i'm a big girl, a perfect size 12

i'm a perfect size 12, yes i'm a "BIG GIRL"

i get to the race and the first thing is to see who has their game face on...

sean brought it last year with his cutzie little floral skirt made by kathy harshburger. i knew bushwacker would, but i can't compete with those long lushious shaved legs. (nah, he doesn't shave them but maybe he will have to next year to get top honors)

i walk up to the pavilion and i see dan has raised the race to a knew level... his little red, white and blue number was elegant but that red polk-dot bow on his visor was the topper. then i see one of the lizards with a hot little number, a pleated plaid school girls skirt and knee highs. man i had to "bring it" if i wanted to stand up to these guys.

game on boys...

right before the start i unveiled the works... a size 12 floral number. a dress that is not a lame little girly skirt.

so there it is, i think my little get up went over pretty well. funny, all the people with taste, women that is, said it was pretty hidious. hey, i had a little bow on the back, isn't that cute?

so, i think i raised the bar for next year. maybe bushwacker will shave his legs??? sean, your gunna have to come up with something new... maybe you and rod could have matching outfits??? rod???

mike "bushwacker" burke and

liz kellog

oh, there was a race too...

so, going into the race it was just about completing two laps around the lake and finishing upright.

i didn't want to do the out and back 3 mile section in 24 minutes like in past. i finished it in 28 minutes and that was good. but it seemed way to hard to even do that. i was wondering what the day would be like after that.

so now it was just run at a comfortable pace and just finsh after the out and back. i just concentrated on running easy and keeping the pace even.

the course was fast, 34 finished under 5hrs, last year only 14. new course record by neil olsen. me, i ran the exact same time i have for the past two years. i should have been 14 minutes faster given the smooth carpet ride for a trail this day.

the legs were tired even within the first five miles. but then i reminded myself that this was just a good training run. nothing more, nothing less.

i had fun. it was nice to not have too much mud. should i have run faster? yes. but on the second loop it was just all about controlling the damage. just run with even pace and check this one off.

it was fun to see rod, sean, mike burke, olga, darla and chris tear up the tarmac saturday. it is going to be fun watching them this year. run well at boston sean, i will be watching you every 2.5 miles on the web there. oh, i will be rooting for meghan the day before in the trials. and all of them have some hundreds in the future. of course burke has a little one coming up, HARDROCK!

olga

darla brader and chris askew

oh, i missed seeing john and amy coffey. i had met them just a few weeks back. john was running his first ultra in 9 years!!! he holds the record for running around Mt. Hood in 6:24, that's 41 miles with over 10,000 feet of gain!!! and has ran states three times. once placing M4 in 17:48 in 1982!!! what has john been doing, just some little ironmans, that's all. amy is no slouch either, running fast at American River 50 and finished in style at a Old Pueblo 50, and a couple of Mt. Hood PCT 50's, and States in '05. and many more great races under her belt.

so for now i will just keep running. i will continue to run slowly. but i will continue to run.

no more wearing dresses though. my fat little stubby legs just can't pull it off.

see many of you at the rumble in april.

tanner creek aid station volunteer, kyly mcmurray and bob "the beast" lynes

getting a little better...

well, this was my first 100 mile week of the year. things are getting a little better with each run. i guess i'm getting used to the blood pressure meds. i'm still running slowly but i'm ok with that. but now i am able to sort of keep up with others now. i still suck on climbs. but i will work on that.

afterall, i better if i want to get ready for the big dance later on...

look forward to better weather and continued better running.

hagg lake 50k next weekend. going to enjoy sloshing around in the mud there. nice to see everybody after winter.

my own little fat ass 50k

so saturday i did my own little fat ass 50k on wildwood...

i started out the day fairly early getting up at 5:45 and making some tea and eating some breakfast. i knew this would be a "solo" day as my training budy was running a trail marathon this day.

on the 40 minute drive to the trailhead, it started to snow. very cool. we don't get snow here much ever. i was glad i brought extra clothes as i hate being cold when running. i tend to overdress, as i hate being cold. that is why training in the winter is a difficult thing for me.

i just heard Tom Petty, singing a song with the words, "running down a dream" on the Superbowl halftime show. that pretty much says it. i have the carrot out in front of me and i don't mind putting in the work, cold or not...

i started of the day to mentally do 26 miles. but as the snow continued, hey why not do a 50k? afterall, i had no where to be and i had enough water and food to do it.

so, there it was, me running through 3 inches of the new stuff, no other tracks on the trail but mine. solitude, quiet, oh, this was fun.

i was running slow but that pretty much says how most of my runs are. but i was enjoying this day. i wasn't cold. i was moving forward. it was quiet but blissful actually.

the farther i got north on the trail, the more snow there was. very cool.

but i would see a half a dozen others later in the day. four of them in shorts!!! ok, they were running shorter i figure, they were carrying no water and running very fast. the other two were running slower and i would see them 2-3 hours later going the opposite way on the trail. really a quiet day for me on this trail.

i knew i was running slowly, as there were sections of 2-3 miles that all i did was run, duck for low branches, run another 75 feet, do it all again. i also witnessed multiple branches coming down right in front of me from being too weak to hold the weight of the snow and ice, come crashing down. i was happy not to be underneath these. i won't call them "widow makers" as i know what those are living near a logging community many of my life.

the day ended less than desirable. the temps went up, the snow started to melt, and all i was running through was puddles of snow melt. my feet were frozen!!! reminded me of capital peak runs!!! i was even contimplating on getting gortex shoes following this run.

i was happy to finish. i immedietly got into some dry clothes and ate my protein. sipped on a cold cup of tea on the way home.

the hot shower was wonderful. a nice cup of hot tea and tuna steak and broccoli was the reward. this was a good run to just enjoy something with the snow we don't get around here very often.