Old Man Still running

12 hours of sleep did wonders.  I did fall asleep listening to the World Series on the radio and ended up dreaming about baseball all night.   With 24 hours passed since my JJ100 finish, I can check for any damage. Muscles came out OK.  I can go downstairs without grabbing the rail.  Just a little quad soreness.  I noticed a bruised left heel.  No blisters.   Some soreness in the knees and hips, but that is normal.   Looks like I will recover very fast.

Well, the racing season is over for me.   It has been a good year.   I set PRs at these distances: 5K, 10K, marathon, and 100-mile. I broke course PRs at these 100s: Tahoe Rim, Wasatch, Bear, and Pony Express.    Seven 100-mile finishes for 29 career finishes.

I had very restless sleep last night with strange running dreams out on the Javelina course.  I published my race report and I guess included too many of my grouchy feelings that I kept to myself during the race.  Some runner I've never personally met from Idaho sent me a blasting email this morning.  He wasn't at the race but blasted me, telling me I should have got 1st place for rudeness that I discourage other runners, and am rude to pacers, volunteers, and other runners.  Wow, that was strange.  Despite all my grouchy internal feelings during those tough hours, I never said a rude thing to anyone, (unless you count the "shhh...I'm resting" when a runner wouldn't be quiet as I was trying to take a quick nap.)   Well, a good lesson.  You never know what people think when they read your stuff.   I don't like to sugar-coat my race reports.  I tell it as it happened and try to learn from it.  

I do constantly worry about being grouchy to my pacers.  I think I appologized ten times Saturday night for not being happy to be around.   But my pacers are always my friends, many times my closest friends in the world.  They know what to expect.  Good times and bad.   I try very hard to treat them well during the bad times.   But still, I will try to "drop then like a bad penny" if they turn their back to get a head start.  He, he.

The runner told me to get out of the sport if I didn't enjoy it.   Well, if it was easy and didn't have these tough times, I wouldn't enjoy it.   That is what life is about.  You learn from the tough times, make mistakes, evaluate behavior, and then try to do better next time.  So, I won't let it bug me, and move on. 

But....if you are working an aid station and run out of gels when I need one, watch out, I might not smile.

Feeling a ton better this morning.  I keep forgetting that it has only been three days since I finished the 100-miler.  Calves still a little sore.  Both little toes came out with crushed toe nails.  Didn't notice that during the race.  Oh well, toe nails are over-rated.

Came across the picture below again.  This cracks me up everytime I see it.  This is a picture of me and my older brother, Bob (also an ultrarunner), and sister.   Taken in 1960.   I'd like to see my brother run in those boots.

I travelled up to Logan, UT, to again run in the First Dam 10k to help celebrate Jim Kern's first running anniversary.  A year ago, by chance I met my childhood buddy at this race and he embarked in getting fit and starting to run.  He's had a good year and made amazing progress.  His health is now much better.  It was great to spend the morning with him.

I love coming up to Cache Valley.  It is really an amazing place and the people are so friendly.  The race is put on very well and I was impressed to see how many people stayed around for the awards.  Ribbons six deep in the age groups helped that.  They help encourage kids to be race and it was nice to see so many happy youth involved in running.  Well done!

As for my race, I had not run a step in six days since finishing my 100-mile race.  So this was an interesting experience to do a 10K as a recovery run.   It had been a few months since I have even run a sub-7-minute mile.  

This course is somewhat challenging because the first three miles are uphill.  My lungs really get a workout.  I was breathing hard the entire race.  I really need to do more tempo runs as part of my workouts.

One thing I really enjoy about this race is that it runs down Crockett Ave.  I am able to run by my ancestral home, my great-great grandfather's house.

My mile splits were: 6:38, 7:27, 7:24, 7:01, 7:05, 7:10, and 1:28 bringing it in for a 44:11 18th overall out of 112 starters.  This was my third fastest career 10k.   I beat my last year's time on this course by 18 seconds and won the old-man's division, 50-59 (11 guys).

It was a fun morning, ideal temperatures, and nice to be running again.  I noticed that for my last five races including this 10k and four 100-milers that I finished in the top 17% or better overall.  Good consistancy.

Davy Crockett, Jim Kern, Spencer Francis, Laura Francis