I'm retired from racing. Really.

Am. Raing still so stayed in. 4 miles ez, 6 miles in 38:40, then 1 mile cool down. That is all

Lunch. Rain finally stopped. 9 with Jim, Aaron, and rob. Sadly, we saw 2 very squished lobsters in the middle of the road today. The SC lobster invasion didn't last long and was a brutal failure. Unless those were just the scouts for the main invasion force. I still have no idea how lobsters made it 200 miles inland.

The rain gage in my backyard (the kiddie pool) says it rained over 5 inches in 30 hours. Weather.com says we got 8.8 inches in 3 days. Not bad.

AM- Camped out with the daughters last night, so had a bit of a late start to my run. Ran out on Georgia road. Felt pretty ok on the way out. The way back had a headwind and lots of gradual, grinding uphills but I found myself able to click off 6:45 miles without problems, and the flat/no wind miles were 6:15-6:30. Nice to feel good. In fact, I was telling people just this week that my legs have never felt better than "B" since I got back from Hardrock, which was really getting me worried for Laurel Valley run next weekend. But, these past two good days of running finally have me feeling like my race goals might be in reach, esp. since they were at the end of a 100 mile week with LOTS of work stress and very little sleep. Anyways, finished with 14.5 miles in 1:45.

No lobster sightings, though.

AM- 11 around Icar. Skipped the lunch run as I had to get home a bit early to feed the missionaries dinner. Of course, they were subsequently almost an hour late.

Semi-taper week in preparation for my third running of Laurel Valley 35 mile on Sat.

AM 8. Was planning on 10 but was slow and didn't have enough time. It's taper week so I don't care.

Lunch 8. Was planning on 10 but was very slow and tired. It's taper week so I don't care.

Lunch- 6 slow and easy. Feeling a bit better than yesterday. Hot today.

Lunch- 5 ez

Been very tired and had to be at work early, so no morning run. Running a lab test all day, so no afternoon run. Hadn't gotten home before 9 pm for the past few days, so no evening run. Goose egg. That's ok- taper.

It rained all day today and supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. The SeaBass (Seth and Barry Aid Station) will get rained on tonight. Those two guys are driving up 90 minutes tonight, backpacking in 2 hrs, sleeping in the rain, and doing the reverse tomorrow- all to deliver some gu's and water to Jason and me at a 30 second stop. That's a good running buddy. Anyways, it's going to be rainy and cool (low 65, high 75). The temps will be great, the humidity will stink, there will be mud/water, and the thousands of stairs and bridges will be very slippery. In other words, time goals might be out the window. Hopefully the rain will keep the spider webs away, at least, or else I'll be running through 1000 or more webs tomorrow. Industrial strength webs.

Anyways, Jason picks me up at 2:50 am in the morning to drive to the race. That is nuts. And isn't going to help with my sleep depravation, either. :)

5:58:43 despite a painful cramping quad the last 2 hours. That one hurt but I got it done. In the 20 year history of the race, only six guys have broken the 6 hour mark. Well, now make that 7. Pleased to have achieved a four year goal. Here was my short description on facebook:

Happy to achieve a 4 year goal by finally breaking the 6 hr mark at Laurel Valley run yesterday. Ran the entire way by myself, was aided by some awesome friends at SeaBass (Seth and Barry aid station), dragged a cramping quad for 2 hrs, and ran through many hundreds of spider webs. Race went great, then bad, then painful, and I had no shortage of excuses if I missed my 6 hr goal (which I thought I would). But as long as you can move, you move forward and let the end settle itself. In the end, I dragged my useless right leg up the last 500 steps and across the finish line ahead of my long-sought goal time. Lesson learned- push for your goals even when they seem in doubt, and you can achieve more than you think.

Per my usual pre-race tradition, I didn't sleep one minute last night. I'm rather tired and heading to bed now. 

Lunch- big group today. I ran 5.5 miles and was pretty dang sore and tired. Apparently we have fresh water lobsters now, as the road around Oak Grove lake had 15 or more squished along the way.

We've had lots of rain recently, with 2 weekends in a row of 6+ inches in a few hours leading to flash floods. The storm this weekend washed away cars, blew up a bldg, destroyed roads, flooded lots of areas, and even killed 2 people. Pretty intense. I slept soundly through the whole thing because I was so tired Saturday night.

Long day in Atlanta, no run.

Lunch 8 miles. Legs felt somewhat better but my left ankle is quite painful. It might be these shoes, not sure.

Lunch- 9. My ankle really hurts the first 15 min of the run, then warms up. I think something is wrong with it.

AM- An hour at Icar with Jason. Only 2 more runs with him before he moves. We'll really miss him.

Lunch- Another hour. Fresh fruit Friday in the gym, only 2 left this summer.

Saw the most recent Running Times today- it had an article about Sasha Pachev and his running marathons in Crocs.

Feeling beat up (left ankle, right knee, plus others) and needed to sleep in. Took the family for a few hours of Ultimate Frisbee instead. Definitely some running there.

Lunch- 10. Ankle felt better today, but still have some other pains and I'm still tired. I forget how long it takes to recover from hard races.

Lunch- 9.5

PM- 9.5 at PM with Aaron, Lynn, and Seth. Got stung by a yellow jacket and made several pit stops- yup, one of those kind of days. But the hot weather ended up missing us as a rainstorm pushed it out. Always good to run on dirt.

Am 8 at icar

Lunch 10 more, with 6 miles behind GE. Very hot and humid today. Plus, 37 miles in 25 hrs make for a tired Jon.

AM- Met Dan and Jim, ran to the lake for a workout. Wanted 6x1 lap (about .86 miles each) with 50 seconds moderate running rest (i.e. very active recovery). First 4 laps were 5:08, 4:58, 5:00, 5:10. I really died the last one as they were 20+ seconds faster than me. I took a 4 minute run to recover, then tried 1 more and was happy to get another 5:00 before calling it a day. 10 miles or so total.

Lunch- busy, wasn't able to get in a run. 

Talked to my Bishop for a while last night. I found out his house was in the middle of the huge, flash-flood storm last week. His neighborhood got 11 inches of rain in under 2 hours. That is insane. His house flooded, some of his yard washed away, his neighbors cars were under water and had to call the fire department to rescue them. That is some rain.

AM- 8 on TM

Lunch- 9 with the guys. It was one of the hottest weeks of the summer this week. And humid, of course.

AM 16 miles in just over 2 hrs. Not really much to say about it.

My right knee is still hurting. I've decided it's a leftover from my quad cramps in laurel valley that aggravated or misaligned my knee. It hasn't been happy since.

AM- 10

Lunch- 8 with a small group

PM- Today was a rare 3-run day (maybe my second only). We have approval to officially open the trails behind GE into a marked trail but had to do some minor trail work. 7 of us ran out, moved rocks, ran a bit more. 4.5 miles running. Wore the same shirt as this morning and, boy, it stank. I thought so, and everyone else was complaining, too.

Lunch- the big day finally arrived: Jason's last day at GE Greenville. The biggest group of lunch runners ever gathered, all 16 of us (plus non-running Todd) where we listened to a song Jason sang for us (with custom lyrics, of course), then we all went for a nice run, including the hill neighborhood and a visit to the peninsula. Picture 16 guys running down a road- impressive sight. I did 9 miles. Jason will be missed.

PM- had to skip Paris Mtn tonight as I instead spent the afternoon at the pediatric orthopedic doctor. Our youngest broke a bone near her elbow and we thought she might need surgery. Fortunately, she just ended up with a nice, purple cast. She's already used to it.

Ended up getting 6 ez miles while watching the kids at soccer practice.

AM- 10 miles at Icar. Ran some of the end ones faster. DOn't know how many, don't know how fast. 

Lunch- 8

I've got to stop waking up from stress at 4 am and get more rest. Unfortunately, tomorrow is going to be an 18 hour work day. That's not going to help any, being at work from 7:30 am till 1:30 am.

AM- 8.5 or so with Moss at Icar.

Had a lab test all day, so no lunch run. The test was supposed to run until 1 am and then 8 hours again Friday, but we had problems and ended at 5 pm, so that was nice. I need the sleep.

AM-  9 on tm. 

Lunch- 7 more. Last fresh fruit friday of the year, and it was a good one- delicious blueberries, grapes, watermelon, pineapple, and oranges.

20 mountain miles on FHT with Jason. Same run as I did with Barry here http://jon.fastrunningblog.com/blog--New-post-on-my-GSR-page-nbsp-Awesome-/09-03-2011.html

Except 35 min slower today, rather hot out, and my right knee still hurts. Jason thinks I have tendinitis. We bet lunch on how many people we would see in our 4:15 run. He guessed 5, I guessed more. We saw exactly 5 so I had to buy. It hasn't rained for a week, so the stairs and bridges were perfectly dry and not at all slippery. That is the first time I've ever seen that on FHT.