog!!!  Rick and I soon adopted Piper (the Squirrel named her :)  She promptly caused me a broken toe (no official diagnosis, but it sure seemed like it).  I think it was only 6 wks out from Hali.  Fortunately, it was only really painful when I landed on a rock or landed unevenly.  I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a problem.

At Andy, where we were enjoying the less technical trail, Mindy fell hard twice on on 30 mile run.  The next weekend, part of the taper - just 20, I fell hard aggravating my ribs.  Hmmm.  That might be a problem.  Fortunately, it was less bad than another time I'd done the same thing.  The deep breath from running up a big hill wasn't super painful.  Sneezing, coughing, or laughing hard were.

Almost there.  Jedi and Ann, Pete and Mindy, Rick and I had all taken off the Thursday before.  We rented a cool house in the town of Haliburton, ON.  We were all making our way there more or less at the same time.  For the first hour or so, we were in communication.  Then cell coverage and Canadian charges made us travel in radio silence.  By the time Rick and I got to our cozy home, Pete and George had a fire in our idyllic fireplace.

We settled in just a bit before heading into town for dinner.  We lucked into the best pub in town (at least according to Xar's source).  The next day we enjoyed the little town of Haliburton.  Bags of milk!  I bought a fan at the hardware store to assist in sleep.  Then we went to the forest. A quick visit to the Wolf Centre was worth the $10/person. Less than three, less than three, less than three. Then on to packet pickup.  I winced when I saw my number: 3.  I didn't tell the others.  I'm not really superstitious.  Science, it works bitches and all...but, shit.  That was my number of my first 50, my first DNF.  Don't share.

Then our film crew showed up.  That's funny to say, but, I'm so glad they exist.  How many people get their first 100 professionally recorded?!  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  Ben was in on the event almost as soon as we were.  He had wanted to film the 100 Mile Wilderness, but had a commitment conflict.  It was getting chilly.  I put on my race hoodie.  Shit.  Is that a no-no, too?  Everyone said it wasn't, but I took it off pretty quick.

The pre-race dinner was yummy, but the event went long, especially since we had to weigh in after (none of us knew about this).  I was anxious to get home; we'd be getting up at 4:15.

OK, that's enough for now.

Gettin' It Done

So, work still interferes with my posting.  This weekend it looked like it was totally gonna screw with running, too.  I told the Squirrel I had to work Saturday, at least the a.m. and then 6 to 6 on Sunday.  Turns out she had training all weekend in Lewiston.  We didn't want to miss a long run.  Hey!  How about we run after Squirrel's training let out.  We'd just shoot for a 3 hour run at Brad.  Then she could sleep over so she'd have a tiny commute.

When we made the plan, we had no clue the temperature was going to be more late-July, early-August-like.  I was dreading it a bit, being a lousy heat and humidity runner.  I ate a pre-run meal of turkey and cheese roll ups, trying to duplicate the Wapack eating.  I even bought us the maple cookies.  Yum. 

So, S&S headed to the Lawrence Rd parking.  We decided to run back to the park, to the east side where we'd stick to the snomo and wider parts of Ginn West (thinking this would be closer to Haliburton running), back and then we'd pick up our headlamps and do the BBU Sweetser Rd loop.  I suggested bug spray.  Normally, I shy away from spraying anything;  I hate putting a poison on me and am super scent-sensitive.  We were both prepared to struggle with the oppressive heat.  Maybe it was because we were so expecting it to be immensely hard, it was not.  Heading into the woods was probably the smartest way to run. 

I was surprised when we ran into two separate other runners.  Brad is drawing more people in.  Mindy had so much interesting stuff to tell me about her training, that I could sit back, listen, and hydrate.  Wow.  We were running on a hugely hot day, after a long day of other shit, and it was good.

Heading back towards Lawrence Rd, I had to pull off to use the woods.  Holy shit.  Bastards!!!  Ow.  Ow.  No way can there be that many mosquitoes instantaneously.  I won't tell you where I was bitten, but I will say that I have to be careful to make sure no one is looking when I scratch.  Shit.  When I caught up with the Squirrel she was running back and forth on the bridge.  Normally she walks till I catch back up, but she was also swarmed.  I recounted my woes.  Shit!  We'll reapply bug spray as well as pick up the headlamps when we get back to the car.

I was happy when the mileage on our garmins confirmed my 9 mile prediction for our course.  It's good to get pleasure from little things.  I liberally applied the repellant, something I never do.  As we were running down Sweetser, I reallized neither of us had grabbed our headlamps.  Rats!  OK, we'd just run out the roads till we hit 1/2 our remaining time, then we'd run back.  Unfortunately, I started building a stitch that would plague me the rest of the run.  Of course, in true Squirrel fashion, Mindy said no problem, we'll just walk till you're ready.    I think it was when she was actually saying that the first time that she was looking at me so missed the fisher that I saw run across the road.  Whoa!  Very cool.  Was it just Wednesday that we ran this same road admiring the beaver swimming in the river?  Oh!  that reminds me, crossing the bridge coming down the snomo trail, we heard the beaver slap his tail hard on his pond.  We imagined he was angry that people hadn't left the park yet.

When we returned to the car, my garmin read just 14 seconds over 3 hours.  Even with my slow downs, we were happy with the run and that we got it done.  I think it was close to 10pm when we got back to my house.  Rick, who also had weekend duty, had waited up.  I put him to bed, but S&S stayed up watching a "My Cat From Hell" marathon.  Really.  I think Mindy finally went to bed near 2.  I stayed up for one more cat.  5 am came way too quick, but I still feel like it was all good training for the 100.

Post-Wapack

Sunday, we were out of the hotel by 8am.  We all met up at a Bickford's for breakfast before the drive home.  I felt pretty good and knew I would head to Bradbury for a mother's day run.  The legs were surprisingly good, just one downhill section let me know I'd run long the day before. 

I didn't run Monday, but worked over 12.5 hours.  I took Tuesday off, too, but texted the Squirrel that it would be great if we could run before she headed off to crew for Team gIANt in Massenutten.  How about we meet at the Brad after work?  Yes!  We talked over Wapack, digesting it a little more. 

Saturday I had to work.  I was in there by 5:40 and out by 11:30am.  That left me the afternoon for a run.  I did the mountain side of Brad and the connector.  In 10 miles, I got in 2000 ft elevation gain.  Brad was looking quite beautiful.  He gave me all sorts of flowers.  He seemed to be flirting.  About 9 miles in, on Lunch Break, my legs said they were tired.  Hang in there, almost done. 

Today (well, actually yesterday now), Rick and I went back to Brad for another 7 miles.  I was set to enjoy the rest of a much needed day off when Sam called with a distress call.  He'd forgotten some documents he'd need for the start of work tomorrow (today).  Ugh.  I drove down to WPI.  At least my friend Judy came along to help keep me company and awake.

My Favorite DNF - Part III

Amazingly, even with how long it was, I forgot stuff from the previous miles.  Somewhere around 15 miles in, I fell on what was the least hazardous piece of trail anywhere.  Still, my right knee hit the only rock available.  That knee is still a bit misshapen from a winter fall.  I had to walk for a bit.  Mindy suggested that perhaps it would help bust up scar tissue.  I'm not sure if it was before or after, but I also stubbed by big, left toe (yup, the toe that's chronically sore) had on a rock.  I don't know if it then kicked up and landed on my toe or if I stumbled in a weird way to let it hit on the top of my toe, but that's where it then hit.  Whoa!  It did hurt, but it was like a nerve thing.  Like it was buzzing or on fire.  In less than 1/2 a mile, my toe felt fine.  In fact, it still feels fine.  I can't remember when it's been pain free this long.  OK, maybe the bang to the knee will break up scar tissue.

Also, not long before we hit the turn around, we heard, than saw Dave heading our way.  He looked happy and strong, running with a couple other guys.  We did fist bumps and wished each other well.  I guess he was injured not long after that, but still managed to do the 43 mile finish.  Nice.

So, back to where I'd left off.  Not long after S&S were heading back, we realized we were probably not going to get to the 34 miles aid station by 3:30pm.  That was the cutoff time listed on their website.  OK, we'd wrapped our heads around that, but we had wet rocks to and incline to deal with first and foremost.

Look closely; you can see Scout and Squirrel on the rocks.  I'm sitting down, butt-scooting down the mountain.  Rick and Pete met us on this rocky patch.  Rick started to run back to the aid station to prepare for our arrival.  To show him how fine I was feeling, I ran to catch him.  I almost did, just ran out of distance. 

I looked at the table.  Oh!  You're out of the yummy roll ups :(  A volunteer said he thought they still had a few.  There were 3 left.  He encouraged me to eat them all.  I didn't need much convincing.  He poured me more Coke.  Food.  Drink.  It went down easy and felt good.

I said to Rick, "We're not going to make the cutoff."  He said, "No, you're not."  There.  It was said.  Mindy and Pete had a similar exchange.  We said bye to our great crew and to the wonderful aid station volunteers.  It's funny; we started talking like we were on our normal Brad runs.  We had a couple of pit stops and food breaks, but mostly ran really well on this last 7 mile stretch, all the while realizing we'd be done at the next aid station.  We talked about all the things we learned.  We talked about puppies, goats, showering and going to dinner with the men. 

We were closing in on the 34 mile aid station when we saw Pete running out to meet us.  He said we were about a mile away, but they'd learned that the cutoff on the website was wrong.  If we made it by 4pm, we could keep going.  Huh?  We had around 11 minutes to run a mile.  Huh?  Mindy said, lets just run how we were going to and see.  Well, we did.  We made it.  Well?  We had known we were done for over 7 miles now.  And now we weren't done?  We thought about it, but decided to live with being done.  It didn't take long to know that it would be one of our target races next year, not a training run.

My Favorite DNF - Part II

Listening to the chatter of the other runners, I could tell we were with experienced people.  The two directly ahead of me are running Hardrock.  In a race that requires a qualifier and only had 10 finishers last year, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that there'd be experienced ultra runners.  I have learned not to be too intimidated by all that.

With only 35 runners, it didn't take long before it was just S&S, like it is on most all of our training runs.  Interestingly, we didn't talk very much at the outset.  I don't know if it was the climb, paying attention to the trail (headlamps and only actual trail markings made concentration critical), the earliness, or what.

We saw our crew at the "aid station".  Since it was only 3.5 miles in, they only had some jugs of water there.  We were promised more on the way back.  Still our guys did a good job of cheering and we got a see-you-in-5.5-miles.

A few times I found myself talking to Mindy with no reply.  I'd look back and realize I was going too fast.  She was sticking to the plan of taking it easy in the early miles.  So I'd adjust.  No longer in the dark, we started appreciating the beauty of the trail.  It was just south enough to be so much greener than home.  While I'd wished for the rain to keep it cool, I was a little sad that we couldn't have the new, bright greens against a brilliant blue sky.  Not much later, I really would have traded the rain for heat...The rocks, everywhere, were the definition of slippery.  Ugh.  A couple hours in, I told the Squirrel it was probably time to pick up the pace a bit; going was slow in so many places due to conditions, we had to run quickly where we could.  On an up, we took time to eat.  I had a Honey Stinger Waffle.

The 2nd aid station, at mile 9, was well staffed and well supplied.  Our guys flagged us in and quickly saw to our needs.  I chose a PBJ roll up, some chocolate covered pretzels, and a coke.  We didn't dilly dally.  Probably one of the faster times we'd ever gone through an aid station.  The guys told us the next stretch was supposed to be more runnable.  It was.  It felt good to be really running.  We still had to pay attention to the trail.  Running trail races, you get used to all the markings being down low.  Trails for hikers don't follow the same rules.  At more than a few intersections, we would have to try the different spurs to see where the yellow triangle went.

The Squirrel and I would remember to remind each other to hydrate.  We were trying to eat early and often as well.  The next aid station had Cooper, a sweet poodle, to visit in addition to my favorite food of the day; turkey, cheese, and mustard roll-ups.  I think I ate three.  I also had two cups of coke and Rick refilled my Nathan pack.  The Squirrel was more into the potatoes with salt, but may have tried a roll-up, too.  I said to one of the volunteers that I wanted a bit more rain to keep the temps down (it had stopped raining somewhere a bit ago).  She said we wouldn't want any rain till we got back through this aid station again; the next rocky section was not something you wanted to have slippery.

Almost immediately we understood.  Holy.  Shit.

It looks way less dangerous than it seemed.  Yup.  I would give up the cool rain in a heartbeat for dry rock.  Was the next 5.5 till the turn around gonna be all this?  Going was less than slow.  And as hard as it was, I was already afraid of the return down.  It wasn't a mile into this stretch when we met the front runner heading back.  Un-fucking-believable.  How could anyone move that fast on slippery rock?!  Then we started seeing lots of fast people.  It took a while to realize that some of them were the 21 mile racers starting out on their race.  Hey Jordon!

Here and there we crossed paths with one of the Hardrockers.  We seemed to meet up on all the spots where it was hard to tell the path of the trail...and she'd run it before!  She was almost as cautious as us on the downs.  She said she'd waited long enough to get into Hardrock.  There was no way she was going to get hurt before.  When I needed a nature call break, she pulled away for the last time.

At the next aid station, the turn around, there were more experienced runners manning it.  There was also Jack, a very cute wire-haired fox terrier.  There I discovered maple-flavored, maple leaf- shaped, very yummy cookies.  I know I had two.  They also had turkey and cheese rollups, but they didn't look as appetizing as the other stations.  Rick refilled my bladder.  Did I have more coke?  Again I was pretty happy with our relative speed through the aid station. 

I'll stop here for the night.  I don't think it will take all that much longer to write about it, but the next stretch took forever to cover.  I need a break just thinking about it.

My Favorite DNF or My Almost Favorite Training Run or...

Be careful What You Ask For or....There are so many titles for this post running through my head.  It really isn't important.

So, I haven't been keeping up on posting, mainly because of working way too much.  It's a good thing I like my job, but it is cutting in to running a little too much.  I think it was two weekends in a row I kept promising the Squirrel that I just needed another hour, which turned into another hour, and another before we could meet up to run.  Finally, I knew we really needed to get our long run in so left work at 10am on Sunday to meet up with Mindy.  Rick also met us there.  I had given him instructions to head out with Mindy if I wasn't in the parking lot by 10:30.  As it was she'd waited for me till late afternoon the day before.  I think I got in 7.5 starting just after 4pm.   I really appreciate that the Squirrel waited for me.  It made it a hotter run for her.  We enjoyed Rick's company for 7 miles, then said bye as we continued on a loop of the BBU.  I think I started us out a little fast - running off the stress of work.  The Squirrel was not feeling it early on, but that's pretty normal; she has trouble getting started, but I know she'll recover later.  After a loop of the BBU, I think she really was dragging.  I said not to worry, I would make sure we got in our run cause I'd feel too guilty about leaving work otherwise.  Well, by the time we were at 23 miles, I started to bonk.  I don't know if it was the heat, the lack of sleep, my GI trouble, or work stress, but I felt like shit.  Not to worry, the Squirrel talked me through.  We'd just take our time.  She'd totally recovered and pulled me through.

The next weekend was our taper.  Squirrel went to Acadia with a TM group for camping/running fun.  I worked Saturday till about 2, then headed to Brad for 13 miles.  Sunday I did not work.  Mmmmm.  I did not work.  Rick and I went to the Brad for 7. 

Oh, yeah, this was supposed to be about Wapack.  Well, Rick did most of the prep for me.  He made a spreadsheet with times at the aid stations for different paces.  He got directions to each.  He packed up most of the stuff and took all of Friday off to pack up.  I left work at 3pm.  Wow, I was going to have a full weekend off.  It seems like the cubes are always with me though.  Most nights I dream of work.

When Rick and I got near the hotel I texted the Squirrel, "WTF?!  It's 79 degrees.  Rain sounds good."  Rick and I got to the hotel about 1/2 hr before Pete, Mindy, and Ben.  It was enough time to research the local restaurants to find an Italian option.  Not long after they got in, we all piled in our car to head to dinner.  It was the perfect place for carbo loading.  The only thing was it was very laid back so it took a long time to eat and get out.  I think it was after 9 by the time we got back to the hotel.  That doesn't sound late, but I hadn't slept well (big surprise) in a few nights and we were setting the alarm for 3:30am.  We all had agreed to meet in the hall for 4,

Ben wanted to do a quick get-to-know-you interview before the race.  We'd never met before, but he'd planned to do a documentary about the S&S Haliburton adventure almost as soon as we'd decided to take it on.  He did the interview as I packed my drop bags.  By the time Rick and I turned out the lights, I think it was 10:30.

We were all in the hall just before 4am.  I imagined that there would be a Dunkin' Donuts on the way because we were in Massachusetts.  Nope.  So I only had a banana.  Well, I wouldn't normally eat at this hour anyway.  S&S were going to eat early and often.  Well, at least, we were going to work on our hydration and fuel.  The start of the race was pretty low key; there were only 35 of us, after all.  Wearing our headlamps, we pick up our numbers, tech shirts, and finished getting ready.  The pre-race  briefing was just that - brief.  We were off!  Was it just after or just before that we felt the first rain drops? 

We were almost immediately climbing.  I knew there was an early up, but I didn't know it'd be right away.  One of the Squirrel's goals was to start slowly.  This hill would certainly help.  The drops became a steady, light drizzle.

That's the first installment. 

Payoff

The team of Scout and Squirrel have logged some long, hard, miles this winter in trying conditions.  We were out there many hours.  I think back to our first BL of the year; Yikes!  Then our last 25 miler, two weekends ago, seemed like such a grind.  Saturday, we had another 25 to do.  We settled on warming up on the hills on the mountain before running a loop of the BBU, then finishing up with hill repeats on Lunch Break till we had our mileage.

We ran out Northern Loop to the Ski Trail till it met back up with Northern Loop.  We took that till we got to Terrace for our quick down.  We did that three times then headed up South Ridge.  I think that is an overlooked hill for repeats. We ran down Terrace again, then back to the start.  We'd be heading out on the BBU loop with almost 5 miles already under our belts.  The hills could have seemed hard, but we were pretty intent on our catching up.  Mindy had a trip back to PA to tell me about with cute Briellen stories and I had a bunch of work and home stuff to fill her in on.

Normally when we do a loop of the BBU starting from the park, we have 5.5ish when done with the ease side.  Cause of the hill start we were closer to 11.  It felt like we were ahead of the game.  The Squirrel debated changing socks, but decided they'd just be instantly wet again.  I stopped back at the car to refill my t.p. stash.  SIDE BAR:  can you believe the first available appointment to the GI doc is Sept. 19th???  I guess I could try other practices, but it was already work to set up one appt.

I'm not sure where we were when I noticed we'd been running 3 hrs 35 minutes.  Can you believe we've been running that long?  No way.  Time was just flying by.  When we reached the summit, we still made time to check the raptor tally board - nothing of note, yet.

We ran down LB to the school.  From there I would keep recalculating to see how many repeats we really needed to get in our 25 miles.  Our garmins did a few little blippy things to make us a little uncertain for a bit.  Instead of the end seeming a grind, we just had complaints of hunger.  We guessed and imagined the thing E&Ls would have waiting for us.

I think my Garmin was a bit behind Mindy's when we finished up, but both of us were over 25.  When I put it on SportTracks, it ended up being 25.6.  We were way less tired than the previous 25er.  I'm pretty sure the lousy snow running is great conditioning; it was all paying off.

Sunday we hit the east side.  Mindy, Rick and I headed out like we were doing the Bruiser.  Rick left us at the 5 mile mark to walk back in.  The Squirrel and I continued mostly on the Bruiser course, but I did switch it up so we went up Fox West, Ginn and back down the snomo trail rather than up.  We finished with just over 10.

Back Down Weekend

I'm not sure how closely the Squirrel and I have been following our plan.  I know I had a month without a long run cause of GI issues.  After that, I think we've run a 20+ long run for the last 6 weeks, with four of them 24 miles or longer.  The backup run has been 8 - 10 miles.  So when I found out the Squirrel would be heading to PA this weekend, I decided it was time for a bit of a back down.

I was happy to learn that I'd have Unstrung company.  I haven't gotten to run with her in a long time.  When I pulled into Brad's lot, Ian, Emma, Blaine, Sean, Nathan, and Xar were already there in various states of shivering.  The day before I'd worn shorts and a Tee and was hot.  Today I was in long sleeves, tights, headband, and gloves and was chilly.  As we were getting ready to head out, Andy ran in.  The speedy guy said he was still cold.

Ian and Emma hit the roads to get in 22 miles.  Nathan, Sean, Blaine, Xar and I set out to run a loop of the BBU.  Blaine flawlessly pulled off a long shaggy dog joke, a real groaner that Xar approved of wholeheartedly.  After that, the boys were quiet while Xar and I yakked away.  With some of the funny stuff, we lamented that Mindy was missing; she would have made it all funnier.

I had a few early wood visits.  I encouraged the boys to run on; it wasn't going to get better for a while.  I knew Nathan knows the BBU course so the guys were fine.  Xar and I settled in.  I was really surprised when we got to the mountain side and found the Northern Loop mostly ice free.  The Boundary Trail was even better.  The connector was a little icier, but not too bad.  Heading down the hill towards Lawrence Rd. was really icy.  We chose to walk rather than chance it.  I also took the opportunity to pop into the woods again.  When I pulled out onto Lawrence, I called out for Xar.  I didn't see her heading down the road.  Yup, she'd started to follow the connector up the hill.

On Sweetser, we noted the unnaturally blue skies that are ever present.  Wiccahenge's power is awesome.  We were heading out onto the power lines when we saw two speedy figures running down Allen Rd.  Of course we ran back to say hi.  I didn't mean for them to actually stop, but they chatted for a bit.  So I wouldn't feel bad about them stopping, I said for them to keep going, we'd run down Sweetser with them a bit.  It was just a very little bit before we said bye, buoyed by the TM sighting, and returned on our own journey.  The beauty of the power lines always surprises me.  Shouldn't the steel and wire seem like an intrusion?

Heading back up the hill after crossing Lawrence, we crossed paths with Nathan and Sean running down.  I fell gracelessly on the ice and just sat while we chatted for a bit.  They'd made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up doing more miles with Blaine on the east side.  Onward.

Back in the park, the Tote Road was the iciest part yet.  We did a lot of walking.  Friday all the ice was tacky, Saturday all slippery.  It was a relief to pop out onto the summit.  Xar said a child/parent unfriendly word sort of in earshot of both.  I proceeded to talk very loud not realizing I was interrupting a mini lecture by the bird watcher.  See, we were unused to civilization.  We decided we better get back to our quest and save society.

Thank you, Lunch Break, for being ice free.  At the bottom we both had some sort of baby food before finishing up our run.  I think it was Unstrung's longest in a while and she'd done hill work recently.  She planned to take it easy up LB.  I thought I might do the opposite.  So when I'd run most of it, I turned around, ran back, and rejoined Xar.  It gave me the opportunity to run up more.  Back on the summit, we decided to skip looking at the bird tally; we couldn't be trusted around people.

Stretches of the Northern Loop (towards the top) were still tricky.  It wasn't till the Ski Trail we could run without fear of falling.  Just about back, we met up with Gracie again.  She's about the sweetest golden retriever there can be.  She nearly fell into a trance as I milked her ear.  She made me feel like I was with Spot :)  When I could squat no longer, we said our goodbyes.  At least back in the parking lot, we met Phoenix.  He was a beautiful lab, waiting for his dad to make a phone call and take him for his walk.  We were able to peel ourselves away because we knew E&Ls would have something yummy and nourishing for us.  With the little extra pieces I had 16.8 for the run instead of BBUs 15.5.

Today, Rick and I headed to Brad sort of late.  Nathan's car was there, but I'm sure he was long on his run.  We ran out Lanzo, to Ragan, back Ginn to Fox West, crossed over to Fox East, and onto Ginn East.  Rick had his 5 miles by the time we reached Old Tuttle Rd, so he headed back.  I continued on Ginn East to Ginn West, back Ragan to Lanzo and done.  I had just over the 8 miles I wanted.  After E&Ls, we noted that Nathan's car was still in the lot.
  

Thanks, Brad

After an emotional funeral, I needed a run.  I needed more than the fields around our house.  Brad.  My running itself could have been better (GI stuff still acting up), but the run was just what I needed it to be.  I smiled at the mud.  I cheered the bits of new green.  I talked to Brad.  He's such a good listener.

the ice was texture so not slippery

no way around wet feet

Fields and Hills = Treadmill

Tuesday night, I made sure I got out after work.  The fields are very unwelcoming right now, but that's what there is.  The farmer's path up the hill across the street was soggy, but fine.  The beaver trail was also fairly runnable and I got to look for the little creatures at the end.  OK, I decided to have my own treadmill of sorts; it just ran back and forth on this barely mile stretch.  The footing was ok enough that I could look around.  The sky looked like it was painted by a beginner, maybe even a beginner practicing clouds.  My mind drifted to thinking maybe-we're-just-in-some-program thoughts. 

Wednesday I brought my running clothes to work.  Though I'd ended up with an ok run yesterday, I didn't want to run on my treadmill again.  I decided I would do a Thorncrag run once a week, leaving straight from work.  It's going to be great, but this time much of the single track was ice, the slick, treacherous, sloped kind.  That amounted to too much walking.  So I stuck to two of the big trails.  I ran up the long, blue trail, down, then up the steeper, shorter red.  I repeated this 4 times.  It was good hill training, but I think I'll go right back to the single track once the ice is gone.

Successful Grind Plus

I'm not even going to try to write the backblog of my runs.  Damn you cubes!  So, this weekend...

Saturday the TMs split into two running groups.  Ian, David, and Julia were doing 22 on the roads around the park.  It's convenient that there are lots of dirt roads with some hills all around.  Nathan, Chris (high school senior who is training with Jeremy), the Squirrel, and I headed out onto the BBU loop, starting from the park out onto the east side. 

We thought it might be unrunnable, but it couldn't hurt to try it out.  Surprise!  There was lots of ice, but there was mostly texture on it.  There were patches of bare ground, patches of mud, water under the ice that gave way to ice burgs, and untrod snow.  When we got to the loop off of Ginn (run on Mindy's 40 run, but not on the Bruiser), I had to rely on my sense of how the loop went.  I made myself proud in a couple of spots :)

I enjoyed talking with Chris.  I'd met him before, but that was about all.  He's planning on running the 50 miler at Pineland this year.  I wonder if he'll be the youngest to do it yet.  And while I was enjoying his company, I couldn't help but feel he should be running faster than running with us.  When we crossed back to the mountain side, he and Nathan started pulling ahead.  Good.

The going was actually harder on the mountain side, but we remember to appreciate the beauty of the loop.  I wished I brought my camera to get some shots for the BBU FB page.  Next time.  I don't think either of us even thought of investigating Wickahenge.  That must be a first.  The power lines were almost like winter never happened.

Back at the summit, we were greeted with the sight of the raptor count.  Even though we wanted to crank out our miles, we couldn't help peeking at the tally sheet. 

Heading toward Lunch Break, we met Nathan and Chris coming back.  Mindy asked Nathan if he was done after the BBU or if he was looking for more miles.  I think he was on the fence till he heard we planned to go add our miles by heading backward on the BL at the bottom of Lunch Break.  He envisioned icy slopes.  OK, bye guys.

Lunch Break was a surprise; it was pretty snow/ice free.  It was a pleasure to run down.  Hence, the next portion of the BL was a surprise.  The going was hard and slow.  Hmmm... we still had miles to go.  S&S decided to run the 8ish extra we'd need on the dirt roads before heading back.  When we popped out onto Lawrence, we headed right till we turned onto Leighton.  A nod to the Highland Coos and the neighboring Llamas, but no visiting, we had miles to go.  At the bottom of Leighton, we turned right onto Chadsey Rd.  I forgot it turned to pavement.  Mindy let me have the dirt and ran on the road herself.  I could feel each screw when I was on pavement.  Fortunately, when we crossed Allen, Chadsey was dirt again.  But, man!, the going was hard.  This stretch seemed unending.  As soon as we crossed from Pownal to New Gloucester, the pavement returned.  We passed the entrance to Mt Pisgah.  We'll investigate that trail again soon.

The houses started getting large and expensive looking.  I stopped to empty my shoe and Mindy took the opportunity to stretch.  It always amazes me when little specks of sand seem like big rocks.  We reached the end of Chadsey road, but still needed a few tenths before turning back.  Out onto a bigger road we went.  I correctly guessed it was rte 231.  It felt good to turn around.  As long as our trek out was, we were surprised how quickly the roads back passed.  At the corner of Leighton and Lawrence, I had to empty my shoes again.  I picked a very inviting rock cluster to sit.  There was a stashed Nathan bottle at the base.  Hmmm...did one of the road TMs leave it behind.  I was tempted to pick it up, but what if someone else had left it?  Better just make a note of it.

When we were back on Brad's summit, we rechecked the bird tally.  They'd spotted 3 Bald Eagles while we were running :D  Heading down, our Garmins told us we'd at least have our 25 miles, maybe more.  I'm glad E&Ls didn't take the entire weekend off.  S&S needed rest and refueling.  That was one of the more tiring runs I've done in a long time.

Today, Rick and I headed back to Brad.  Mindy and Nathan were already in the lot.  Rick, just beginning running again, didn't plan on running with us the entire run, but stopped after 4 miles to walk.  We ran a mish mash of trails with a mish mash of conditions.  Between yesterday and today, we totaled 35 miles.  That will do.

Two Weeks

Last week I ran two four milers during the week (oops, started this a week ago...I guess this should start, "Two weeks ago I ran...").  Both were in the fields, solo, apres dark.  I could have used more time running, but there was none to be had.  I think I texted the Squirrel on Thursday asking if it were Saturday yet.  I needed the long run.

Saturday did not disappoint.  In fact, it exceeded expectations.  Mindy and I opted to start early cause 24 miles on the trails can take a long time, plus, the earlier the better chance of OK trail conditions.  We planned on running another Bigger Beautiful Loop and hoped the conditions wouldn't totally suck.  The weather had been quite warm.  However, I harbored some hope because conditions were surprisingly good on my Thurs night run.  Ian also had posted something on FB or maybe TMR about good conditions on a run.

Not only were the conditions good, they might have been the best of the season.  Of course, that pretty much meant they just weren't incredibly difficult.  We talked about all the usual suspects, uh subjects and enjoyed the day, trail, run - the entire experience.

gIANt was starting his 30 mile run a half hour before ours.  He was heading back to the parking lot for 8, then heading out after us.  I wondered how long before he caught us.  I just said to the Squirrel I needed to pull off and I better do it before Ian came along and caught me bare-assed.  Well, I took a step off the trail when Ian and Blaine rounded the bend!  Phew!  Said a quick hi, told them to go on ahead, and finished what I started.  When I rejoined them, Blaine was getting ready to head back.  He wasn't in it for the full loop.

We enjoyed Ian's company for a bit before he continued on at his gIANt pace.  I gave some course instruction and told him we were going to head the other way when we got to the power lines. Running the BBL gets you just under 20; we didn't want to get to the park needing to tack on another 4+ miles so we were going to run the other way on the power lines enough to get the necessary miles.

It was beautiful.  The power lines seemed to go forever.  We'd crest a hill only to see more.  Scout and Squirrel were very, very tempted to just keep running.  We could call someone to get us when we reached 24...Except neither of us had brought our phones and who would we call?  Rick was in NJ.  Pete might have been skiing.  Linda was working....Sigh, we had to turn back.

Not long after we rejoined Ian's foot prints, we found a message.  Love BBL and a funny moose.  Funny how a little message from a gIANt can give you new life :)  It kept us bubbling for a while.  Then came the cows.  Hey, cows!  Hay!  We later learned that there was more snow messages for us at the cows, but the cows buoyed us along.  Back to the regular BL.  Man, we were really sweating.  It was hot.  We weren't dressed for nearly 50.  I realized I needed to start rationing my Nuun.

By the time we got to the Connector portion of the power lines, conditions were deteriorating.  I'm glad we got our extra 4 in early.  More snow messages!!!  Squirrel recognized Unstrung work.  Lunch Break was pretty hard, not quite as bad as last week, though.  It was helpful knowing we'd been done back in the lot.  I'm not sure which one of us wondered if Xar or Ian would be at E&Ls.  Both of us couldn't imagine they'd still be there.  But there were :D  It was such a run!!!  I don't even remember what yummy, comforting food I partook of, but it was just that.  I think more so was having our other TM friends still there to relive, hash out, laugh about, and just bask in a day well spent.  I love running.

Sunday, I had to play plant supervisor 6am to 6pm.  I thought my legs/feet would be much unhappier with steel-toed shoes and concrete floors all day, but they were fine.  Thanks to daylight savings, my after-work run was mostly in the daylight.  I did an uneventful 10k.

The past week was a crazy work one.  I went from the 12 hours on Sunday to 14.5 on Monday, and 13+ on Tues.  Wed and Thur was my normal 10.  Still I made sure I got out twice during the week.  The conditions were quite varied.  My feel were wet, muddy, and cold.  Perfect foil to my hours inside.  Friday, things were under control enough at work to leave an hour early to pick Ryan up from Portland for the weekend.

Saturday, I planned to run with Jedi and Squirrel, but had to go into work first.  I thought I'd still make it to the park on time.  When it became obvious I couldn't be at Brad for 8, I texted the Squirrel suggesting she and the Jedi go ahead on the BBL and I run it backwards when I could get there till I met up with them.  She suggested we just push back our start.  After clearing it with Jedi, we were able to meet for 8:30.  Unstrung was on board, too.  Mindy and Xar ended up having similar time constraints so decided to head out with us, then turn back when they were 1/2 way through their limit.  Jedi George and I were down for the BBL.  Conditions were not great, but the weather was.  We had lots of icy stretches and lots of lumpy, frozen fields that gave way to cold water.  It was great to run with him.  He's our Yoda.  Run the 100, we will.

On the way down Brad, we ran met lots of puppies.  George, I think, enjoyed visiting them as much as I did.  He did say that I really do need a goat.  Yup.

Sunday, I trod on virgin ground, well, for me.  I met up with Xar to run Mt. Pisgah repeats (the N. Monmouth Mt. Pisgah).  The trail had icy stretches, but the snow to the side of the trail was firm and we could bypass the risky spots.  There is a fire tower at the top.  Of course, our hill repeats included a tower summit.  The view was well worth it, even if the Whites were in a bit of a haze.  I approved of most of the graffiti in the tower and all of the seahorses running up the road to the tower.  Good stuff.  We called it quits after two hours.  I will definitely run there again.

The rest of the afternoon I napped on and off.  Yum.

:D :D :D

Yes!  This weekend was the running I love.

Mindy and I didn't know what kind of condition the trails would be in.  The weather had been pretty warm.  We'd had some new snow during the week, but also rain.  The forecast was for rain starting sometime during our run.  OK, we'd bring changes of shoes and socks.  We'd try the trails, but bail for the Animal Loop if they were just too sloppy.

Just the Squirrel and I headed out on the Beautiful Loop; some of the guys were running/snowshoeing/marking the Blizzard course.  The trail was soft, but very runnable.  Good, we'd just keep going till it conditions seemed miserable.  We had lots to talk about; the early miles flew by.  When we popped out onto the power lines, I thought we'd be turning onto the road when we reached rte 9.  There were large stretches of unavoidable deep slush.  At rte 9, we opted to try the next section of trail.  We'd turn back if it was still just slush.  Yay!  Great call; the conditions improved.  There was random post holing and patches of slush, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Before the weather had made us suspicious of the trail, we'd thought about trying to make the BL bigger by taking a trail that splits off just before the big stream crossing.  The snomo sign indicates it heads to Run Around Pond.  We could always out and back on it or pop onto the road to get back to the BL if there was no trail that looped back.

Another good call!  It was fun to be on unfamiliar trail, slightly unsure of where we were heading.  We both thought it was sort of like out Triffittville run, without the bushwacking.  We did have some more slush stretches, a bridge-out-cross-the-pond-if-you-dare crossing, and feet that froze and thawed repeatedly.  Eventually, we came to an intersection of snomo trails.  The signs helped us pick a rte back to the BL.  We reached power lines, I knew they'd get us back to the sub-station.  I just didn't realize how long of a stretch it'd be.

This was our first hill running.  With the softening of the trail and the drifts that were in the fields, the hills were harder than they should have been.  Scout and Squirrel took turns reminding the other how much strength training we were getting in.  We'd laugh when we post-holed (since we avoided injury).  Cresting one of the hills, we finally spotted a tower we knew was near the sub-station.  It was really surprising how many hills we crested before we finally reached the tower.

Our power lines (the ones on the connector) were difficult.  We knew the field when you branch off the power lines would be really rough.  The good part is the most beautiful stretch of the BL follows.  And, of course, we were still telling each other what good training it was.  It took a lot of telling each other how badass we were to endure Lunch Break.  We were very tired and it was untouched.  It was deep and deeply beautiful.  At the summit, phew!  We realized, though, that we'd need to add a little extra to get our 20.

Fortunately on the way down Northern Loop, we ran into a couple with the sweetest golden.  Gracie was almost 10 and had a lovely gray muzzle.  She almost enjoyed me milking her ear as much as Spot dog.  It was just the boost I needed.  Mindy and I ran directly across the road to the Link.  I think at the same time we both realized we'd been on this trail already today.  OMG.  It didn't even seem like the same run.  We only needed another six tenths.  Done.  E&Ls for us.

Today, I needed to get out early to get miles before the Blizzard.  There had been a light snow during the night.  It was quite beautiful.  The conditions were similar to the start of yesterday's run.  The fresh snow let me see all the activity of the nocturnal animals.  Wow!  Critters had been very active, especially the skunks.  I smiled at all the tracks.  Then I saw the most beautiful, unexpected rainbow.  It was a full, wide arc.  I kept expecting it to vanish.  It didn't seem to make sense, but stayed there for at least 25 minutes.  I wondered if anyone else saw.  As if that wasn't enough, the chickadees are singing their springtime song!  I hated to stop.  I could only get in 7 and still make it to the race on time.

I'm Not Listening

OK, I know that the smart runners listen to their bodies.  I find that bodies lie.  Yesterday, I was certain I was done after four laps of the fatass.  Both my body and mind said I was done.  Then Jedi George put his Jedi powers to work and I found myself doing a fifth lap with the Jedi and Unstrung one.  Turned out to be my favorite lap.

This morning, I wanted to do a loop of the fatass.  When I started out, my left knee, all around and under the cap, was sore.  My left butt cheek was really screaming.  If I listened to my body, I would have stopped when the pain seem to intensify around 1 mile.  There was no way I wasn't going to do the lap.  I'm not even sure how far in, but sometime after 3 miles, nothing hurt any more.  The going was still slow (weather conditions), but I felt good.

A Long Post for a Short Run

The GI troubles that I last posted about continued.  By mid-Monday, I was truly miserable at work.  My back started to spasm along with the intestinal spasms.  I toughed out the day.  By night time, I was writhing on the couch between trips to the bathroom.  Tuesday morning Rick asked if I should go to the ER.  I said if I couldn't get into the doctor's office, I'd go.  Fortunately for me, one of the docs in my dr's office had a cancellation for 9:20 am.  I called next door to see if Bethany or Linda could drive me.  I would have been able to if I knew I would have a spasm on the way.  When Beth picked me up she said she didn't think she'd ever seen me look so bad except maybe after Pineland 50.  I said at least then I was happy.  I like to earn my pain.

The doctor was first of all more concern with my back spasms.  They were an obvious problem.  I tried to bring the focus back to my GI issues.  By the time he'd made his diagnosis, I was skeptical, but anxious to get out of there and back to my couch and Bradley Bear (thank you, thank you, Dora.  That thera-bear has brought me sooooo much comfort).  I had Beth stop by Rite-Aid so I could pick up the Imodium.  Rick would picks up the prescriptions after work since we get them at a pharmacy on the way home for him.  One was a muscle relaxer and one was metronidazol, an antibiotic that works on protozoa. Protozoa?!  I don't drink from mountain streams.  I also don't "run in a handwoven pine bough skirt and occasionally gnaw on tree bark when hungry?" (thanks, unstrung :))  When I reported back to Squirrel and the Unstrung One, Squirrel consulted a higher authority, while the other made me laugh with images of  me running through the woods quaffing copious quantities of wood water in various ways.  When Squirrel's sources concurred with my doc, I began to believe.

The amazing thing, the Imodium worked less on my GI than my back.  My spasms decreased maybe 80%!  I could at least drift in and out of sleep.  When Rick brought my prescriptions, he handed them to me as I immediately googled them.  He said when the pharmacy asked if there were any questions regarding the meds, he replied that he was bringing them to his wife who would read all the info and then not take them.  That is my m.o.  I don't take Tylenol, Ibuprofen, vitamins, or anything.  Several times I was given prescriptions for things and just put them in the cupboard.  Knowing I could take them if I wanted was often all I needed. I decided I would take one of the muscle relaxers, mostly to guarantee sleep.  I would give my body one more day to tackle the GI thing on its own.

Wednesday morning, I realized I needed to take the antibiotic.  Another day home from work.  Again, I mostly drifted in and out of sleep.  I was disappointed to still have the same GI stuff going on Thursday.  Squirrel's source did say a couple of days for the meds to work.  I went in to work for 5+ hours.  There were problems in my area.  Friday.  No change.  A full day of work.  Oh, and I hadn't eaten really since last Thursday.  Saltines, bananas, applesauce, white rice, some plain chicken breast, yogurt, but not much of any of it.  Ugh.

Saturday, signs of improvement!!!  I did have to work all day, otherwise I might have, unwisely, tried to run at Brad.  I think I was pretty much over with the illness by the end of the day, but my stomach isn't happy now; I think from the antibiotic.  Knowing that I had to be into work Sunday by 10, I decided to run before around home.

Spot had me up before I needed to be up.  I took her out for her walk and noticed that Linda's lights were on.  Since I went back to work, I miss seeing Linda and Jerry.  I think I wandered over there 3 or 4 times a day before: to chat, to borrow something, or for no reason.  I've started a little ritual of having coffee with Linda on the weekends.  We catch up on our weeks before the men-folk wake and before we go our separate ways.  This morning was going to be more special than usual; I hadn't had coffee in over a week!!!  Oh!  Almost 7am.  Gotta run, Linda.  YES.  I. have. to. run.  gotta.

I was able to get out by 7:30.  It was just 5 degrees and there was a decent northerly wind.  I was dressed well though.  I ran down the drive then turned off heading towards the back fields.  My face immediately started complaining that it was cold.  Shut up.  It's beautiful and the traction is good, very good.  I am moving and I am happy.  The face keeps up its little whiny dialog.  A mile in, the rest of my parts is telling my face to shut up; they are hot.  I take my mittens off 2 miles in.

Oh!  Please, please weather, please give us these conditions for the Fatass.  I didn't even notice that my face had shut up some where along the way.  All of me was enjoying itself now.  I don't think I've ever appreciated the fields as much as today.  I had plenty of creature tracks to wonder about, but mostly I just enjoyed the movement.  It was good that I had to get to work; I think the 6.1 miles was about what my calorie-deficient body had in it, but I just wanted to keep running.

For supper, I almost ate normally.  I made a lightly seasoned chicken fajita/taco thing.  Flavor.  Ahhh.
Coffee was not the only drink I haven't had in over a week.  I had no desire for beer.  Then, the metronidazol can't be mixed with alcohol.  In fact, you have to wait at least a day the last dose to have any.  But I can run.