I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 8 ez.  Supposed to start raining soon- the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee are supposed to dump up to 6-10 inches on us in the next 48 hrs.

Lunch- 11 xt

Lunch- 10 xt

PM- 13 miles at Paris Mtn with Barry, normal loop plus fire tower.  Only 75 deg, which was wonderful, plus my legs were fresh from only 1 run this week.  2000 ft climbing.  No walking the uphills- and my foot didn't even hurt.

No baby yet.  Marci is due on Friday, but it looks like we'll keep with tradition of coming late.  I do have a 2 mile race Fri night, so hopefully they don't overlap! 

Also, I registered for Umstead 100 today, which is next March.  Actually, I didn't get in the regular registration due to a computer glitch (race filled up in ~10 minutes!!!), but then saw they have a competitive entry procedure, so got accepted that way.  Should be fun- it's a well run, very fast 100 miler (oxymoron?) only 4 hrs from my house.  I'll be aiming for a smoking fast time, knock on wood.  Very excited. 

AM- 4 run, 6 xt.  No foot pain, which is a great sign.

Lunch- run 8 more.   

I have a 2 mile race tomorrow.  Haven't run one of those in 14 years or so.

Here is a good article about the past 10 years, after 9/11.  Really makes you step back and think about everything. 

AM- 6 ez

PM- BMW Performance Classic 2 mile race.  The only BMW factory in America is in Greenville, and they have a sweet track where they teach driving skills on a multitude of surfaces (slick track, wet track, curvy, hilly, etc).  I felt sore and tired, but wanted to do my best at what was obviously a young guy's race (quite a few high schools showed up).  At the start, I found myself just behind the lead pack, about 25th place by 400 yards, and just caught the guys who fell off pace.  I didn't get passed after the first few minutes, but just don't have the speed the young guys do to stay with the pack.  First mile was slight downhill and was 5:07, where I pulled slightly ahead of Masters runner and teammate Philippe.  Second mile was more uphill with a headwind, though I bagged 2 or 3 more guys and ran 5:30.  10:37 total, good enough for 17th place out of 659 runners (Garmin's seemed to measure 2.04 miles, which would give me 10:24 for 2 miles).  11 guys ahead of me were teenagers, 4 were in their 20's, and only my co-worker Jim was in his 30's.  Like I said, a young guy's race.  Enjoyable, esp. the tons of pretzals, cookies, fruit, and sandwiches at the finish, plus they had the results online by the time I got home.  My pregnant wife (9 months pregnant today!) and kids did a great job cheering, too.  6 miles total.  

On a related note, GE had won the open division for 52 straight Corporate Shield races, competing against the other Greenville companies.  The streak dated back to 2005.  However, at the race 3 weeks ago, Michelin won.  I skipped the race to do the Xterra race.  If I had run, we would have won.  So, I promised our team captain a new era of GE domination.  We won today's race- a new streak has started. 

Now it's time to look at what's happening at Wasatch 100 for the first time today, then shower and sleep before my last long run tomorrow before UROC.  2 weeks! 

AM- Paris Mtn with Barry.  We ran every single trail in the park with minimal overlap (I think there are ~14-15 miles of individual trail).  Nice day- 65 at the start, 75 at the finish.  Finished with 18 miles and ~3000 ft climbing in 2:52.

The past 7 weeks have been my highest 7 week period ever.  My previous highest 7 weeks was 627, while the past 7 weeks for me have totaled 665 (95, 102, 103, 81, 90, 104, 90).  It's finally time for full-on taper leading up to UROC.