Camera in transit

UPS has moved my camera from Wisconsin to Illinois to Indiana in the last 24 hours...it was in Hodgkins, IN at 2:17 am this morning. Could it arrive on Thanksgiving? I don't dare to hope so; it will most likely arrive tomorrow.

On another note, I need to get off my ass an run. I have the princesses for Thanksgiving and we slept in today. Also, since basketball Tuesday the upper middle of my back has been hurting me. Who knows? I don't think I did it at basketball, it was already started when I got there.

I am thankful for so much today. My daughters being so wonderful and healthy. The memories of my Mother and Brother. All my Dad has taught me. This nice and warm weather late into the fall. Friends. Dreams. My own health. You.

Camera

I ordered a Canon Powershot SD780 using hotel reward points and should have it within a week. Looks like a pretty good choice for me as it is very small and has a good range of options.

The camera comes in four colors - black, silver, red, and gold. I asked the person I ordered it with to pick one and not to tell me. I literally do not care one ounce what color the camera is, as long as it works. Plus that will make it a little more fun when I open the package to see what it is. I will have to avoid reading any order confirmation emails so I don't see what color is specified.

Slim Pickin's Pictures (scavenged from others)

Wilma, Me, Dan K, and Mike Dobies (Brian Musick photo) mile 28

Dan Kuzma, Kimba the Trail Goddess, Me

Dan Kuzma, Wilma D. (first ultra), and Me

I "borrowed" these pictures from Kimba. I might add one more later on if I get the picture Wilma took. I can't wait to get my new camera...gonna order it tomorrow. These pictures were taken at 20 miles into our run, Kimba started earlier and met us going back the other way.

For once on a trail run, I actually gave Kimba something (a sandwich) instead of leeching off of her like I always do. :)

Because the terrain was so tricky yesterday and we didn't run a very hard pace, my legs aren't even sore today...a good thing. I still took today to rest and have slept ALOT. I will get a run in tomorrow.

Slim Pickins Laurel Highlands 50k

Up at around 3 am to quickly dress and head out the door for Pennsylvania this morning, I went to run the NEO Trail club run, Slim Pickins. The "official" distance is 100k, but it is a FA type event and everyone was encouraged to do what worked for them. So Dan Bellinger, Dan Kuzma, Wilma Depiore, and I all met at the 31 mile mark on the trail at 7 am (or maybe a few minutes late) and started out on our ultra journey. Dan K, Wilma and I stayed together the entire 31 miles, and Dan B disappeared into the distance ahead of us. We just couldn't keep him running slow today.

This would be Wilma's first ultra distance event of any kind and she nailed it, finishing strong with Dan Kuzma and I in 9:05 which is a long time representing two factors:

1. The trail is hard as HELL! Steep hills, very technical rocky footing, etc.
2. We weren't pushing it. We took our time at the aid drops, and talking to other club members we saw.

The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail is 70 miles long, but we only ran the last 31 miles of it. My first impression is that this trail is the best marked trail I have ever been on. I had no issue at any time finding the next trail blaze from wherever I was standing. No runner or hiker with any portion of the brain still functioning should ever manage to get lost out here if there goal is to stay on the LHHT.

With very moderate weather, I ran in shorts, a long sleeved undershirt, a tech shirt on top of that, and my Columbus marathon hat and light gloves. The hat and gloves came off around mile 20 when it started warming up just a little, and I was never uncomfortable temperature wise. I WAS uncomfortable slope wise climbing up all those damn hills. Today reinforced a lesson to me about ultra running. NEVER assess how you are feeling, or your motivation to continue while climbing a hill. It saps your emotions and as soon as you take a few steps over the apex and start downhill or even level, life is good again and the finish seems very doable. DURING the climb, there are doubts, curses, low points, and mumblings that would tend to make you quit your day...that is just how people feel!

Immediately after the run I got two chocolate milks and some food to eat while Dan K drove us all back to our cars at the 31 mile trail head so we could all scatter like autumn leaves to our appropriate domiciles. I am home now, and not even feeling very bad due to the slower pace we took today. Contemplating a couple of very tempting running options for tomorrow morning. A few pictures were taken today, but not by me, so when people put them up, I will grab them and share on here in a separate post.

This marks my 6th state in the quest to run a marathon or longer in every state. Woo hoo! 44 to go!

Liberty State Park

There is a state park right near that Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and since I was in the area tonight, I went out to the park and ran six miles along the waterfront between the park and the Statue and downtown NYC. It was a beautiful scenic run. Ran easy and built up to a moderate pace towards the end.

After finishing the six miles I did 50 pushups on a dock along the water, and then 100 yards each of butt kicks and high knees plyometrics. Very rewarding workout!!! I may just rest tomorrow leading up to the early morning 50k Saturday morning...

Deca?

I have just discovered (for me) that they do a deca-ironman competition...If I am reading this right, they do 10 ironmans, 10 days in a row. This is REALLY tugging at my brain as something that would be very cool to train for AND complete.

Anyone up for a swim?

BBall

Basketball league tonight. 2 hours straight through.

Bad Ass Collage

All the pictures I gathered from other peoples Facebook pages.

Recovery

I went to the park to run my recovery run tonight. I started nice and easy but after two miles I was feeling really good, so I kind of hammered the last 2.5 miles back to the car. 4.5 total and feeling good.

I'm a BadAss

I ran the Bill's BadAss FatAss 50k this morning in 8:04. Not a great time, but ok considering I wasn't really feeling all that well most of the race. I think if I was feeling better, I would have surely run this course about an hour faster. The course consisted of six 5 mile loops on the Perkins Trail (hard as hell) and one single mile segment up the Oak Hill Trail meant to bust our butts one last time before the finish. The loops were supposed to all be run clockwise...supposed to be.


I started early with Brett about just after 530 am and we ran a easy loop to get us warmed up in the dark. I wore a jacket, hat, and gloves the first two loops until it warmed up. As is the norm, I used the bathroom (woods) four times on the first loop until I was down to fighting weight I guess. We ran the first loop and then met Brian Musick at the Covered Bridge at 630 before stopping by the cars to start loop #2. Brian and Brett left without me, as I had to move my car over to the approved parking lot at the church. I came back and started out alone.

Lap 2 was uneventful and only barely faster than lap 1, and then at the start of lap 3 I met up with Tanya Cady and Kevin Martin. They were a good influence as I ran that loop much faster, AND we did it in the opposite direction which allowed me to see EVERYONE running the race. That was a good bonus. When everyone made remarks about us running the wrong way, we just told them that badasses don't follow the rules. When Brian Musick saw me coming down the trail wrong way, he saw fit to give me a NFL style shoulder block on the trail, which I would repay two loops later on the covered bridge.

I ran maybe the first half of loop 4 (correct direction) with Tanya and Kevin before they just had too much pep for me, and I watched them fade into the distance. The day was getting REALLY gorgeous and comfortable out, so I didn't mind that I kind of crashed the rest of that lap and was walking a lot. It was a great day for that and I really didn't care what my finishing time was. I ended up running loop 4 still faster than 1 and 2 though. I had a resurgence on loop 5 and ran pretty well. Brian Musick was leaving the aid station as I started loop 6 and we just ran it all together as well as almost all of the last 1 mile segment up to the top of the hill and back.

Me coming in towards the finish of loop 5. Picture thanks to Ladd Clifford!

Chef Bill Bailey and Wild Bill Wagner did an awesome job putting together a free 50k for all of us to run and I really appreciate all the hard work they put in. It really goes to show how much they care about our local running communities and the runners themselves. I thanked them both personally but also want to leave it on here for all who read this. They really put together one Bad Ass 50k!