21 the Hard Way, Twice (make a sound like the needle going across a record. jump to the end of April)

Team Scout and Squirrel are ramping up the mileage on the way to Laurel Highlands.  We had 21 miles on the schedule for Saturday.  There was a decent turnout at Brad, but nothing like the week before.  S and S got in just short of 20 miles that day doing the BBL.  We figured we'd do the same loop but add on a little at the far power lines.  When I realized that Piper was going to be a pain in the ass trying to get me to keep up with Kip and Jet, I suggested to Mindy that we do the extra miles on the mountain to start.  It'd be better than adding them on when we were tired anyway.

 The mountain side was very runnable.  I was surprised, expecting more ice and bare-ground post-holing.  It was good not to concentrate too hard on terrain since we had things to talk over.  When we crossed over to the East Side, we had slightly more miles than we'd need to get the BBL to 21 miles.

Not too far from the end of the park, I had to pee.  Mindy held Piper's leash while I visited the woods.  I was gone just a few secs.  Upon my return, the silcon chip inside her head got switched to overload.  No, really.  We don't call her Random Collection of Neurons for nothing.  They were all firing.  I thought we were going to be tired up and dragged.  I decided it'd probably be safer to let her off leash to blow off some steam.  We laughed as she flew back and forth.  We laughed till I was body-slammed from behind by Piper running full bore and hurling her sideways body into my back.  Oooomph!...I went down as hard or harder than I was hit from behind. I took a few seconds to get up.  Mindy suggested walking for a bit, but I thought running would help me more than not.

I was pretty hurting, but it felt better as we went along.  Till we gone about 15 or 16 miles.  Then each step jarred my tail bone sending a wave of pain up my spine.  I actually took my fist ibuprofen in over 20 years.  My stomach didn't rebel and it actually took the edge off enough.

I was impressed with Piper's stamina.  At the end of the run, you'd never know that she'd just run 21 miles.  It wasn't till we got back home to the recliner that I knew she was actually tired.

My runs during week were uncomfortable.  The footing was uneven.  My back felt every little wobble or misjudging of the ground.  Every time Piper pulled on the leash I felt it even more.  Piper.

So, I started this blog during the week after the 21.  I'm pretty sure that was way over a month ago.  The very next weekend, Scout and Squirrel, yes, and Piper, too, started out on the same 21 mile route.  My back was beginning to feel better except for big drops or when snowmobiles went by and I had to hold back on the leash with most of my might (Pipes really hates those sleds).

The day was warm and sunny.  More snowmobiles were out than usual....

April 30

OK. So I don't even really remember that run all that much now.  I know that an overly energetic Border Collie seemed to come out of nowhere when we were 15 or so miles into the run, on the power lines somewhere.  Controlling Piper took a toll on my back.  It was an ordeal trying to find the dogs owner.  I'm not even going into that.  It was the last of our true long runs that Piper came along.  Piper had no problem handling it, but she was too much for S&S to deal with along with the run itself.  Pipes gets to join on our following semi-long run.

A couple weeks back, I had Good Friday off from work (good old French-Canadian Catholic Lewiston).  Jedi was available for a long run, Squirrel for a semi-long run (she was saving herself for running long with Tim the next day).  We decided to do the UXBA, the earliest it's been done, we think.  Squirrel reluctantly peeled off about 3/4 of the way through the Breaker.  George and I were running well.  We headed across for the Bruiser going strong.  I'd asked him if he wanted to go to Sea Dogs with Rick and I after; I knew that Ann was in MA.  Nah, he had to go to work.  I couldn't even think about working after the UXBA.  He is the Jedi.  We made it to the O with the usual comments about the trail.  Holy, holy shit.  I forgot that the leaves were down still.  It was nearly impossible to tell trail from the rest of the forest floor.  Thank goodness the park mark one direction with nailed on green rectangle and the other with painted on green rectangles.  As it was, we had to stop for long stretches to figure out how to go.  It was a good thing there were some faint orange arrows to help us in some of the really tough places.  The temperature had dropped; it wasn't all that warm of a day to start.  The wind had picked up a bit.  The standing around was taking it's toll; we were getting colder and colder.  There was nothing for it; we plugged on.  My phone rang.  Rick was worried.  I asked what time it was.  Really?!  I'm pretty sure we set a record for the longest time on the O.  When I told the Jedi what time it was, he guessed he wasn't going to work after all.  I told Rick I was sure we were over 1/2 out of the crazy vowel, but I wasn't guessing a time.  Turns out we were more like 3/4 of the way done.  By the time we got back to the parking lot, it was almost 6pm.  Yikes!

The next weekend was a back down week.  Good thing; Squirrel had a training thing for work and Saturday was the running shower for Ian and Emma. 

This past weekend was the first of our three build weeks.  Since we had 28 on the schedule and TARC had a 50k available, we went for it.  The course is a pretty easy one; after Pineland, it is probably the least technical ultra I have ever done.  It is certainly the flattest.  S&S had to keep a hold of the reins a bit not to run too fast.  It was meant to be a training run.  We had 12 the next day.  We'd have another total 42 for the next weekend.  There were a lot of bodies on the short 10k loop.  It made the puddles get larger by the last 2 laps.  Squirrel quipped that they were amateur puddles just cause of the gigantic, crazy deep mud and water from the summer, night-time 50 miles we'd done there last year.  We had some little distractions, like English Springer puppy, Scout.  Yup!  We met an adorable puppy and we shared a name.  I felt pretty sure it was a good sign.  When we ran into Princess Ann at the same spot on the next lap, I was sure it was a scared spot. 

My Rick had driven us down cause he didn't want tire runners having to drive all the way back.  Fortunately there were other TM volunteers to keep him company and a TM tent to keep him dry.  I understand Jamie had a stove and made yummy grilled sausages. 

The next day, I ran Brad with Piper.  Between her stops and mine, our 12 miles took a long time, but not because of any soreness.  S&S were both in great running for the next day.