Rattler Ramble Trail Run

It’s been a long time…

At the end of October I was asked to help time a trail run near my house. Actually I was asked to time the race two days before the event. I scrambled some pacer friends, procured the club’s clock and decided to race the event. I hoped to finish high enough in the rankings to that I could race and time.

Since the race was just before Halloween I donned the banana suit. I figured that this would give me a pretty good excuse if some of the fast guys showed up for the race. I could always say that I was in a banana suit – what do you expect.

It was a brisk morning, I say brisk but it was really about 50 degrees outside. It was kind of cold standing around but definitely hot while running. I wore an extra-long sleeved shirt while we were milling about before the start of the race. I did get to use all of the banana puns (peel off the extra layers, timing splits, etc.). Funny stuff!

The race started on a slight downhill on a dirt road. I was running fast and wanted to stay at the front. However, there was a girl in front of me. She was running smoking fast down this dirt road. I glanced at my GPS watch and we were in the high 5’s (very high 5’s – like 5:55, but high 5’s none the less). I was not going to put in a pass – this was too fast for me. I fell in behind the girl and stayed about 10 feet back. I was going to stick to the pace as long as possible. Flashing through my mind was a race that had taken place the previous week where a girl won the overall with an 18 high something 5K. I was thinking that if this was that girl then I would have to let her go. Once again, the pace was too fast for me.

I looked at the watch again, we were already a half mile into the race but she was not slowing down. I stayed with her and thought negative thoughts. Something would have to give and soon.

We rounded a corner and saw a long gradual rise before us. Finally, the girl slowed down. She huffed and grunted that she had gone out too fast. I thought – no doubt! I was thankful for the reprieve.

I settled into a very hard but sustainable pace. The route was technical and had many switch backs. I was able to glimpse the second place runner.  I did not want to get into a sprint on these trails.  I kept the pace up sufficiently enough to take the win.

Not my fastest run by far but it was my best race in a banana suit!

Hey, where did my Monday go? Sydney bound.

I am sitting in the New Orleans airport waiting on my flight. This is going to be a very long day. My flight leaves NO at 2PM. A short time later I arrive at Dallas where I get to spend about 4 hours at their airport. Then it is a much longer flight to LA. When I arrive at LA I get to spend about 2 hours at LAX. Finally I get to board my flight to Sydney. I will be on the flight for the next 18 hours. I am not a big aviation geek but I did specifically book my flight so that I would get to fly on the Airbus A380. The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. In addition, there are 3 self-serve snack bars! This might present a problem since I am a nervous eater – and I am especially nervous when I travel.

Snack Bar

We went and lined the streets to watch the New Orleans Halloween Parade last night. As far as parades go it was pretty good – nothing spectacular. There are about 10 very large floats that were decorated very well. However, there was a very mechanical aspect to them. I seemed to prefer the more dynamic parade elements. There was a group of about 10 people dressed in some kind of voodoo straw outfit – maybe African witch doctor. And they were 10 feet tall (on stilts). These guys were extremely talented and they were jumping into the crowd and hopping around. They were showman! It was pretty incredible.

The other group that was exciting was the devils, witches, skeletons on horseback.  Their costumes were very dramatic.  I wish I would have had a camera with me.  We called it an early night in New Orleans although we could hear the parting well into the night – I mean day.  I went to the lobby to get some coffee at around 6AM and two guys stumbled onto the elevator.  They were both clutching 12 packs of beer.  One 12 pack was intact while the other had obviously been dropped several times.  This guy held the beer close to his chest as he rested against the elevator wall.  After a moment or two he spoke, looking to his friend he said, “How did I F@#$# that up?”  To which his friend replied, “She played you.”  This is an everyday occurrence in New Orleans.

Track on Tap - Peanut Butter Jelly Time Remix

I did the legs and back P90X DVD on Thursday morning and I am glad I got it done. Many people talk about not liking to exercise in the morning but I have to disagree. I make my exercise a priority and I generally schedule more than one session a day – but sometimes things just come up. Yesterday was one of those days – my schedule got way off – for good reason – but I missed the gym at lunch. I was glad that I had already done a good session.







But Thursday night was the Halloween Edition of Track on Tap and we had a great time. We had a good turnout and our first stop was the Keg and Barrel. I saw a lot of friends from the Beer Club (remember – I am a member of both the beer club and the running club – the only difference is that beer club don’t run).






We stopped and chatted for a while and then split for downtown. Lots of cars were honking and waving at us. We hit Brownstones and stopped for bit. This was a pretty warm and humid night here and Mississippi and really felt like I needed to peel some clothes off. We were all sweating pretty good. We attempted to go to the Bottling Company but they had some kind of MTV’s the Real World casting call promotion – and cover charge… So we headed back around the corner to the Wine Bar and sat outside. Since the last two trips were short we were starting to cool off a bit.











We headed back to the Keg and Barrel but Jodie and I were feeling a little ripe and headed home early. Total – 3 drinks – 3 – 4 miles. A good time for all.

This was a good test for running in costume for the 1/2 marathon on Saturday. I think I can do the banana as long as it is not raining. If so, I think I can get a guaranteed PR for running as a banana - although the mustache would not make it.

Track on Tap - Halloween Edition

I skipped the workout at lunch on Friday since I was doing the Track on Tap (in costume) that evening. I knew that it would not be a 'real' workout but I have been trying to take care of my ankle.

Jodie and I arrived near downtown at about 5:30 PM. Others soon started to gather and there was a photographer from the news paper working the 'Halloween Beat'. We ran down a popular trick or treating street in full get up and caught many eyes. The marines ran ahead (the guys without their shirts) and parted the hordes of ghouls with their swords. Our first stop was the 'Live at Five' concert in the park. The beer wagon had 'Southern Pecan' on tap and I of course par took (I think I par took 3 times at that stop). I also got a little hungry and bought a steak sandwich from a cute nurse (see picture) - and it really was a damn good sandwich.

We trekked over to brownstones and sat out on the balcony for more liquid refreshment. The legs and lips started to loosen up at this point. A few pints later we made it across the street for some pizza.

Charles, the rainbow colored pirate, was lobbing up easy pitches and I, was of course, knocking them out of the park with little mercy - there was no 10 run limit tonight. Lots of laughs. Soon enough the steak sandwich selling nurse was making her rounds and I had, after all, sampled her wares earlier. She stayed and played for a little while and posed for some provocative photos.

We ran past the Sanger Theatre on the way to the vehicles. Audrey was in back and must have been people watching. She was following close behind a runner and did not notice that they moved to the left. Full force, she was clothes lined at the knee cap by a cast iron bench. Ouch! I heard the clang from about 20 feet away. We all stopped. She was able to make it back to the vehicles.

Stopped at Wal-Mart and got some beer and cookies. The cookies never made it out of the car.

Feeling good with a headache and dehydrated (it must have been the cookies - damn cookies) I decide to go for a long run on Saturday. I was feeling good - really. I hit the turn around point for my twelve miles and pushed on - I was going to turn this into a 15 miler. After the 6 mile turn around point I jumped on the dirt horse trails. The soft surface and uneven terrain is good for the knee and ankle joints. I hit my new turn around point and after 10 miles I jumped back on the asphalt of the Long Leaf Trace. As soon as I did that my Achilles tendon flamed on and shut me down. I had to walk. After a few minutes I ran a little more but I could tell that this was going to end up being a death march. It was easier to transform my run to a heel strike - still this was not going to be pretty. I suppressed my pride and gave Jodie a call and requested an evak. I still had several miles to walk to the next station.

Made good time on the 10 mile run (it was intentionally slow - but a solid run) and horrible time on the 3 mile limp - Total time was 2:13 for 13 miles (a slow 10:13 pace).

There will be lots of recovery this week with little to no running and a lot of ice on the ankle. From experience, this type injury can be very persistent.