My view today at about Mile 3 of the inaugural Tick Ridge Trek 10K/25K trail run. It took place in Elkton TN and was put on by TeamRocketTri Club and the Huntsville Track Club. Excellent event! Well organized, sweet route, great volunteers and tons of after race grub to enjoy around a campfire or in a warming tent. Beautiful weather today for trail running; overcast, mid 30's, and a few snow flurries. The route was mostly tractor trails and double track with a bit of single track, a bit of asphalt and a bit of concrete golf cart track. It was very beginner friendly, non-technical with enough climbing to make your quads stand up and take notice. I will definitely go back next year. I am going to e-mail the race director and see if it will be dog friendly. I would LOVE to take Emmylou to a race. That distance and that much climbing may be a bit beyond Brando's limit. He would do it to please me, but I would never try to push him so hard that he hurt himself. Today I used nothing to tell me my pace,time, etc. I had my Cyclemeter program running on my iPhone so I could look at it later, but no spoken announcements. I believe my finishing time was 1:42. That was about 1:24 running time and 17 plus minutes of stop time to catch my breath at the tops of hills, get some water at aid stations and take pictures. I love running by feel. I'm not trying to win and I'm my only competitor, so it's good to just RUN. I did listen to music during the race. It's funny how the right song usually pops up at just the right time. Somewhere around mile 4 there was a big climb with several switchbacks and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" was just the right song. At about Mile 5.25 Macklemore's "Same Love" came on and it was at a spot that truly went thru the woods and was great for contemplation. Then right at Mile 6, with the finish line within sight up pops Kid Rock's "Cocky" and I actually passed 3 people I had been following the whole race. Good times! Next up is the Dry Creek Trail Half Marathon on February 23 at Cheatham Wildlife Preserve outside Ashland City, TN. I'll get in a 10 miler next Saturday then taper off the following week.
Andddd drum roll please…I got into the Swim the Suck 10 Mile swim race in the Tennessee River on October 11! Thank goodness my better half is so danged fast on a keyboard. The race sold out in 27 minutes and she busted her ass to get me in! So looking forward to that big challenge. My tradition is to do some big epic challenge that scares the shit out of me, somewhere close to my birthday. I will be 47 years old on October 7, so this event is the perfect challenge. I want to train really hard and validate my swimming abilities. I am an adult onset swimmer and I want to return all the faith, hard work and knowledge that Coach Sue has invested in me to prove that I can swim 10 miles in under 6 hours. I LOVE long distance swimming. I can just get into a Zen state and concentrate on nothing but the next stroke, the next kick, the next yard. So that training will crank up as the year goes on.
One last thing to mention. We have a new family member. We rescued a 10 year old Black Labrador. Her owners were going to put her down, simply because she has arthritis. Long story short, she is now on an anti-inflammatory, a prescription diet to help her drop about 25 lbs and is doing well. I am SO happy I made the trip to Tuscumbia AL and took her out of that dog pound. She bonded with me immediately and has become a happy member of our Pack with a lot of love to give and a lot of life left to live. Everybody deserves a second chance. Aunt Bee got hers and we couldn't be happier with this sweet, laid back well behaved senior girl! Tomorrow morning I'm taking the dogs for a short slow recovery run before a full day's work at the nursing home. Thanks for checking out my blog and get out and do WHAT MOVES YOU!
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