Ever have a day when you've recieved so much bad news that you can feel it physically? Today was one of those days, I feel like someone was pounding on me with big sticks.
One of my dearest and oldest friends, Christina, gave me the wretched news today that her father has cancer and only has days to live. Her dad is one of the good guys. I don't know how many times I asked to be adopted into their family, because they are the textbook perfect family. The 4 of them (Christina, her sister, mom & dad) are ridicously close, ridicously beautiful people, and hands down the most loving, caring, sweet, wonderful people you will ever meet. This family does not know the meaning of the word "stranger" within moments of meeting them, you are a friend. My heart is breaking for them. This world will be a much poorer place when Gil is gone. But leave it to them to manage to be uplifting in the time of darkest sorrow... he said that he had no regrets. I can only hope that on my death bed I can look back and say "no regrets".
That was punch number 1

Punch number 2 took place this evening when we got a phone call from yet another friend informing us that his wife has breast cancer. She knew something was wrong for awhile but didn't have health insurance so she had to wait to go to the Dr, until she could get insurance and it kicked in. Sure enough, a very aggressive form of B.C. , she's starting treatment right away. I would give anything for a magic wand right now to make everything better. There's nothing I can do but pray, pray, pray and send all my healing, strong energies to her.

Spiders, Snakes & Skunks Oh My!

The alarm went off at an ungodly hour of 6:30... usually that isn't ungodly for me, but after being up until 3 am on Saturday morning due to the Lunar Trek Race, grabbing about 5 hours of sleep, working Saturday night and then going to a bar to see my husbands band play, I was pretty whupped. I had made a promise to be out at Clinton Lake by 8, so I got up, got dressed, and got out of the house pretty quick before I crawled back in bed. On the drive to Lawrence I was feeling pretty good, and then the phone calls and text messages started... "umm, I'm not going to make it today" says everyone... by then I was already 1/2 an hour into my drive so it looked like I would run 10 miles by myself. Christy called and said she was just running late and would catch up with me at some point. We decided to do the white trail and she would meet up with me somewhere after the 5 mile turnaround.
When I got the trailhead, the parking lot was almost empty except for 2 mountain bikers getting ready to go... I procrastinated hoping that they would start before me and knock down all the spiderwebs.... just my luck they took the blue trail... Damn! I got through the first mile with only a minimum of screeching, but at mile 2 things got ugly. The webs were thick and the spiders were hanging out in the middle of most of them. Have I mentioned that I hate spiders? I spent a good chunk of my morning screaming like a little girl, dancing around and throwing my hat on the ground, I'm sure I looked like an idiot! One of the lessons that I learned in kindergarten was never to run with sharp objects.... well, I apologize to Mrs. Gedwellis for totally ignoring her rules.... I ran with a long pointy stick today and it was good. I continued the "looking like an idiot" trend as I ran along waving a long pointy stick in front of me. This worked quite well and I became quite fond of my friend the spider moving stick when I rounded a corner to find a momma skunk and her cute little baby waddling down the trail towards me.... I dropped my stick with a shriek and retreated quickly. She kept coming at me so I moved further away and hissed at her hoping she would move off... she turned around and raised her tail at me so I decided it was time to do a sprint interval. She held off squrting, decided the trail wasn't a nice place to be today and she and the baby headed off into the trees. Phew! I got lucky!
I couldn't find my stick again, so I picked out a new best friend and got to the 5 mile marker with a minimum of webbage. I turned around and left my stick behind, hoping that the spiders didn't have time to rebuild all that I had knocked down. I picked up some speed since I didn't have to worry about poking an eye out anymore. About a mile and 1/2 down the trail, I came upon Christy, and whatever webs I had missed, she took care of. She had also seen a copperhead slithering off into the bushes so we kept a weather eye out for him. We gossiped and rehashed last nights race for a few miles until I came to a screeching halt. A huge black snake was crossing the trail... this guy was as big around as my arm and was long enough that we both stood in the middle of the trail and squealed for what seemed like minutes. Yikes! We picked up the pace and made it back to the cars with no further wildlife encounters. Today I decided that I prefer to run with the Trail Nerds at Clinton, most notably the tall, fast Nerds who break webs and scare away all the other wildlife before I get there.

Howling at the Moon at the Lunar Trek Run

Late Friday afternoon, Christy "Mountain" Mud Babe and I left Lawrence for the bustling metropolis of Scandia, KS. Located somewhere way too close to the Nebraska border, it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Lawrence. The forecast called for overcast skies and heavy rain and since we were heading to do a night race called the Lunar Trek, it was a bit disheartening to think we were not going to be able to howl at the full moon. Luckily about an hour east of Lawrence, the clouds parted to reveal and gorgeous blue sky...we crossed our fingers and hoped it would stay like that. We rolled into town early enough to get a hotel room and try and get a 1/2 hour nap in, the nap didn't work so well and neither did the eating plan. Since the race started at 11 pm, we were totally thrown off and not sure what to eat or when so we ended up nibbling on some strawberries, cherries and bananas.
It was about 8 miles from the hotel to the race start and unfortunately in our haste to get there a cute little raccoon ran right under our wheels. Poor little guy, Christy and I both screamed in unison and then freaked out. Christy asked if we should go back but I figured at the best of times 'coons are cantankerous little creatures and if he was still alive, it would not be the best of times. So we kept going but it put a small damper on the evening.

After making a few loops of the town (don't sneeze) we finally found the high school and parked next to a contingent of Trail Nerds. We checked in, got our numbers and also got a 20 spiel, the race was a fundraiser for the school's cross country team and it was obvious the guy checking us in was used to lecturing high school kids. There was a billion different options you could run: 10K, 10M, 20M, 30M & 40M. I did the 20M and the rest of the Nerd gaggle was spread out from the 20m to 40M. There was a ton of Trail Nerds that came out from KC & beyond, it was a lot of fun to have so many familiar faces in one place. Gary gave us a fabulous rendition of a poem about the moon that he had written... combined with his theatrical telling of it & the setting it made for the perfect start to the race.

At close to 11, we received some last minute directions but I was too busy dicking around, harassing people, and adjusting my headlamp to listen... one of these days my propensity for not listening is going to bite me in the ass. With a Runners ready... GO, we were off, and the Mud Babes howled at the moon as we started moving. The course was all on back dirt farm roads, very wide open and we were able to see for quite a ways. Everyone was assigned a small blinking red light that we had to wear and most of us attached them to the back of our hats or packs so all we could see in front of us was a long line of flashing red lights. There was some hazy clouds in the sky but the full moon was bright enough to come shining through. My headlamp immediately was driving me crazy so I took it off and carried it... I only turned it on maybe a grand total of 10 minutes the whole race anyway. Since the roads were so wide open, the pack got strung out really quickly and we settled into a nice easy pace. For the first couple of miles it was me, Debbie, Gary, Laurie, Nick & Christy running together and then we lost Nick and Christy. Christy is nursing a bad knee and seeing a P.T a couple times a week, trying to avoid having her knee scoped so she really has to watch herself so she dropped back and Nick was doing the 30M and had a very strict timetable in mind, so he also dropped back a bit.

So Debbie, Gary, Laurie and I trotted along together, telling silly stories, singing silly songs and at one point us girls mooned the moon. Then we went through a period of singing Wizard of Oz songs and since there was 4 of us we argued over who was going to be who, I had ponytails so by default I ended up Dorothy. Gary kept running up ahead taking pictures, so I imagine we'll see lots of them on his website along with a fabulous race report. The moon was bright and beautiful and the fireflies were out in force... it was so magical running along a dark road lined with tall trees, and twinkling fireflies darting in and out.
The aid stations were great, everyone put a ton of time into them... the first one we came to had a generator running and we were greeted by a large tent all lit up, a fake lit up palm tree and portable water fountain.. it was amazing! They had the usual assortment of ultra foods and very friendly staffers. The second aid station had a camper set up and red rope lights over a tent with a big campfire and they lined the approach with candles, we were told this was the first time these people had done aid stations and they all did a bang up job. Friendly, helpful and had a good assortment of foods. My only complaint was there was no watermelon..... hello? Had they not heard how much the Mud Babes like watermelon??? We were warned about some mud on the course and we poo-pooed the warning... after all we're mud babes! Well let me say that they have some super tacky mud in Scandia, it was a whole different texture and caused much walking. The mighty Mud Babes were laid low!
When we got to the 10 mile turnaround for us 20 milers, we lost Gary, he was continuing on to 40 miles. Debbie, Laurie and I decided to stick together, and by some miracle we were the first women. Caleb, Shane, Greg & James had already blown past us, running hell bent for leather, so it looked like the Nerds were going to handily tie up the first spots in the 20m. As we were heading back out, we ran into Christy who was renaming herself the Nancy Kerrigan Mud Babe for the evening and thinking of dropping out at the 10 mile point due to extreme knee pain. The second half of the race went by with not as much talking, but still a lot of enjoyment of the surroundings, and still a lot of howling. The darkness totally threw my depth perception off and I swore we went uphill the whole 10 miles out and so we should be going downhill for the last 10 miles.... nope in fact it seemed we had more uphills. Ah well. The 3 of us decided we were going to stick together for the rest of the race, so we walked when someone needed to walk and ran and talked the rest of the time. I started to get pretty tired... 'cuz well, my bedtime is 11:00 usually so about 2 am my body was freaking out.. combined with eating very little the whole day, I was kinda hurting. All 3 of us were having some stomach problems, and some of mine cleared up when I took an S-Cap. DUH! It was a hot evening and I had forgotten that even though the sun wasn't beating down, I was still sweating like a pig. The last couple of miles all I wanted to do was lay down, my eyes were starting to have some troubles focusing too, but thankfully Debbie & Laurie kept me going. As we came around the corner of the school for the finish we linked arms, howled up a storm and crossed together. Whoo-Hoo! We were cheered on by Caleb & Shane & Christy. Christy had made it to mile 15 before pulling the plug, and was cheering everyone on with a big ol' icebag on her knee. I think I heard the guy say 3:45.. but I'll update once the results are posted.
We hung out in the parking lot for awhile, re-hashing the race, decompressing and enjoying a post race bevvie before heading back to the hotel to get some sleep. In all my wisdom I scheduled myself to work at 4 pm on Saturday, so we had to get sleep so we could head back fairly early. It was such a fun time and the Trail Nerds make everything a party... I can't wait to do this race again next year!

Photos shamelessly stolen from Gary Henry & Andy Woolard

YAY!!

Happy Dance!! I got into the Heartland 50 miler before it filled up! Whoo-Hoo!! Now I got lots and lots of training to do! (big huge gulp)

Last night was a fun and easy 5 and change out at Clinton lake again. It was a beautiful evening, and we had snacks while we were running... the bugs were out in full force and there was no way to avoid eating the odd one. I even at one point sucked one up my nose... they may be raw, but they certainly aren't vegan. Debbie brought her husband with for the first time, it's always nice to have confirmation that your running partners aren't lying about having husbands and wives. He did great and seemed to have a good time, we had to initiate him with mud of course. We gave him a mud tattoo and took turns slapping it in real good so now we are all mud brothers and sisters which is much safer than blood brothers and sisters. The last mile turned into a fast game of tag and then Debbie & I hid in the bushes and jumped out and chased everyone while roaring like bears. Everyone seemed to be full of pent up 5th grade type energy. Earlier in the run there had been lots of 5th grade humour and even a couple of "mommmmm, he's touching me!" & "I'm telling" type yells. Sometimes it just feels great to let your inner child out to run as fast and as far as it wants.
Afterwards we fed our adult selves with some margaritas and mexican food at a cute little place somewhere in Lawrence.. it has a great patio so we could continue to be loud and semi-obnoxious and not disturb a whole restaraunt. Trains were rumbling by on a regular basis so the conversation was punctuated with a lot of "WHAT DID YOU SAY???" It was a fabulous way to spend a warm Wednesday evening.

We're all off to Scandia KS tomorow for the Lunar Trek Race.... it starts at 11 pm, so cross your fingers we have a clear night so the full moon is nice and bright!

As usual, I had a super fun running weekend... have I mentioned how much I love the people I run with? There is a pretty solid core group and a bunch of different people that rotate in and out depending on schedules and mileage, and they are all great. Seriously I have not yet met a single person that I don't like and wouldn't give my left kidney to. (Well, maybe not my kidney, but I'd sure give them some blood or bone marrow!)

Saturday's run was at Clinton Lake as usual and this week the ladies outnumbered the guys big time! We had 7 girls and 3 guys... lucky guys! It started out as a beautiful sunny morning, and we had brought plenty of food and drinks to party in the park after the run. We took it easy and stayed together as a group, chatting, telling stories, and trading comments on last weeks race. When we got to mile 5, 3 of the girls turned around to head back to the cars, they said they'd go get coffee and would be back for the after run party. The rest of us continued on and at about mile 8 the skies opened up on us, we were under some pretty heavy canopy so it sounded awesome and we remained fairly dry for awhile. At mile 10, 5 us headed back on the blue trail which heads back to the cars but in a more direct route, so we'd do a total of 16 miles. Sophia & Jeremy wanted a full 20 so they headed back on the white trail. By this point it was raining really steadily but it felt great, nice and cool, and I found myself drinking very little and I only took 1 S-cap the whole day... it was great!
I was running in a new pair of shoes that I picked up on clearance at Gary Gribbles last Friday. It was a huge mistake to help out at packet pickup for Psycho Psummer, I couldn't hang out in a running store for 5 hours and not end up wandering over to the shoes at some point! So I picked up a pair of La Sportiva Fireblades, they didn't have any size 6's but the guy working said they ran pretty small, so I tried a 6.5, and they fit pretty good. I got them good and muddy on Wednesday night out at Wyco Park and liked them enough to take 'em on a 15 mile trot. They were pretty good until the rocks got really wet and slickery, I slid around a bit more than I liked but it was darn wet and I'm not sure any of my shoes would have kept me from sliding. I like how lightweight they are and I had no shin problems, so I'll put them in rotation and hope they end up being a favorite.
When we got back to the cars it was still pouring rain so we set up the food and drinks under one of the picnic shelters. As soon as we stopped running everyone started freezing so we wrapped up in towels, sweatshirts, blankets, whatever we could find in the trunks. It was really crazy to be freezing our butts off in July in Kansas City... it's supposed to be in the 90's!! With blue lips and chattering teeth we sipped our "pineapple panty rippers" thoughtfully concocted by Gary and ate the vast amounts of food provided by everyone. Debbie had even made a spiked watermelon! After a few drinks, Debbie and Julie admitted that after they turned around at mile 5 they got a wild hair and took off all their clothes and ran about a mile of the trail naked in the rain!! I think their new mud babe names are the Nekkid Mud Babes!

On Sunday I ran at Wyco Park with a considerably smaller group, 3 guys and 2 of us girls. The guys were feeling their oats and started out really fast. Jonette and I stuck together... well kinda. Jonette won the women's 50K race last weekend and is much, much faster than me, so I just kinda hung on for dear life. My legs were super tired and I just never felt warmed up until the last 2.5 miles which is my favorite part of the course... the muddy part of course! I had never run with Jonette before so it was nice to find out a bit about her (the times when I was close enough to hear her talk!) We got in 13 miles, and I was shot for the restof the day. Husband & I took a trip to Home Depot to get more stuff for "my" room which is still not done 'cuz when you have a 100 year old house nothing is easy. Then I napped for a good 2 hours in the afternoon and went to bed early. It was kinda nice to be really lazy and not do anything. Friday night is the Lunar Trek and I'm really excited to run in the dark, I hope the skies are clear so the moon is super bright!

Unclear on the concept

This morning on my 5 mile trot through Strawberry Hill, I cut through an alleyway and sitting, crumpled up, on top of a garbage can was one of the ubiquitous re-use able green bags that EVERYONE should be using by now instead of plastic bags (if you are not using these, I am giving you the hairy eyeball right now!). Someone at this household was not very clear on the concept of "re-use able bags", it means you are not supposed to throw them away people!! This is not rocket science! So lucky me, I snagged it and added it to my collection of 20 billion. I use them for everything... groceries, carrying my lunch, carrying my running crap, carrying my muddy shoes.. about the only thing they can't be used for is picking up dog shit. In all seriousness if you aren't using these yet, please, please pick a few up, throw them in your car and use them. If you throw 2 in the backseat and leave them alone for awhile they will get all sorts of cuddly and the next thing you know, you'll have your own herd of 'em. This has been your friendly save the earth message for today. Enjoy today because tomorrow I will be not so friendly and will be discussing runners that throw their GU wrappers on the trails.