RACING

Last night was the second Folsom Lake Trail Runner race. I did the long course again which was supposed to be 6 miles but according to my garmin it was 5.7ish miles. It felt like 9 miles though. Overall I thought the course was definitely "easier" than last week but that is only because I despise the gravel road sections near Cavitt school. Last night at Negro Bar was a mix of over grown single track, rocky single track, mud infested single track and pavement.

Upon arriving I found the usual suspects like Captain Kirk, Wonder Woman, Miss P (her first race yeah!), Scrapbook, Big D and a few other friends that I know in the trail racing world. It is amazing how many friends you can make just through trail running alone. Just a great atmosphere I love it.

The evening started with Captain Kirk having me and Miss P sign up to be on the Fleet Feet Team in this race series. I am not sure what that means other than scoring points for Fleet Feet in the overall competition and having Captain Kirk "order" me to join him on a warm up run. Warm up? Um, what's that? In all the years I have been running I have never in my life done a pre-race warm up! Crazy, I know. It felt good I admit and maybe it helped my time just a smidge who knows.

I started the race as usual with Big D but as usual she turned on her mysterious motor and poof was gone. The first few miles had us climbing up the bluffs over near Negro Bar. I had a girl in a bright yellow shirt and green shorts in my eye sight the entire time. I don't know what it is about me but the competitve side just comes blazing out during races like this. I saw her and immediately tried to assess her age. I concluded that yes, she's probably in my age bracket and that she should not be in front of me. Eventually on a flatter section I passed her but I constantly heard her on my heels or at least I thought I did.

Overall I felt pretty good. More engery than last week and I ran all the ups (except on the way back, I did walk one section boo). The trails were totally overgrown and flashes of Garmin's massive poison oaked legs were running through my mind. I even jumped over all the puddles instead of running through them.

On the way back to the finish I found myself behind a father and son. The son was probably 6 or 7 years old I would guess. You could tell he did not want to be there and did not like running down a rocky hill. The dad you could tell was very into it and was strongly encouraging his son to run. Instead of letting me pass the dad told his son to run faster. Sigh. I bit my tongue and told the kid he was doing a great job and to not worry about me being behind him. Unfortunately he rolled his little ankle and went down and his dad eventually stopped. I later saw that boy running with his dad across the finish line. He was okay and I told him he did a great job.

Team Fleet Feet did a great job. I finished second in my age group for the second week in a row with an 8 something pace. The girl who took first in my age group has taken first place female overall at both races and was ahead of me by 9 to 10 minutes. I doubt I will ever catch her . . . especially since I don't even see her when we start! The girl in the yellow shirt and green shorts was third in my age group and not too far behind me. Yikes. I realize my turnover is gone and I am hoping some speedwork next week will help bring that back.

While I was off racing, Vans and the Peanut were home doing father daughter stuff. The Peanut is coming down with a cold but still enjoys her time with Daddy.

Who needs toys when a stick is so much fun?

One of mom's pet peeves.

Going up the slide instead of down.