Wow! What a fabulous day! It was sunny and in the 60's... very windy, but I can deal with that when it's this nice out. Did an 18 mile group run today at Clinton Lake Park, ran part of the course for the Free State Marathon, which is my next race. Getting up at 5 am to drive an hour to Lawrence pretty much sucked, but the run was so worth it. The trails are beautiful, and well marked with coloured blazes on the trees to indicate what trail you're on. It was muddy (gosh I'm sure getting tired of typing that phrase), but not as bad as Wyco park. This is a very runnable course, a bit technical but nothing bad, a bunch of little water crossings, and just some minor hills. It's a fast course! There was 4 of us today, Gary, Bad Ben, Sophia & I, there was 2 other Trail Nerds already out running, but they were doing 40 miles today and had gotten an earlier start. For the most part I was able to hang, just a few times I had to drop back and catch a breath. Sophia is a trail newbie, but a fast road marathoner, and super nice. I'm meeting her out later tonight to see a friends band play at the Brick. At one point we were running along the lake and it looked nothing like Kansas... cliffy and gorgeous, the wind was whipping along and pushing the ice floes against the shore causing a huge crashing sound and the sun was making the ice look like diamonds.... AMAZING! I MUST get a small lightweight camera to carry with me on runs. Just a great, enjoyable run, with tons of great stories... Sophia talks nonstop and has seen/done a ton of stuff so between her & Ben it was all entertainment. Between the company and the views, the miles just sped along. My Garmin only recorded 15.5 miles but Ben swears that the loop we did wheel measures at 18.
Yesterday was a fun run also, I conned a friend into hitting Landahl Park with me for an easy 3 miles. Becky is getting married in May and she's been trying to get in shape for that.. lots of running on a treadmill so I made her get her sneakers muddy yesterday. I think she was kinda pissed at first 'cause (suprise suprise) it was muddy! I ran real slow with her and we had a good time enjoying the sun and the trees, and by the end of the run she said she wanted to do it again! We spent part of the afternoon going over wedding details (I am the matron of honour) and then I went home showered up and met DH at an auction. There was nothing good, so we bugged out before it even started and took Otis to the dog park and let him have a good romp.
Thursday night DH & I watched "Running on the Sun" and it reinforced his idea that it was totally stupid to do that race, but he thought running on trails for stupid distances would be a bit better. Which is kinda what I was hoping for... show him the worst and then other races seem more "normal". I have no intention of ever doing Badwater... the thought of running that far on pavement in that kind of heat.. no thanks! He was telling a friend about the movie on Friday and our friend said (referring to me) "yeah I can see her doing ultras, she has it in her" which is about the best compliment I have ever gotten (even though I wasn't even around to get it!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Found you on the Complete Running Network. You'll find others stopping by soon.
Mud has become one of my favorite things. Every Friday, I work out with a group on a torn up football field on what used to be the town dump. Before being the dump, it was marsh. On a good day, it's moist. Add in some winter rain and it's soup. And out trainers are Marines - mud is in their DNA.
Sounds like you've had some great runs lately. I especially like the fact that you took your bride-to-be friend out to muddy up her shoes.
Post a Comment