Oh, Gonna Try With a Little Help From My Friends

I actually have some race reports today. Woo hoo! My first "race" of the year was the Red Shamrock Trail race two weekends ago. The reason I put the word race in quotes, is because I'm in no shape to actually race, but I love running in the woods and contributing to an awesome cause. So, it was a lot of fun.

I started out too fast, which means, I really died after the first mile or so. I got in with a good group of people who ran a similar pace and the woman leading, made sure we didn't get lost at one point where a lot of other people took a wrong turn.

I finished the race and was so tired, that I immediately plopped down on the ground. I suppose that's a sign that I was going hard enough for me at the time.

John did a great job and actually raced, instead of just running. He did so well, that he won his age group prize and was 10th overall. What a stud.

 This past Saturday, John ran the Hawkeye 25K. It's a mostly trail run, with about five miles on a paved road. His goal was to finish in in under two hours, but he was sick for a few weeks during a time that he should have been training hard, and he went out a little too fast to get that time. His biggest impediment was that at one point, he was looking back because he heard someone coming behind him and must have tripped over a root. He fell hard and broke an upper rib and had some skin scrapes and hurt his foot. There isn't much he can do about the broken rib, except try not to sneeze or cough and to listen to his body. If he tries to do something and it hurts too badly, he just has to stop. He says it's healing pretty quickly, so we'll see if he can race this next Saturday.

I was John's support person, so I was there to make sure that John had everything he needed, and I didn't get to take as many photos of him as I wanted. Luckily for us, our friend Burne was there to help his girlfriend and he got the above shot of John crossing the spillway. Thanks, Burne!

This past Sunday, Stinky and I ran the River Run 5K together. I think the first time I did this race was back in the 80's. I'm sure I had an incredible time back then, but who remembers?

This year, it was cold and windy. I wore my old track nylon warm-up jacket from 1980 or 1981. It's amazing how well it's held-up. The zipper is the only thing that doesn't work anymore.

Originally, I wasn't sure if we were going to run it. It was supposed to snow in the morning and Stinky's grandfather in-law was in bad health. So, all week I figured we probably wouldn't run. Since I was having huge migraine and dizziness issues all last week, I was A-okay with that. I asked Stinky on Saturday if we were running or not. She said we were a go.

So, I woke up early, and braced myself. I was worried I might not be able to run very far without stopping, but I got lucky. We started out slowly and into the cold wind. After about a mile, we were both feeling a little stronger and heating up.

Stinky's goal was to to finish in 36 minutes. We were close. We finished in 36.07. Seven seconds off. Not bad at all.

John was so great and supportive. He held all of our crap while we ran, took photos, cheered us on and had water ready for us when we finished. Stinky's husband worked until 3 in the morning, so he couldn't be there for the race. Instead, he gave her money to take us out for breakfast at Micky's afterward. We're pretty damn lucky with these supportive partners in our lives.