Trifecta!

Yup, For the first time ever, I had a triple race weekend! I've never even done two in a row. On Saturday, I headed to Carson City super early to run the Firecracker 10k, hosted by the Tahoe Mountain Milers Running Club before work. It was a small race on a trail familiar to me, and I was happy to see so many people I knew out there (sorry you didn't get to run Abbey and Steve)! I'm really getting to know the Carson community, and that makes me feel like I'm doing my job well. :) I didn't plan on running fast since it was the first race I'd planned for the weekend. However, my competitive side got the better of me, and after running the first mile, I left Ali and Anne behind. However, my prowess to chase the leaders early had me following them at a wrong turn when the arrow in the dirt had been scrubbed out. Added an extra .8 loop to the course, but I did catch up and pass quite a few of the runners. It was a beautiful cool summer morning, and I didn't mind the extra mileage though, especially since the super cool RD let me keep my "official" 10k from my Garmin. The race for me was exactly 7 miles, which I finished in 1:01.09, but my 10k time was 54:35- which put me at 5th overall winner, and first woman in! Whoo-hoo! I've never been first in my age group, let alone first woman! I love small races. :) Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from this race. Had the best warm down ever, swimming 2000 yards, and pushing myself just enough to kick some of the soreness out. Wish I could do that after every race.

July 3rd was my 12th anniversary. But for the first time, Kevin and I spent it in different states, as he was representing the state of Nevada with the Galena High School band marching in the 4th of July parade in our nation's capital! This is a trip he'd spent the last year planning, and I am happy to report the band performed very well, and most importantly, no one passed out in the heat! Go Grizzlies! So what else would I choose to do with my family gone? Another race of course! This second race I was invited to do by my neighbors, Richard and his wife Emma. She'd injured herself during the Reno Tahoe Odyssey race, but they'd already signed up and registered for the Reno 5000 Firecracker Duathlon, which is a 5k run, 30k bike, and a second 5k run (same loop twice). So they asked me to take Emma's place on the run while Richard biked, and I happily agreed! Here's a pre-race pic of Richard and I: I've done lots of triathlons, but this was my first duathlon I've participated in, and actually the first time I've done this (meaning triathlons) as a relay. I've run 2 runs as relays so far though- RTO and the Tahoe Decelle. They managed to switch Emma's entry over to my name, and I arrived early to get set up. Turi decided to pace me, never having participated in a duathlon either, and took a lot of great pictures of the trail. This a picture of the beginning of the start of the run on the dirt: Here I am at the first mile marker: This trail was steep, and super technical- there were big rocks baked into the trail just waiting for someone to jam their toe into and take a digger. I somehow managed to avoid doing either of these things, but my pace was quite a bit slower as I had to carefully watch each foot placement in my Vibrams (this is when they were still brand about a year ago when I first got them- and I've walked or run in them almost every day since mid-February, so they are considerably more worn out now). I got lots of questions and comments from other runners this weekend who are interested in them, and I was happy to share! Amazed with how many runners are thinking about trying them out! I finished the first leg (which was closer to 3 miles than a 5k, according to my Garmin, although I forgot to push the stop button after both legs for several minutes). Came in 29:21ish for the first leg, and then Richard was off! He finished the 30k bike in just under an hour, and I started out for the second lap. I felt surprisingly better on the second lap- I guess the first was a better warm up- I was pretty tight/sore from the previous day's race, as I'd gone out harder than I meant to. I had a pretty decent side cramp that developed on the downhill of the first lap, but a banana and some electrolite water cured that while I was waiting during Richard's bike portion, and my calves had loosened up from the first run. I must have gone slower up the hill the second time because I had a good kick at the end and pushed to the finish- my time was a few seconds slower for the second lap: 29:35. We waited quite a while in the hot sun for awards, but it was worth it because Richard won a new bike jersey from the raffle, and then we placed 3rd out of 6 in the coed relay division! Here we are crammed up on the podium- you can kind of see me, the shortest one hiding in the back. We received some really nice cut glass trophies. :) Thank you Emma and Richard for letting me race with you today! I had a blast!

And finally, race #3 on the 4th of July! Ironically, the two previous races had "Firecracker" in the title, but I chose not to run the Firecracker Mile in Truckee with Chris, and did the Run to the Beach with the other 2 TLD members, Dave and Turi. This race started in N. Tahoe finished at Kings Beach, and according to my Garmin, was almost a perfect 5k distance! The race started 15 minutes late, and here is Dave and I milling around waiting for it to start: There were a couple uphills, which I plowed steadily up, but was passed by a lot of people on the downhill because once again I had to watch my footfalls. Plus I just can't run fast downhill in Vibrams. But I don't mind- I wear them for the balance it gives me on my runs, for my knee and my back, and health is more important to me than speed. I finished in 28:35 with Dave just a couple minutes behind me, and the Turi pretty soon after that with his 10k, and we hurried over to Truckee to try and catch Chris finish his mile. Didn't quite make it in time to see him cross the finish line, but we did find Gretchen who took 3rd female! And this after a smashing successful 100 miles at Western States last weekend! That girl is amazing. Took a quick pic together and then went in search of Chris:
Turns out, Chris won the Firecracker Mile in 4:25, and that in front of a gajillion people!!! Good Lord, that man is fast! Here is TLD, united even though we didn't all do the same race that day.

Amazingly I feel really good for putting in just over 16 miles in 3 days, and those at race pace. I'm already having race-withdrawl. Although I'm sure I'll change my mind tomorrow morning when I can't get out of bed... :) My great thanks to everyone who put on these races, and to those of you who I had the wonderful opportunity to run with! I am so happy to be healthy enough to run 3 races in 3 days- I didn't imagine I would ever be here again, and if you'd told me that I'd be running this much today back in January when my back was one big debilitating spasm taking up every spare thought, I would have rewarded you with a big fat kiss and tears of happiness!

Reno Rock -- River 5K

After many long months of recuperating from lower back issues, I've finally started to gingerly run again. And when I say gingerly, I mean lots of walking and some jogging. I'm trying not to push too hard or too soon, and have been swimming 4 to 5 days a week to balance these easier workouts. I've noticed a big difference in muscle tone since I've been cross-training with treadmill, swimming and dry-land exercises. And to show for this new dedication to my back health, I was finally able to register for a race this weekend! The Reno Rock-N-River races has become a pretty huge event for Reno, drawing hundreds of runners for each of the 4 distances offered. I chose the shortest, and was lucky enough to talk two Carson City runners into running this event with me. Anne stuck by my side through the whole race, with Traci only about a minute behind. I could have run quite a bit faster, but I still don't want to pull all the stops out- I'm saving up for the Reno Tahoe Odyssey relay race which is just a month away! Although I did run (an easy 5) miles on the trail near my house today (and ha ha got sunburned- yay [early] summer!) and now my calves are sore from two days of running in my Vibrams and am wearing compression socks even now (which are awesome- thanks Scott and Sara!). Not only did I get to run with Anne and Traci, but all of Team Library Dork was in attendance! Turi set a new PR by 4 minutes in the half marathon (1:28.14!!! Dang dude!), with Chris pacing him for all but the first mile, and Dave also ran the 10k in under an hour. I don't mind not being competitive when I could have been weaving through people right and left, because I was just happy-thankful-grateful to be out there with the hoards of runners, sharing a cool morning with some blessed sunshine.

Donner Lake Turkey Trot

This morning Team Library Dork headed up to Donner for a lap around the lake for an early Turkey Trot. It didn't start until 10:30, at it was cold waiting for the start- just under 50 degrees, but then there was a breeze off the lake to factor in. Here is a hill just on the west side of the lake, and you can see that it snowed recently up here (and in Reno too, but all our snow melted the same day):

I told Gretchen after at 50/50 Brewing where we went for lunch (and won't ever be going back since we waited an hour for our food) that I would have been happy wearing a down jacket to start the race, but I felt better almost immediately after we started running. Turi stuck with the front of the pack while Dave and I hung back to get in a solid warm up- I desperately needed to work out the kinks after the long drive up to the Lake. Around mile 2 I shed my sweatshirt and had a pretty comfortable run with a long sleeved tech shirt. I haven't been putting in the miles that I would like because of ongoing knee and lower back pain, so I surprised myself when I found myself pushing up the hills and ahead of Dave early in the race. I kept the group of girls ahead of me in sight and managed a respectable 1:05.46. If my knee wasn't giving me so much grief this year I bet I could have done it in under an hour, but I'm not complaining. :)

After the race there was an awesome raffle with frozen turkeys and pumpkin pies to give away, not to mention the usual race stuff. It was a great race, and I've always loved running around Donner Lake. Here is a post-race pic of the three TLD's that were able to make it today:

Tough Mudder!

Yes, I am wearing a mustache in this picture. Because I am one of a 5-piece quintuplet of Magnum P.I.'s! I'll admit I wasn't stoked about the 'stache, but once I got it on and started parading around in it, I got a total kick out of it! I got a ton of hilarious comments and support from other "Mudders." We got all dandied up in Hawaiian shirts and shorty shorts in honor of the '80s and the proclivity for men to show WAAAY too much leg hair.

There were months of preparation and training for this race, mainly lifting and muscle building for me. Mainly with P90X! Since this 7-ish mile course was held on a ski resort, Bear Valley California, with double black diamond slopes factored in, I knew there wasn't going to be as much running during this race as much as straight hand-over-hand climbing. Both up and down. This was an almost-epic trip for Team Library Dork + Ben- I'll get to the almost part soon. I'm going to tell this story in pictures- and I actually have some pretty good ones to share since Dave brought his indestructible camera which is waterproof and mud and rock proof too!

This is a view of the mountain below where the race took place, from the parking lot. It dawned quite the beautiful day! There were 5000 people signed up for the even (the majority of which were men, so for once in my life when I used the bathroom there was a huge line for the men's room but not for the ladies!), and waves of starters every 15 minutes of 350, on a very steep hill. Our wave didn't start until 11:30, so we got to sit down to a nice breakfast at a normal hour instead of the usual Clif bar.

Here I am before the race, milling around trying to find the packet pick-up area:

And Turi:

And Chris:

And me with Mario and Luigi:

A close up of the 5 of us, all 'stached up!

And finally, dah dah Daaaaah! The Walk To The Start (cue: Sunshine! Notice how they're all in step?):

This is one of the steepest, hilliest, most elevation gain and loss races I've ever done. Check out the hill they had us slide down to start~

Turi, and me edging down trying to get some of the worst out of the way before the shot went off, because for some reason the rest of the guys wanted to hang back (which I think they regretted for the rest of the race)...


And we're off! I lost my mustache in the first obstacle, crawling through mud and grit under the barbed wire fence (where I nearly lost my hat several times as well, and in which I drew first blood, I think, from the bottom of Chris's shoe), and hastily stuffed it in my front shirt pocket. Bruised knee #1. The photos for this one didn't come out clear, but immediately we started down our first steep downhill (yup, I sat down once after my feet slipped out from under me on the gravel covered rocks, but with shouts from behind of, "Mudder down!" I was up again like a rocket). Here's me:

And here is part of the track, wide still,

And Dave getting pissed off as we ran into our first wait, which was backed up because there were so many people filing onto a steep down-hill single track.

And then we started back UP that monster we just worked our way down. Turi and I are rock skipping here, just like I've done at Tahoe countless times:

After hiking back up the mountain (which I think was considered an obstacle in itself) we came to another obstacle: the Snowblowers. They weren't blowing snow, but more like stinging ice water. It was blinding in that man-made storm, and I had to walk through knee-deep water to get to them. Oh well. I knew I'd be doing a lot of running/hiking with wet shoes. Beauty in the Beast- the rainbow from the top was spectacular, and this picture doesn't do it justice.

Another obstacle climb. Can you say steep?

It just kept on going up and up and up...

My heart was pounding by the time I got to the top of this one! But I never stopped. And there were lots of "stoppers." Then a fun obstacle appeared: the construction Spools! With a good 10 minute wait to get to them. Between the two spools (your team got to pick one to hop over) were tires that no one but Dave ran through:

Turi and Chris made it over the top on their own because of their towering height, but I only managed to land on my stomach and needed to be pulled the rest of the way over. Bruised knee #2. Then, finally a flatish and downhill stretch to run!

And then another huge wait. I'm sure we waited a good 20 minutes at this one, and most of us had no idea what was going on at the front of the crowd. Then one of the volunteers waved through a huge part of the crowd, and TLD was left at the front, cut off from the rest and made to wait because of another huge back-up at the next obstacle. But at least we had a clear view of what was to come. The Mud Pit. It was 20 yards of that thick sloshy mud that tries to take your shoes off followed by a pool of liquid concoction that reminded me of the consistency of what's at the bottom of a port-o-potty. Someone piped up from the crowd, "While we're waiting, would it be okay if I ran and jumped in the mud and got back in line?" He ran, jumped, and landed flat on his belly with the most satisfying belly-slap! So of course this put ideas into Chris's head that he needed to follow suit. He ran and flew threw the air, and with a SLURP dissappeared into the mud. He climbed out dripping, and made a bee-line for guess who? Yes, there was no out-running this mad man, and the entire crowd cheered as he slammed into me and slathered me with slimy mud! He even went back for seconds and got me good in the face. And now I smelled like the out-house I was just previously imagining. By the time this picture was taken, I'd managed to wipe off most of the mud from my face onto Turi and Dave's shirts:

Another down hill and we came to the "high poles." These poles were vertical, and taller than my head. This one also required team work to get over the top. Chris and Turi were helped up by other Mudders, and then I was given a boost up, and then almost fell on my rear coming down the other side. Should've gone over forward instead of gripping the pole and easing off my stomach.

After this we had another climb that went up and up and up forever into the heavens- and deceived us by hiding the next hill with the previous one (and again, I'm proud of myself for not stopping until I got to the top. Dave on the other hand had to wander into the woods for a while to find a private bush to ease his angry stomach of the biscuits and gravy he powered up with for breakfast, and found his way to the top, gloveless), and a half hour wait to do the "Berlin Wall Climb." This obstacle consisted of a pile of logs with a hard plastic sheet you had to run and scramble up to get to the wood. I wouldn't have managed this nearly as gracefully as I had without the help of two guys from another team reaching out helping hands. Thankfully, that was the last long wait we had to do for the obstacles.

The next obstacle was one that I had been waiting for, actually. I still had stinky mud flaking and dusting off my body and was eager to wash some of it off. Here is Chris right behind me easing his way down into the water:

The pond however I swear was melted snow, and froze my girl parts as I dunked under the two barrels. I was so cold I hurt and couldn't get out of the water on the other side fast enough!

As you can see from this picture, you cross the pond once and then go down the slip-and-slide on the other side and climb out again. Chris, Turi and Ben somehow got ahead of Dave and I, and I watched with a crazed expression on my face as Chris went down head first! Not many were brave enough to pull that stunt. Dave slid down seated, and I took a few quick steps thinking I'd make the best of a fast slide, and I TRIPPED! Crap! I went down head-first, and straight for several people in the water, Dave included! So I balled up my fists and punched my way into the crowd, "YAAAAAAAHHHH!" I popped up out of the water (not nearly so bad the second time in!) and apologized for running into someone, who just brushed it off. I missed Dave. Whew!

Immediately after this obstacle was the wood pile. Yes, we all sported our wood in a variety of positions, carrying our pieces down a trail and back about a half mile. I think this was Dave's favorite obstacle by far! He looks surprised in this photo, but most of the time he was grinning with the implications of this part of the race.


I keep saying "race" in this blog, but it really wasn't. It was a team effort and we all stuck together waiting for those at the back of the lines. It was about camaraderie and support and not about time- we only ran about one mile total anyway. But I'll continue to call this a race, okay? That was the last race photo I have because Dave's camera ran out of space, but we still had 3 obstacles after that. And not really worth photographing. One was a 12-foot fence that we had to climb back and forth over 16 times (that was kind of fun, and made it worth carrying thin gloves in my back pocket for the entire race), and one was drinking a tiny shot of hot sauce just meters from the finish (that was lame). The final obstacle couldn't have been more disappointing. The "wall of flame" was a mere grill to jump over, that I thought was only slightly warm. Even so, someone still managed to fall on it and burn him or herself. Geez people! TLD's last member finished at 3 hours and 3 minutes. I wonder how we would have done if we didn't have all that waiting around to do? The rest of the team was not happy about that part, to put it lightly. I, however, was SUPER sore for the next several days- I completely destroyed my quads on the downhills trying to watch my form and not mess up my knee (or back), and didn't feel like I had the right to complain about the race, even though it was the mountain that difficult and not the actual obstacles (I left out mention of a few of the super easy ones, like the spider-web crawl over a school bus, and a claustrophobic dark crawl through a tunnel that made my knees hurt). But I am still proud of myself for all the training I did, and if nothing else, I got to spend the entire day outside in the beautiful sunshine with my teammates, and share some good food and beer after (although not the Dos Equis at the post-race party). This is one of those races that I looked forward to and can say I completed, but don't feel the need to ever do again. So my thanks is to TLD for a great weekend!

Two last pictures. Not only were my quads destroyed, but so were my Magnum PI shorts. These went straight into the dumpster after this photo was taken:

And the skin on my knees:

But worth it. :)

Burton Creek Trail 10K

Sunday the stars were aligned for Team Library Dork, because for the second week in a row we were able to gather for a race this time up at Lake Tahoe for the Burton Creek Trail 10K put on by Big Blue Adventure, who is putting on 4 races (all on Sundays whoo-hoo!) for a series, and hopefully I'll be able to go to more of them. Well, Dave , Chris and I ran the 10K and Turi ran the half marathon. If my knee wasn't actin' up on me so much this season I would have joined him on the longer distance, but as it was, I enjoyed the 10k train immensely. It was a small gathering for the four distances- 5 and 10k's and half and full marathons, plus there were 5 year age groups, which bode well for TLD. The 10k was 2 loops of the 5k, and the marathon was 2 loops of the 1/2 course. All 4 distances started together right at 9 (and for some reason I was shivering like crazy even though no one else was, so I couldn't WAIT for the start), and started up a steepish climb right off the bat. I ran with Dave for the first couple miles or so before his tummy started giving him problems and he dropped behind. Of course Chris was at the very front, and Turi close to to the front as well. You can see Chris to the right all in black, with long sleeves (thank you for the picture Abby!):

The trail was decently technical with some windy sections, rocks in the path to watch out for and logs and a gap in the dam to jump over. Made for a fun course, and after a downhill and another uphill the course settled into a beautiful canopied section which I truly enjoyed. I could run through the trees all day long! Then the trail headed back downhill again and about a half mile from the start/finish I followed a large group of people down a wrong turn and added about 5 minutes to my first loop back-tracking searching for the correct trail. I wondered how this would affect my placement in my age group. Chris, in the lead, also took this same wrong turn because it wasn't clearly marked, but fortunately he was far enough ahead that he didn't lose his lead spot. The final push to the end of the first lap was all wood chips and rather steep, and I developed a side stitch that I didn't go away until I started climbing into the second lap, quietly as no one noticed I went by. Nothing like a steep hill to slow me down, make me focus on my breathing and stride to make a side stitch go away! I enjoyed the second lap more than the first, despite having to walk a few steps here and there on the hills- the crowd had thinned out and I enjoyed a peaceful run on my own until I caught up to Dave who hadn't taken the wrong turn as I had. We walked a bit and caught up on race details and then I pushed ahead and ran the rest of the way back to the finish (this time not missing the turn!), and I timed myself at about 1:16.40, but they adjusted my time to the shorter course (shorter? Dave measured the course on his Garmin closer to 6.95 miles) at 1:15.30, with Dave only a minute behind me. Chris came in first in 48:19. Nice Chris!

The Big Blue Adventure series is sponsored by Merrell, and how cool is this- they brought demo shoes that they let us try on the trail! Brand new trail shoes! So while we were waiting for Turi to finish his half (in 1:55.25!), I strapped on a new pair of shoes, a half size bigger than what I normally wear because it seems that my shoes are tight on my toes lately. Do your feet keep growing into adulthood? Because I've worn the same size since I started high school. Weird. Anyway, this particular pair were for people who slightly pronate. Turns out, my physical therapist says I do, on my right side. I headed back up the start of the course (by that time everyone had started on their second loop, if they were doing one) and ran a good mile in the Merrells and walked about half way back and ran the rest of the way. (I'm marking this as a 9 mile day, including walking!) I liked them, but they were pretty expensive...

Turi came in just after I ran back in, and then we waited around for awards. Chris placed first as I mentioned, and Dave and I both received 2nd place in our age groups,


and Turi got a 3rd place glass even thought they reported on the results page on the website that he came in second.

I should probably trade him for my 2nd place glass since they're showing a 3rd place for me. I don't care what it says- I just love winning stuff! Here are the 3 10k-ers with our winnings,

and all 4 of us with our glasses, along with our mascot, Hannah:

Chris also scored an awesome waist pack that holds 2 water bottles and lots of pockets for gels and other goodies. Abby drove up with Chris along with Hannah, despite being just about done being pregnant with their second child (thanks Dave for being today's photographer!)- She is such a trooper and gor-geous! :)

One final silly pic of TLD:

Then we headed up to 50 50 in Truckee for lunch, where Hannah would be my booth-pal playing games with me and giving the most awesome little girl hugs! I need a girl-fix every now and then, and she filled that need perfectly. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boys and they are sweet as can be, but it's nice to get girl hugs too. :)

A beautiful day for a race, fantastic course, and of course great friends made for one happy day.