Running with Scissors Part Two

I stopped for a bathroom break on the orange, and when I emerged from the treeline, I heard a "Is that Kimba??" being yelled. It was Elizabeth aka E-speed out for her first Mohican run. Right behind her is my old friend Rob "Buckeye" Powell making sure E-speed didn't get lost on the loop! We're almost to the Covered Bridge for a refuel break, and Frank, another BR and Mo veteran joins us. It's quite the merry band as we head on the blue loop (hereafter to be referred to as the Purple Loop in honor of Colleen Theush, our longtime Mohican supporter/historian/cheerleader extranadoire.)

It's always fun to run the blue loop with people, and Cory joined us also, then went back to get more runners. Bob Combs, Race Director of the YUT-C 50K and Tonya Cady, Race Director of the Winter Buckeye Trail 50K caught up to us. It was nice to chat with these two again.

We're done pretty quickly with the Blue Loop, cuz it's only four miles long, then head for the long section, the Red-Green Section, which is 21 miles. We head up the biiig hill on the Red, that everyone hates, and get lots of comments about the blow downs (trees!) on the trail. This is a section that will be changed next year, to follow the Mountain Bike Trail.
Bob ends up running with Mike and I for the rest of the race. This was great, because Bob is a really good runner, and I've never gotten to spend much time with him (cuz he's usually long gone!). Bob is thinking of running Mohican, and wanted to scope out the trails. He's another trail lover, and doesn't like to run roads.

Mike has been talking about his pilot friend Tyler, who is supposed to drive up from Columbus to meet and run with Mike for a little bit, and sure enough, Tyler has made his way out on the trail to meet up with us! This is really funny to me, cuz I know all about Tyler, aka "Jetpack" since I have listened to his podcasts and heard all about him also through Zen and the Art of Triathalon I already knew he had just finished Ironman Wisconsin!

There are alot of horses out on the trails today. In fact, this is the most horses I have seen out here, and we runners are trying to be courteous as we keep leap frogging with the horses. I stopped for a bathroom break, as Tyler tried to find a dry spot to ford the creek. Bob and Mike took it all in stride to soak their calves as they waited.

Tyler wasn't planning on spending all this time out on the trail, so when we crossed a major road intersection, I directed him up it to get back to his car. I didn't mention the big huge steep uphill (well he didn't ask) and actually my estimate of 2-3 miles was more like 4-5 miles....hey he's an IRONMAN should be no problem!!!

Mike is fading a bit after this. I offer him Advil and he remembers an Energy Shot he's been carrying..Wow, 10 minutes after that, he's off rather briskly. Bob is still in great shape, and just goading the two of us on. I actually am just really tired. Nothing hurts (important!!) and mentally, my normal trail attitude is still there.

I have to take another bathroom break less than 1/4 mile from the CB finish...so I came DFL...okay by me...actually Bob Drake's DNF report was the best!



After running for...almost 11 hours, we opt to drive our cars to the shelter at the top of the hill instead of tromping up the hill as originally planned. Roy is waiting for the only two 52+ runners, Regis and Gabe, as the rest of us have dropped at the 60K mark, since it would be dark and cold and frankly, we'd ran enough!

Thanks to Roy for putting on a really nice race, we'll do it again next year!

Running With Scissiors 2007 Part One

This Sunday was just beautiful, it was in the 40's when we started...
My alarm did not go off, so I awoke at 3`15 am (I meant to get up at 3 am) but I was out the door at four. A good thing, as my road is still on a detour. I had a horse in the road (not expecting that!!!) and six deer just 6 miles on my way out of town!!

No worries I pull in at the CB at 605 to a huge hug from Mikey. We're up for the 1/2 mile hike uphill to the shelter where Roy is kicking off the run. (We're doing loops so I know the CB is the best place to leave your vehicle.)

Mike and I recieve the pre-race speech from RD Obi-Wan Roy Heger...I know the course so I don't need the as much instructions as others...
Well maybe we look like we're sleeping, but we're just ready to get out of there~!


Mike and I leave just ten minutes off our scheduled time of 630 am. We have a blast running on the orange loop by ourselves, catching up on each others lives. Mike and I run about the same pace (Mike's actually faster but I think he hangs with me) which is probably good for his long races. At mile marker 2, which is almost to the Campground, we run into a confused runner. I am confused, because I am pretty sure it's Ron Ross...Mohican finisher 12 times...but Ron's got lost on the orange loop here...We take Ron with us, on the short downhill to the Campground A. Since this is a switchback, we hear runners above us...oh no, we are getting caught!! By runners that started 1 hour after us!!! It's Gabe and Reg, my ultra running neighbors (next towns over) and Ted, who have steered this two straight! I am amused at how Mo veterans are getting so lost on the trails. It's a good thing Mike is sticking with the Trail Goddess-I know my Mo trails 4 seasons out!

No blisters!

Huh? I ran Roy's "Running with Scissors" FA yesterday at Mohican. We ran about..40 miles. 4 water crossings, one pair of socks and shoes (Injinjis.) No blisters for me!

What did I do different? No tape. Aquaphor on my toes, I tried a Bursatek bandaid on my one heel area that usually develops blisters (it didn't hold with all the wetness.) But I did wear my Dirty Girl Gaiters the whole run!! Did that help keep all the tiny pebbles and sand out of my shoes? It was the only new thing I did yesterday.

Race report later today!

Where I have been

Incommunicado! Not my choice...We have satellite Internet...which is only slightly faster than dial up. But when it rains, the satellite is knocked out. Now we do have a backup dial up system, associated with the satellite company, but there's been problems with that...and since it's rained for three days straight.
Other options? We have none. We live way out in the country. The electricity grid ends on our property. We have Amish Neighbors. There is no cable TV, no T1 Lines, ISDN lines, or any of those options available. There is simply no population out there to make it worth any companies' time to bring out cable.

So what is new? There is lots of chatter on the Mohican Yahoo Groups list I was happy to see. There's been some course changes, and of course change is the big bad word! I'm thinking of fanning the flames some, folks there is a way to avoid gas line hill too, we could continue to run down the road instead of through the steep valley. Or, we could add in the mountain bike trail in the same area, it has some even steeper hills for the die hard hill curmudgeons..

My co-host Andrew, should be starting the Javelina Jundred any second now...it's going to be about 91 degrees-yikes! Traditionally, it's been in the 70's for this race. And since it's in Arizona, I don't think wishing for rain or shade is going to happen.

And I happen to have a run tomorrow! Roy's Runnning With Scissors FA Double Marathon + at Mohican Sunday morning!

"I'm putting together a FA for October 28 at Mohican called Running With Scissors. Will start at the shelter at the top of the hill on the beginning of the Orange loop. Civil daylight begins at 7:28 AM so the race starts at 7:30. End of daylight is 7:03 PM so you need to be done by then. If you can't make the time limit there will be the option of not doing the last Orange (wimp wimp whine whine) and calling it 60k. The course will be the Orange without the Grist Mill, then Blue, Red, Green and Orange again backwards. I will do some course marking on Sat the 27. You must carry a pair of scissors to cut out pages of books placed on certain points of the course to prove you were there-cutting only-tearing is not allowed!
Course is a little long and will be poorly marked and badly supported with numerous cold a---- stream crossings (including the Clear Fork at some point if the water is not too high) I will have scissors on sale for a ten dollar donation to a charity I'll tell you all about later. Mohican veteran runners will be asked to wear an orange ribbon on their person to identify them as persons that know the course to help newbies navigate."

So I need to get my butt in gear and get my gear packed!! I will probably stash some food along the course so I don't have to carry it. I also realized last night I will be gone all day since I am planning on running the whole dang thing. It's carbo load today!

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How's that for shameless promotion? Well,it's my blog..actually a cool interview with Carey and his Arkansas Traveller 100 Race. It was his race report that made me want to interview him. He just about hit rock bottom, trying to figure where to DNF, then made a huge swing the other way and ended up finishing the race with a PR! You gotta love 100 mile races. Enough time to hit rock bottom, but maybe, if you tough it out, enough time to recover and still finish strong.

And remember, email me, or Andrew, or us at running@trailsandtribulations.com if you would like to be interviewed, know someone that would be cool to talk to, read an interesting race report (we're also up to reading people's race reports if they are too shy to talk "live"). Even DNF's if you are up to it. Heck, I am willing to talk about mine...tough to live with for awhile afterwards, but I am still a "newby" to this ultra thing. Or give us ideas for future podcasts. What is of interest to you out there, in the ultra community?

Cold Rain

Brr, the cold rain that started the cold front last night drove me inside.. to the gym, where my gym owner berated me for being absent for so long...hey I've been outside running..I did a 5K on the elliptical, I just love that machine. I turn the iPod on, and zone out...I don't even need to worry about falling off it, unlike the treadmill.

I wanted to get some shout outs though!! Congratulations to Kurt O winner of the Presque Isle 12 Hour Race! held this past weekend in Erie Pa. Kurt is one of the running regulars in NEO; I first met Kurt on the Cleveland FA way back in January 6 2007. The last time I saw Kurt, he (seriousl) ran through our Aid Station at the Burning River 100-we never saw such a runner, so focused on finishing (as he did!)

My good friend,
Tom ended up just one mile behind Kurt at the race-he has a great race report on his My Space account- congrats to you both. I think a 1 mile loop course is very tough mentally when the elements get tough on you.

I am finally looking forward to "Scissors" this Sunday.

I did it!

I meant to run right after work...but discovered I did not have running shoes with me. Everything else, but no shoes. And I'm no Barefoot Ted. So I went to the grocery store, came out, fought off the ennui that always ensues when I contemplate working out at home these days, changed clothes, and got off for a run!

This was a four mile "around the block" on roads yes roads, I do run them, it's not my choice, but neccessary. Our state road is currently closed since they are working on a bridge--I just love closed roads to run on!!

Buckeye Trail Run

We went to Cleveland for the weekend, we had a veterans group get together in Hudson Ohio. That meant I was right by the Buckeye Trail...after lunch on Saturday, I excused myself for a nice run. For some reason, I wanted to run from Boston Store to Pine Lane. Gosh, it was a gorgeous day for a run. I was hoping to maybe run into some trail folks out there, but it being Saturday afternoon, I figured all the trail runners had been out and early! Much later I remembered Presque Isle and the Columbus Marathon going on this weekend too..

I was soo glad I got out for a run. I hadn't run all week long, mainly due to social and business events taking place after work, and actually was pretty exhaused when we hit the hotel room Friday night. I was hoping a nice trail run would revive me! and of course it did. The leaves are prettier, right now, in the Cleveland area, than down my way (south of Cleveland). Such pretty yellows out there! The camera really could not do it justice. It was warm out Saturday also! But so windy too, that I was not getting over heated. Pine Lane needs a water source though. I carried one hand held (I think it's about 4 miles to Pine Lane from Boston Store?) and it would have been nice to refill about there.

On my way out to Pine Lane, I spotted this poor little turtle-on his back!!!-on the trail. I turned him over, to save his life. And then I noticed, he was a snapping turtle. A wee snapping turtle! He was the size of a half-dollar. Oh great! Now what to do? Flip him back over? I can't do that, I just changed his life-but he's a snapping turtle. I just continued on my run. I hope no one's dogs encounters this turtle when he's bigger, if he gets bigger!! What a strange creature to encounter.



YOu know, I believe I have only run this section of trail about three times-yet I have such strong memories of it. The winter Buckeye Trail 50K, where Mike and I were just bounding by runners, with our screwed shoes; the summer Buckeye 50K, where it was muddy and slick. I was getting ready to turn around, when I literally recognized the trail coming up to Pine Lane, and knew it was only another 100 meters away. And of course, what northern Ohio runner doesn't recognize this picture: these are the pine trees, as I understand it from local folklore, that the Girl Scouts planted 50 years ago? It's a nice pine corridor-full of pine roots. If the roots weren't there, it would be a great soft, pine needle corridor. Instead, it's one of those sections where you don't take your eyes off the trail for a second lest ye become part of the trail.

I returned to Boston Store; my leg did not hurt at all, I had tried to leave several demons on the trail-that didn't work so well, but I tried- and I was ready to go back to the veterans hospitality room for a celebratory beer for a carb afterwards.
It's really nice to have such a nice trail, right within the urban center, to run on. It's too bad the highways are right near by, that to me is the only mar, you don't have have the quiet trail noises, just the highway sounds.

Much better

After a bunch of sleep, the leg feels much better. Which is good, because it really hurt yesterday. I'm away from home for two days, the hotel I will be at has a pool. If I can skip post dinner business festivities, I may paddle around the hotel pool and hit the hot tub and see if that can help with recovery.

Injuurree Report

Nothing dramatic, nothing cool, no fall down a difficult slope...

Just a re-emergence of the same groin pain as last weekend. About ten steps past mile marker 13 on the Laurel Highlands Trail, a big twinge drew me up short. A few more steps, a few walking steps, made me reassess my plans.

The Laurel Highlands Trail is great! It was perfect weather for running, 39 degrees and a bit windy. I was overdressed to start out, so hard to predict on the first cold running day. I started down the LH Trail, south, toward Ohiopyle. The trail is rocky, rooty, a bit technical. I bet those rocks are slick when wet. I was feeling good, really no twinges or anything.








At mile 15, you run across a wooden bridge:













and the creek bed is really cool-full of huge boulders. I don't think this picture will do them justice:

I had started the run at mile marker 18.5, and was running south, toward the beginning of the LH, hence the mile markers. I ran past a pond, and hit mile marker 13, when the pain began.

I went on just a bit further, then turned around. I reasoned, if I felt better, going back to the vehicle, I would run some on the north part. But the leg never felt better, in fact it felt worse. I would go through a bit of good shuffling on a downhill, then Bang! a twinge would start up again. This is the groin area, in my inner right thigh. I was developing quite a limp out there on the trail.

The Trail Goddess was very dispirited on her return walk back to the car. I was about giving up running forver, cancelling all future trail races, and going back to eating bon bons and drinking beer.

Andrew talked to me for a good long way on my drive home, pointing out that maybe I have been putting too many miles into one run (well, it was convenient to do so with all these marathons and 50ks around) and maybe I need a bit of a rest, and some shorter miles to do. I have to concur with some of that. Maybe my body just can't take a marathon or a 50K every weekend.

Of course, with a long drive home, the leg has really seized up. Even walking hurts at the moment, but that should subside. The next three days and evenings are pretty full with work/school stuff, so it's a forced rest anyways.

Heading Out

Looks like I have a beautiful day for a run, high of 63 degrees.

My last post was about my struggles with weight gain and training. I've been having some bad motivational speedbumps lately. Hopefully I am past that.

I bring my own weather with me

"I bring my own weather with me."

Meaning: I can't let someone else's problems bring me down. I have compassion, I have empathy, if I am asked I may offer guidance. But it sure as you-know-what, ain't going to bring me down or distract me from my destination. I have personal responsibilty to myself to solve and overcome my issues. Just like I expect others to do that to themselves. My goals are bigger than someone else's victimization or pity party. Conversely I am not going to bring that to my readers.



Protect yourself from soul-suckers and dream killers, even if its yourself. Especially if its yourself. I felt like I did that in my unpublished post. I hope this makes up for it.


Taken from an old journal post of mine. I think I've been a soul sucker and dream killer to myself lately. Time to stop doing that.

Having Fun

A post from my friend cdnhollywood led me to thoughtful thoughts here at 530 am on a Wednesday.

Cdn talked about not knowing if he would ever find the time, or want to commit to a full Ironman. My response to him was "Well, the first step toward an IM is a 1/2 IM, so you have the idea going. Yeah, the training seems intimidating now`probably less so when you are into it.
And you know what, you may find you don't want to do a full IM, you might not ever feel you have the time for it, maybe sprints and Olys are "your distance" and what is wrong with that?"

Which leads into another longer thought: "if you are not having fun, maybe you need to rethink your hobby". Maybe hobby isn't the right word, many of us run for more than running as a hobby. But if your heart isn't into it, and you find training for your marathon, or 50 miler, or your 100, or your 1/2 marathon to just suck so bad you dread doing it, then why are you doing it?

I enjoy my long runs out there. I've been looking forward to my 40 miler this weekend for weeks! I'm sure, when I get up at zero dark thirty on Sunday morning to drive 4 hours to go run, to not be this enthusiatic, but the overall spirit is there.

But anyway, back to my original thought and post: not every needs to run a 100 miler/complete an IM. Some folks find a 1/2 marathon distance to be just perfect for them. Or they run marathons and never contemplate a distance longer than that. It's all good. As long as you are enjoying the journey, to whatever goal you have set, that's what is important.

Last Hot Humid Day of Summer

Well, since it's fall, we shouldn't be having 80's weather and 90% humidity. But we are! Today was a trail run at Mohican; I met up with Nick and Tonya just before 8am and we were off to run the Red-Green Section. As we trudged up the first hill, I was already breaking into a sweat...bleah....it shouldn't be this humid at 8am!!!

Despite the humidity, it was fall at Mohican, with the leaves beginning to change color and fall.





Nick managed to catch Tonya and I in action:




Despite running on my beloved trails at Mohican, I had a twinge in my groin that started quite early, and was not going anywhere. In my trip preparation the night before, I remembered getting distracted on my way to refilling the drug bag: 3 dogs will do that to you! I swallowed my two lone Advils and continued on. Nick, Tonya and I were having a good time, chatting about upcoming races, and future plans for 2008. Both Nick and Tonya are running 50K's in the next few weeks.



Tonya is running The Stone Steps 50K in Cinti









and Nick is running Germantown 50K Trail Race in the Dayton area.
So we had fun chatting and getting through Bridle Staging Area, where we noticed there were already horse people out for the day-good idea in the hot weather. I was still not having too much problem through the first water crossings. Nick enjoyed the cooler water of the creek to cool down his knees for a minute at the second water crossing:
















As we got to the third water crossing on the red section, we came across the sign:
As trail runners, we of course did not think this applied to us, and continued on our way!

Actually, the area being worked on was right past the water hole. If you remember, there was a big ole mud hole as you started down this section. They have now laid drainage pipes and gravel and improved on this area.

My leg was not feeling much better as we ran toward South Park. I was seriously thinking about tanking the rest of the run, taking a 4 mile shortcut on the road back to my car. I got a couple of Execedrin from Nick and continued on. Nick's energy level was lagging, so Tonya went on ahead while Nick and I continued at our slow poke pace.
We finally caught up to Tonya at the Fire Tower, where she had been napping, waiting for us. At this point, the Execdrin and the fact that we had two miles left to run kicked in, and the leg started hurting less. It still ached, but at least I was running on it.

We finished up our 21 mile trail run, in the last humid day of 2007-we hope!

Weekend!

I ran on my little trail after work today..the mystery runner did not show. I ran the trail in reverse direction that I normally run it. About 85 degrees out today! Is this our Indian summer? Even though it hasn't been cold here yet?


I am looking forward to a morning of sleeping in! That means to about 705 am. You just can't sleep in with three dogs wanting you to get to play.


I was trying to get a good "Trail Goddess" picture and it just wasn't working out for me.





But I had to include this pic because I noticed I had blood on the knee, must have crossed a briar the wrong way!












You need to check out Maria's Blog she did this fab presentation of all her pics she took during the Akron Marathon, it's very cool!!!

Blood Work is Back

After my amusing/embarrassing blood draw this morning...I can stick needles into my blisters, needles under my toenails, rip toenails off, but every time they draw blood out of me..I go down. She had almost finished with all her vials of blood when the ringing in my ears got louder, and I said "I feel faint". She said ok, let me know if it gets worse. "It's getting worse. I'm going to faint." I put my head down on my lap, which didn't help. They got me into the lounge chair and put my feet up, cold compresses, and I came around within a couple of minutes. I don't know what it is. Getting a shot is okay, but usually drawing blood out of me just doesn't work.

So I peaked at my results, and my cholesterol is 180. Anything below 200 is good. My good cholesterol was high, and bad cholesterol was average. My triglycerides are 56, almost non-existent; the healthy eating is treating me right!
My iron level is excellent, so I can't whine about being borderline anemic any more. I'll have to ask the doc if we need to tweak my thyroid medication, that number was just slightly off. Oh, and then I had a hearing evaluation later the same day, all is good. All systems working!

I got in a trail run yesterday after work, my little trail around the golf course. As I was just getting off the trail, another runner burst through the trees and scared me! Wow, the first other runner I've seen out on "my trail"!!!

Weekend Running Plans

It's back to Mohican this weekend for a run! We are planning a 24ish mile run on Sunday. Maybe starting at 8am. Run the Red-Green Loop, back to the Covered Bridge, and then run the Blue Loop. It's Nick, Tonya, and myself so far. Josh sounds interested. Anyone else up for a nice trail run in the fast turning foliage? A good training run for Runs with Scissors at the end of the month?

Today I ended up at the gym after my haircut. I did some time on the stairstepper-I love that machine, it really works the legs! and then 2 miles on the elliptical. My legs are back to normal after the marathon, I feel fine. Why do people take vast amounts of time off after a marathon? (Maybe, Kim, not everyone is training for an ultra...nah, that couldn't be it, ultra training is too much fun!)

Monday Running News

Lots of good running news in the last couple of days...

Scott Jurek wins the Sparthalon again! Our local Ohio runner, Mark Godale, finishes 16th. I guess winning the Groundhog 50K was just his last tune-up before Greece.

Haile Gebrselassie sets world marathon record, in 2.04.26...yes, that was for the full marathon!
Mike had asked the question after this, "do you think we'll see a sub-two marathon in our lifetime". I would have to say yes, we will sometime. Of course I was flabbergasted at Ryan Hall's sub hour 1/2 marathon, then I find out it's been done before! My thought processes don't even go as fast as these people run.

And Olga had a fantastic race at the Bear!! Congratulations Olga!!!!