My Active Adventures

It was another fine Trail Nerd event and my first night time race.  Let me start by saying that I did not treat this one as a "race" (as in trying for the best possible time, preparing properly, etc) but rather as a learning opportunity.  As I am currently getting deep into my training for the Hawk 50 mile and the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile I wanted to test myself out a little on this run.  I've run in the dark on trails quite a bit this year during the winter months, but I've never had a run out on the trails deep into the night where I was really struggling.  I wanted to get a feel for that with this race so rather than preparing for a race I set myself up to be very tired and (dare I say) overtrained leading in. I've been running a TON lately.  With the completion of this race my June total would be 204.48 miles and the 7 days from Sat-race day Fri would be 80.9 (over 25 miles more than I've ever done in a 7 day period.  Last Saturday I ran a marathon dis

This is just a quick post on my current race plans for the year.  They've been evolving all year as things get added or things get removed.  Many of these will be treated as organized training runs, but here's what I've done so far this year and my current plans for what's to come... What's already done: 1/15/12 - The Inaugural Louisiana Marathon - 26.31 miles in 4:46:05 3/3/12   - Mrs. Robinson's Romp Trail 10k - 6.0 miles in 56:53 3/4/12   - Pi-Day Trail 1/2 Marathon - 13.5 miles in 2:12:39 3/17/12 - Run For The Bridges Trail Marathon - 26.5 miles in 6:42:47 4/21/12 - Garmin Marathon - 26.38 miles in 5:03:46 4/28/12 - Run wYLd 10k - 6.2 miles in 55:32 5/6/12   - Lincoln Marathon - 26.31 miles in 4:59:33 6/16/12 - Summer Intro Trail Run - 2.8 miles in 25:10 What's yet to come: 6/29/12   - Rock The Night Away Trail 1/2 Marathon 7/8/12     - Shawnee Mission Triathlon 7/14/12   - Psycho Psummer Trail 50k 8/3/12     - Psych Night Trail 10k

In the words of Brian Warren, "Overachieved like a mofo!" This is just a great, fun event; a nice 2.8 mile trail run at Wyandotte County Lake Park Shelter 14.  It is a nice break from the complete focus I have on long distance in my training and my races.  In fact, I hadn't run completely for speed in any run (race or training) since 10/8 last year at the Pumpkin Run 5k (flat, fast road event).  Last year this event was my first run ever on a trail; I thought it was about the hardest thing I'd ever done!!  I have since found out that although there are some fairly steep hills on the second half, this is by no means an especially challenging trail run; but it is TONS of fun! (L to R) Mark, me, Jill & Kristy ready for the race! This year rather than showing up as a road runner feeling out of place on the trails I showed up looking forward to seeing many of the Trail Nerds I have come to know as friends.  This race is designed for families (kind of an unoff

Well, this was an interesting one.  Normally I'm kind of known for running as many races as I can get into.  Even if I need more miles than the race I will run the race then add on miles later before and/or after.  Why?  A race is just more fun than a training run; you get the energy from all the other runners, an official time, maybe a shirt and/or medal, and an official race to count toward my race stats.  Well, this weekend worked out to be the exact opposite, and it was well worth it!  The Hospital Hill Half Marathon is the oldest road race in Kansas City (or so they bill it as) and (according to the TV news) the second oldest half marathon in the US.  It's a bit popular in the area.  Last year right after I registered for it I found out I had a stress fracture in my foot so I didn't get to run.  This year I was once again registered to run it.  On May 1st (about a month before the race) Gen-no from the Trail Hawks (one of the trail running groups I'm in) sent out