The Strenuous Life: Long Weekend!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Long Weekend!

It's been a long weekend. Mine started at Thursday at 4 AM when I thought all fluids were dismissed from service and were no longer needed in my body. Friday morning started in with, what goes down, must come up, or is it the other way around. I ventured out Saturday morning, after not being at work for two days, to do a bike ride with the Church on The Move Cycling group, which I had never done before. We met at OSU Tulsa and rode the Osage Trail 10 miles up to Sperry, ate Breakfast at the Chuck Wagon restaurant, and then some of us rode the rest of the Trail up to Skiatook, others headed back. I really wanted to have Julie come out and do it and she did manage to ride 20 miles, which is the longest she has ever done. I was in the 30 mile group and we almost beat the 20 mile group to the parking lot. She did a really great job! The wind was horrible on the way back, but we still had a great ride. They were a great group and I will probably ride with them next Saturday for a 70 mile ride.

After the ride, we headed to Runnersworld, which is the greatest running store in Tulsa. Co-owned by Brian & Kathy Hoover, they do a fabulous job of getting people in Tulsa motivated to run and keep active. I decided to sign up for the TATUR Estimator, which is race where you pick your time in advance, and go at whatever pace you want. Whoever is closest to their estimated time, is the winner. Also, no timing devices allowed!

After signing up and talking with Kathy, I headed home and I started feeling bad again. I spent most of the night with the same issues and thought for sure that I might miss the race. The best I could hope for was to try and sleep and see what it looked like on the morrow. I even had to do a late night Walgreen's run for some medicine.

I felt OK in the morning and decided to go for it. I had also signed my 8 year son Wyatt up, so I needed to go. The race this year was held in Chandler Park in West Tulsa and had a 4 mile loop that some would do once or twice. Wyatt was in for the 4 mile and I was in for the 8 mile. At 7 AM at Brian's command we took off and not too far into it my stomach started feeling a little rough, I managed an one cheek sneak and felt better. The more I ran, the better I felt. It heated up and the sweat was pouring and I was still going. I felt some stomach issues a few more times, but managed to not fill my shorts and just kept going. I had been trading slots with Carter Fairless for several miles and he had guessed his time 15 seconds slower than mine. I felt as though I was running too fast, but it is hard to tell with the hills and the trail. I came up to line and got confused with where to go and good friend Norm Gonzales was at the mike to bring me in right. I turned the corner at and finished in 1:08:10, I had guessed my time at 1:08:15. I ended up winning. First time I had ever finished first in a race. I have gotten second a few times, but usually some punk kid beats me. I got $10 American Cash, and a free entry for a team of 5 into the Mud Run in August, so I may be looking for team members to put together a fast team. This was a total of a $160 value, not a bad day for a run.

This was another great TATUR event, which is the greatest trail running group on the planet and the greatest set of people. I cannot thank Brian and Kathy enough and really enjoy their friendship and all they do for our family and the Tulsa area. Wyatt finished about 3 minutes off his time and was out of the top 10. He enjoyed himself and it was a great morning to be alive.

Now it is time to get ready for the Tulsa Tri and get some miles in for the Leadville Marathon in 5 weeks. I will probably just do the Land Lovers division for the Tri as I am still not sure about the swim. Either way it will be a fun day and another one to spend time with friends and family.