Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Ragnar #32

Last year I jumped on a team last minute-ish to run this relay.  I had missed it the two previous years, but was feeling pretty good last year, and didn't want to miss it again.  The team that I joined was an RWB team out of Sierra Vista.  They actually had three teams, and this year they put together four teams.  Scott, Victor, and Joshua, were returning from last year.  Theresa from last year was on another one of the teams.  The other three didn't come.  In their place was Victor's wife, Brenda, newcomers Lulu and Jackie, and returning from last year, but on a different team, Katherine.

The order we ran in was Brenda, Joshua, Chris, Lulu, Jackie, me, Katherine, and Victor.  Everyone was able to run all of their legs without a problem.  Joshua even picked up an additional leg from one of the other teams.  Joshua was our fastest runner, followed shortly by Victor.  But Victor was having stomach issues, so he struggled on one of his legs, but still ran faster than me.  Being runner #6 means I started with the red loop, then the yellow loop, and finally the green loop.

My boys had a survey Friday morning, so I had them drop me off on their way.  I saw Rae checking in the vehicles and charging everyone the park entrance fee of $10.  The line was a little longer than I though it would be, but we finally got to the gear drop and it ended up being right in front of our campsite.  Lucky.  I took my gear to camp and was surprised that I actually got there in time to see Brenda start us out. 

I did a lot of sleeping.  I took about an hour nap before my first run.  I ate a light lunch around 11am.  I don't like running with a lot of food in my belly, but you need to eat something.  I finally started my red loop at 2:39pm.  It was warm.  Probably about 80º.  I'm used to that kind of heat, even though it's cooling down here, so it wasn't too bad, but I believe it did slow me down some.  The red loop is the longest loop.  6.73 miles.  I ran it 46 seconds slower per mile than last year.  I felt strong going up the hill, but just like last year, when I reached the water station around mile 4.3, it was hard to start running again.  I finally convinced myself that I could do it, but I had to take off my shirt because I felt like my nipple was going to explode soon if I didn't.  There's a hairpin turn around mile 5.5.  I had to walk some of that briefly, but after that I had no problem finishing up.  I put my shirt back on about a quarter mile from the finish line.  I saw my friend Josh (a different Josh, from the Adventure Run) while he was running the green loop.  I gave him a fist bump as he passed me.  When I finished and handed the bib off to Katherine, I apologized.  She thought I was apologizing for being slow, but it was for sweating all over the bib.

I decided it would be a good idea to eat dinner as soon as possible right after running.  There were food trucks of all kinds and we got a dinner included with our race entry.  I wanted to get a gyro sandwich, but the line was real long, so I ended up getting a Sicilian mac 'n cheese bowl.  It has Italian sausage, grilled onions, and tomatoes.  It was delicious, but 6.7 miles in the heat wiped me out, and I couldn't finish it for lack of appetite.  But one of my favorite parts of the race happened during dinner.  I met another blogger in real life.  And yes, nobody blogs anymore, but it still counts whether they actively blog, quit blogging, or even just created a blog and never made an entry.  If there's anyone I'd really like to meet in real life that I haven't yet other than allie, it would be this guy.  Twinkies!!!

I also got to meet his lovely wife, Susie, who was once upon a time a blogger herself.  Apparently I passed Susie on my first loop.  She remembered my orange outfit.

After dinner I took another nap.  It started getting cold when the sun went down so I put my sweats and sweat shirt on.  About an hour before it was my turn to run again I rolled out of my sleeping bag and got ready.  I took off my sweats and sweat shirt and found that I was actually hot even though it was cold.  Menopause, I guess.  On my way to the transition tent, I saw Kelli.  I can't hyperlink her anymore because she's deactivated her blog, but I gave her a side hug and talked to her for a few minutes.  Now it was time for the yellow loop.  Jackie handed off to me and I started my night run.  It was 11:23pm.  I wore my headlamp.  There was no moonlight.  It wasn't too long into my run that I noticed my headlamp wasn't shining as bright as it normally does.  Rookie mistake not to change the batteries before the race.  I ended up having to take it off my head and hold it in my hand so I could see.  Running the yellow loop at night is no fun.  Actually running the yellow loop in the day is no fun, but at night it's very difficult.  I slipped, stumbled, and tripped, but never fell down, thank goodness.  I only stopped briefly to text Kathy that I had one mile left.  Yellow loop really works your muscles.  There's lots of ups and downs.  Even though it's 4.72 miles and doesn't go as high up as the red loop, there is more overall elevation gain because of all the ups and downs.  Kelli says it's her favorite loop.  I remember thinking, despite the imminent danger, it wasn't too bad.  But then there were a couple of places where it was just up, down, up, down, and I thought, "This isn't cool." I was 77 seconds per mile slower than last year.

After finishing yellow I went back to camp and slept some more.  (Actually, before that I saw Kelli again.  I told her no more hugs for her because I was dripping wet with sweat.  Her friend that she was with gasped in horror with the amount of sweat that I had produced.)  When the morning came, it felt even colder.  And of course, the wind picks up once the sun comes out.  Still, the high was supposed to be 85º.  It was 9:05am when it was my turn to run again.  Now was the green loop.  The green loop is by far the easiest.  The climb is very moderate, almost unnoticeable.  There is one quick steep climb right before the street, but that's it.  I remember wishing I had run this leg last year during the day where I could see better, because I believed I could have run it real fast.  So I was excited to be able to run it this year in the daylight.  And I didn't feel to bad before running it, but as I got going, I realized I didn't have much left in my tank.  I ran it 61 seconds per mile slower than last year.  Oh well.  What I remember most was a kid passing me real fast about half a mile in.  He was running the red loop.  The green loop is a loop within the red loop.  They share the same path for the first three quarters of a mile.  Then red turns and makes the big climb up the mountain while green continues forward on the gradual incline.  The meet back up at the two mile mark and diverge again at the 2.4 mile.  Then they meet back up for the final quarter mile right before the timing pad.  The kid was wearing a black T-shirt with a giant middle finger on it.  I was like, "That's kind of rude."  But at the same time, it's kinda funny.  Cuz really, what am I gonna do about it?  I can't catch him.  Anyway, I saw him charge up the mountain and we parted ways.  But of course right before the finish line he caught me again for one last you know what.  Ha!  As I was making my way into the chute someone was cheering for me.  I looked and saw it was my friend Ricci, Josh's girlfriend.  Josh was there, too.  Then I heard other people saying, "Great job, Burt!", but I didn't know who they were because I was focused on that final hill and not falling.  Maybe it was Twinkies and Susie?

So, I finished another Ragnar.  I was still a little sick, but was grateful that I was able to run at a decent pace the entire time.  I had a fun team and had a good time.  My wife picked me up and we went to Baskin Robbins to get a Rocky Road milkshake.

I took yesterday off because the bottoms of my feet are pretty torn up and sore from the trail running.  I have a couple of blisters.  But I dont' want to lose any of my fitness, so I went out today.  I coughed up some gunk, but that's a good thing.  My feet were feeling fine while running.  I was looking for coyotes, but didn't see any.  They're good hiders.  I did see a lady cross the Floodway with her unleashed dog.  I thought that wasn't a good idea, even though the coyotes generally leave you alone.  But that have been following some people, I hear.  Anyway I got about a half mile in, and I heard a siren.  This made a coyote start to howl.  Normally they yip, but I would consider this a howl.  So, I immediately stopped and looked for it.  I still couldn't see it.  I could see the lady walking on the other side of the Floodway and hoped she would put her dog on a leash now that she could hear the coyote.  But she didn't.  I continued running and crossed over to the other side of the Floodway heading towards her now.  I couldn't see her dog anywhere.  I'm like, are you crazy lady?  She started to head back in to the Floodway, and I was afraid I'd have to chase the coyotes away from her dog, and hoped it wouldn't be too late.  But when I finally saw her again, both she and her dog were safely on the other side of the Floodway.  So that's good.

When I got done running, my lower back started to hurt.  I hope it doesn't get worse.  Sore backs are the worst!
 

I have not been able to run the past few days because my back has been hurting so bad.  I texted the team yesterday.  Only Maggie said she was going to come.  And she ended up cancelling this morning due to "woman issues", whatever that means.  So my wife and I headed up to Usery shortly after 5:30am.  I wasn't sure how my back would do, so I went as slow as possible.  Vickie had a minute or two head start on me.  I didn't catch her until after a half mile.  She stayed pretty close to me as I was afraid to run very fast.  I decided I would do 2 miles up and come back, but my back started to hurt.  I kept pushing myself, and then I saw some wild Salt River horses.  I crossed the street and took some pictures.  My wife caught up to me.  I figured this was a good place to turn around.  She wanted to keep going so she told me to call her when I was done.  I slowly made my way back down.  When I was done, I called her and she said she was feeling good and wanted to keep going.  So I hung out in the Jeep for a while playing Words with Friends.  Then I went for a hike in the desert to see if I could find more horses.  I couldn't.  My wife texted me when she was 3/4 of a mile away, so I turned around.  She ended up beating me back to the Jeep, and we drove back home, but I kept my eyes open for horses.  I spotted some by the new stop sign they installed.  We stopped to take more pictures.  Then we drove back and saw some more about a quarter mile down the road.  We stopped again and followed them until they reached the other group of horses.  There was 22 total.

I need to catch up on my blogging!  Today was Veteran's Day, and it seems there were a lot of people staying home from work.  I saw half of the ward out on my run today!

I got out later than usual.  It was after 9am.  My back was feeling better.  I stopped a few times to take pictures.  The first time was when I saw three old airplanes flying together.  Next is when I saw a coyote.  What was he doing up so late?  I remember stopping one more time, but I don't remember why.  It wasn't for a picture.

Okay.  Now I'm caught up on my blogging.  Yesterday I took my Wolf scout and the Bear scouts on what will be not only our final hike, but our final den meeting.  We'll have pack meeting next week, and the following week is Thanksgiving.  After that, Bishop wants us to concentrate on family time in the month of December.  So luckily, I was able to get all the requirements done for our lone wolf to earn his Wolf.  We hiked up Hilltop and we all had garbage grabbers so we could pick up garbage along the way.  It wasn't that bad.  My wife had done the same thing with her Activity Girls a couple of weeks ago.  We got up to the top just as the sun was going down.  We did a skit and ate snacks, and then hiked back down.  We dropped off all the boys at their houses and when we got to the new kid's house, we saw a moving truck in front of it.  I remembered that his mom recently gave a talk in sacrament meeting, as bishoprics commonly pick the new families to speak.  She said for some reason all of their stuff was still in Maryland.  They had been here for a few months!!  Well, apparently today was the day that their stuff finally arrived.

After that I got ready to go to Young Women's in Excellence night.  My daughter Emily had worked real hard all year to earn her Personal Progress medallion.  My wife's best friend would work with her every Wednsesday and Saturday, and slowly but surely they checked off all the modified requirements for her to earn it.  All the young women were really impressed and I was touched at how inclusive they are for my special little girl.

After the program ended I saw the parents of the boy whose family's belongings had arrived that day.  I asked if they were glad all their stuff was here and the father said yes and that he was hoping to recruit some guys to help unload the piano.  I offered to help and I put a blast out on our ward Facebook page to see who else could help.  Between that and his recruiting we had 8 men show up.  But then Danny Brinkerhoff practically moved it himself.  He had his piano dolly and he told everyone to back off.  He lifted up one end of the piano, kicked the dolly underneath it and wiggled the piano into place on top of the dolly.  It was quite impressive.  There was also a large wooden armoire behind the piano that he couldn't get to.  So somehow I got on the wrong end of the dolly for that one.  Oh my gosh, it was heavy!  I pulled it in the house mostly by myself and regretted it because it kind of made my back sore.

Anyway, that was a long story to say that my back is getting better, but every day so far I start to feel it during the second loop of my run.  All in all, it was a decent run, though.

For most of the last school year I would pick up Emily from school on Fridays.  Now that she's in junior high, I haven't done it at all.  But she wanted me to yesterday, so I finally did.  We would mostly always go to Taco Bell.  That's where we went yesterday.

I texted the team to see who was running today.  It would just be me, Vickie, and Mike.  Mike said he would pick us up at 5am.  I set my alarm for 4:02am.  But then I didn't get up when it went off.  I thought I would be safe to sleep in a little longer.  I should know by now that I need at least an hour for my bowels to wake up properly.

I managed to get some out before Mike got there and thought I was good.  But guess what?  I had Taco Bell yesterday!  Remember?  So by the time we got to Usery, I asked Mike if he had any TP.  Luckily he had two rolls under the seat.  I went off in the desert behind a bush and popped a squat.  So gross.  Vickie had already left and Mike hollered at me that he was leaving.  He wanted to know if he could lock the truck up.  I told him I had all my stuff, so he was good.  Mike left and I finished up.  I placed the roll of TP on his dashboard and finished putting on my gear.

According to Strava, Vickie had a three quarter mile head start on me by the time I started running.  Mike was right behind her.  Mike runs much faster than I do, so I only saw him as he was coming down.  When I got to the intersection, I saw pylons in the middle of the road.  They looked like they went at least a half a mile up the road where the road bends.  I hoped that was all the further they went because cars were driving on the shoulder and I had to get off the road every time a car came by.  Well, I got to the first half mile and could see that they went to the next half mile.  I felt like texting the group to see how long they go, but I didn't want to wake up those that didn't run today.  I got to mile one and could see that they kept going.  That's when I knew in my heart they went all the way to the top!  Now, I usually get off the road whenever a cyclist comes by, so it's not that big of a deal, but there are much more cars than cyclists, so it was like every five minutes!  And there were places that the dirt is more like sand, or rocks, or sloping.  So it was no fun.

Speaking of cyclists, there was not a single one until I got to 0.15 miles from the top.  I thought that was smart of them to avoid riding here because you can't get off the road on a road bike.  But I saw a lot more cyclists making their way up the hill and some going downhill while I was running down.

After a while of running I was starting to get worried that I hadn't seen my wife yet.  I was hoping that she's just getting faster, not that she had been plowed over by a vehicle and thrown in a ditch somewhere.  I saw Mike coming down at the 3 and a quarter mile mark, which means he was a mile ahead of me.  I was going to ask him if he had seen Vickie, but just then I saw her behind him.  It was still dark out so I couldn't tell if she was going uphill or downhill, but she was on the other side of the road.  She needs to start wearing a blinkly light.  I was like, "Did she beat me to the top?"  But I realized that she was still going up and I finally caught her a quarter of a mile before the top.  She said that she was sick of getting forced off the road all the time, so she switched sides.  I actually did that twice, but both times I was too nervous that I wouldn't see the vehicle behind me and would get hit, so I went back to the regular side, against traffic.

I ran back down.  My back seems to be back to normal, but my pace was a little slower than it has been in the weeks leading up to Ragnar.  But, it was decent.  I'll take it.  Mike finished a mile and a half ahead of me.  I finished 0.9 miles ahead of Vickie.  We waited for her to finish this time.  She's getting stronger and stronger.

I didn't run yesterday.  I got dressed to, but I got busy.  Yesterday was a very busy day.  And since I was still wearing my running clothes all day yesterday, all night last night, and this morning, it was no problem to get out today.  I headed out to do my normal two loops, but when I got to the Floodway I noticed that they had finally finished mowing down the final bit of creosote trees along the west bank of the Floodway.  Sounds like somone else also had a very busy yesterday. 

We used to see only one coyote.  But when they mowed down all the trees, four of them moved in together and hung around the remaining bushes.  Now I wonder where they will go.  Hopefully not in my backyard with my chickens.  So instead of turning around at Brown, I decided to cross Brown and run up to Greenfield just to see if there were bushes over there for the coyotes.  Looks like they got those, too.  I took a picture of the Floodway and then took a picture of the beautiful sunrise.

After turning back around at Greenfield I ran my normal route.  I felt ok.  I even saw my wife out running and I teased her for starting to run when she saw me.  She said she was doing quarter mile intervals and she just reached the quarter mile mark.

It started raining yesterday around 3pm and hasn't stopped since.  Sometimes it's just a light drizzle.  Sometimes it's a downpour with lightning and thunder.  This morning I waited until 9am when it seemed like there was a break in the action.  It was still a light drizzle, but it felt good.  The Floodway looked to have a foot of water sitting in the bottom of it.  There were ducks everywhere.  I saw a few people walking their dogs.  I got to where Jeff usually is and saw his stuff, but he was gone.  He usually doesn't have that much stuff.  Mostly the clothes on his back and some water bottles.  But there was a bag of stuff there today.  About 0.4 miles before being done it started to rain just a little bit harder.  But it didn't get very bad, and my pace was a lot faster than yesterday.

I could hear it raining every time I woke up last night.  But it stopped momentarily while I was running this morning.  My back was a little sore before the run, but it didn't bother me at all while running.  In fact, I felt stronger than I have in a while and my pace was even quicker than yesterday.
 

Yesterday while I was walking Herbie, my knee started to hurt.  I was hoping it was just the cold weather.  Maybe it is.

We had 6 runners from the Ragnar team show up this morning.  There was only one that didn't come that was invited.  That was Maggie.  Vickie, Mike, Bryan, Glen, and I showed up in one vehicle, and Alyssa got there 5 seconds before us in hers.  She was real worried because the furthest she's run is 4 miles since our last Ragnar two years ago. 

Vickie took off before everyone else.  Alyssa needed a headlamp, and luckily Mike always brings extra.  Mike took off, and after helping Alyssa adjust the strap of the headlamp, I took off.  Then Bryan and Glen left together followed shortly by Alyssa.  I ran out of the parking lot and about 40 feet up the road when all of the sudden my knee started to hurt real bad.  I immdediately stopped to try and stretch some more.  Glen and Bryan passed me, and Glen asked if I was all right.  After stretching briefly, I started to run again, but this time much slower. 

I was going to switch my batteries out in my headlamp this morning, but when I opened it up, I realized I needed triple A batteries and I only have double A's.  So, I ran with a dim light again.  But that worked out to my advantage when I caught up to Vickie at 1.6 miles and grabbed her behind.  She jumped pretty good.  Hee hee hee.

I could see Alyssa's light behind me as she was working her way up the hill.  After I passed Vickie, I couldn't see her anymore.  At 0.3 miles from the top I saw Mike coming back down.  That meant he was 0.6 miles ahead of me.  I got to the top and headed back down.  That's when I felt the wind blowing and it was kinda cold.  Luckily it was just at the top.  I passed my wife at the 4 mile mark, pretty close to the same place Mike passed by me.  Then I saw Bryan coming up behind me.  He passed me up and then I saw Alyssa.  About 10 seconds later I looked back and thought I saw Glen.  I kept expecing Glen to pass me, but he never did.  I looked back a couple of more times and his light was about 20 yards behind me, so I started to wonder if he was ok.  Now it was starting to get more light out, so I looked back again and realized it was Alyssa.  Ha!

Glen did finally pass me with one mile to go.  At about a half mile to go I stepped on a shredded piece of tire, and the reinforcing wires stuck to my shoe.  I tried kicking it off, but it wouldn't release.  So I stopped and pulled it out and threw it to the side of the road.  I decided to wait for Alyssa to catch up to me and we ran the last half mile in together.  She did pretty good on the downhill.

I texted Vickie to see what she wanted us to do.  She said that she was at 6.25 miles so we could do whatever.  I was going to say let's go get her, but everyone was talking, so I decided to wait for a break in the action, which there never was.  Vickie also texted me a selfie of herself and a shovel that she found.  She ended up carrying the shovel with her for the last two miles.

After a while I was getting worried because if she was at 6.25, that means she should only have 1.15 miles to go and she was averaging a 14 min. pace coming down.  Well, it turns out she actually went 4 miles and then turned around.  So she ran 8 miles, the longest she's every run.  She showed me up today.

It was a fun run.  I'm glad the construction pylons were gone this week.  I wish my kne wasn't hurting, but my pace wasn't too bad.  Next week we're going up to Utah for Thanksgiving.  We'll see how that affects my running schedule.  And I'm totally bummed that the BOSA donut challenge is next Saturday, and we'll be out of town!!! 
 

Last night we went to my wife's best friend's house for dinner.  There was a lot of people there and I didn't want to use the bathroom so I held it in the whole time.  When we got home I immediately took Herbie on a walk.  I couldn't hold it any longer so I went on the side of the trail.  This morning I could still see the stain.

I wore my trail shoes today because I packed my regular running shoes.  We're going to Utah today and will spend the rest of the week at my sister's house in Enoch.  It's always a good time, but there's going to be a lot of snow this year, so I'm worried.

So today I turned north on the Floodway path and saw a coyote in the Floodway.  I kept running and I saw another close to it.  Then I thought I saw another, but I quickly noticed it was a dog.  I was too far away to see the owner.  I got closer and recognized that it was Gordon.  The coyotes were cautiously keeping their distance as was Gordon, but neither were running away.  I then saw Gordon's owner.  He was trying to call Gordon back to him.  But Gordon doesn't always listen to him.  So when I got close enough I called him.  He came darting toward me.  It was cool.  Then his owner struggled to get his leash on him because his hands were so cold and he couldn't push the metal clip open.  He finally got it and we talked about coyotes for a minute.  Then I took back off and as I was getting close to Brown, I saw a Flood Control truck coming down the path.  I flagged them down and told them about the coyotes.  They probably thought I was weird.  I then continued running my loop and when I got to the other side I stopped to take a picture of the coyotes.  They ran to other side of the Floodway.  Not sure if the workers saw them or not, but they probably did if they were looking.  When I got to Adobe I had caught up to the workers even though they were on the other side of the Floodway.  They have to stop and unlock each gate as they drive down and then lock them back up again.  I passed the RWCD well which is the half way point between Adobe and University when they passed me again.  I caught back up to them at University and was running back over towards them.  The kid that was locking up the gates had to zig and zag because I almost ran into him.  Ha! 

Jeff wasn't there today.  I hope he's gone to a shelter.  It's getting too cold to be sleeping outside.

Like every year for the last few years, we rented an RV and went up to my sister's house in Enoch, UT for the week of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving Day was the first run I did.  It was snowing.  I headed east from her house out to the main road that parallels the I-15 Freeway.  I realized that if I headed north I would have snow blowing in my face.  But it was either snow blowing in my face now or later, so I chose now.  I ran another half mile up the main road and stopped when I saw that Strava was at 1.0 miles.  Then I looked over to the Freeway and saw an undercrossing.  I decided to run there.  I took a couple of pictures and headed back.  I felt better on the way back because there was no snow blowing in my face and it was downhill.  But when I turned on my sister's street that snow was in my face again.  All I had on was my regular running clothes, a pair of sweat pants, and a hoodie.  And one time I stopped on the way out and my glassed immediately fogged up, so I had to put them in my pocket.  Maybe snow running would be fun if I had the proper gear.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My second and last run in Utah.  We celebrate Christmas with my side of the family right after Thanksgiving.  My family likes to call it Thanksmas, but I say it should be called Christgiving, because why take Christ out of Christmas?  Anyway, we all went to IHOP in the morning.  All 28 of us.  Then I had a small window to go running while everyone else wrapped presents. 

It was no longer snowing, but snow was all over the ground.  I decided to run to the culvert underpass again.  I wanted to get more miles than Thursday.  I took a back road to get out to the main road.  It's almost a straight shot to the culvert, so it shaves some distance off from how I ran it Thursday, but it was covered in snow, so I had to run slower.  I got to the underpass and ran to the opposite side of the freeway.  I then ran on a dirt (but mostly snow) road north parallel with the I-15 Freeway.  So if anyone was heading north and saw a guy running in a black hoodie and dark blue sweats just north of Cedar City, that was me.  I ran until I got tired of running and then turned around.  When I crossed under the freeway again I decided to run along the main road instead of taking the short cut.  I ran against traffic, but luckily there were only a few cars.  I stopped when I got to my sister's street to make sure the traffic was clear.  That's when I saw two fast runners, one boy and one girl, behind me.  I waved at them as I crossed the street.  Then I finished up and enjoyed the rest of Christgiving with my family.

We're home now.  It's 1 in the morning on Dec. 2nd.  I drove all day Sunday.  Now I think I'll go to bed.