Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Holy buckets of sweat Batman!  And when I say holy, I mean you can worship my perspiration.  And when I say you, I mean Batman.  And by Batman I mean any fictitious character; He-Man, the Tooth Fairy, the American born Obama.

I had the brilliant idea to run home from work this morning.  Even though I took an hour and a half nap at work (I'm training someone, and he needs to learn how to do things himself, don't judge me), after 12 hours, I had zero energy in my legs.  Right as I started I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  I took with me a frozen water bottle and six shot blocks.  I took the shot blocks at 1.5, 3, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 miles.  I hope I can sleep now.  We'll see.  The water bottle was completely unthawed by mile 5.5.  But it stayed relatively cool until mile 7 when I filled it with ice water at the corner Circle K.

In order to cut some distance out, I decided to run along the railroad trucks which cut through the Town of Gilbert at a 45° angle.  Not a bad idea except that I'd never run along this section of the tracks before.  At first I was running on this nice dirt road along side them.  But then I got to the part where it crosses the freeway.  Here it narrows down to a bridge obviously meant for only a train to go over.  I decided to try and get myself on one of those World's Dumbest Videos shows by crossing the bridge, but I don't know if the cameras were rolling.  Anyway, I see this big light ahead, and I'm thinking, "Well Burt, you better not run on the tracks because with your luck, you'll probably get your foot stuck in the railroad ties.  And then you'll panic and won't have the common sense to untie your shoe and pull your foot out to safety."  As it turns out, you can see a train light from probably 5 miles out.  Finally after 2.4 miles and with the bridge long behind me, the train came chugging by.

I reached Val Vista and started heading north.  I remembered that Marathon Dreamer and I had run by here before.  I tried to draw upon those memories to pull me through because I was struggling both mentally and physically.  And I was now completely drenched in sweat.  I stopped a couple of times to stretch out.  My left ankle was giving me a hard time.  Then as I got close to the Circle K I remembered the time SlowJoe and Flatlander went running together and Flatlander bought some fuel with a soggy $10.  I knew I'd be a soggy mess going in there, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.  I went in and politely asked if it would be all right if I filled my water bottle up with ice water.  The cashier kindly told me yes.  Ah, what a life saver.  Then I started running jogging slogging the rest of the way home.

I really need to run more.

****************************************************************************

PM

Rode my bike 9.25 miles to work.  Remembered my Garmin.  14.4 mph.

Runningafterbabies had another 5k race today.  I heard she was really smoking.

I went for a recovery run at 9:30p.  It was 92°  out.  No Garmin.  Just me and the night freaks.  So I was about a quarter mile away from the canal and I see this helicopter out with a spotlight searching for something or someone.  It looks like it might be going up and down the canal.  So I'm thinking, "Great.  There's a serial rapist out on the canal that I'm about to run on!  I hope it's a girl."  Well, I didn't feel like turning around, so up the canal I went.  The chopper made a few more circles and then came around and lit me up right before the MWF.  That was pretty exciting, but I just played it cool and pretended like I didn't notice.

This is not the time for my back to be going out again less than a week before Napa Valley Ragnar.  :(

Enjoy this picture while I writhe in pain.

I love Ragnar.  Don't you?  Every race brings a new adventure and new friends.  But I must say.  When I first met some of these dudes for the first time, I was like "I just flew to San Francisco to run with these obnoxious loud mouths?"  Well, it turns out they were just drunk.  That's all.  They were a lot more fun once they sobered up.  Ay yi yi.

I was runner #2.  Runner #1 gets to run over the Golden Gate Bridge :(  Missed it by one leg!  But I did get to drive over it.  And that's pretty cool.  My first leg was 2.7 miles and mostly downhill.  My back had been bothering me all week.  I was really worried because I couldn't even bend over and touch my toes.  The hard motel bed didn't help much either.  But as I started running I found that I was able to put one foot in front of the other, and that's all it took.  I ran a 7:40 pace, but I was hoping for sub 7 if I wasn't hurt.

My next leg was 4.72 miles at night.  I felt great.  In fact, I thought I was cranking out some real fast miles.  But I wasn't.  Well, I did have a 200 foot hill to climb between mile 1 and mile 2, but still, I thought was flying.  I guess I don't remember what it's like to run fast.  Oh well.  I passed more people than those that passed me.

My last leg was right after the night legs end.  So I started without the night gear; reflective vest, headlamp, LED light.  After a mile my team caught up to me and said they got a text that the night hours were being extended due to the overcast.  So I threw the gear back on.  No biggy.  I was running through Napa Valley.  It was really pretty.  There was a vineyard at the foot of a hill.  A house was on top of the hill, and this hobbit hole was at the base of the hill exiting into the vineyard.  I'm sure it was connected to the house under the hill.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, I was running the best I could.  The hills were tough, but I was pushing through them.  I didn't get passed until 4.7 miles into my run.  That's about the time I started to crash and burn.  My legs were cramping up.  But I knew I could finish.  It was just time and pain.  Keep pushing through the pain, and it's only a matter of time.  I finally finished, and was glad to be done.  My legs are still sore as I write this report almost a week after running the race.  Would I run this race again?  I would if I was independently wealthy.  It was fun.

This is a picture of our team at the 2nd Major Exchange.  Everyone except JP who was running.

Alyssa, Jess, Jimmy, me, and Brian.  All the returning runners from So Cal who received the coveted Gold Rush Medal.

Here we are at the finish line.  Team 276 is My Number, so Pass Me Maybe.

What?  We were in San Francisco!  What do you expect?

I did P90X Plyometrics last night with my wife.  She's doing great.  She's lost over 100 lbs.  My back did not like Plyo X.

Here you go.