The Lawrence Trail Hawks rule!! On Saturday they spent hours cleaning up the trails at Clinton Lake so they looked pretty for the Freestate race this weekend. I am ashamed to admit that I was supposed to be there but had to work instead. My heart was with them even though my body was elsewhere. They cleaned up 16 full 30 gallon bags (and 4 bags full of recyclables) but we still have a lot to do... luckily one of the aims of the Lawrence Trail Hawks is some serious trail love. So it may have been our first trail clean up but it certainly won't be our last!

I'm in taper mode for Freestate 100k on Saturday and I'm frankly freaking out. I'm not feeling like I have the mileage in for this race, which is probably just a figment of my taper crazed brain. I've been spending my non running time doing things like: washing my Nathan pack, cleaning my Garmin watchband, and digging mud out of the crevices in my toenails. I'm much better off when I run. While I'm looking forward to this race, I'm almost ready for it to be over with. I'm ready to hit Leadville training really hard and I feel like Freestate (and the weather) has kinda been a roadblock to it. After this weekend though I can lay out a good schedule and get on it! The weather forecast for the rest of the week calls for sunny skies and warm temps which are a godsend.... our trails are really muddy and wet right now. Saturdays forecast is 75 and sunny.... it's gonna be a warm and hopefully a dry one!

(i stole the pictures from Gary "Story Hawk" Henry and his blog at Ultrastory.com