Happy Monkey Day!

It's December 14th, that means its Monkey Day!

Today is a day to remember all things Simian! Although the holiday is only 12 years old, it's still an important holiday none the less.

So, have a great Monkey day!


How creepy.... This monkey could be my brother, or maybe nephew making me a monkeys uncle...?

Shews?

Just thought of something.

I own 7 pair of running shoes now.

SEVEN!

And I run barefoot...

My huaraches were by FAR the cheapest of the group, and they probably have the most miles (maybe 50?) followed in a close second, maybe even a tie, with the Merrell Trail Gloves.

I also own some Merrell Sonic Gloves that have about 4 miles on them, and a pair of all black suede Merrell slip ons that are also from their barefoot line that my wife got me for an early Christmas present. I haven't ran in them, and probably won't.

I have 2 pair of Vibrams now. The original pair were the KSO, and I did not like them. They have maybe 20 miles on them. I just bought a set of the SeeYa LS Vibrams. These feel and look like what a Vibram SHOULD be. Extremely light weight. Very thin soled, flexible, breathable and just all around cool looking! I got them this weekend, so they have yet to see any miles, but I feel like they will get lots of use come the hot months of the year.

There's also the New Balance Minimus something another's that I got from Jason Robillard. I think I put about 5 miles on them and didn't like them.

So.... Why do I own so many minimalist running shoes

I wear them when I'm not running. I wish I could get some minimalist steel toe work boots, that would be great!

7 pounds down!

Down to 197.1! No real exercise yet, just eating better (not great since I was in Corpus Christi for work the past 3 days) and still pooping non stop.

The poops have slowed down considerably, but now my stomach has just been hurting non stop. I'm not sure what's going on in there, but I do know that the byproduct is NOT a pleasant experience.....

Hopefully I'll be able to start doing some small workouts and jogs again either this weekend or early next week.

4.5 pounds down in 2 days!!!

With very minimal exercise I managed to loose 4.5 pounds in just 2 days!

How you ask?

By shitting my brains out of course!

I'm not sure what exactly caused it, but my stomach has been a big knot of pain for the past 3 days. I don't know if I had for poisoning, or of doing my veggie smoothies and steamed broccoli for lunch caused it, but I've been shitting like a flock of pigeons over a parking lot!

It's seriously been non stop.

Wednesday evening it started somewhat slow. Thursday I woke up and knew I was having issues. By the time I attempted to go to bed Thursday night I had pooped 18 times! I'm not sure how many times I pooped Thursday night, but it was a lot. Friday I was awoken at 3:30 by my stomach turning flips. By the time I got to my office at work I had went 4 times that morning. I left work early around 12 and had gone 14 times already....

No solids left my body. Everything looked like my veggie smoothies, which was kind of gross and probably waaaaay too much info for anyone reading this.

While I'm already across that line, I also learned that you CANNOT trust a fart when your experiencing explosive diarrhea... EVER!

Luckily things seemed to have settled down some. Here it is Saturday at noon and I've slowed down to 3 times so far.

But I did manage to loose 4.5 pounds! I'm back under 200 again!!! HELLS YEAH!!!

Now hopefully I can get some runs and cross fit workouts in this week and not have to be constantly aware of where the nearest toilet is at all times.

34.1 pounds!

34.1 pounds. That's how much I have to loose to reach my goal of 170.

I officially started my diet and exercise program TODAY! The turn around is over, and I'm back to getting off work at 3:00 in the evening every day.

I actually went for a brisk .53 mile run yesterday morning, but ate bad the rest of the day.

Today I had a veggie smoothie for breakfast and a bag of steamed broccoli for lunch. After work I ran .75 miles. Although it feels great to be running again, only running .75 miles feels like a waste of time after being used to running 6+ on average. Oh we'll, gotta build back up slow so I don't get any injuries!

Oh, and an interesting side note, eating only veggies (and juices veggies at that!) really jacks with your digestive system. I'm not even through the first day yet and I've already shit more than a flock of pigeons in a car lot of freshly washed cars. Day 2 is gunna be awesome!

Post turnaround plans #3....

Cross fit!

No, I'm not dropping $250 a month and joining a cross fit gym. Instead I'm going to ATTEMPT to do 2 cross fit style workouts a week.

In the garage I now have a 60 pound heavy bag, a dip station, a pull up station, a jump rope, and 300+ pounds of free weights and I plan on putting them to good use!

Between Burpees, dips, pull-ups, boxing the heavy bag, jump rope, power clean, curls, military presses, dips, and various other body weight style exercises I should have enough variety there to keep me entertained for quite awhile. Plus the change of pace should be nice and keep things interesting.

I do plan on TRYING to log every days workouts and foods consumed to help me stay committed to getting back on track (no pun intended).

Post turnaround plan #2......

DIETING!!!!!

I have got to loose some freggin weight! My goal is to loose 30 pounds. I was down to something like 180.3 at my lightest in 2012, now I'm 20 pounds heavier and I can feel the difference. At 180 I felt good, light and agile like a damn cheetah or something. Things felt right!

At 200 pounds I feel more like a lazy dogs in the summer. I don't even want to bark cause it would use up too much energy. I just want to eat and sleep..... And I don't want to eat healthy shit either, I want processed carbs (aka the devil) which only makes matters worse!

Luckily my awesome mother in law got me a kick ass blender for my birthday!!! Now I can go back to eating my delicious green sludge smoothie things!!

The new blender is called a "Ninja" blender! Sounds pretty sweet huh? Check out the pics below to see just how sweet this beast is! Im pretty sure I could add golf balls to my smoothies and never even notice!

That's right, 6 blades of cutting fury slicing up any and all veggies thrown their way! It's got a 48 ounce canister, and is operated via the pulse button on the lid. Luckily if I ever forget to remove my finger from the pulse button, the owners manual instructs me on how to turn it off..... Really? They had to be laughing their asses off when they put that in there.... I know I would have been!

Post turn around plans....

Ok, so provided that this turn around ever ends (doubtful!), these are my plans. I will detail each plan in separate posts because A) they will be boring and B) I don't have the time to write it all out at once.

So here goes.

- Start running again.
Gotta start off small and work my way back up. I can hop out on the track after 3~4 months off and expect to knock out 20, 15, 10, or even 3 miles without some type of retaliation from my body. I plan on starting all over from scratch like I did when I first picked up running barefoot, starting with .25 miles, skip a day, .25 miles, skip a day, .5 miles, skip a day, .5 miles, .5 miles, etc etc until I'm back around 10 miles. At that point I feel I can start making larger jumps. Like from 10 to a 15 or 16 mile long run, then to a 22 or so long run. From 22 miles I think I could jump to whatever distance I want really.

I'm also going to add in more speed work. Instead of going out and running 5~6 miles at a decent pace every day after work, I'll dedicate a day or 2 to speed work. I enjoy running balls to the wall just as much as my long slow runs, so why not mix it up some? I'll have to wait a month or 2 before I add in these speed work days so that my feet will become re-accustomed to running again.

I also want to try to run the big bridge more often. Maybe once a week. I know I need some serious "hill" work, maybe ill look for a good parking garage too!


My goal is to get back into it and do another ultra by December 2013. Hopefully at least a 100K....

There is no light at the end of the tunnel...

I haven't ran in... Hell, I don't know when the last time I ran was. I don't even know what day it is....

I had planned on taking some time off from running due to my hours at work increasing due to a Turn Around that was SUPPOSED to last 31 days.... Well I started working 12's (14's actually) 2 weeks before it started, and were now in day 40 something with no foreseeable end in sight.

I'm back up to 200 pounds, but since I've been doing a lot more work in the field climbing towers and stairs and walking around 5 miles a day, I know some of it is muscle. Plus my belt is only 2 holes away from where it was 20 pounds ago, so I haven't gained TOO much weight around the middles.

I'm anxious to get over this turn around. The money is great! But I miss spending real time with my wife and kids. We have a few trips planned that this turn around is paying for, so it's for a worth cause.

After its all said and done I'm gunna start running again, and I'm going to shoot for another ultra by the end of 2013 but we will see how things go.

So for all my friends out there running, enjoy it! And add a mile for me!!!

Monthly mileage totals... Major suckage!!!

Warning, pathetic content ahead!

Just looked through my log book to see my monthly totals for the year, I threw up in my mouth a little.

January - 59.21 miles (tapering for Rocky Raccoon)
February - 68.45 miles (50 miles of which was in one run, so 18 training miles)
March - 60.95
April - 53.03
May - 29.31 (traveled for work, and worked a bunch of overtime. No time for running!)
June - 60.56
July - 51.41

Yuck! I was hoping to get my first 100 mile week in this year, but maybe I should focus on a 100 mile month first, geez!

Ok, it was interesting!

Just got done. I decided to shoot for 10 miles on the way to the track. I figured I hadn't ran 10 miles in quite awhile, so it would be a good distance to shoot for and should burn about 2 hours.

I got 15.

At 10 miles I still felt good so I stopped and downed a bottle of water and decided to keep running. Around mile 11.5 or so it started to get a little difficult. I stopped to pee in the bathroom and everything was spinning and moving in and out. Very trippy! I ended up finishing in a little under 3 hours. And now I'm tired...

I tried taking a picture with my new panoramic picture app here's how it turned out. Not sure how it's going to look here though.

This should be interesting.

I wake up at 4:00 every morning to go to work (unless it's the weekend
and I'm either still slightly inebriated or hung over).

Today was no different... At first.

I got to work and big boss man (literally BIG! He still holds Texas
high school power lifting records, 14 years later...) tells me that I
will be working the night shift, 6:30PM - 7:00AM Friday night. That's
cool, I guess? I normally get off at 3:00 in the evenings, so I had
planned on getting in my normal "hot as balls" evening run in, maybe 5
or 6 miles or so.

Wait! Change of plans, I need to stay late tonight and still come in
tomorrow for the night shift.

Great! Less time away from work to worry about falling asleep!

So now it's 10:40PM Thursday night an d I need to stay up till around
5:00AM before going to sleep. So 25 hours of being awake.... Alone....
Tired.... And bored.

I think I'll try my hand at what I like to think of as "running while
really really tired in the middle of the night for a few hours because
I can't stay awake any other way and I need to learn how to do it
anyway" training.

Wish me luck!

Week of 8/6 - 8/12. Damn batteries!!!!

Had a decent week this week.

Monday - Little cross training action. Ran 2.11 mile warm up in 18:39, then I grabbed my tire and did 130 yards of flips, 130 yards of forward sprints, 130 yards of backwards sprints. Twice. The first set was done in 4:24, second set took 4:42. Both were a bitch. I wrapped it all up with a 2.12 mile cool down for a total workout of 4.58 miles and 47:53.

Tuesday - 6.01 miles in 1:03:15 or a 10:32 pace. This run wasn't too bad feeling, it was around 100-101 outside, plus heat index, but for some reason I felt like a sack of hammered dog shit that night. I felt like I had over heated or something.

Wednesday - I worked late at work.

Thursday - 6.04 miles in 59:18, a 9:49 pace. It was 103 plus heat index this day, so much hotter than it was Tuesday. But I felt great the whole time! Strange how that works.... Must have been something I ate? Maybe? Maybe I was dehydrated? Who knows!

Friday - Cheerleading practice. My daughter is so cute!

Saturday - woke up early to get in a good run in on Hwy 421. Hoping for 10~15 miles. Got to the gas station and realize I left my Garmin at home ON THE CHARGER, so I drove back to get it. I then decided to just run at the track by my house. Things were going good, although I was in a slightly sour mood for having forgot my Garmin at first. The first 3 miles click by pretty good, then I realize I hadn't heard my Garmin in awhile, so I check it.... It's dead. WTF!!?!???? This totally killed the mood... I finished my lap and drove home Unsatisfied and upset. I only logged 3.47 miles in 33:40 (9:42 pace). Very disappointing.


Totals for the week were 20.10 miles, 3:24:06 and 2,908 calories.

Week of 7/30 - 8/5

Last week was somewhat interesting. I tried a few new things that I enjoyed, mainly tire flipping. I hope to do some more tire workouts and make a post about it.

Here's how my week went down.

Monday - 1 mile warm up @ 10:00 pace, 30 tire flips, 130 yard sprints (X 3), 130 yard sprint backwards (X 1), 30 tire flips, 130 yard sprints (X 3), and another 130 yard sprint backwards.
-Pretty good workout! I was winded as I was only taking very small breaks, and I could feel the burn from the addition of tire flipping and backwards sprinting in my quads big time.

Tuesday - 4.25 miles in something around 40:30, not exactly sure on either distance or time as I had forgotten my Garmin at home for the second day in a row.... Grrrr...

Wednesday - another day with some new activities!!! I did 2.03 mile warm up in 19:13, then did something I haven't done since I was a freshman in high school. Horses! I started at the field goal line of the football field and sprinted to the goal line, touched the goal line, sprint back to field goal line, touch field goal line, sprint to 5 yard line, touch 5 yard line, sprint back to field goal line, repeat until I've reached the far field goal line. Talk about a kick ass workout!!!! It ended up being a total of 1.64 miles!!! I did it in 14:08. I was pretty beat afterwards...

Thursday - 3.15 miles in 33:36.

Friday - off.

Saturday - off.

Sunday - Got up early and hit the track hoping for a good solid double digit mileage run and had to cut it short at 3.14 miles due to GI issues.

Total ended up at 15.8 miles and 2:36:37 worth of working out.

I had to cut my weekly runs short because the kiddos were in swim lessons, then no runs on Fridays for awhile because my beautiful little girl has started cheer leading classes.

This week, on the other hand, I will be able to get in some good weekly runs Monday thru Thursday and hopefully get something nice in this weekend as well.

Oh, did I mention the average temps all week ranged from 99~103?

All mileage and workouts were done barefoot. Gotta love this crushed gravel track!!!

Great run today!

Knocked out 6.02 miles this evening, and they were wonderful!!!

I don't know the exact stats on the run, but I knocked out the first 5 miles in something like 51:30, and finished the last mile with a running total of 58:XX... I really kicked it in on the last mile, an the last 400 meters I really pushed myself HARD, I glance at the Garmin with 200 meters to go and my pace said 5:03, at 150 meters out it said 4:40, and I still picked up speed! I don't know what I peaked out at, but it's always a blast to knock the brake dust off and just let go and let your body take over.

I did 6.03 Tuesday and it kicked my ever loving ass... BUT, it was VERY hot outside, today was still upper 90's with lower 100's heat index, but there was an occasional breeze that felt great.

I had to take yesterday off on account of working over at work, and tomorrow is Friday, so we will have cheer leading practice to attend to. My next run will be Saturday morning with, hopefully, another one following on Sunday morning.

New track, new options!

The track I normally run at is a synthetic rubber track located behind a middle school that's near where I work. A few weeks ago they began re-paving it, so I was force to find somewhere else to do my running.

I tried a local park that has a 1/2 mile paved walking path encircling it, but it was somewhat crowded an the north half reeked heavily of duck shit. Nasty things...

After asking around I discovered that there is a practice track behind the high school which is a few miles down the road.

So I go check it out...

PERFECT!!!!!

It's summertime still, so there's very little traffic. Great! It's a cheap practice track, so it's made of small little red pebbles that have been ground over the years into smaller particles almost like dust. These small rock particles do a great job at reflecting off the heat from the sun (which is currently attempting to fry everyone's ass), so I can run on it barefoot, another HUGE plus!!!

There's also 2 practice football fields, a set of monkey bars, and a little dip station. Best of all these extra items is a crap ton of very large tractor tires just begging to be flipped end over end.

So far I've ran around 18 miles there, all barefoot in temps well over 100 degrees. I've flipped a large tire a few times (enough so that 3 days later my forearms are sill sore). And today I also added a full set of horses to the end of my work out. I wasn't aware that a full set of horses equaled out to be over a mile and a half of running!!! Talk about a killer workout!

I took some pictures. Due to my new blogger app (which sucks!) all my posted pics get added to the bottom of my posts... Grrr... The tire pictures isn't actually out at the track, but it's very close to what I've been flipping.

1 week on green(ish) smoothies!

So far so good! I started off this week weighing in at 196.4 pounds. This is not acceptable! Before Rocky Raccoon earlier this year I had gotten down to 180.1, but never reached my goal of sub 180.

Obviously I have been slacking lately in both the running and dieting departments, but it's not from a lack of want! I've just been real busy with work and family stuff, so running has been put on the back burner.

I decided to do what worked for me back before RR again and started making up some green smoothies using fruits and veggies. I was using these as a breakfast replacement back then, now they have become a brekky and lunch replacement. And with good results.

Here's the drinks in the order they were drank, or drunk... Though never inebriated.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday (came out a little purple, result of overdoing it on the blueberries...)

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday (again with the blueberries!)

So, how do they taste? Freggin delicious!!!!! Very very good! Fresh, sweet, light, and quote healthy! It took till Friday before my energy levels leveled out and I wasn't feeling like a sloth all day. Now I'm feeling quite energetic!

PLUS, despite only getting in 3 pathetic runs this week, totaling an even more pathetic 8.25 miles, I've managed to loose 3.5 pounds, putting me at 192.9 this (Sunday) morning!

Now if I can only get a break from work and maybe get in some half ass decent quality runs I would be good to go!

Mmmm..... Sludge smoothies!!!!!

I was told that my lunch today looked like sludge.

What do you think?

It's a smoothie of the following variety;
Asparagus
Cantaloupe
Strawberry
Pineapple
Mango
Peach
Kale
Celery
Spinach
Blueberry
Carrot
Orange juice
And a scoop of protein powder.

Most delicious!!!

I think there's something wrong with me...

Ok, I have an eating disorder.... Really. I can't seem to stop myself from eating shit that I know I shouldn't be eating. It's like a crack addict, but with sweets. If you put a line of crack in front of a crack head, guess what happens? The crack disappears! Put a line of brownies in front of me and guess what happens? I GET FATTER!!!

The bad things is that I know what's going to happen before I even start doing it. I know right now that if I go eat ice cream, not only will I get fatter, but I will have an upset stomach and feel like hammered shit for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow. It happens without fail every single time.

Yet, I can almost guarantee you that before this week is over I will eat some type of cold dairy product with lots of sugar and chocolate flavoring added.

Why? I'm not sure. The 3 minutes of of pleasure isn't worth the several hours (potentially weeks) of suffering that always results. I know I'm a glutton for punishment, but I don't enjoy making things harder for myself. Do I?

I just dont get it!

My calf issue has become quite a conondrum here lately.

They have been giving me problems for several weeks now with tightness issues. Then, 2 Saturdays ago, they acted fine and I ran an overly enjoyable 10 miles with the last few miles at an increased pace.

Everything felt great!!!

Then, that Sunday, I was brought to a halt at a little under 3 miles. The rest of the week was much the same, with one run being aborted at just over a mile in! This Sunday I attempted another long run and had to stop at 3 miles.

That leaves today. It rained all day today, but I was hell bent on attempting to get a run in. It was really coming down on the way to the track after work, so hard that traffic was slowed to a creep due to lack of sight.

Perfect!!! I love running in rain, especially storms and torrential down pours!

But by the time I got to the track, all the clouds had done wrung themselves dry. There was a light mist falling, but not enough to really even notice. Luckily the track was wet and cold, just how I like it!

So I figured I would try to get in a mile or two before the calves locked up on me.

One mile in. Ok, calves feel pretty damn good! Lrt me sneak off under the bleachers and water the diry real quick. Ahhh... Much better. 11 minutes and a few seconds have passed.

Mile 2. Still feeling good, but stopping to pee had affected the legs a little. Their not tight, but their not feeling as loose as they were.

Mile 3! Ok, legs feeling pretty good! Lets see if I can pick the pace up a little bit.

Mile 4. Man, why cant every run feel like this? Oh wait, they used to. Im feeling great! Im increasing speed with every lap and feel like Im unstoppable!

Mile 5!!! Ok, time to let it all go! Lets see what I got in the tank!

Mile 5.23... Mile 5 came up after I passed my imiginary finish line, so I did another lap, all out. Everytime I checked the Garmin I was under a 6:00 pace, and 2 or 3 times I was around a 5:15 pace. I felt like I was really hauling some ass untill I realized that I used to run 2 mile races at this pace.... Getting old sucks!

It was a great run! One of those ones that you just cant wait to go home and blog about! Hopefully things stay this way and I can get in some more quality runs this week and start back training like I should. Im really missing my weekend 20 milers lately...

posted from Bloggeroid

Apparent Temperatures...

Ive seen this posted around work areas numerous times at work around this time of year.



Its an index to give you the Apparent Temperature based on air temp and humidity.

Personally, although I find it very interesting, I think its a load of shit (like most things produced by OSHA)... I just dont think these numbers are truely realistic...

For Example.

The other day it was 115 degrees outside based off the cars thermometer.



And according to my handy dandy Weather Bug app, I read that it was also 46% relative humidity outside.

So that gives me an apparent temperature of... Well... Its off the chart, but probablly in the area of 160 degrees plus.

Most of my runs lately have been in temps ranging from 95~105, with humidity hovering around 60%. That means that my runs are done in apparent temperatures of 114~149 degrees.

Now, dont get me wrong here. Its HOT outside, but it doesnt feel like its 150 degrees outside. How would I know what 150 degrees feels like? Ive worked in it. Back when I was working as a storage tank inspector I worked in dozens of tanks where the ambient air temps inside were well over 120, and once where it was 148. That was an actual mercury thermometer measurement. Im not sure how far I could have ran in there, but I can still distinctly remember just how hot it was in there, and that was almost 4 years ago...

But, regardless, this chart is nice to reference back to come winter time when Im complaining about how "cold" it is...

Oh, as an interesting side note, I have the most amazing and beautiful wife in the world! Not a day goes by where Im not im awe of her supreme awesomeness!!!

posted from Bloggeroid

Victory!!!!!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

10.04 pain free, calf problem free, hot and sweaty miles this morning!!!!!

I think this is my first double digit run in almost 2 months! Ill have to reference my running log to verify. BUT, I do know that its my longest run in over 3 weeks, and its the ONLY run where Ive had no calf issues!

What do I have to thank for this wonderfull blessing? Natural talent? Haha, right.... Some magic pill that heals all problems? Doesnt exist.... Luck? I have none...

No, I have a large chunk of foam to thank for my recovery... I think...

Thursday evening I decided to try running on a different surface, thinking that maybe the soft squishy track was throwing somethig off. So I went running around a park near my work on its half mile looped cement jogging path. 1 mile in and I was having major calf issues. So I drove straight to Academy and purchased a foam log roller.


Pretty sweet huh?

I simoly layed a calf across this foam log, pushed my body up with my hands so that my calves were supporting most of my weight, and rolled back and forth on the knots.


It lays horizontal, like this, while being used

It hurt like the dickens at first, but I think it made a BIG difference! We'll see how things continue to go.... Im not wanting to get my hopes too high here.

posted from Bloggeroid

Is it hot out here, or is it just me?

Wow... 115 outside...

Me: "DAMN!!!, 115 outside!!! Man its gettin hot!!!"

Little voice in the back portion of my head: "^{Who wants to go for a run?}"

Me: "Oh oh oh!!! Me, me! I do!!!"


Really, is there something wrong with me? We have people passing out at work from heat exhaustion, and I cant wait to go stand on top of a blisteringly hot synthetic rubber track and run to my little hearts content... Maybe I cant stand the fact that my remaining 7 brain cells wont go away so Im trying to wage war on them.

Not that my trip to the track this evening was really what you could consider "waging war" type material. Unless your refrencing my calves fighting me for most of the run... Damn calves... They used to be me strong spot. I could always depend on the calves to come through like true champions. Maybe Ive let them down by slacking off? Maybe their mad at me for having to carry around all my extra weight?

I did, however, manage to sneak in 3.2 miles this morning calf problem free!!! This evening I had to stop after 1 mile to shake them out, then again at 2 miles for good.

So 5 miles today! That, combined with eating healthy and meagerly so far, will hopefully set me off in the right direction in my weight loss quest!

posted from Bloggeroid

Fight the fat!

Ive gotten fat. Literally. Ive gained over 15 pounds sice I ran Rocky Raccoon. I think this is part of the reason Im having difficulty running again. Heres my scientific theorum to help explain my predicament...

Time off + weight gain = hard time running.

I know that seems complex, so heres a visual of my current physical stature.


Me, typing up this blog

Ok, so maybe its not THAT bad, but being up over 195 really sucks!

So I need to fix it, and in a hurry!

Starting today Im on a mission to not only loose these extra 15 pounds, but to go beyond and into the unknown!

My goal? 175.

Its going to be very hard to reach seeing as how I cant currently run over 1.5 miles without my calves turning to solid knots. Ill have to eat better err... Like I should be eating. Ill also have to saddle up and ride my bike more often...

In fact, I went for a 1.5 mile run this morning, then a 12 mile ^weak! bike ride, followed with another 1 mile run.

BUT, to make this tougher, it was rather warm outside. After showering off I hopped in the car and this is what the outside temperature showed..



112 FREGGIN DEGREES!!! UNDER MY SHADY OAK TREE!!!!

Of course it cooled off a little bit after I started rolling down the road.



The temperature finally stopped dropping when it read 103... Yay!!!

Hopefully with my new eating habbits and more exercise Ill be able to drop the weight I need to drop and start training again. I cant get to 100 mile shape with what Ive been doing!

posted from Bloggeroid

Baby steps

Starting over sucks!

It really really sucks hard...

Last month I slacked my way to a whopping total of 23 miles. My longest run was only 7 miles, and I only ran a few times. 23 miles! How can I expect to be a ultramarathoner when I dont even run the equalivent of a normal marathon in a months time?

As if that wasnt bad enough, my love of food collided head on with my lack of physical exertion and the two equated in an additional 15 pounds being spackled onto my midsection. Gross!

Then, ontop of all of that, just when I start TRYING to hit the ground running again, my damn calves decide that they havent been used in so long that they dont remember how to properly function longer than a mile without locking up on me. Geez, thanks alot calves! If I try to push through it my calf muscles get so tight that it cuts off circulation to my feet, causing them to get that numb / tingly feeling of being asleep. Every step feels like Im running on the roughest chip seal Ive ever encountered. So I have to stop and releve pressure from my feet (aka, sit my fat ass down) and loosen the calves up.

This has happened before. When I first started running barefoot my calves took awhile to get used to it. What worked then was a few things...

A) I removed all inserts from my shoes so that everything was as zero dropped as possiblle. Now I own several pair of zero drop shoes (Merrells), and with my new positiok at work I hardly ever wear my work boots since Im stuck at a desk all day.

B) Stopped stretching. I think this made the largest impact out of anything. I believe that yor muscles require a certain amount of elasticity, and that stretching as we have all been taught to do it only serves to remove that elasticity. This seemed to resolve the issue almost overnight for me back then.

C) Slow and small increases. I wasnt going out for 20+ mole training runs back then. Hell, I was barely going out for 1 and 2 mile training runs. Things are different now, so Ive just gotta take it easy...

4) Loose some damn weight! I dont need to be over 180, let alone 195 almost 200... Thats just me being a lazy ass and not eating how I know that I should.


So, in summary, I need to dial it down for a few weeks till the calves start cooperating with what the rest of my body wants to do, which blows...

posted from Bloggeroid

Oh Snap!

Boy, I got the suprise of my life this evening!

While drying off in the bathroom after showering I heard some strange noises in the bedroom, so I cautiously opened the door and was shocked!



Muther Freaking SPIDERMAN!!!!

I could scarcely believe my eyes! Spiderman was in my bedroom ready to rumble with Dr Octopus (aka daddy)...

So after wrestling for a few minutes (yes, I did put clothes on before commencing to wrestling) he wanted to show me how he could jump like in his movies.

Due to Spidermans lightning quick speed, my camera couldnt keep up. Peter Parker must have one helluva nice Cannon to catch his shots so good!



You can clearly see he is getting ready to fire off his web and swing into action!



Here he is again, quick on the move!

Spiderman then displayed some pretty sweet floor acrobatics which consisted of lots of spins and flips and twists...







One things for certain, the Williams household will sleep soundly tonight knowing that Spiderman is on watch!

posted from Bloggeroid

Running in Minnesota

I have the joy of spending some time in beautiful Minneapolis Minnesota this week while training for a new position at work. I hadnt been to Minnesota as an adult. The last time I was here, I was probablly sportin some Huggies and a colorfull bib as to keep my onezie somewhat clean.

The first thing I noticed upon my arrival was all the Dandelion fluff looking white things floating through the air. Its almost as if it is snowing dry snow. Crazy! And its EVRRYWHERE!!!! Some waiter at a resturant informed us that its actually produced from Cotttonwood trees. I think its more than likley millions of baby aliens, in their larve stage, that were sent here to attempt to rule the planet and claim it as their own... Well Ive got news for them. That shit aint gunna fly once they start getting south of the Mason Dixon line.

But anyways, Ive had the pleasure of getting a few runs in while up here. Unfortunately I havent been running with my cell phone, so I have no photographic evidence of the events Im going to attempt to relay to you here, so you will just have to take my words for it.

I was expecting there to be massive hills that borderlined mountains. I was hoping to have inclines so damn steep that I would be almost scared by their stature. What I got instead was a gently rolling landscape with a few somewhat steep hills and some long gradual climbs / descents. The side walk system here is amazing. You could drive an 18 wheeler (or 2 Lotus Elises side by side) down these sidewalks. Their huge! Plenty of room for 2 way traffic, which was nice due to the high population of cyclists. It was almost like being in a slightly cooler and less humid Austin Texas, just not nearly as awesome.

I got in a nice 7.75 miles yesterday evening. It felt great! There were soo many of the alien larve in some areas that it was like running on top of a few down pillows. They would be wisked away by the wind under my feet. It was almost like I was running on the alien's home planet, Im sure of it.

It was also the first time Ive ever seen a wild beaver, or an Otter... It was definately one of the two small critters, just not sure which one. It was down a little gravel side road hidden off in the high grass to the side. Pretty cool looking! Whatever it was, it had built a few Beaver dams, which I understand that both animals build so it doesnt narrow it down any. Either way, pretty freakin sweet!!!!

Another point of interest was when I passrd older gentelman going the opposite direction. He smiled and asked me about how far I can go now, while motioning to my unshod feet. I replied and said "Pretty much as long as I want!" "good for you!" He says back and gives a quality thumbs up.

Pretty cool guy... For a Minnesotian... Lol.

posted from Bloggeroid

Lunges!

All Ive been doing for the past 2 years is running.

I havent strayed far from it because, well, I love it! I keep saying Im going to hop on the old Trek and ride for a few hours, but it never happens. Why would I ride my bike if I could be running instead? I mean, Im trying to be a better runner, not a better triathlete after all.

But Monday I found myself doing things a little... Different.

Rather than going to the track and running 5~6 miles at a nice and easy pace, I decided to time myself in an all out mile. I havent done any speedwork in about 7 months, but yet I somehow managed to shave 13 seconds off my previous post highschool PR and came in at 6:00.42.

Afterwards I was beat, but I didnt want to waste valuable training time. So i decided to do 100 yards worth of lunges!

OUCH!!!!

Here it is, 2 days later, and every muscle below my hips are still screaming at me with every move I make. Obvisouly my legs arent nearly as strong as I had previsouly thought.

So, with that said, I think Im going to start doing 1 day of speed work and add some lunges and other types of movements into the mix. Since I dont have alot of options for elevation changes around here with it being flatter than a pancake, I think (read hope) this will help out when it does come time for me to tackle some elevation changes.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Barkley Marathons...

Very few people in the world are aware of the existence of ultra marathons. They think that the normal 26.2 mile marathon is the longest running race out there. I myself was one of these people untill about 2 years ago when I read "Born to Run" which is basically a story about ultra running.

The thought of running long distances had always fascinated me. Something in my little pea sized brain clicks with running. As a punk highschool kid my favorite sport was Cross Country, and my favorite workouts were the few occasional long runs that coach would have us do. Before I started running again as an "adult", I would often fantasize about running across the great state of Texas, not aware that there were actual organized races that did almost this exact thing!

After learning about ultras, which come in "normal" flavors of 50k (32 miles), 50 mile, 100k (you guessed it! 62 miles!) To the coveted 100 mile. Of course theres races of all different types of distances, and even timed events ranging from 6 hours all the way up to multi day, even multi week, events. These are ran on every surface imaginable. Some, like the Rocky Racoon 50 miler I ran in Feburary, are ran on very easy, non technical trails. Others are on more technical trails held at higher elevations while climbing the sides of mountains such as the Leadville Trail 100. Theres even Badwater, which is a 135 mile death march down a paved road through Death Valley where the road gets so hot it melts your shoes.

All of these races are enough to make the average human cringe in fear. But for some, thats not good enough. Theres a small percentage of the population that wants to be pushed to the extreme limit of what is humanely possible. Both mentally, physically, and emotionally.

For these sick twisted individuals, theres the Barkley Marathons.

The Barkley Marathons is the bastard child of one Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake. It's called the Barkley Marathons because theres no exact distance of the race. In fact, theres not even an exact course. And it's not even really a race. It's basically hell on earth.

The race is held in "Frozen Head"state park in Tennessee on the weekend of April Fools. The "course" is through the park on a few marked trails, under an abandoned prison, up impossibly steep mountains, and across tench like ditches and bush whacking sans a machete your way through for 5 loops of approximately 20 miles each. The only way to validate that you have indeed ran the "course" is by visiting each of the 7~11 books places at random though the park and ripping out the page corresponding to your bib number. This works because there are no aid stations nor volunteers to be found at the Barkley. To make this even tougher, your surrounded by since of the creepiest looking woods found on this planet. To male that even more worse, the entire area is overran with "saw briars" which are essentially long branch looking plants covered in razor blades...

Sound bad? It gets worse.

The entire 100ish mile "course" contains 54,900 feet of climb and 54,900 feet of decent... Thats the equivalent of climbing and descending Mt. Everest... twice...

This is regarded by many as the toughest ultra marathon in the world. Need proof? It's been ran for 25 years, and still has over a 99% failure rate. In fact, only 12 people have ever conquered the entire 100 miles. To further reveal the true evil that is the Barkley, runners are given 60 hours to complete it, although I dont think most people have made it past the first 20 mile loop. Even fewer have completed the "fun run" which is 3 full loops. And the only 12 have completed the entire 5 loops.

This year history was made at the Barkley, and in a big BIG way.

This year not only was the old course record broken by several hours!!! But 3 people completed all 5 loops... The record setting Matt Mahoney is also the only person to have competed it twice! But dont let that fool you. Every year the race gets harder and harder. Lazarus Lake doesn't seem to be a big fan of people defeating the Barkley. So every year the course gets tougher. Every year he scoures the park, looking for something on the edge of impossible and adds it to the race. His goal with this race is to truely test the capability of the human being. Id say hes done a damn good job of it too!

...Does this race speak to me?

HELLS YES IT DOES!!!!

posted from Bloggeroid

Negative Splits

Yes, the infamous "Negative Split" that is oh so elusive to many distance runners.

I've been trying to train myself to run negative splits in the majority of my training runs lately for a few reasons.

It helps simulate running on tired legs, but really, what doesn't? More so, it simulates running faster after running at a decent pace for awhile. This helps with the final kick in a race.


The main reason for this is because it seems to take my body a good mile or so before its warmed up. So the first mile is usually slowest. Then I gradually pick up the pace and finish with a good strong mile.

I have been using this on shorter runs (10 miles and under), but for the first time this weekend I used it on a 20 miler! It was a BLAST! My last 10 miles were ran over 6 minutes faster than my first 10, and all 20 were way faster than I normally run for that long of a distance.

On my shorter runs I will progressively run every mile dater and faster, with the last mile usually coming in somewhere under 7 minutes.

Not sure how this will help me accomplish most of my goals since they dont require running that fast. But theres 2 or 3 on the list that will benifit tremendously from this.

posted from Bloggeroid

Why hello there!

Ok, so its been awhile since my last blog post. So to start off, I'd like to apologize to everyone that reads this. Thats right, all 6 of you, I'm sorry...

Ok, now that thats out of the way, heres what I've been up to since my last post about being stuck on 7-12s at work...

I worked alot. We found a few more issues that had to be attended to before things could be fired up and go back into full swing. I think I was on 12's for almost 20 days straight. The money was good, but I never got to get any runs in. Even worse was that I got to see my family very little.

After the 12's ended we had plans every weekend up untill this upcoming weekend when I will finally be able to get some decently long runs in.

I got a membership at the gym again, so I've been working on getting stronger. I know that I dont need an immense amount of upper body strength to run Ultra Marathons, but I have been feeling very weak as of lately, and I miss the feeling of strength.

I signed up for another Ultra. This one is a 50k. More on that later.

I've got a few topics to blabber on about, but im a bit sleepy, so they will have to wait another month or two until I blog again. Lol!

posted from Bloggeroid

Going Stir Crazy

Ok, I haven't ran since the Rocky Raccoon 50 miler 2 weekends ago. I'm not injured, I'm not recovering, I'm working...

The plant I work in had some technical difficulties, and as a result shit hit the proverbial fan. So I've been working straight 12 hour shifts since the Tuesday following the race. I'm not 100% sure, but I think today is Wednesday, so that makes it 11 days since I last ran. Sure, it's really not all that long, but I feel like I'm still suffering from the all to addictive "runners high" addiction, and I'm needing my fix....

Supposedly we should be done with everything and off of 12s sometime next week. And although I'm missing my family like crazy, and I think the lack of hard physical activity combined with the fast paced stress at work is playing a huge part on my mental ability.

Luckily the pay checks will be very well worth it!!! And next Monday is a holiday that were working through, so between holiday pay and working on a holiday, I'll get paid 32 hours for one 12 hours shift!!!!

Maybe I can afford to buy some new running shewz now.....

posted from Bloggeroid

Rocky Raccoon success and failures.

I finished. But did I get everything I wanted out of the race? Yes and no... Yes, I learned an awful lot about myself and what to do and what not to do as far as running 50 miles, but I didn't get a damn T shirt!!!! I wanted a Rocky Raccoon shirt, instead I got a sweater. At least its a nice sweater and not some junk though.

First off, the major key to running an ultra, in my pseudo professional opinion, is attitude. My training leading up to this race was waaaaaay behind. Since Thanksgiving my weekly mileage had taken a major plunge into the depths of 0~ single digit miles for a few weeks. The second to last week in December I did run a 21 mile trail run, by accident and finished that week with 50 miles, but aside from that week, the rest were crap.

I still felt confident though because I only had one real solid goal. FINISH I wasn't concerned about time or place our anything like that. Just complete the 50 miles, barefoot, in under 29 hours. I just knew I has to keep moving forward, and keep faith that I could do it. I think this positive mentality helped out alot. When someone would ask how I was doing, our how my feet felt, I would say something like "Amazing!" or "never felt better!" or something positive along those lines. I think I psyched myself out with this and never let negativity enter my mind.


I also screamed alot. Every few miles I would let out a war cry at the top of my lungs. Occasionally these yells of madness were answered with return yells. I think the longest string I counted was 6 yells.

How did this help? Hell, I don't know, but it did help! Ever seen any movies with epic fight scenes? Braveheart for example! No body charged head strong into battle in silence. No! everybody was screaming like a bunch of girls at a Justin Beiber concert Lionel of the Thunder Cats!!! Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats, HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! or HeMan By the power of Gray Skull, I have the POOOOOWWWWEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Theres just something about a good war cry that gets the adrenaline pumping. David spent the night afterwards in his tent at the park and said that he should hear the 100 mile guys screaming all night long, so I'm obviously on to something here.

Hydration. People say to look at how much, and how often you pee to determine your hydration level. You can also go by the color of your urine. Well, I had to have peed at least 75 times during the race. And every time it was crystal clear and rather voluminous to say the least. My "strategy" was to drink what sounded good at aid stations, and drink some honey chia water while running. I ended up drinking several cups of water and gatorade at every aid station, along with the random honey milk (yummy!), heed (not yummy...), nuun (also not yummy...), and at the last aid station I had about a dozen cups of Mountain Dew. I also had a 700ml bottle of honey chia water at the beginning of lap 2. I don't think hydration was ever an issue at any point!

Caloric intake. I also ate like a piggy the whole time! The aid stations had cups full of M&Ms, which I love, so I ate alot of them... The sugar and caffeine in the Mountain Few really made a show! Since I haven't had a soft drink in years, it filled me with a sugary rush that got me through the last 5 or so miles feeling great!


Ok, so what didn't work? Where do I need to improve? Well, theres a few areas...

I need to start doing longer long runs. Miles 37 to 41 seemed to take 2 hours. I think if I got a few 30~40 mile runs in during training I would have had this mental problem.

I need to learn to poop faster. Mt normal day to day poops aren't rushed usually. I just relax and enjoy a good book or magazine and let things happen naturally. During a race its either shit or get off the pot.

Non moving time needs to be worked on. I would be willing to bet that I wasted at least 2 hours at aid stations easily. I need to spend 5 minutes at an aid station, max. Just grab some hydration and a few bites, thank the volunteers, and hit the trail.



I also think I need to buy some type of supply belt / backpack / vest thingy for my training runs, and work on going longer between replenishment so I could maybe hit every other aid station and save even more time...

posted from Bloggeroid

Rocky Raccoon, the aftermath...

Ok, so I ran the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile ultra marathon barefoot. If this is news to you then this must be your first time here. Welcome!

Most people reading this are probablly either already barefoot runners, minimalist runners that are interested in barefoot running, or you just get enjoyment from reading about a guy stepping in poop (hey, whatever floats your boat buddy!).

Some of you may be concerned for the safety of your feet, and use that as an excuse not to run barefoot. Well, I can proudly say that after running 50 miles on muddy and root covered trails out in the woods, my feet were probably some of, if not the least damaged feet out there!

The soles of my feet came out completely unscathed and uninjured. I had a few scratches from a few stickers from going off the trail to pee, but no bloody gashes, cuts, bruises, blisters or damage of that nature. No blackened, broken, our missing toe nails. Nothing!

The only thing different about my feet was that they were a little swollen afterwards, but show me a rookie ultra marathoner without swollen feet. Hell, show me any ultra marathoner, our even marathoner, without swollen feet!

The swelling was a result of running through deep water and mud where I had to actively force my foot to rise. I was contracting the muscle at the bottom of your shin / top of your foot for 50 miles / 12 hours. This is over twice as long as I've ever ran before, so I'm happy with just a little swelling and soreness.

Heres some pics of my feet for reference...


(the left foot is the one with the most swelling, it also had a slightly red tint to it)



(side view)



(look ma, no damaged soles!!)

So aside from a little swelling I'd say my feet did pretty good!

posted from Bloggeroid

Rocky Raccoon race report.

Ok, well, I had a nice, loooong, descriptive narrative of a race report written out, and then my phone decided that it sucked and deleted it for me.... So heres an abridged version because, honestly, the other one kind of sucked anyways. Too many words, and once that picture to word ratio gets too low, most of my target audience gets lost (ok, maybe I'm the only one, but its my damn blog!)

So, without further interruption I present to you....

CHASER WILLIAMS RECORD SETTING PERFORMANCE AT THE 20TH ANNUAL ROCKY RACOON 50 MILE ULTRA MARATHON!!!!!!

Ok, so maybe it wasnt really "record setting" per say, but I have been told that I'm the first to ever complete a Rocky Raccoon race fully unshod... So I did set a barefoot course record! How about them apples?

The lead up...

I felt unprepared for this race. My longest run had been 26 on streets, and that was many months ago. Plus with the seismoiditis the last 2 months were pretty much shot.

The drive up to Huntsville (for the race, not the prison...) proved eventfull to say the least. I got to see the elusive Rocky Racoon himself outside of a CVS hitting up a Red Box...


(notice the defined colors in his coat.)

And it was POURING rain the entire time...


(Its raining and the sun is shining. That means the devils beating his wife!)

We made it to the camp site and set up our tent at "Camp Barefoot" and met up with David, Robert, and Jim and went to go grab dinner at some Mexican joint.

Its funny meeting people that you've known only over internet forums for the first time... I thought Robert was some long haired surfer hippy kind of guy. Instead, hes the Brawny man with a beard...



Luckily the resturant even had a chair for people like David so that his feet weren't dangling from his chair...



While we ate we talked about race prep and what not and I believe Davids exact quote was "I plan on being lubed up slicker than a baby seal!" Which loosely translated in my head to a fun day!

After which we made it back to the tent and bedded down for the night, ready to get the race started!

Race Day!!!

I woke up at 3:15 wide awake and wondering who was shining a strobe light at our tent. Turns out it was a crazy storm rolling through.



Yay! More rain! I heard surrounding areas got up to 3 inches of rain between Friday and Saturday, and I believe it! Robert and I headed to packet pickup during the worst of it and got soaked, which was nice.

7:00... And were off!!!

It had dropped to around 60 by the time we made it to the starting line, and it was still raining. Between shot nerves, and being cold and wet I probablly looked like a nervous chihuahua on crack as much as I was shivering.

First loop! Miles 0 to 16.67

The pace for the first few miles were dictated by whoever was in front of you, so we were really putt putting along, but that was ok as we weren't in any hurry.

During the first loop David, Rob, and myself pretty much hung with each other with the exception of Rob getting out a few people ahead of us, slipping and falling down, then hanging with us awhile longer until repeating the process again. This is no reflection on Roberts running ability, or agility, but more on the slick and muddy conditions the course presented to us.

The first lap felt great! We played leap frog with lots of other runners, many of them running either their first ultra or100. The feedback I got for running barefoot was awesome! Everyone that commented were more than positive about it, and alot of people were very interested in it!


(here we are around mile 12, notice were dirty, but but covered in mud yet... Yet...)

I think we came in from the first loop in around 3:15, which was about where we wanted to be.


(33% done and feeling unstoppable!)

Loop 2! Miles 16.67 to 33.34


(heading back out, around mile 17... I think...)

Loop 2 presented some new obstacles. The mud combined with general fatigue resulted in me falling. I was still running with David, but Robert had left us towards the end of the first lap.

It seemed I had to take a leak every half mile, and after leaving the DamNation aid station I stepped off in the erotica to do just that and stepped right in something squishy, stinky, and warm... Yes, poop. I stepped in a pile of poop. I was hoping it was from some cute woodland critter, but the wadded up soiled napkins next to my foot led me to believe otherwise... Mr Pruisitis (race director extraordinaire) clearly asked everyone to leave no trash on the trails, and I think this is why. Its not the first time I've stepped in human feces barefoot at a race, but it still wasnt very pleasant. Luckily there was some young bamboo shoots nearby that I used to floss my toes with. Shortly after this I stopped to pee again, only this time I came across a young woman pooping. Talk about akward... Geez... When we stopped again we were back at the DamNation station, and this time David knee locked up on him. It took awhile for him to get it working again, and he kept telling me that I could go on without him if I needed to. I didnt. Having David there with me was more than helpful, it was fun! We talked about everything, aside from running, that we could think of. I think that the distraction we created for each other helped out immensely in the long run (no pun intended) and played a big part in getting me through the race.


(_here we are somewhere around mile 30)

I think it was during this lap that my nipples started chafing a little bit. Luckily my wife got me some bandaids and fixed that problem right up!

I think we finished this lap way behind where w wanted to finish it, although I can't remember the times...


(end of second loop, 16.67 more miles to go!)

Loop 3! Miles 33.34 to 50!!!

My legs were toast going into the 3rd and final lap. I was already pretty deep into uncharted territory being 7 miles over my longest run, and plenty more still to go.



I had begun getting a little pain in the muscles and tendons on the top of my left foot from having to lift my toes up through the mud and water for 30+ mikes at this point, but I tried to block it out as best as I could. At this point in the race lots of other runners were still amazed that I was barefoot. I think the most common question I was asked was "How them feet holding up?" Oddly enough, the soles of my feet felt better than the rest of my body, so thats what I would tell them. Then I would ask how their feet were holding up, to which I always got the same answer... "Their killing me...."

Around mile 35 I started hitting that mental block. It seemed as if we would never make it to mile 40. So I asked for a bandaid at an aid station and used it to cover the screen of my Gamin so that I couldn't see the miles passing as time seemed to slow to a halt (theres a picture of this floating around somewhere on facebook).

After leaving the DamNation station for the last time the muscles ontop of my left foot hurt so bad I had to stop and attempt to massage them out while David continued jogging in circles around me to keep his knee from locking up. At some point he asked me how my nipples were feeling, I found it to be the funniest thing I've ever been asked and couldnt stop laughing.

At some point my wife met me and handed me my head lamp, although I can't say that I remember that, or do I? Most of the last lap is kind of a blur.


(Court snapped this pic of me as I took off with the headlamp in hand__)

Running barefoot in the dark is a little troubling since you can't see. Throw in the fact that your on trails with lots of roots and mud, and then put 40 miles before all of that and things can get a little tricky...

At the last aid station I decided to down about a dozen cups of a Mountain Dew. A little back story here, I haven't drank a caffinated drink in about 10 years, do the Mountain Dew REALLY had a good effect of my energy level, cause I ran probablly 95% of the remaining 5 miles. Granted some of the uphill runs were the same speed as Davids uphill speed walks, but going from walking to running hurt too bad to continue doing it, so I kept running along.

As I neared the finish line I realized that I had felt better for the last 5 miles than I had for any of the previous 35. I felt amazing! Like I could have kept going for a good 15 more miles, although I realized that would probablly change as soon as I crossed the line.

And then there it was. The finnish line! I crossed in 12:15:42!

50 barefoot miles behind me!

posted from Bloggeroid