Hill Repeats

After Tuesday’s pickups trailmomma and I decided we wanted to do hills. But the big question was which hill? Coach Nikons hill which is located in old Fair Oaks –Pennsylvania Ave.- or Captain Kirks hill which is located by the Hazel bluffs. Both of these hills we have run before and both hills are a great quality workout.


Somehow trailmomma agreed to meet at the clubhouse in Old Fair Oaks. I was bit shocked when I read the email because I thought I would never see her in that area. This is due to the fact that this area has tons of chickens just wondering around. In fact there are road signs that say “Caution Chicken Crossing” But sure enough she had decided to face her fear or maybe she really just wanted to run Pennsylvania Ave.

I arrived first and was waiting outside my car for her with my camera ready just in case I could capture that moment of fear, only I didn’t get a picture because as soon as she pulled in she wouldn’t get out of her car. I slowly walked over to her car. She had the windows up and I am sure the doors were locked. Apparently she needed me to scare the chickens that were flocking all around her car. I couldn’t tell if she was laughing or hyperventilating or maybe a little of both. Maybe we should have met somewhere else?

It didn’t take long for trailmomma to get moving, I on the other hand was having a little problem even walking. Pennsylvania Ave. is 1 mile away so we used that as our warm up but of course before we could really get started trailmomma had to use the bathroom. Maybe the chickens made her nervous.

With rest room stops completed we were off. The mile warm up seemed to go by quickly or maybe I was dreading these hill repeats. I knew that it was going to hurt more so then when we did this hill in training back for AR50. It isn’t because I am out of shape, but that I had injured my neck and back a few weeks ago and was still having some major issues.

Once we arrived at the base of the hill I told trailmomma not to wait for me. I didn’t want to slow her down. She is a much faster runner then me and that is one reason why I like training with her because she keeps me on my toes and I enjoy her company she tells the best stories.

Off she went, and I was pretty close behind for about 5 steps and then the speed racer came out from inside of her and she was gone. From my angle it looked effortlessly for her. Here I was huffing and puffing and each breath was painful because of the knot on my chest.- Not sure how it got there- The end couldn’t come near fast enough. This hill is steep and tricks me into thinking it is complete but then it keeps going at a steeper pitch then before. Brutal but Great.

After the first set trailmomma looked fresh ready to go. I wasn’t but I pushed on and pushed and all I could hear was Coach Nikon “drive, drive, drive.” That is what he said during our workouts with the Fleet Feet Group. I did just that. I pushed and when I felt like I couldn’t go any further I pushed harder. Trailmomma in the mean time was cruising along. She was strong on all 4 repeats. I completed my 4 but I was glad when I was finished.

After completing a hard workout like that I feel rewarded. My body is tired but inside I feel like I can conquer anything. My juices are flowing and I am thinking when can I do that again. Really? How can I say that after repeats. I found it fun and painful. Painful because of the last 2 weeks but fun because it really makes me push myself mentally. Just when I think I can't push one more step I do and I do it again and again.

On the way back we stopped at the concert in the park and enjoyed people watching. But I am sure trailmomma was chicken watching. We didn’t stick around long, we both needed to get home. The chickens while we were gone had decided to camp out under and next to trailmommas car which of course caused a panic attack. She tried shooing them with her water bottle but to no avail. I scurried them on their way. It was pretty hysterical to watch trailmomma jump in her car and roll the window down so we could continue our conversation.

All in all it was a great night. The run helped to loosen me up and this morning I was walking normally with minimal amount of pain and trailmomma faced the chickens. I am not sure what I have planned this weekend, but I am sure it will involve running and maybe a special Meme time with my nephew.

Pick Ups Anyone?

All this week and all of last, I have been having a self battle with my body. Which by the way my body is winning. It all started last week when I woke up and couldn't move my neck. It has happened before so I took it in stride "No big deal."

Then the following day I still couldn't move my neck and now I couldn't pick up my right arm or even use it for that matter. Then a few days later after I tried to get out of bed and as I put weight on both of my feet I had a stabbing pain that started from buttocks and shot all the way up my back. Not good, that pain is still present with the occasional neck pain and shoulder pain.

In the morning it takes me a good 2-4 hours before I am walking normal again. usually I am hobbling around taking really small steps and not lifting anything because one time I tried to pick up my nephew and I had to quickly put him down. I didn't even get him 2ft off the ground before it felt like my legs are going to give out and the pain is unbearable.

I finally gave my friend Lily a call who is a certified massage therapist and she was able to get me in right way and worked on me for an hour and half yesterday. The massage defiantly helped. She told me my head felt as heavy as a bowling ball, it seemed like I had whip lash, and my back is not aligned anymore. She has worked on since last November and knows my body.

The good news is......my legs only had a few knots in them.....which to me is great news especially with all the running I had been putting in.

But whiplash really? I haven't fallen recently, I haven't been in a car accident and I haven't hit my head. Wonder what is causing all of this. All I know is it is getting painful waking up every morning and not being able to walk, move my neck and or lift my arms. But like a stubborn fool I am I am still running.

After my massage I met up with trailmomma. We had decided we would try and do some mile pick ups. 1 mile warm up, 1 mile pick up, half mile recovery and so forth. The plan changed a bit because both of us were not feeling to great. I was feeling pretty loose but was still in some pain. We ended up doing a 2 mile warm up with a bathroom stop at 1.5 for trailmomma. During our mile pick up I quickly faded. As I was running I couldn't take a breath in because it felt like something was pinched in my back. Then my lower back just suddenly began to hurt with some stabbing pain so I had to slow down a bit, but not to much I think I was still holding around 8:20 pace. Trailmomma was looking really good out there. She was like speed racer.

Go Speed Racer!

After we completed the first pick up we checked in with each other and I confessed to trailmomma how I was really feeling at this point. As we started back up we had decided to do 1 min pick ups which would give me a better chance to recover and I don't think trailmomma was feeling to well her stomach was bothering her. The way back we did 3 sets of 1 min pick ups for a total of 6 miles. Yeah!!!! Great Job trailmomma....I was hardly standing after this run. Maybe I am pushing myself to hard, or maybe not.

But of course with yesterdays activities this morning I was again in some excruciating pain. Even my sister commented how terrible I looked. Like clock work maybe 3 hours into my shift I was walking around fine. I am going to see Lily again this week. It helped yesterday.

Over the weekend lil man had a play date with one of his buddies and he had a blast playing in the back yard.

Driving around, watch out Toby!

riding his trike

Enjoying the sunshine

Best Buds!

Thursday trailmomma and I are planning on running again, not sure if we are going to do hill repeats but I am sure I will be out there running.

Working it on the Trail!

This morning as I rolled over to see what time it was I was surprised that I was almost pain free in my back. It was 5am, but I wasn't ready to get up yet. I relaxed here for a bit and then decided to get ready and meet trailmomma for our morning run. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to run this morning. I have been battling some serious lower back issues which had me walking around pretty funny. I could hardly pick up Lil Man.

As I got ready Toby was by my side the entire time, hoping to be able to come along. I haven't been able to run with him this week because it has been too hot , and with my recent back situation I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold onto the leash. So sadly he had to stay behind.

Toby's new spot!

Off I went hoping I would be able to complete our scheduled 12 mile run. It has been 2 weeks now since TRT 50k and my next event is in September the Sierra Nevada Endurance Run, I signed up for the double. Ohh Boy! 52.4 miles and this would be my third ultra.

As I pulled up trailmomma was relaxing in the back of her car half a sleep, as she is battling the no sleep because of the two year old phase. I hobbled out of my car and was in some real pain now. I gathered my things and hobbled over to her hoping she wouldn't notice my limp and stiff body. Today I wasn't running with my Garmin, I had forgotten to charge it. Off we went, only we both were walking. Or I should say I was limping along praying that everything would loosen up.

We hit the fire road and off we went, OK so it didn't exactly happen like that. We started running on the fire road and quickly came upon our first climb and we had to walk it. Usually we can run at least half of it if not all of it. So both of us were not feeling too great. But we carried on, not wanting to turn around.

Way to work the sock pose

The fire road was pretty uneventful, but trailmomma did comment that was I running pretty stiff. As we started on the single track toward the horse staging area I cut my finger on the stickers and was bleeding. Not long after that we came across Bambi's dad. Literally 5ft away. It startled me so much that I screamed and also forgot to get a picture before the deer ran away. After those two encounters I told trailmomma "this is going to be a interesting and exciting run." Sure enough it was.

I lead most of the time and we were both really quite as it took to much energy to talk. When all of a sudden I am screaming and jumping about and sprinting. Trailmomma has no clue what was going on. It was a huge line of ants. I am not a fan of ants every sense I was little kid. We haven't even run 4 miles and I had cut my finger, ran into a deer, had to jump over a log and now ants. Pretty comical I might add luckily there were no other runners around that I could see to see it.

Log jumping. Not good enough do it again!

That is better

As we came upon our photo spot, I was really feeling the run. I took in a salt to see if that would help me. We also took a few minutes to capture some great poses. Instead of JC Penny Catalog poses -they haven't called us yet- trailmomma had the idea to call it Trail Runner's Pose or something close to that. Check out her blog see the rest of the photos. trailmomma

Nice Smile!

There is trailmomma, trying to take a self portrait

Work It

This point was mile 5, and we both checked in with each other. I was feeling stronger now, she was feeling good to continue on with one more mile till our turn around. Off we went. I was in the lead and I really challenged and pushed myself on the rolling terrain. I was running or from trailmomma's perspective I was sprinting the hills and charging the descents. I really wanted to push my body, so my body could remember what it felt like to run out of my comfort zone. It worked, my legs were getting stronger each climb and it mentally gave me a boost. As we approached the turn around point I kept asking her "now? are we there yet?" Trailmomma just laughed and said "not yet." I pushed harder when all of a sudden I heard her say "not to fast we are almost there." Yes we had reached the turn around.

The way back in trailmomma took the lead, I was a little spent from sprinting the hills. She looked strong even though she wasn' t feeling to great. I surprised her once, I had fallen behind and next thing she new I was on her heels. I had her pull me for a bit and then I retook the lead. I did have to take in a GU and also another s-cap.

As we cruising back we came upon the horse staging area and we were both focused on just getting back. I heard a reselling in the bushes up ahead and as I approached I saw a herd of turkeys. I quickly turned around and told trailmomma "umm you don't want to go that way."

At least 20 of them! Caution Turkey Crossing!

As I am saying this she looks over my shoulder and sees all the turkeys crossing the trail and starts hyperventilating.

 "Breath, just breath." I told her "stay put I will clear the trail." As I am approaching them they scurry across and next thing I new the momma turkey puffs out her wings and starts coming my way. I look back and trailmomma is frozen because I think she saw them. I told her "I told you to stay put." We quickly ran past them and I was laughing pretty hard. Thank goodness she wasn't in the lead.

As we reached the fire road we had about 2 miles to go. We were talking about training and I had mentioned that I needed to start incorporating some temp and possibly hill repeats into my work outs. The fire road for me is very runnable if I let it and it can also defeat me if I let it. But today I didn't. I was pushing hard up the hills. I had pushed myself pretty hard today, I had told myself before we started running I wanted to run some if not all the hills I normally walk. I think I did that. That was a great feeling.

Overall I ran pretty strong, pushed myself on this 12 mile run and my back for the time being is feeling pretty good. Hey, who knows maybe this run helped loosen me up a bit. I guess only time will tell.

Back on the home front, Lil Man and Toby had a photo shoot yesterday. Lil Man is getting so big and Toby is just so lovable. 

He is flying like a super hero.

I think they do a double pose better then the adults.

I am looking forward to just relaxing the rest of the day. I am sure I will be out running again tomorrow. I don't let things slow me down. This week I will be working on a tempo run or a hills. I don't know which one yet, maybe I can get trailmomma to join me.

Call it in!

"Call it in" is all I said to my peer after one of my team members passed out. What seemed like a normal and relaxing Friday was quickly turning into a ohh crap situation.

Things started out great, I didn't get a call from work last night, which meant I was able to get a full nights sleep. The first nights sleep all week. As I arrived it was very calm and things were organized and under control. I thought, "wow, this is great." After I got my 4am team going my peer and I were walking the floor following up on some audits we had to complete when my cell phone range. Which for me now, is not out of the ordinary as my phone rings all the time with contractors needing to get a hold of me. It was the overnight superintendent from construction and he informed me that I had a team member in the bathroom up front who cut himself with a box cutter. My peer and I detoured and headed up to the bathroom. Both of us were thinking, just a cut as we have both cut ourselves with box cutters.

When we arrived at the men's bathroom we find the injured t.m sitting on floor. Then we see all the blood in the sink and we see his blood soaked jeans. We asked him "How are you feeling?" He replied "I feel fine." My peer and I say to him "stay put we are going to get some first aid supplies." "O.K." he replied. He was with another t.m.

We gathered up some gauze, sterile gloves, ointment and headed back to the bathroom. When we arrived he was still sitting. I asked him "Would you like to try standing and wash the blood off your hands?" By this point the bleeding had stopped just like a normal cut would do. He said "Sure." As he was standing up I put on the sterile gloves and assisted him with rinsing off the blood. The cut wasn't bleeding at all. As I was applying the gauze pad he said " I think I need to sit down." As he was about to sit down he started to slide down the wall he was leaning on and his eyes rolled back in his head. The other t.m caught him before his head hit the ground. At this point I immediately tell my peer to call it in. This is serious. The injured t.m. came too within seconds and said "not again." Wait! What? This happened once before?

As my peer is on the phone with the nurse I tell her this is the second time he has passed out. We didn't know about the first time. The nurse tells us to call 911 due to the fact it was the second time he passed out. As my peer is calling 911, I am applying direct pressure on the cut and keeping his hand elevated in case it started to bleed again and the other t.m. is supporting his head. We are both talking to the injured t.m and keeping him alert by asking him questions, "How old are you? How are you feeling? What day is today?" His response to the last question "that is tricky because my night started on Thursday so it has to be Friday. Right?" We all laughed because that statement is so true for those of us who work nights.

As we are waiting for the cavalry to arrive we were able to keep the t.m alert and talking and we all remained calm. I knew I didn't want to panic in this situation because I didn't want my t.m. to panic. The fire department arrived and the paramedics came. The men's restroom was quickly getting full. The fire department had me continue to hold pressure on the cut and keep it elevated and told me I was doing exactly what I needed to do.

Eventually the t.m. was able to stand and walk out of the bathroom, but after standing for a bit he had to sit down again because he almost passed out again. The injured t.m. didn't want to go to the hospital by ambulance, his vitals were fine, his blood pressure was good.The fire department cleared him to have someone else drive him. But, they wanted to make sure he got in the car o.k. before they left. My peer drove him to the hospital as I had the store keys and she was from another store and here helping me out. Technically I couldn't leave the store.

The injured t.m. ended up getting 2 stitches. This situation ended with only 2 stitches. Thank goodness for the quick thinking of the other t.m. who stayed with him in the bathroom. I don't want to imagine how different this situation could have turned out if he was alone in the bathroom when he passed out. Everyone involved in the situation responded as they needed to and everyone remained calm and followed direction when it was given.

Time Flies

I can't believe how quickly both of my nephews are growing up. It seemed just like yesterday that they couldn't crawl and now they both are putting complete sentences together. Take Lil Man for instance.

On Sunday Brent asked Lil man what he wanted for dinner.
-Lil Man replied "eggs!"
-I then tried to explain to Lil man "I don't think we have enough eggs for everyone."
-Lil Man goes on to say "in the refrigerator."
-I said, "There isn't enough for mommy, daddy, you and meme." I can't believe I am trying to rationalize with a two and half year old.
-He then replied "in the chicken cope."
- I chuckled at this and asked him "did you bring some eggs in? I still don't think we have enough."
-He of course was very animated during this entire conversation and proceed to tell me "I picked the eggs with my picking fingers."

I thought it was a great little conversation, he followed along and tried to reason with me. I finally got him to want to spaghetti instead of eggs. I bribed him with sausage. He did enjoy the dinner I made.

This is also the second official week of my remodel at work. As of right now I am about a day and half ahead of schedule which is great because I can never be to sure what the next day will bring. But so far so good. It is exciting and also very stressful. I have never lead a remodel process before but luckily I have some help from another ETL who has completed 2 previous remodels. So far so good. It is pretty cool to see the changes and to know that I had a part in those changes.

With it being week 2 out of 13 I am trying not to let if effect my running routines. So like usual on Tuesday evening I headed out to meet up with trailmomma and we did our usual 6 miles. It is always so much fun running with her, we both get a chance to talk and catch each other up, we get a good quality run in and we also have impromptu photo shoots, bathroom stops, attack of the birds, turkeys on the wrong side of trail, bunnies out to get me. You name it it happens on our runs. I always walk away from our Tuesday runs laughing and remembering how much fun it is to run.

This past Tuesday was no different. I almost didn't make it because I fell asleep and woke up with 20 min to get there. Talk about rushing around, I was driving and I still had sleep lines on my face, and my eyes were watering up for some unknown reason. But I made it with plenty of time to spare. Trailmomma pulls up and off we go. This would be the second run for me without my Garmin. I had decided to run without it and just try to let things go and not worry about time and pace. It is also some great advice I had heard from a good friend.

My body felt much better, maybe that was due to it not being as hot as it usually is. Or maybe because I got a nap in before the run so my body was rested. I defiantly needed that nap, I worked overnight Sunday night and got home around 8:00am Monday morning and had to be back at work at 4:00 am Tuesday day. Talk about quick turn around.

As we were approaching our turn around spot trailmomma needed to stop, so I gladly took her camera and while she was busy I took some photos. She always said she like my self portraits. So that is what I did. Check out her blog to see all the photos we took. trailmomma

After we re-grouped and headed back she informed me that she had a photo session planned for our aid station stop. Really an aid station!!! WOW what luck. The aid station was the water fountain and bathroom we always stop at. She got really creative and we had some interesting poses. Her directory of photography is quite extraordinary. She had me doing poses I never thought I would. It was great but short lived because we had to get back. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. It was great. It is our groups new thing -JC Penny Catalog Pose- Got to love it. I can't wait for Saturday, I am going to be studying the catalogs so I can really shock everyone.

Today I am feeling really excited to be running. Coach Nikon gave me some great advice and I am going to incorporate some solid quality running into me weekly runs. Today I decided I would try it. I ran 6 miles with 1.5 miles being at tempo. Talk about tough. But I managed to hold a 8:30 pace for the mile and half. I am sure as I continue to incorporate quality runs I will be able to sustain the pace for longer. I am also going to be adding some hill repeats. It worked well for AR50 and it will be good to change things up and keep my workouts fresh. Maybe the next time though I decide to have a hard workout I wont do it at 3:30 in the afternoon. Like I said, I was really excited to try a new workout.

So far this week has been very productive, exciting, stressful, sleepless and exhausting. I am actually looking forward to Saturday and sleeping in a bit. I am meeting trailmomma for a early morning run at 6:30am but compared to be waking up at 2:45am and 1:50am that is sleeping in for me.

Internal Struggle

I have been struggling internally for a few weeks now and it has reflected in my training runs. The Tahoe 50k I ran last Saturday was a struggle for the first 11 miles but then I let everything go and just ran. I stopped thinking about what was going on outside of my running. I only focused on my body and it was the most unbelievable feeling for me. Yes, I had issues all day but I didn't let those issues stop me. I persevered and overcame adversity to complete it.

The big question for me is; How did I get to that point?

I haven't been able to get there again and I find it frustrating when I am out on the trails and I can't overcome and just be. How can I switch my brain off? Running was or use to be an outlet for me. It was/is a way for me to de-stress but recently I am finding it difficult to lace up my shoes and even get running, probably because I fear I wont be able to complete the run, or I wont be able to keep up, or you name I am thinking it.

Why am I putting so much pressure on myself to run and perform?

 I am only doing it for fun and that is what I need to do again. Run for fun. Easy to write, but hard to execute. I struggled on Tuesdays run this past week, but I am chalking that up to the incident I had a few hours before the run which caused my big toe and foot to swell. Saturday's run I felt pretty good heading out but struggled all the way back in. Doubts were flying through my head, but even though I struggled I still had a smile on face. Yes, it was a fake smile but I was still smiling none the less.

Then today Sunday I can't sleep so on the spur of the moment I go for a run. I didn't meet anyone, had no clue on the distance and I also left my Garmin at home. That was the smartest thing I have done in awhile. No pressure about pace, no pressure about time, no pressure about distance. I ran a pace that my body felt good and comfortable. I ran a distance that wasn't to far nor to short. I enjoyed this run tremendously.

It was exhilarating and my confidence grew. I ran 4 strong miles on the way out and on the way back in I ran even stronger. I was passing other runners and I didn't feel like I was working hard. I think I found my groove. It has taken awhile and I only hope to keep this momentum into my upcoming training runs. I just have to remind myself that running is enjoyable and I don't need to put so much pressure on myself to perform. It will happen and if it doesn't that is OK because some days will be good and some days will be harder. I just need to keep that focus on fun and being able to let everything go that is bothering me.

30 to 80 in one week

After I finished my run this morning and Garmin and Trailmomma were waiting on me to get in, trailmomma made a casually remarked "You went from 30 to 80 in a week!" What that means is in one week I went from looking like a 30 yr old runner to a 80 yr old runner. I found that comment kind of funny because in looking back at my runs this week, she is absolutely right. Let me back up a bit.

Trailmomma wasn't expecting me to be up and running by Tuesday, but I surprised her with a little e-mail saying I was ready to do 6. Legs were feeling good and I wanted to get back out there. This was before I woke up that morning and I couldn't move my neck. If I needed to look at something to my right I had to move my entire torso. Then while I am at work I run my big toe over with a pallet jack at full speed and my toe is swollen and I am betting I will lose my toe nail. What luck! I can run 33 miles on Saturday and feel great a couple of days later only to run my toe over. But I wasn't going to let that stop me, I forced my now swollen foot into my running shoe and off I went to meet trailmomma.
I ended up doing 6 on Tuesday but it was completely painful. I couldn't turn my neck, I was hobbling along because any sort of pressure on my foot sent excoriating pain through my body. I had to walk some of the 6, but I did it. Yeah me!!!! Maybe I should have taken that Tuesday off because looking back on my time it wasn't very pretty.
I wake up Wednesday morning and I am having this strange sensation penetrating through my right side. I can't grip anything with my right hand, my hand is tingling, I still can't move my neck, and now I can't even raise my right arm above my head, and the right side of my jaw was killing me. I could hardly open my mouth without pain. Great Now What!!!!
This lasted most of the day and went into Thursday. I looked pretty ridiculous walking into work cradling my right arm near my body. I was even having a hard time opening doors. At my house the doors have those child locks on the door grips. Will, I couldn't open the door and had to have my sister open it for me because I couldn't grip anything. How embarrassing.
By Friday I was feeling a little better, I mean my toe was still throbbing and I had been draining it for a few days now, I still couldn't move my neck, but I could raise my arm, and the pain in my jaw wasn't so severe. So I decided I would try and run on Saturday.
I was the last one to arrive at our meet up spot. Trailmomma asked "Is your body numb?" I just laughed because it was going to be if it wasn't already. Garmin took the lead followed by trailmomma and than myself. I wasn't too sure how far I would be going and if I would be able to keep up. The first few miles my legs felt great. I was able to keep up. We passed a few runners and than played hop scotch. At our favorite look out point we had a instant photo shoot. We even got the other runners to pose for us. Check out Trailmomma, she will be posting the pictures.

Look at them go!

At this point we all checked in to see how we were feeling. I was feeling surprising good and so were Garmin and Trailmomma. We decided to go a few more miles. We were only at mile 5 so we were possibly looking at 14 miles today. As we continued running I was running slower and slower and would only catch glimpses of them. We did have  a great time with our "bird" calls. A bird even answered. We would "bird" call to each other, or I should say they would "bird" call to me and I would respond. This way we would know where we were on trail. Just in case. By mile 6 I took in a GU and I also took a s-cap. My legs were getting real sluggish and for some reason I was getting stiff.
Finally I made it to the turn around. Here we had another JC Penny photo shoot.

Nice

By this point I my right shoulder was screaming at me, my toes hurt and it felt like my feet had swollen, my legs were feeling sluggish but I still had a smile on my face. It wasn't all that bad just a few minor adjustments and all would be good. As we ran back in I couldn't keep up with those 2. They were like lightening and I felt like......

a snail!

I couldn't get my legs to turn over. But I was still having fun, my only concern was I hope that trailmomma and Garmin weren't waiting for me. My spirits were up, I knew I had pushed it a bit today but I really wanted to be outside running.

This Way! Just for you Trailmomma

When I came upon the road crossing guess who was waiting for me. Yup, Garmin and trailmomma. What good friends, waiting to make sure I was alright. Thanks

I never did see them on the road leading to Cavitt. By the time I got back to the car they had already changed their shoes. I was still smiling as I walked up though. I was carrying my pack and hobbling a little bit. It was great to be outside and in the dirt, but maybe next time I wont push myself because I am sure today I will pay for it.

Thanks for the run with good friends and the JC Penny photo shoot. Who knows, maybe one day you will see us in the catalog.

Trailmomma was right, I was running like a 80 yr old, but I am OK with that.