I'm retired from racing. Really.

PM- missed my lunch run due to work, so went to the gym in time for the world cup game. Felt great during the run, starting at 7 min pace. At mile 5, I decided to do a 6:30 mile, then 6:00 mile. 8 miles total. Then drove home for the second half. It was a pretty good game, even if the US lost. It was 96 deg and very humid outside, so a treadmill run was nice, too. 8 miles, 55 min.

PM- Paris Mtn with Jason and Jim. It was 95 deg and very humid when we started, with a heat index well over 100. It was still over 90 when we finished. Ugh. Jim always pushes the pace on these runs, and so it was pretty quick. 11 miles and 1300 ft climb in 1:45. Jason even went swimming at North Lake. Tomorrow will be an easy day, then I have a 5k race on Friday. Easy run Sat, then fly Monday to Utah to drive to Colorado for Hardrock week next week. Should be fun.

Lunch- ran the trails behind GE with Jim and Jason. It was insanely hot and humid- I was really struggling on the way out. Fortunately, at the Sam's Club turnaround, the blackberry bushes were in full swing- we stopped for 6-7 minutes, stuffing our faces with ripe, delicious blackberries. I probably ate 40 or more. The run back was more enjoyable as the headwind cooled us. 45 minutes running, I'll call it 5.5 miles. Slow and easy rest day.

Ran RWB shoes 5k. Felt ok, finished in 16:40 or so. It's a pretty fast race. Winning time was 14:16, and I was 5th GE runner. Then helped the kids run a kids race, went swimming, took a nap, and went to a nice neighborhood BBQ and fireworks display.

AM- Slept in a bit till 6:30, then went for an easy hour jog. Nice temps, upper 60's. Started at 7:40's, finished at 7:10's. Now I'm packing for my trip on Monday. The rest week has me feeling pretty good, though I'm sure the high altitude and climbing of Hardrock are going to be rough on me. The current plan is to do 10 hours of running on Tuesday, 5 hrs on Wed, 2-3 hrs on Thur, hike Grant-Swamp pass for iRF at the start of the race, then pace Stuart Air for 20+ hrs on Fri/Sat. I'm figuring 125+ miles, 45,000 ft climbing, and 45+ hrs total running, all of which will be new records. All at high elevation. 

Day 1 softrock. Cody and I started at KT aid station, went up to Island Lake (gorgeous) and Grant-Swamp Pass, ran down the backside (the top part is ridiculously steep and rocky) to Chapman aid where Beth, Tim, and Azusa crewed us. Then hiked up Oscar's pass. Not a very fun pass, plus it started hailing rather hard on us near the top and over into American Basin, which is a very pretty trail. Finished in 7:23 with 5300 climb and 7200 descent. What a neat course.

Softrock day 2- went from Telluride, up over Virginius Pass, then down to Governor's Basin. The truck broke down on Bethany so Cody and I had to run a little ways towards Ouray. Just under 10 miles in 4:16 with 4200 ft climb and 3400 descent. Virginius was much better to run than Oscar's pass.

Day 3 softrock- ran 3 miles up Bear Creek/Engineer with Cody and Bethany. What a neat trail cut out of the side of a cliff. 6 miles RT in 3:10 with 1700 ft climb and drop.

AM- ran up to Grant Swamp with a satellite phone and camera to take pics of the leaders and report their times to iRF. That was fun. 6 miles, 3000 ft climb, 3000 ft descent. Cody was supposed to come but preferred to go to the ER instead with acute liver failure, though he ended up ok.

PM- paced Stuart Air 58.5 miles at Hardrock 100, from Ouray to finish. Hopefully I'll write more later, but it was a great experience. We ran into Timmy Olson at Engineer and summitted with him in a crazy lightning storm (strikes 200 yards from us) with Timmy using my headlamp, ran into Grouse in a driving rain, went over Handies with it raining/windy bringing me close to hypothermia, and ran down to Burrows. Stu hurt his foot/ankle here so walked most of the rest of the way. The section to Pole Creek was long as always, but we laid down in a sunny field for 10 min once the sun was up. The rest was pretty slow but very scenic and Stu was determined to finish despite pain that repeatedly brought him to his knees in tears (literally). The climbs and descents are ridiculously steep. Stu finished just under 36 hours and 26th place. We ran together for 58.5 mles in 24:46 (my longest time run ever, and longest run with someone ever). It was a priveledge to see Stuart finish. 17800 climbing, 16500 descent.

Finished the week with 97 miles with 32000 ft climbing and 31800 descent in 42 hrs 4 min. Wow, over 40 hours of hiking/running. The latter 3 are all certainly records.

Stayed at the generous Rob Murphy's house before flying home Monday. Famous FRB-ers Jake and Andrea were there, too, so I was finally able to meet them.

Lunch- 7. Slow, but no soreness.

Lunch- 9 with the guys. Legs were very fatigued- I could keep up on the downs and kind of the flats, but didn't stand a chance on the up. No soreness, though.

Lunch- 7 slow in 58 min. Jason, one of the lunch run group stalwarts, told us today he is moving in 6 weeks. Boo. He was even voted the funniest lunch run member, so we'll need a new vote.

Put a few details about last week's adventures. I'll add more with pics later. Maybe.

Lunch- planned on 10, stopped at 6 as it's recovery week and I wanted to go eat free fruit.

AM 6 before heading to the temple for youth baptisms. Unlike the short trip when we were in Utah, it's now an 8 hr trip.

Lunch- did a bit longer run than normal, 11.5 miles or so. Still not fully recovered from Hardrock week.

AM 8 with Dan

PM usual loop at paris mtn with Aaron, Lynn, and Jason. Still a bit fatigued. Started splashing through the numerous mud pits half way through and got very muddy by the end. That was fun.

AM- 8 at ICAR by myself

Lunch- late lunch run with a big group of 8. It was sunny and hot, hottest day in a long time. I was ok for the first hour, then struggled. Finished with 10 miles.

Lunch- 10 with the guys, including a run to the bamboo forest near Sam's club to pick some blackberries. Not as many as a few weeks ago, but still delicious.

AM 9 at Icar. 

Lunch- 10. Friday. At last. I'm doing the work of 4 people at work, so at least the time passes quickly. Very quickly. Next week I was hoping for 100 miles but I have a 16 hr test on Tuesday and a lunch meeting with my new team lead on Wed, so this is doubtful.

AM Marci asked me to not go run in the mtns like I planned, so I ran the normal roads around home. It was hot, I was somewhat tired, and my one water bottle ran out with an hour left, but I kept trucking along. Slowly. Finished with 21 miles in 2:40 or so. Not a bad week considering my leg fatigue, lack of sleep, and how busy I am with life.

Am 13.5 around home. Ran into Jason F so did 6 miles with him. Now Marci and I are heading to Columbia for Stake temple day while a kind ward member watches our four kids for seven hours.

AM- 10 at Icar, plus a little on a golf course and dirt trails I found. Turkey sighting

Lunch 10. Not too hot today, low 80's

AM- Icar run, with a bit of faster stuff. Wasn't actually too fast- haven't looked at splits, but ran generally 6-7 min pace over hilly terrain for 8 miles. 12 total.

PM- 8, the last bit with Rob.

Today was one of the strangest occurances on a run in my life. I slept in 30 min rather than run, and I heard it start raining at 6 am. By 8 am, they were issuing flash flood notices as we had 3 inches of rain with 1-2 additional inches coming per hour. It let up by noon, when Aaron, Jim and I went running.

We did the normal Oak Grove. However, we saw something strange walking in the middle of the road. As we approached, we discovered it was a lobster. Not a crawdad or anything, a full-up lobster, probably 8 inches long walking down the road. We looked at it, tried to get it out of the road (it wouldn't grab our stick), then kept going. 30 yards further on, there was another lobster in the road. What in the world? How are there two lobsters walking down the road in the middle of South Carolina? Easily on my top 10 list for strangest things I've ever seen on a run. So strange, unexpected. Ran 7 drizzly miles, then xt.