Go, you chicken fat, go away!

What better way to start off 2018 than by putting another (ex) blogger on my list of BIMIRL?  Slow Joe happened to be in AZ for the new year and on his way back to the airport from Tucson, I was able to meet him face to face for a few minutes.  He looked just like I imagined he would from the hundreds of pictures I've seen him in.  He thanked me graciously for driving out to meet him, and I thanked him because it would give me the opportunity to run South Mountain.  You know the run, Tracy.  So after the warm embrace of a handshake, we parted ways; he to the rental car return facility, and I to South Mountain.  But guess what, Clark?  Florida was closed!  How can you close a mountain?  So instead of running there, I went all the way to Usery.  It was a bit brisk this morning, but not bad.  Still shorts and T-shirt weather.  The air is bad in the Valley from all the fireworks last night, but it was clean out here on the outskirts.  I saw one runner coming up as I was driving down.  I was jealous that someone was running my route, because there aren't a lot of runners that do this.  There were a couple dozen cyclists out too that I had to share the shoulder with.  My legs felt ok, but after a while I really started to wear out, so I decided to turn around at 2 miles.  Downhill was faster, but it still felt like I had to work it.  On the way down one of the cyclists said, "Good job.  Keep pushing it."  Now normally you don't push it on the downhill because the hill does the work for you.  But he was right.  Today he was right.

Today was cool.  I got up at 5am because Mike was going to pick me up at 6am.  I sat on the toilet for half an hour, but no bowel movement.  So I got ready to go.  Right at 6am I texted Mike to see how far away he was.  I wanted to give it one more try.  I sat down and managed to expunge a little, so I felt like I would be good during the run.  Nevertheless, I packed some wipes to take with me.  At 6:10am I looked out the window and there was Mike who had been waiting about 5 minutes.  Apparently we weren't getting each other's texts.  He brought his daughter Megan with him.  Last year was Megan's first Ragnar and this will be her second.  Today would be Mike's first attempt at running since his shoulder surgery.  He was also sporting a knee brace.  About two miles before we arrived we saw some serious runners out doing the entire loop.  I think it's about 17 miles.  I had a feeling they would catch us.  Sure enough as we crossed the intersection we saw two of them right behind us.  They caught us in short order and I said good morning to them, but they were having a conversation, and they completely ignored me.  Douches.  Mike and I stayed together for the first quarter mile and I asked him how he felt.  He said he didn't like it, meaning he didn't like the knee brace.  He started to inch away from me, but at 0.38 miles he stopped.  He said, "I can't do it."  I didn't know if that meant he couldn't run with his knee brace on or he just couldn't run.  He took his knee brace off while I supported his balance.  He then proceeded to find a hiding place for it over by the barbed wire fence.  By that time Megan had caught up to us.  She offered to carry the brace for her dad, but he said it would be fine.  We started running again and shortly after that the next guy caught us.  He did say good morning back to me.  He was a sweet guy.  Mike started to pul away from me again.  He was running with a handheld light that would illuminate the trees on the side of the road every time he swung his arm.  When Mike got two miles up the Pass he turned around.  He mentioned beforehand that he would probably do that.  But I really wanted to get all the way to the top today because it's been a while since I've done that.  I told him to just go down and get the truck.  I would continue going.  I figured with only 1.7 miles to go to get to the top I should be able to make it there even though he would be going downhill and I would still be going uphill.  I was right.  About a tenth of a mile before the top the next set of runners, a guy and a girl, passed me.  I put my hand out to give them five.  They guy only gave me two, so he felt obliged to slow down and make sure I got the entire five on the second attempt.  I made it to the top and kept going straight, now downhill.  About 0.15 miles later another set of runners, another guy and a girl, passed me.  They also accepted my five on the side.  It's a good feeling to make it to the top of Usery Pass, so a high five, a low five, or a five on the side is completely appropriate.  I got to 4.01 miles when Mike pulled up.  Even though I've been sick all week, I felt pretty good.  But then the most amazing thing happened.  We were driving back home and we turned on McDowell Road.  We passed the runners that had passed us.  Then I saw two other runners running towards us.  As we drove by I was like, "That looks like Nan.  But it can't possibly be Nan.  She lives in Utah."  Guess what.  It actually was Nan.  It was amazinnnnng.  I'm glad I can spot her as she's running down the road and I'm cruising by 40mph in a vehicle.

I'm still not 100% healthy.  As Emily would say, I have boogers in my throat.  But today was nice.  I felt great during the run.  And I actually got faster as I went without trying.

My legs are a bit sore.  I noticed that I was speeding up just like yesterday, but then I started slowing down.
 

I tried out a new pair of shoes today.  Well, it appears I've put 10.89 miles on them already.  Anyway, I didn't do my normal stretching routine.  I just stretched a little and took off.  I got to 0.29 miles and felt a sharp pain in my knee.  I immediately stopped.  It felt like it might be a muscle strain or something.  I didn't want to risk going any further.  I did run back home, but very gingerly.
 

I got a text from Mike yesterday about picking me up this morning at 5:45am.  I said no problem.  Only there was a problem.  My alarm didn't go off.  Or it did go off and it was turned down low, so I didn't hear it.  That doesn't explain why it went off last week in church when I thought I had all my volumes turned down.  Anyway, luckily this week I immediately got his text and it woke me up.  I texted him back that I would be right out.  I threw on my clothes and went pee pee.  I grabbed my wife's headlamp and I was off.  We drove out to Usery like we always do.  About five minutes before getting there, Mike got a text.  It was mine.  Grr!!  Anyway, our goal was to make it to the top today and back down.  Except we didn't tell each other that was our goal, I just assumed it was both of our goals.  I asked Mike if he had any fancy napkins just in case I needed them.  Luckily he did.  We began our ascent.  I was running right behind Mike and he slowly started putting distance between us.  I was surprised at the number of cars out on this remote road this early in the morning.  But then I remembered that it's a holiday weekend, so maybe a bunch of people are headed to the lake or something.  I felt pretty good, even though my breathing was labored.  I felt like I was breathing while in a deep sleep.  Kind of like that guy in Sunday School last Sunday.  Only he wasn't running.  He was just sitting there.  It stayed dark almost all the way to the top.  About a half mile before I reached the top I could make out the sillouhette of a lady running down at high speed.  She was on the other side of the road, and I said good morning to her.  She either had ear buds in or just ignored me.  I figured with her behind me now I could start talking to myself.  I was just mentioning how much I had to poop when here she came again, still on the other side of the road, still at high speed.  I sure hope it was ear buds.  About a quarter mile from the top I saw Mike coming down, which means he put about a half mile distance in between us.  I still felt good, and even though I had to poop, I was confident I could hold it in the rest of the way.  But then the downhill came.  I knew I was in trouble.  I looked for a place to pull over that wouldn't be too conspicuous.  I found some large trees that looked like they would do the trick.  It was getting light now, but I still turned off my head and butt lamps so as to not draw attention to myself.  I hate having to do this.  It's so disgusting.  And stinky.  And dangerous.  Well, it took all three fancy napkins, but I finally finished.  Now Mike would be well ahead of me.  I started back down and was feeling good.  At one point my knee gave another sharp pain similar to Thursday's run.  I slowed down a little and it was fine for the remainder of the run.  With about six tenths of a mile to go, Mike pulled up in his truck.  He asked if I wanted to finish.  He wasn't sure because last week I told him to keep going.  I said that if it was all right with him, I'd like to finish.  He said no problem and drove back down to wait for me.  It's been a while since I've gone all the way to the top and back down, so I was glad I did it.  I'm  feeling more confident about being the first runner for the Del Sol Ragnar.  My first leg is 8.7 miles mostly uphill.

I didn't go running until 10am.  So that's 50 hours since the last time I ran.  Still, my legs were pretty sore.  I'm pretty sure my pace today was about the same as Saturday's.

My Runkeeper alerts me of my pace and distance every five minutes.  Today my pace was exactly the same for the first five times that it went off.  After that it got faster.  So that was nice.
 

I've always shunned away from having to run the first leg of the Del Sol Ragnar Relay.  That very first leg is extremely difficult. 8.7 miles, mostly uphill.  But we have a few injured runners and a few novice runners in our van, so I decided to finally run it.  Earlier this week I asked my wife if she'd be interested in going with me to Wickenburg and being my support vehicle while I ran it.  I really wanted to gain some confidence that I could do it.  She said yes.  The plan was to leave at 8am.  That would put us there at 9:30am.  I figured it would take me about an hour and 45 minutes to run.  Then we could go to our favorite restaurant, Anita's Cocina.  Well we after getting up a tad late, cleaning up dog poop, packing a bag so I could change my clothes, dropping stuff off at Good Will, and gassing up the Kia, we finally got on the freeway at 10am.  Still, it was cloudy out and the weather was beautiful.  About 30 miles outside of Wickenburg we drove through some heavy rain.  But when we got there it had cleared up and stayed dry the whole time.  It was cooler than I thought it would be, but it was nice.  I stretched out and started to run.  The first 1.75 miles is actually downhill.  Then you turn south on Vulture Mine Road and you start the climb.  It was around mile 2 that I saw my wife for the first time.  She went to a Walgreen's or something to use the restroom, but they didn't have a public one.  She didn't think I had made it to Vulture Mine Road yet, so she drove back down looking for me.  Then she turned around and found me.  She asked if I wanted water, but I didn't take any until mile 3.  I was feeling pretty good.  At about 4.1 miles I told her I was almost half way there and I still felt good.  But right about at mile 5 it started getting difficult.  I knew I only had 3.7 miles to go, so I pushed on.  At mile 6 I contemplated throwing in the towel.  But then I thought, "I didn't drive all the way out here to only run a partial amount."  The hardest part was at 6.7 miles.  My wife had stopped to get me some water, so I started walking.  I probably only walked about 30 feet, but it was a steep incline.  I said to myself, "I only have 2 miles to go, and I know the last three quarters of a mile is downhill."  So I powered up and kept going.  At mile 7.7 I imagined seeing the One Mile to Go marker.  I could also see the top of the hill I needed to get to.  I kept plugging along and got to the top.  It didn't seem like it was really dowhill until the last 0.3 miles.  I made it.  It was difficult, but I'm glad I did it.  I'm still real sore, so I hope I can get some quality runs in over the next three weeks so that I have no problems running my next two legs.

This was a recovery run.  From what I hear, the elite Kenyans run their recovery runs at an 11:00 minute pace.  So I must be doing pretty good.

Well, the plan was to run 1.5 Tuesday, which I did, 2.5 Wednesday, fail, and 3.5 Thursday, also fail.  I got dressed Tuesday but I wasn't feeling good, so I never made it out the door.  I'm a little embarrassed to say that I wore that same outfit for the next three days until I finally ran today.

Mike and I decided to run 9.2 miles today.  That means running all the way to the top of Usery Pass and continuing down to the Usery Park entrance, then turning around.  I couldn't find my headlamp this morning, but usually Mike brings an extra.  His daughter Megan came today, too.  She was just going to do 5.4 miles which she says she did.  I told Mike I couldn't find my light, but maybe he tought I was looking for it and couldn't find it, but then I found it, because he never offered to let me use the flashlight he always holds.  So he literally had two, and I had none.  Anyway, we started running together and I thought it might be a good idea to stick with him so I could run in the protection of his soft glowing haze.  But he was much too fast for me.  I would have to be extra cautious since all I had was my blinky LED light on my back.  I kept my head up as cars were coming.  And man, there was a lot of traffic today!  It was a bit annoying.  One scary part was when a vehicle had just passed me and I could see another one coming.  I could also hear voices coming out of it.  I wondered if they were having a good time yelling at Mike up the way.  It looked like they were in the bike lane so I moved over.  Just then I realized they were bikes and they were yelling at me to get out of the way.  It was weird.  Usually it's easy to tell the difference between an bike and a car.  Anyway, after that I would just get off the road into the dirt any time I saw a pair of headlights coming at me.  I figured a pair of bruised knees was better than a broken body or a crushed skull.  That turned out to be a great decisision as one jack wagon was driving in the bike lane and would have wiped me out.  I was feeling good just taking it nice and easy.  I got to the top no problem and started heading down.  Not long after that a guy passed me running on the other side of the road.  Not sure how far he had gone, but he was cruising.  That's when I realized I probably should've been running on that side of the road.  There was far less traffic and they would at least be able to see my blinky light.  Oh well.  At 0.4 miles before the turn around I saw Mike.  That means he put 0.8 miles in between us.  A little before I got to the park entrance I saw the fast guy coming back towards me.  I contemplated giving him five, but he went way over in the dirt.  When I turned around I could feel a significant headwind.  Bleh!  0.9 miles of uphill into the wind.  But I just kept going.  I kept seeing more and more runners.  There's hardly ever this many runners out.  They're probably training for the Phoenix Marathon.  The downhill was nice.  My legs were getting tired, but I kept reminding myself of how much I'd already ran and how little was left.  I had to stop once to dump a rock out of my shoe, but I felt relatively comfortable the whole way.  Did you hear what I said?  There was no discomfort!!  But when I finished Mike said, "Burt, are you bleeding?"  I look down at my shirt and sure enough, I was bleeding.  Body Glide, you have failed this city!

Recovery run.  It's nice to see that when I'm purposely trying to run slow, I'm about the same pace as I was a few months ago when I was trying to run fast.  I guess that's something.  Although it's more likely that I haven't tried very hard.  But today felt great and it's a beautiful day out.

I tried to run faster today.  I picked up the pace early, but my knees started to hurt, so I stopped and stretched.  After 3/4 miles I sped up again and tried to maintain the pace for a half mile.  I'm not used to running fast, so it was difficult.  Then I slowed back down for another half mile.  Then I was going to pick it up again for 1/4 mile, but I didn't get very far before my calf muscle started to hurt.  So I stopped again and stretched some more.  Then I ran slow all the way back.  The End.