Hot Saints

I'm gonna keep this posting short because I can barely stay awake. Nancy completed the Rogue Summer Trail Series this morning with a finish in the third and final 30k - "the Saint" - at St Stephens. I'm glad I got the chance to crew for her and our friend Celeste. She struggled a little on the last loop but showed a lot of guts to pull through and earn her series finisher's shirt and I am very proud of her. It was humid and muggy - one of those days where I was glad I was volunteering rather than running. It was a busy weekend for me. I helped with packet stuffing and pickup, and filled in as needed during the race, but my main contribution was in course marking and teardown and raceday setup.

We marked the course on Saturday afternoon. It was hot work and we hammered in a lot of stakes with arrow signs and "wrong ways". I think we did a pretty good job of idiot-proofing the course. A group of us went to NXNW for supper and a few cold beers afterwards where we enjoyed a great meal and a never-ending supply of funny stories and anecdotes. We didn't stay too late because we had a really early start this morning. I've enjoyed working these races throughout the summer - I've gotten to know a lot of people and had mucho fun along the way. Deciding to take up trail running is one of the best decisions I've made in a long time.

End of post - I'm going to bed.

The Return of the Fat Ankle

Oh boy, you guys are in for a treat tonight - pictures of my nasty hairy inflated ankle!!! Now that's quality blogging. I am supposed to be running a moonlight run on the Greenbelt right now, but instead I am sitting here with my feet up talking to you. Why is that? Well, the picture above may give you some clue.

I got up early this morning to go run Walnut Creek with Clea and her dog Pancake. It was a beautiful morning with a slight breeze, the park was deserted and it was perfect for running. We set off with our headlamps on and ran the bmx loop and the windy loop before heading off into the maze of trails in the main portion of the park. Pancake has a flash of white in her tail and as she ran ahead of us it was like following our own mobile glow stick. In short, we were having fun. We were taking a nice easy pace and chatting away when I happened to mention that while I had turned my ankle a good few times I was yet to do a full blown face plant. Oh fool that I am. About 4 miles in a sneaky root reached out, grabbed me and delivered that particular trail runner's rite of passage. Down I went - 9.9 for artistic interpretation, 10 for embarrassment.

Got up, dusted myself down and just had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. And of course I'd sprained my ankle (yet again) somewhere during the swan dive. Just how many of my blog postings have to include various combinations of the words "ankle" and "sprain"? Clea was really nice and we took it easy for a few minutes so I could walk it off. Then I decided to suck it up and we started running again. That's the beauty of these ankle sprains - while running you can pretty much ignore them and after a while you don't even notice them anymore. As long as you don't stop.

By now it was getting light. This side of the park has some really pretty trails and I soon forgot about the ankle. Somewhere close to the powerline we saw our first mountain biker and headed down to the (dry) creek. Once over the creek it was a quick run along the pool loop and we were back to the parking lot to complete a nice 10k run.

It was an enjoyable run and one I would like to do more often, but now I had to hightail it to work so we said goodbye and I headed off home. Caught Nancy and Gavin just as they were leaving and hopped in the shower. Once I'd cleaned all the dirt off my leg I realized I also had a nice big cut down the side of my knee, but much more noticeable was the fact that my ankle had stiffened up and was not very pleased with me. Now while I can be pretty stupid at times, I'm not a complete idiot and decided it was wiser to not run the Greenbelt tonight (and probably just as well as I'm limping quite badly at the moment).

When I got to work I found an email from my mate Jeff who is just getting over his own ankle injury, so I couldn't resist emailing him back about my little accident. We ended up deciding to run Ken's Loop on Monday so I'd better start putting it on ice.

If all this sounds dramatic, let me just add that these things usually look much worse than they really are. I will probably be back up and running within a few days, which is just as well as I'm helping to do course marking for the Saint trail race tomorrow.

I find that beer usually helps too.

All Work and Some Play

So I was sitting at my desk this morning contemplating a cookie when our secretary came by and asked me if I could get my presentation to her by 8am.

"What presentation?" ask I.

"The one you're giving to the manager's meeting at 9:30" she replied.

Ah, that's a nice Monday morning surprise. It's lucky she dropped by because nobody had told me. Oh well, at least I had a laptop, network connection and projector. I actually like doing off-the-cuff presentations, and as happens with these things, once I started and got a few jokes in everything just flowed. Of course sometimes I forget to shut up too, so I completely overshot my timeslot by a good 20 minutes. Ha ha ha - serves them right.

This is going to be my week for demos because I'm doing presentations all day Wednesday and Thursday too, along with some external consultants. On the plus side that means I get taken out for lunch most of this week too. Hooray.

Enough about work, play is much more interesting. Aftermath of Saturday's run? Actually, not much. My hip flexors were a little sore, but that's about it. I have a good core workout dvd from SABAR training that I'll pop in tonight and do. They have some killer side-lying leg lift routines which I really need to start doing at least once a week. Hip flexors - you have been put on notice.

Nancy ran the Pflugerville triathlon on Sunday and it was a wonderful (though yet another far too early) morning. Gavin has been extra good this weekend and the weather was once again perfect. We spent our time throwing stones into the water and playing along the lake. I like this triathlon so much more than the Danskin (strictly from a spectator's viewpoint of course), and Nancy pulled off her first sub 10-minute-mile 5k run to round it off (with a 5k time of 29:19 she well and truly obliterated that 10-minute-mile barrier).

I spent the rest of Sunday cooking indian food and fiddling with the computer. On Friday evening, after having used Ubuntu linux for over a year, I decided to put Windows back on my laptop. That lasted for all of a day, and by yesterday I had gotten fed up of it, downloaded the newest release of Ubuntu and put it back. The thing I love about it is that you install the operating system and everything just works. There's no need to search everywhere for drivers, and it's so much faster (and free). Windows? No chance.

Oh, and the chicken korma was yummy too. Did pilau rice and naan bread with it and froze enough batches of the base sauce to keep us going for a good few meals to come. I just finished the leftovers for lunch.

The Sweaty Twenty

Today was a run that has been in the works for a while - a twenty miler on the scenic (and very hilly) road between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks. I got an early start, picked Clea up on the way and we met the others at the Bastrop park entrance. We'd lucked out with the weather, but still decided to drop a cooler about 4 miles in.....just in case.

We started off with 6 people, but some drama in the first mile soon dropped that number to 4. Undaunted, we ploughed on.

This was a challenging course, but we took a nice easy pace and enjoyed chatting together. Is there anything better than running through beautiful scenery with good company? We had a fun group and there was a kind of unspoken agreement to wait for anyone who stopped off. The road was nicely shaded and the miles slipped by until we got to Buescher, turned round and headed back. This may have been the point we started noticing the hills and the heat a little more, and we all started dreaming of reaching the cooler. We finally got there, refilled our camelbaks with some deliciously cold water, and Clea kindly shared around some of her Dublin Dr Pepper winnings from last week's 10k. Refreshed and refilled, we continued on.

About 2 miles from the end, my calf started cramping. I'd been really lazy and hadn't been taking enough salt tabs (maybe that should be any salt tabs?) or sports beans. Now I was paying for it. I told the others to go on ahead, but in keeping with the spirit of the morning they all stayed with me and we walked a good portion of the final few miles (most of it was uphill anyway).

Coming round the last corner we saw Robert Heynen sitting on a bench so we decided to suck it up and all ran in together as if we'd been hammering the course. He'd been there with his Rogue group when we left, and now he saw us coming and greeted us with a resounding "here come the road idiots" :-)

The run finished at around 21 miles, and we hung around chatting some more. I'd put together some comedy "finisher's certificates" and we all posed with them while Robert took the picture above.

Everyone agreed this had been a lot of fun and we should do it again soon. Big thanks to Clea, Meredith and Moogy for being such good company, and especially to Clea for coming up with the idea and making it happen.

Where's the Creek in Walnut???

We had the day off yesterday and made the most of it. I started out with an early run at Walnut Creek, doing hill repeats on Endo Valley. I was surprised to get to the main creek crossing and discover there was no water in it!!! Wow, I guess we need some rain.

The run was casual and relaxed - I haven't run since Ken's on Sunday and needed to. I jogged slowly to and from the hill, hit the repeats hard and took some recovery water breaks between them. Endo Valley is perfect to run hill repeats. It is not very long - probably 1/4 mile loop at most - but it starts with a rocky downhill, modulates into some nice shaded flats, finishes off with a decent climb and then you're back to the start. That's one of the things I like about Walnut Creek - it has many self contained loops to do things like hill repeats, speed drills and to practice switchbacks.

Finished my run and headed home to pick up Nancy and Gavin to go swimming. On the way I saw a rather strange sight - two police motorcyclists driving down Braker side by side holding hands. Austin can be a very strange place.

We headed back to Walnut Creek and spent an entertaining hour or so in the pool. Gavin is getting really good at kicking his feet and moving himself around in the water, and we had a great time. I got "told off" by the lifeguard for bouncing up and down in the pool with Gavin on my shoulders, much to Nancy's amusement.

We stopped off for lunch at ViVis - a little chinese restaurant we enjoy (they do some great sesame chicken on their lunch specials) and then headed home for a nap. Spent some time at amazon.com downloading new mp3s for my jukebox. Got a few Weezer songs ("Pork and Beans" and "The Greatest Man who ever Lived"), "Handlebars" by the Flobots ("I can ride my bike with no handlebars"), and "Mercy" - the new Duffy single (she's a cute soul singer from Wales - kind of like Amy Winehouse without all the craziness).

And finally, good news for you Doctor Who and Torchwood fans out there. Definitive proof that Wales is being visited by aliens. Must be the rift.

Honey Moon

I see the moon
The moon sees me
Beneath the shade
of the old oak tree.

Over the mountains
Over the sea
That's where my heart
Is longing to be.
- unknown

Summer Solstice is this Friday and tonight is the full moon. That means we're in for an extra special treat. When the sun is high in the sky creating the longest days of the year, the full moon arcs low through the southern sky giving the illusion of a hugely inflated size. Since it is so low in the sky it may also take on an orange hue, hence the term honey moon.

Whatever the scientific expanation, take a moment to step outside at sunset tonight and watch this amazing specatacle.

Playing Wii on the Big TV

I finally got around to setting up the Nintendo Wii last night. Nancy was at her core class so I pored over the tightly packed box and figured out how it all fit together. I set it up, positioned the sensor bar, pulled out the TV enough to wriggle behind, plugged the video and audio leads in, and turned on. Bingo, we're up and running.

The package came with a game disc - Wii Sports - so I figured we'd try it out. Gavin was excited and wanted to play too, so I selected Bowling and we created our little avatars. Took my turn and found it surprisingly easy and fun to use. I knocked down 8 pins on the first round, which I thought was pretty good. Then it was Gavin's turn. I put the strap around his wrist, showed him how to swing his arm and which button to press. He unleashed - strike!!!

Wow, bested by a 3 year old. He looked at me and his little face lit up. "Daddy, I knocked them all down" he said. Mighty humbling.

I played Nancy when she got home. It was a closely fought contest.....but she won. Damn!!! I suck at Wii. Still, at least I got a better score than I do when we go bowling for real.

Cornish Pasties

Since Clea has posted a number of really good recipes, I figured I'd better reciprocate with one I made this afternoon.

The cornish pasty - pronounced pass (rhymes with mass) tea - was one of my favorite foods growing up. It originates in Cornwall, England where it was created to meet the needs of Cornish tin miners. Being covered in arsenic-laced dirt, they would hold the pasty by a corner of the folded crust, eat the rest of it and discard the dirty crust. By superstition, the discarded crust would appease the "knockers" - mischievous spirits who lived in the mine and caused accidents and mine collapses.

They are very popular back home and can be bought handmade with a variety of ingredients in most local bakeries. As they are made to be a complete meal, can be eaten hot or cold and are easy to eat "on the go", they could make a great ultra food (though you may want to substitute all purpose flour for the wholewheat). So wrap a few in foil, pack them in your drop bag and give them a try. I have experimented with various recipes to remove a lot of the fat from the crust, and came up with the following "basic" recipe.


Makes around 18-20 pasties

Crust
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup self-rising flour
6 Tbsp chilled margarine (I use "I Can't believe it's not butter" light Meditteranean blend olive oil spread)
6 Tbsp low-fat or fat-free ricotta
1 cup iced water

Filling
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp fresh herbs (such as parsley, thyme)
3 carrots, finely chopped
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 medium potatoes, cubed

Instructions
Mix together the flours and cut in the margarine
Cut in the ricotta cheese
Stir in the iced water bit by bit. Mix by hand as you go and add the water to the dry bits.
Form into a ball and knead several times. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C/gas mark 7

In a large mixing bowl, combine the potato, carrot and onion together with the beef, salt, pepper and herbs
Roll out the dough and cut into 6" circles (I use my pasta machine at thickest setting to roll it out). Work with portions of the dough and keep the rest covered and refrigerated.
Put 1/3 cup of filling on one half of each circle. Moisten the edges of the circle with water, fold over and seal. I use these which work really well. I got them in a cookery store in Cardiff, but I have also seen them sold locally very cheaply (they are sometimes known as dumpling or empanada makers).

Arrange the pasties on a pre-sprayed (or foil lined and sprayed) baking tray. If you want a softer crust, brush them lightly with milk/olive oil/egg.
Cut 2 small slits in the top of each for steam.
Bake for around 40 minutes or until brown.

Let rest for at least 15 minutes.

Experiment with the basic recipe for the pastry and filling to meet your needs. Try using all-purpose instead of wholewheat flour, chicken or turkey instead of the beef (lamb and mint probably also a good combo) or even leave out the meat altogether. Try brown rice instead of potatoes, add in celery, mushrooms, bell peppers, garlic, ginger, bbq/curry flavors etc. Be creative, just be sure to report back and let me know how they turn out.

The Dr Pepper Bandits

Oh man, where do I start? I guess at 3am when our alarm went off, but the story really gets going at 4:15am as we arrive downtown to join a group of runners waiting for the charter bus to take us to Dublin to run the Dr Pepper 10k. Just one problem, there's no bus. Several phone calls determine that (a) the driver is none too bright, and (b) none too concerned. After very many excuses and predictions of swift arrival, he finally shows up at nearly 6am. We all realize there is very little chance of getting to the race in time, so my buddy Shawn calls up Jeff Kloster (who works with us, is heavily involved in putting on the race and is the co-owner of the Dr Pepper factory in Dublin). He says not to worry and that they'll delay the race by 15 minutes, so we hang up the phone to hear the driver inquiring if anyone knows how to get to Dublin. Not a good sign. Luckily most people see the funny side, especially when somebody points out that the bus was booked through "prompt charters".

Getting closer to Dublin (with just a few wrong turns) we realize we're still not going to make the race in time. My father-in-law drove up from Brownwood to watch Gavin run his first race, and he calls Nancy to find out where we are. We hear the anthem playing in the background. Another call to Jeff and we come up with plan b. Unless you really want an official time (I didn't care, it was just a fun run), the bus will drive straight up to the start line and we will jump out and start running.

So that's what we did. As we jump out of the bus, we see the race clock already at 6 minutes. No time to pick up packets or race numbers, Evil lines us up, Jeff tells me which way to go and we all set off. Shawn and myself take off in the lead and begin to pull away. We make the first left turn, avoid a few cars and see the rearguard police outriders a few hundred yards ahead. So my competitive streak kicks in and I up the pace.

Look up the definition of stupidity in a dictionary and it will say "sit in a bus for 2.5 hours, do not stretch or warm up, jump out and immediately run a 6:30 first mile". Alongside this description will be a picture of me. With a goofy grin. The kind of grin that says I know I shouldn't, I know I'm doing it, I know I should stop, but I just can't help myself. When I hit the first mile, I check the time (6:20 and change), sanity kicks in, and I force myself to slow down. Shawn is about 30 yards behind. By now we've caught and passed quite a few runners and I'm getting some strange looks and a few good natured "you must be the Austin runners" comments. The course winds in and out of streets and parks, and is really quite nice, but I don't have any kind of rhythm (gee, I wonder why), and I've gotten lulled into a far more conservative (or maybe just lazy) pace than I'd wanted. Shawn catches and passes me around mile 2 and soon pulls ahead. The next few miles are a blur of passing people, until I happen on Shawn again around mile 4. He's walking with some friends from the 5k. I feel very tempted to join him and chat away the last few miles, but I'm starting to get into my stride so I keep going. I see quite a few runners having a hard time, and a few off stretching at the side of the road. I make sure to give them all a few words of encouragement as I go by. As I pass an intersection I look over to my right and see some runners a block away going in the opposite direction to me, and other runners another block further going in the same direction. I try to figure out if they are runners I've already passed, but I soon turn the corner and realize it's the last mile and a bit. By now I'm finally starting to get some rhythm so I pick runners ahead of me and start to reel them in. Turn the last corner, speed up, head down toward the cobblestones, pass a few more runners and cross the finish line. I wander around, finally remember to stop my watch and it shows 48:50. Roughly a 7:50 pace - not a bad little run and a nice bit of variation.

I grab some Gatorade, look for the family and finally track them down. Gavin already has his race number and the kids 2k is about to start. He wants his dad to run with him so we head off for the start line. He is by far the youngest kid here and I make sure to position myself so he doesn't get trampled. The horn sounds and off we go again. He runs for the first 50 yards or so and then decides to walk. We carry on walking and yakking together and everything is going well until he spots someone mowing their lawn. Then the race is forgotten. He wants to go back and see the lawnmower (Gavin loves lawnmowers). By the time I convince him he's in a race and we need to keep going, most of the other runners are out of sight. Undeterred we carry on. We are so far behind that even the police outriders have left us. We don't care. We carry on our pleasant stroll, loop the loop and head back. When I spot the finish line getting close I point it out to Gavin and tell him to run through it. We get a good cheer as we get close, Nancy runs over to join us and Gavin grabs our hands and we run through the finish line together with a very well-earned DFL. I get a special "well done dad" and a thumbs-up from Evil.

Jeff has VIP passes for us and our other work colleagues, and takes us on a special tour of the bottling plant. He tells us the history of the place, and shows us original items that his grandparents used in the 1800s. It's really interesting. We get free meal tickets for fajitas, get ourselves some root beer and Dr Pepper floats, and sit on the pavement outside enjoying them. The fajitas are pretty good too.

We lurk around the fair for a while, listening to jazz and playing with Gavin until it's time for the bus to leave. Gavin has turned into Mr Chatterbox and wants to talk to anyone and everyone on the bus until he finally falls asleep and is out most of the way home.

We had a really nice day and had a lot of fun. By my next post I will have fixed my mental glitch and sent my blog hurtling back into the past tense.

Remembering Absent Friends

My friend had another massive heart attack in hospital last night. We'd hoped that he'd make progress after they amputated his legs but the left side of his heart was already irreversibly damaged, and this was one too many. They turned off his life support machine this morning. He was 42 years old with three kids. One of the ladies at work came and told me this morning and she was in tears. I've never wanted to hug Gavin and Nancy so much - you can bet I'm going to do everything I can to be around as long as possible for my little boy.

We're meeting the bus at 4:15am tomorrow morning to go to Dublin for the Dr Pepper race so I'm off to bed. Gavin is in our bed tonight and he's calling me to go lie down with him. I'll write soon with a report and photos from his first race.

Oh What a Circus

A few days ago we were reading to Gavin about lions and tigers from one of his books and Nancy had the idea that he would really enjoy going to the circus. Now I have very fond memories of the circus coming to my small South Walian town when I was a little boy. They would always erect the big tent on the same stretch of wasteground where the travelling fair set up for one glorious week each September (long since gone, the site now contains a housing development). I remember going with my dad - the excitement and anticipation, the smell of the animals and sawdust (I particularly remember holding a little lion cub who kept trying to eat my badge), the ringmaster, the clowns, the acrobats.... Yes, I thought it was a great idea. A quick look around the internet and I found that the Ringling Brothers circus would be at the Frank Irwin Center in Austin in August, so I booked us all tickets. We're going to the circus!!!

I've been feeling tired and lethergic for the last few days. I want to be well rested for the race on Saturday so I backed off any workout last night and instead spent a nice relaxed evening cuddled up with Gavin watching cartoons and reading stories. He loves it when I make up stories for him, only my versions don't always turn out as they should. I guess it's my wicked streak, but Big Bad Wolves often become misunderstood heroes in their pursuit of lazy little pigs who invariably end up as sausages, pork chops or bacon. Sometimes we'll stop in the middle of a story, let him make up the next part and then I'll pick it up from there (the Prince took one whiff of Cinderella's smelly shoe and fainted dead away). It's a creative and fun experience for both of us.

I like to think it's my British sense of humor. Nancy says I'm just twisted.

The Luck of the Welsh

I attended a really posh business lunch and presentation at Trulucks today (you know the place is dead posh when they have jazz playing in the bathroom). Trulucks is an upscale seafood restaurant in downtown Austin and we were treated to an exquisite three course meal. For starters I had a yummy crab and corn chowder, then for main course a grilled Scottish salmon with seasoned blue crab meat, gulf shrimp and a jalapeno bearnaise sauce over parmesan mashed potates. Finished it off with a chocolate cake for dessert. On top of that, the presentation was really quite interesting - a Business Intelligence tool I'm in charge of deploying at work.

And as if that wasn't enough, they finished up with a raffle for a Nintendo Wii entertainment system - and I won!!!! Let me say that again - I won a freaking Nintendo Wii. Nancy's been wanting one ever since we played it at my brother's house in the UK over Christmas.

In other news I mailed off my entry for the Bandera 100k and the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race today, so there's no turning back. Yeah I know it's way in advance, but hopefully the pain of forking over $210 will be enough to motivate me to put in the miles needed to prepare for these beasts.

Night Running in Bandera

We had a great trip to Bandera. We got down there about 5pm Friday and pitched our tent. Gavin was really excited to be camping and wanted so badly to help put up the tent but ended up hindering more than helping. He was really cute though. After we set the tent up, we went for a hike and spotted a dung beetle hard at work. Gavin was fascinated with it and we must have stood there for 20 minutes watching it. The highlight of his trip was watching all the fireflies (they call them "lightning bugs" over here) at dusk (see picture above).

I'd anticipated going down to get a look at the terrain and to have a good time with Gavin while Nancy ran, but Joe invited me to join him and Joyce on a night run. That was an unexpected bonus and needless to say I jumped at the chance. Every person I've met since I started trail running has been super nice, and Joe and Joyce are out of the top drawer. They are both very genuine and generous. They run a number of local trail races from their Tejas Trails website, and Austin and the Texas trail community are lucky to have them. This run worked perfectly for me because Nancy and Gavin would be asleep and I could get a good workout in and still be able to look after him in the morning. We took a quick trip into town to pick up a pizza so I could get back to the campground and get ready to run.

We hit the trail around 9pm and were joined by TJ Thompson and John Sharp. I didn't know TJ but I'd met John at Rocky Raccoon when we finished less than a minute apart, a trick we repeated at the Austin marathon a few weeks later. He's just a real nice guy and it's always a pleasure to run into him. He's getting ready to run his first 100 miler at Bighorn later this month and it was good to catch up. We talked about all kinds of things and he was running smooth and steady. He looked ready for his big race.

We ran over a myriad of trails, including Boyles and Cairn's climb. At one point John and myself got lost and added in a few bonus miles. I didn't care - I was enjoying the run and the conversation. We eventually found the others (they were sitting on one of the trails waiting for us - said they could hear us yakking from the next mountain).

We stopped at Boyle's house about 2.5 hours into the run to refill our water. There was a wonderfully refreshing breeze blowing and we all turned off our lights and enjoyed the star mosaic of the night sky. It was awe inspring - a golden moment - and everyone agreed that the weekend was a success just on the basis of this night run. We carried on running and eventually got back to the road and Joe's truck. It was just around midnight and we'd been going for about 3 hours. John was done and Joe and Joyce were ready to turn in too. TJ said he wouldn't mind doing a bit more but didn't want to run by himself. I was up for it so we refilled our water, said goodnight to the others and headed back onto the trail. The plan was to do another few hours, including "Ice Cream" hill and the "Three Sisters" before heading back to the campsite. We settled into good conversation as we ran the flats. TJ has a 4 month old at home, and we swapped stories of being new dads. He's a real strong runner, both physically and mentally and is training for the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 miler in July. A few weeks earlier he'd come out to Bandera by himself and run a 6 mile loop (including Ice Cream and the Three Sisters) eight times. We clicked immediately and conversation was real easy.

The climb up Ice Cream felt good, but I'm not very strong on the downhills, especially on loose rock. TJ was and would pull ahead on those sections. At one point I realized something was tracking me in the woods to my left. I could hear it moving along parallel to me, but when I'd stop and shine my headlamp into the brush it would stop too. Then it would start moving again along with me. I was more curious than anything, but I never did find out what it was.

Then on one of the flat sections before the "Three Sisters" we came across a skunk - a real big fat skunk waddling up the trail. We weren't taking any chances so we trailed it at a safe distance until it wandered off the trail and then we hightailed it past.

The rest of the run was uneventful. We settled into a laid back pace and conversation and eventually headed on back to the campsite. We finished right on 20 miles - around 4 hours and 45 minutes. One of the best runs I've ever had.

Breakfast this morning was cold pizza which Gavin insisted on carrying from the car. He was so funny - he walked into the campsite and announced to everyone "I've got pizza". While Nancy went off for her group run we got to play. We also got to visit with Joe and Joyce, John and his dog Lacey (Gavin's new friend) and Mindy - a friend of one of the runners in Nancy's group.

We had to leave as soon as Nancy finished her run so she could get back to Austin in time to rack her bike for the Danskin triathlon tomorrow. On the way home we stopped off at the "Deutsch Bakery" in Blanco for some apple cake muffins and coffee - yum yum (and I needed the coffee).

In case you didn't get it from my description, I loved running here. I did notice the sotol cactus which you can't avoid brushing against in many places. You don't notice it at first, but it begins to burn as you keep hitting it. Nothing major though. I need to be careful on the downhills - I turned my ankle pretty good on one of the Sisters, though I was able to run it off. That was a good sign - my ankles are much stronger now than when I started running trail. All in all, a super trip and I'm looking forward to pacing the night section for my buddy at Cactus Rose.

Reflections on Life

Blogs are useful tools for many things. They can be journals for your life, they can spotlight particular aspects (like running), they can be soap boxes for certain viewpoints. Sometimes they provide an outlet to channel your thoughts and feelings. At about the time I was puffing up the Hill of Life on Wednesday a good friend of mine was having both legs amputated. I found out yesterday and it knocked me for six. Writing about it is as good a way of handling it as I know.

We started running at about the same time back in 2001 (he's about 8 years older than me) and did a few 5 and 10ks together. While I went on to run marathons and eventually ultras, he quit running soon after. From time to time we'd talk about a race we might do together, but about 4 weeks ago, out of the blue, he had a massive heart attack. Serious enough to require a heart transplant, he's been in critical care ever since while he waits for a donor heart. Circulation problems led to the decision to amputate his legs this week.

I thought about that a lot last night while hiking the windy loop at Walnut Creek with Gavin. A father and son - 2 best buddies - walking, running together in the woods. Stopping now and again to examine a tree or a leaf or a bug, talking about nothing and everything. Such simple things that I take for granted. We don't realize how lucky we are. To not be able to do that, to not be able to swim in the pool afterwards and watch him shriek with delight as I throw him up in the air or twirl him around. To not be able to hold him, guide him and tell him how proud I am as he makes his first faltering swim strokes.

Sometimes - be it during a good run or a perfect moment with a loved one - we feel invincible. But it's just an illusion. We have our lives so well planned but none of us know what's around the corner. Things can change tomorrow. In an instant. And when that happens there are no take-backs or do-overs. I learnt a long time ago to not hanker after what I don't have. Things like this teach us to not just be satisfied with what we've got, but to be grateful.

I am both.

Weekend Trips and Nice Cool Dips

I am taking off work early this Friday and driving down to Bandera. Nancy's training group are running there on Saturday morning so we're going to camp overnight. Maybe I can get in a training run on Friday afternoon (a first sighting for Cactus Rose and Bandera), maybe not. Either way I'm not bothered - it's Gavin's first camping trip and we will have a good time. We have to get back to town by midday on Saturday because Nancy needs to rack her bike for the Danskin triathlon on Sunday. My weekends are getting booked up quickly. Next weekend is the Dr Pepper 10k in Dublin, then the following Saturday I am running the Scenic Drive between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks with some friends. I'm thinking about going down the night before and camping out but we'll see how Gavin does this weekend first. The day after that Nancy is doing the Pflugerville triathlon and the following week is the final race in the Rogue Trail series. Then we're into July.

We're going to visit the swimming pool at Walnut Creek tonight. Gavin loves the water, and I'm looking forward to teaching him how to swim - that is going to be one of our special father-son things. I used to be a competitive swimmer in my younger days and I want my boy to be as confident and "at home" in the water as I am. I need to start swimming more too - it's a great cross training. I wish the pools here stayed open longer - with our climate it seems such a waste that most of them close in August.

I went to the Hill of Life last night to run repeats on the big hill. Man, it was hot. I set my goal for 4 repeats and managed it, but had to have recovery breaks between repeats (and walk part of the uphills). And I thought I was good at hills too - I guess I have some work to do!!! I figure it took me on average 10 minutes to complete one down and up. By the end, I was sweating like a politician on a lie detector - I could wring the water out of my shirt (yuck). Here's the odd thing though - it felt good.

I'm thinking of doing one of the Capt'n Karl's 12 hour all-night runs - either the August one at Perdanales or the September one at Inks Lake. Can't do "Mule Shoe" in July as it clashes with El Scorcho. Never done a timed race like that before - should be fun. Any advice on which park would be the better to run at?

The Michael Myers bush

You know that bit in the "Halloween" movie where Jamie Lee Curtis looks out of the window and there's Michael Myers standing in the front yard across the street? Creepy, right? Well when I first started early morning runs around my neighborhood several years ago I too had my Michael Myers moment.

At the far end of my loop there are no street lights and it can be incredibly dark. Bear in mind this is 4am, the neighborhood is deserted (one of the reasons I like the early mornings) and all sensible folks are tucked up in bed. This particular morning, as I came round a bend, there in one of the front yards was a tall figure. Just standing there. Staring at me. Thoughts started cascading though my head - psychotic knife wielding lunatic, imminent horrible demise, damn I was running really well too. Scared? I just about screamed like a schoolgirl!!! Of course, on second glance it turned out to be just a tall thin bush which left me feeling not a little sheepish. That was the morning I learnt that you can get still get cold chills while running in Texas.

So it was christened the "Michael Myers bush", and it still got me for a few runs before I adopted it as a landmark on my usual route, alongside such luminaries as "badly directed security light", "plastic duck yard" and "New Orleans house".

I ran the route this morning and it was a strange run. I started out feeling stiff and sore, and my legs were tired. I did a pretty hard leg workout last night so I'm not that surprised, but after about a mile all the tiredness faded away and I started to feel good. In fact, the further I ran the better I felt and by the last loop I felt great. The only thing holding me back was Charlie (my dog). I guess since I stopped running the neighborhood regularly he's gotten a little out of shape because he was breathing pretty heavily by the time we got home. Nancy even asked me "what did you do to the dog?" The strange thing is, if I got up to go run tomorrow, he would be as excited and ready to go as he was this morning.

Odd random fact - I've run this well-worn 6 mile route three times in the last two weeks and each time I've run exactly the same time - to the second. What are the chances?

Looping the Loop

Well I had a great time again this weekend volunteering at the Loop 30k. Summary as follows - worked packets, marked trail, did setup, drank beer, did various odd jobs, cheered on runners, talked to friends (some of whom I hadn't seen for a while), ate some hot dogs, did some teardown, drank more beer, went home, slept. I've discovered that working these races is almost as much fun as running them (sometimes more so). I've also been challenged to emulate a very impressive move on a stability ball (involving a plank rolling up into pike rolling up into a handstand) before the next race (we had a few quiet moments at packet pickup). Now that's me out of the way, let's move on to the real story.

Nancy ran the 30k - only her second race of this distance (her first was the Maze) and enjoyed herself. She did really well, especially considering she was only running road 5ks up until this year. Since January, she's run two road half marathons, and two 25k and two 30k trail races. She was worried beforehand that she wouldn't be able to make the cutoff because she's not fast, but she's got a lot of heart and if I had to put money on anyone to finish a race I'd put it on her. I'd been out marking the first half of the course the evening before and I knew how rocky parts of it were (no real big hills, but almost constant up and down), but it turns out she prefers this terrain to the windy dirt trails of Walnut Creek.

She was going to run with another friend of ours - Celeste - who was running her first 30k trail race. I've known Celeste for a number of years - we both joined the same running group to train for our first marathon four or five years ago. She was the first person I met on the first day, both wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into. Back then we'd just found out that Nancy was expecting and all season Celeste would ask me how "little Iestyn" was doing (Iestyn was our top pick for a boy's name, but when he was born we both thought he looked more like a Gavin). We've kept in touch ever since, but how strange that they'd end up training and running trails together.

Anyway, the girls had a very enjoyable run and I think they chatted the entire way. Every time they came through the start/finish they had big smiles, and I'd refill Nancy's handheld with pedialtye (my secret weapon) and make sure they were both getting enough salty stuff. They finished together in around 4 hours and 50 minutes so they were well ahead of the cutoff, but more importantly they really enjoyed running together.

Reward supper last night was my "Greek" hamburger - basically lean beef patties (I guess for really authentic Greek it should have been lamb) stuffed with feta cheese, and seasoned with black pepper and rock salt. The sauce was a mustard/mayo/relish/ketchup/garlic/red onion combination with some tomato, lettuce and pickle served on grilled wholewheat buns with some spicy potato wedges on the side. They were pretty good.