Two Weeks of Activity

I've been a BAD boy. I have'nt posted for a while. Let the spankings begin!!!

On second thought, my wonderful wife may not appreciate me soliciting spankings from the Blogosphere. So here's the scoop for what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks:

My life has been on hold due to an impending audit (for work) from a government agency. I'm the main go-to guy for the audit, so I have to be here. I had to cancel my trip to AZ, because of it.

My running & training are going okay. This last Saturday, in lieu of actually signing-up for the KC marathon, Caleb and I decided to run down to the race from his place in the 'burbs. We went to mile 7, mile 6, mile 16, and mile 21, and watched the race from these vantage points. We also went to my son's new Starbucks.

I don't normally like running on pavement, and between this jaunt and a later run with a newbie-runner neighbor, I put in 29.5 miles on pavement on Saturday, according to my Garmin 305. I also led a trail training run the next day, (yesterday), but it was only 7 miles.

The weekend before, I drove down to SE Kansas to watch the end of the Flatrock 25K/50K. Some Trail Nerds were competing in it, and I wanted to see them finish. Two Nerds were in the top 3 finishers of the 50K, Kyle and Caleb. Both came in under 5 hours. Only 10 runners have done so in the entire 12-year history of the race. Caleb took 1st place and set a new course record by 17 minutes! His time was 4-hours, 29-minutes. Many persons have said that 4:30 would never be broken on this course. Of course, he proved them wrong, even though he got lost and used over 10-minutes of time to get back on course!


Caleb after his record finish.

Pictures from the Flatrock 50k can be found here!

The day after Flatrock, myself and some Trail Nerds participated in the Sandrat run. The Sandrat Trail Run is a 9.5 mile (approx.) trail run. The course is run on the "River Trails" north of the Kaw River and downtown Lawrence, KS. It is a wonderfully low-key but fast trail race for a small entry fee.

This year, we didn't have any "breakfast beer" on hand, due to potential legal constraints...potential jail time. (Last year, it was "rumored" that a founding Trail Nerd (me) brought some of his own homebrew).

Steve Riley, his family, and the volunteers always do a good job with this race. This year there were 100 finishers in the trail race. A gaggle of Trail Nerds ran in the race, and most did well. Kyle Amos ran with his wife Stacey. The day before, Kyle took 3rd overall in the 10th fastest time ever at the Flatrock 50-K trail race! Caleb Chatfield (the winner of the same 50K), decided to not run but volunteered for the race. A gaggle of Trail Nerds ran in the race. Many Trail Nerds came home with the coveted Sandrat for an age group or place award.

There is also a 1K Rug Rat event, and this year there were 8 competitors. It was my grandson's first race, ever! I ran with him and he ended up running the whole way. Not bad for a 4-year old.

Here are 3 of the Rug Rat finishers. The two on the left are Shane Jones' offspring. The one on the right is my grandson. He makes me so proud, (even though he is more competitive than a 4-year old should be).

Photos of this year's Sandrat Trail Race click here.

I've also been busy updating the trailrunning website, and planning for our club's two big events next year. One of them is the Psycho WyCo 50Km race in February, and we're also adding a 40-mile and 100Km race in April. This is in addition to our 7 shorter race events. I also volunteered at a road race last week and have been working on my house's plumbing and AC systems. Whew. That's enough.

I deserve a spanking, or at least a photo of a female blogger licking her G4 computer! Not that that would ever happen...

I may decide to do a 50-Mile trail race this Saturday, (Heartland). Raul and Kyle are thinking about it too. If we go, we will also bring a bunch of equipment and after our 50-miler, we'll erect a "gypsy" aid station within 5 or so miles of the 100-mile race finish. We'll call it the "Mirage" aid station. Should be fun.