T minus 19 weeks

This is my feet after a 16 mile trail run. Getting them clean, especially around the toes was not fun.

Highlights of this week...

Seven miles on Thursday night, got passed by an elderly man wearing a tee shirt that said "either you ran today or you didn't". I get that. Not about speed, or how far, just that you did it.

Sixteen miles on Saturday, Steve ran with me. His first run after the 100K last weekend, it's his way of getting a long easy run in. The company was great. As we ran north, face first into a 15+ mph wind he noticed it was shifting to the east. And continued to until it was a NNE, and then ENE and then east. After we turned and headed home, with 6.5 miles to go, noticed we were now running straight into a south wind, about the same speed of 15 mph or so. I wasn't thrilled with that, but can't argue with nature.

At 14 miles in I was running and I was familiar with that part of the trail and didn't realize enough of the sand had eroded off the trail that I tripped over a buried rock. I had no hope of catching my footing. I did a face first arms extended dive any baseball player would be proud of heading into third. I laid there and realized the skinned knee and bruised palm weren't near as bad as my shoulders and neck were going to feel. On the plus side, I laid there for a couple of minutes and rested. Steve was a little worried at first, said he thought I was going to catch myself, it was like watching it in slow motion. This is not a commmentary on how fast I was running, because we finished in the time I wanted to

This video was made by two guys from Colorada who ran the Rockin K Trail Marathon early in April with me. If you are curious about the course, this shows a little more than my pictures did. Gives a better perspective of the climb up the bluff and the water crossings. It's about three and half minutes long. If you watch to the end you can see Steve cross the finish line.