Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I think I'm getting sick again.  I have definitely had diarrhea the last couple of days if that's any indicator.  It might explain why my legs have felt so sore since Tuesday.  So I just did one loop today.  I saw this guy cruising along the Canal as we ran in opposite directions towards each other.  According to Strava, he ran a 20 mile progression run around a 7:30 average.  Dang.
 

We're having a Ragnar team meeting today.  Yesterday I texted the group to say - see you all tomorrow!  Then we started texting about our group run this morning.  It seemed that we would have myself, Mike, Glen, and Bryan to run Usery.  But I got a text from Glen this morning saying he wouldn't be able to come.  On the way to Usery, just north of Power and McDowell, we saw 6 javelina crossing the street.  This is just on the outskirts of town, but it's still in town. 

It was darker out this week than last week due to overcast skies.  I tried to get a headstart, but Bryan started right behind me and passed me right after the stop sign.  Mike finally caught me at near the 1 mile mark.  I felt like I was running faster than last week, but I was actually running slower.  It was about 0.6 miles before the top that I saw Bryan coming back down.  That means he had already put 1.2 miles between us!  I saw Mike coming back down at about 0.2 miles. 

There were quite a few cyclists out this morning in the dark, but no runners.  With about 1.2 miles to go I saw Bryan coming back up.  So now he was 2.4 miles ahead of me!!!  He turned around behind me and caught back up to me.  He said there were some horses down at the bottom.  My legs were feeling sore, but not too bad.  I finally got to the bottom and snapped a picture of the four horses.  But to see them, you'll have to visit my Strava account.  Have a great day everyone!
 

Today is Emily's birthday.  She loves birthdays.  Especially her own.  I woke up with a bit of a sore throat.  Yesterday was fast Sunday, which is a tradition (not sure if that's the word I'm searching for) that our church has each first Sunday of the month.  We fast (go without food or water for two meals - 24 hours) as I way to humble ourselves and pray in faith for whatever we feel needs the Lord's blessing.  As a congregation we decided to join in unison to fast for a little girl that will be undergoing heart surgery today.  As I was at church I got a text message from my son that the sewer manhole out in the street was overflowing and spewing sewage out on to the road.  This isn't the first time we've had sewer problems, as there are roots that grow into our pipe.  But I got to thinking that if the manhole is plugged, that means it is downstream of  our house and may not be our fault.  We got home and it wasn't the manhole I thought it was in our cul-de-sac.  It was the next manhole downstream.  So basically our entire neighborhood was having their sewers back up and many of the houses were getting their lower levels flooded with raw sewage.  And the superbowl hadn't even started yet!  Well, we got a tiny bit back up into our laundry room, so we decided to go to our friend's house for dinner while the house aired out.  I've been doing the ketogenic diet again for almost a month now, but I kind of had a cheat day.  We had pazole.  I also had some lemonade that tasted a little too sweet, so I had my wife check to see if it was keto, and it was not.  So I decided since I had already eaten non-keto stuff, I might as well have a bite of a chocolate chunk cookie.  It was good.
Fast forward to this morning.  After getting Emily on the bus I stretched out and started my run.  I was feeling good at first.  But then I started to slow down and I wondered if it was because I didn't stick to my diet yesterday.  Anyway, it was nice out.  We got some light rain yesterday and last night.  I saw the same lady that I saw last week wearing a flourescent pink jacket and walking her dog.  She does a run/walk thing and about 20 yards before I caught up to her she started to run, and we ran the same pace all the way until she turned on Adobe.  I decided to just do two loops today.  Now it's time to get to work and get ready to bring Emily some Taco Bell for lunch.

I went to bed early and got up early this morning.  My wife was already gone on her walk.  I was excited that I had time to go for a run before I had to get kids up.  It was dark out and I didn't bring any lights with me.  The only light was from random lights throughout the neighborhood and a few stars shining through the scattered clouds.  I felt better than yesterday even though I had Chinese food for dinner.  It's what Emily wanted for her birthday dinner.  I stepped in a puddle that I don't think was there yesterday.  At one point I saw some shadowy figures in the Canal that I thought were rocks, but I quickly realized they were ducks.  Just north of Main Street I looked into the Floodway and could make out a tent and a shopping cart.  I'm pretty sure I also saw a tarp with someone sleeping on it.  They had a dog and the dog barked at me.

It was cold out this morning.  There was frost on top of the cars!!  I wondered if running in shorts and a T shirt was a mistake.  But I survived.  It was dark out again.  I dodged the puddle this time.  I think it was Venus that I saw shining in the southeast sky.  There were no clouds.  I was thinking that there wasn't much to blog about.  But that all changed quickly.  As I was about to exit the Floodway back on to Adobe, I saw this figure running down Adobe.  I could tell it was a woman and she seemed to be going a bit slow, but not without some good effort.  I wondered if I would catch her.  As I turned and got behind her I suddenly realized I knew this figure.  She was my wife!  I really really wanted to scare her.  She scares so easily.  She beat me to the stop sign and I was worried that she would see me when she turned.  But she didn't.  She had her head phones in and was singing.  She doesn't realize how loud she is sometimes.  Right before I reached her I heard her say, "Halelujah!", and she stopped running.  Right then I swatted her on the rump and yelled, "Gotcha!"   Oh man!  It was so funny!!  She screamed, "Holy sh.....!!!"  She didn't say the whole thing.  Probably about 3.5 letters of it, though.  I just kept running home while she yelled, "Jerk!" at me several times.

Today was the Phoenix Marathon/Half Marathon.  Mike was running the half marathon, so Glen and I were on our own.  Last week at our team meeting Glen asked if I wanted to run Usery Pass.  Knowing that the backside of Usery Pass is the start of the marathon, I told him we better avoid it.  Glen texted me yesterday to say that he would be over at 6am.  But then later he texted me to say 6:30am would be better.  I got ready and went outside to stretch while I waited for him.  Right at 6:30am I heard the cannons going off to indicate the start of the race.  Mind you, we're about 3 miles from the start of the half marathon and 10 miles from the start of the full marathon.  But I heard them both. 

It was still a little dark out so we both wore our headlamps.  Glen gave me a headstart and quickly caught up to me.  He sped ahead, but then he slowed down so I could catch up.  I asked him if we could use his van for Ragnar.  He said we could even though the other van will be using it and we'll be using Maggie's.  I asked if he was good being runner #1.  He said it was no problem, he only wished his second and third legs were a little longer.  I was runner #1 last year.  It's kind of nice to finish that first leg and actually be over half way done with all your miles.

After that he sped up again.  He was running pretty good.  I got to McDowell and looked to the right and could see the start line for the half marathon.  Of course by this time all of the runners were long gone.  But then I started thinking that it would be fun to watch the marathoners.  So I continued running to the top of the Canal.  Well, I saw Glen coming back before I got there.  I told him I was going to hang out for a while, so he shouldn't wait for me.  Then I got to the top of the Canal, turned around, and ran back to McDowell.  It was about 7:20am by this point, and I figure the top runners should be coming through in less than 20 minutes. 

I sat down and waited, leaving my Strava running, but it was on autopause.  A guy came by and asked me if I was freezing.  I made my 'go to' joke about having an extra layer of insulation, so I was good.  But after that I did notice my hands getting cold.  Stupid man.  If he didn't say anything, I would have been fine.  He asked when I thought the runners would be coming by.  I said probably within the next 5 to 6 minutes.  Sure enough, a pack of three runners came by with their police escort right around 7:38.  That's pretty fast.  I cheered the runners on as they came by.  The first woman had pink hair, and she looked like a superhero.  I didn't recognize a whole lot of people.  The first person I recognized was this girl I follow on Strava.  But she's a twin, so I'm not sure which one she was.  Then I saw Andre.  I asked him if I could run with him for a while.  He was happy to let me.  But I only ran with him for about a quarter mile.  I wished him luck and turned back around.  On the way back I saw Chrissie.  Or rather, she saw me.  She is a Ragnar Ambassador.  I stayed and watched for another 5 minutes before I decided to head home.  I was probably there for just over an hour.  It was fun.
 

I ran three loops today.  I tried to pick up the pace to see how I could do before Ragnar this weekend.  But mostly because it's freezing.  I wore sweat pants and two T-shirts.  And a beanie.  It was dark, so I pocketed my headlamp, but I never used it. 

Probably my last run before Ragnar.  Nice and easy.

Ragnar #29.

This year's Del Sol team consisted of 5 returning runners from last year, Mike, Megan, Bryan, Tracy, and me.  I asked my old friend Glen if he wanted to jump back on the Ragnar bus and he agreed.  I didn't really think Tracy would join us again this year, but she's just too awesome.  Mike was going to have his wife run with us, but she never trained, so he kicked her off the team a couple of weeks before the race.  The Glen from our team last year was going to run again with his son, but something came up and they couldn't do it.  I had befriended one of my Words with Friends opponents  who is a runner and talked her into joining the team.  She lives in Wisconsin and has a friend that lives close to me.  So they were going to join, but she had something come up.  At first I wasn't that worried that we wouldn't be able to find runners.  But the closer we got to the race, I did start to get worried.  So I put a post out on Facebook saying I was looking for runners.  Glen recruited Eddie who ran with us in 2010 and 2011.  I got a couple of bites on my post.  One was from Maggie who goes to church with me in my ward.  At the time we only needed three runners.  (This was before Mike kicked his wife off the team.)  Another person that responded was our Primary President, Marie.  One of the Ragnar ambassadors, Kendra, also responded and said that she and her friend are looking for a team.  I figured if Maggie and Marie joined, that would leave room for only one more runner.  So I didn't respond to Kendra right away.  Well, Marie ended up not joining, Maggie recruited her sister-in-law and we were still down two runners.  So I asked Kendra if she was still looking.  She said that she had joined another team, but they were very disorganized.  I said it sounds like you need to quit them and join us.  She agreed.  And so she did along with her friend George.

With a full team we started making final preparations.  Maggie has a super cool van, and Glen also has a new van.  I thought this might be the year my old van gets a rest.  I really wanted Tracy, Maggie, and Glen in my van which would mean that Jani (Maggie's SIL) and Eddie would also be in the van.  So all of the people that owned vans were in the same van.  Glen said it would be all right if the other van used his.  It was only a couple of weeks before the race that I learned that Maggie's husband had asked for a divorce and had sent her the paperwork.  I had no idea, and I felt like a real jerk for pushing her along.  My wife said that she hopes I have a back up for her because she is going through a lot.  I did ask her if everything was going to be all right and if it was ok that we used her van.  She said that she really needed a win in her life right now and this was keeping her from laying in bed and eating chocolates all day.

The forecast called for rain on Thursday and Sunday.  It held true.  Maggie came over Thursday right before the rain started so that we could decorate the van.

My wife was awesome enough to cut vinyl again this year.  Glen came and dropped off his van a little bit later while it was raining.  He had to go to the adoption agency for some stuff.  I pulled his van in front of my house and decided to wait for the rain to die down a bit.  After a couple of hours it was still raining, but not as bad.  So I started decorating.  It was a little harder to get the vinyl to peel off and stick.  Glen had returned before we were done and helped out.  Then we jumped in his van so I could take him home and drive his van to Mike's house.  It didn't start right away, so Glen said that once it's been sitting a while you have to crank it, let it go, crank it, let it go, and on that third crank, it should start right up.  It did and I dropped him off and took it to Mike's and told him the trick.  Then I went to Verizon to get a new phone because I crushed mine while helping Maggie take one of the seats out in her van earlier.

I was all packed and ready to go, so I jumped in bed around 10pm and probably fell asleep around 11pm.  My alarm was set for 2:45 am.  I asked Maggie if she could meet me at 3:15am at my house because we had to pick up Glen, who lives 3 miles away, then go back and pick up Tracy who lives about 5 miles from Glen, and then pick up Jani from her parent's house another two miles away, then Eddie who would meet us at Rio Salado College.  We made the rounds and the ride up to Wickenburg was fine with hardly any traffic.  We saw a group of runners heading out about a mile and a half from the start line.  We pulled up to the start with plenty of time to do our safety training and get checked in.

Glen was our first runner.  He ran the set of legs that I ran last year.  Glen has such a smooth running form and he cruised right up the mountain.  He was the third person to finish from our group that started at 6:30am.  He handed off to Maggie.  I told Maggie to just take it nice and easy.  It was a downhill run, so it would feel like she wanted to go fast, but she would need to rein it in.  After fumbling with the wrist band during the exchange, she took off.  I was like, "Slow down!"  Haha.  She did real well.  She ran some and walked some, but she still averaged a 10:30 pace.  Then she handed off to Jani.

Jani, as we learned, wasn't a big runner, but she was in pretty good shape.  She did great, too.  She handed off to Eddie.  Steady Eddie.  Eddie has been spending a lot of his time at the gym.  He looked great and was able to run all of his legs at a nice even pace.

It was some time while Eddie was running that we got a call from Mike.  He wasn't able to get Glen's van started.  He said he was working on it for 30 minutes.  I asked him if he tried the trick.  He said he did.  So I was worried that the other van would be able to get there on time if at all.  I offered to let him use my van.  I called Vickie and asked if it was a possibility.  She said it would be fine.  But there were no decorations.  She cleaned it out real fast and gassed it up.  Some how they got to the first major exchange in time.

  Eddie handed off to me.  By this time it was 11:13am.  I had eaten, but I'm not sure it was enough.  This leg was supposed to be all downhill, but it sure felt like a lot of it was uphill.  I don't know why I thought I would be able to run it at a 9 min pace.  Maybe if I didn't lose so much conditioning during the holidays.  Anyway, my first mile was in the low 9's, but then I started to crash.  It could have been not enough to eat, not enough sleep, more uphill than what the map showed, started out too fast, was worried about my van and Glen's van.  I don't know.  I just didn't feel great and my pace was 10:10 for 6.7 miles.  That's not terrible for me nowadays, but I thought I would do better.  And I felt terrible and sore afterward.  I handed off to Tracy, and she did great as she was loving this Arizona weather.

We then handed off to Van #2, and drove up near our motel.  We stopped at Pita Jungle first to eat lunch.  Then we drove to the motel to shower and take a quick nap.  Our next set of legs were during the night time hours again.  Paul, Megan's boyfriend, was runner #12, which means he runs the "Ragnar" leg.  It was 11.3 miles and he did not look happy when he came in.  I was really worried that he would not be able to run his remaining legs, but he's a young kid, and he toughed it out.  Everyone did real well again.  My second run started right at 11pm.  It was 4 miles, pretty flat.  I felt 203% better.  I just decided to run at a nice comfortable pace and that pace ended up being 10:23.  It was little cold, but I wore shorts and a T for all of my runs.  I tried to text Tracy when I got one mile away, and I ended up pausing my Strava for a quarter mile.  Oops.  We went back to the motel again to shower and take another nap.  It's a good thing Eddie woke me up because I was sawing some logs. 

My last leg was my hardest.  But I ran it smarter than my first leg, so it felt better.  It was 7 miles and a good portion of those were uphill.  This was a mental challenge.  I knew I had to keep my head right.  But it was also very much physical.  And luckily all the Saturday morning runs up Usery Pass paid off, because I felt like I could do it.  I just kept pushing myself at the pace that felt good.  I had a guy come up and pass me and tell me good morning.  It was 10:54 am when I started.  He got a little ahead of me then he stopped to walk.  So I was able to pass him around the 2 mile mark.  I saw a girl that was walking, too.  I passed her up.  She looked like she was high school age.  Shortly thereafter, they both passed me up again.  They were doing the run/walk thing.  I just kept going at my pace.  The girl wouldn't pass me again, but there were a couple of more times I saw her get right behind me before she had to stop and walk.  The other guy, we'll call him Randy, (thank you, Strava) passed me a total of four time (thank you, Strava) before I finally was able to hold him off for good.  Of course, then I realized he was an Ultra runner and still had to run another leg.  I didn't want to look at Strava to see how far I had gone, because what would be the point?  But I finally decided to look thinking I was about 3 miles in.  I was at 3.9!  It was such a moral boost because I was well over half way done and I only had about 3 miles to go!  Anyway, there were a couple of other runners that I was able to catch, also.  So it made me feel good that I played it smart, and kept some gas in the tank for the final leg.

Tracy finished up her last leg, which were the same legs she ran last year, and she felt like she had redeemed herself.  The cooler weather made a world of difference.  We then drove everybody home and waited for van #2 to finish up.  We met back up at the finish line at 3pm.  Glen was there with his van which started up without a problem for him.  Paul came in around 3:40pm on Saturday afternoon and we ran in together for another Ragnar in the history books.

First run after Ragnar.  I felt a little sore.  I stopped once to stretch.

Second run since Ragnar.  I felt a little sore.  I stopped once to stretch.

I've been eating too much sweets lately.

So Maggie from my Ragnar team has a son that who had a brain tumor.  She found out shortly after Ragnar.  So he had surgery this week and they determined it was benign and the operation was successful.  I've been sending out text messages to the team to keep them informed.  Anyway, Glen texted me yesterday shortly after I sent the good news.  He asked if I wanted to go running today, and I told him that I could be persuaded.  I didn't see anymore texts from him, although he did text me back to say what time and where.  I just never saw it until this morning.  Luckily I had woken up at 4:30am to go potty.  I went back to sleep and my wife woke me up at 6:02 to say that Glen was here.  So I got dressed and went outside to meet him.  I wasn't sure how the run would go because my back was aching.  I stretched out.  Also, it was freezing.  But you know me.  Shorts and T-shirt.  We headed north up the Floodway path and Glen ran with me for most of the way north.  I saw a zanjero at Adobe and then later saw him driving along Greenfield.  Then I could see him parked at McKellips.  As I passed by, I looked in the window.  It was still a little dark out, but I could tell that it was Mosiah.  I said, "Mosiah!  Is that you?"  So he rolled his window down and we talked for about a minute.  Glen had already crossed the street and was running in circles waiting for me.  So I bid Mosiah farewell and rejoined Glen.  When we got to McDowell Glen started to put a little distance between us.  Right before the turn around I stopped to tinkle.  I also had to re-tie my shorts for the second time as they kept sliding down.  I started running again and realized that they still were loose.  So for a third time I re-tied them.  That's hard to do with frozen fingers.  We ran back and I started to feel blah.  Too many cupcakes and soda yesterday.  Glen probably got a half a mile ahead of me.  But I was glad to have gone the distance.

It was a beautiful day out today.  Last week we got some snow in the high parts of the Valley, and it was cold.  But it's warming back up now.  I ran along the Floodway to Greenfield, turned around and down to Main, and turned back around again to home.  Lots of people out walking and a few running.

Two laps around the RWCD/Floodway paths.  I set my phone on battery saver last night which apparently disables the GPS, so my Strava only recorded 0.1 miles.  But at least it said my pace was sub 7.