Summer intro 5k smp

Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.
Emil Zatopek

The photo is of Matt Riley, who won last weekends summer intro 10k in 44: something-that's fast!

Western States

It's been a pretty eventful week. On Tuesday I went out to Shawnee Mission Park to run. I decided to take my mountainbike and do a little riding before the group run. I ended up having one of the worst crashes I remember having. I was going pretty fast on a downhill stretch of trail. I misjudged my takeoff for a bunnyhop over a log. I fell on my left side, cracked my helmet and bruised my hip area pretty heavily. Nice. I bailed on the run after that. For a little while I thought I might need a hospital visit. Yesterday we had our summer intro race at SM park. Amid concerns that the trail gates would be closed due to overnight rains, we had over 100 runners show up! What a turnout. I was disappointed with my own performance, but Kyle did a great job directing and everyone had a good time. Matt Riley from Lawrence took the win. Nice job. Bad Ben is in California pacing Patrick Perry on his attempt at the Western States 100. I just checked the webcast and Pat finished. Great Job Patrick! I can't wait to hear their race reports. Later.
cool link!

Double rainbow

This is a picture from Memorial Day weekend. Nice double rainbow. I haven't been able to read Kyle's race report yet( I do know he finished in 19:23), but if you haven't already check out Gabe's report from Kettle Moraine 100.

When it rains, it pours

Here are a few photos from last weekend. I did some biking, some running and went camping too. I even caught a nice snake. I think it was a Northern Water snake. Cody and I ran a super soggy loop at Wyco last Sunday. It was so wet that the mud didn't even stick. Nice. On a sad note, my Grandma passed away last Friday, May 25. She was 85 years old. Her funeral was yesterday. There is a lot of grief and it was hard for the whole family, but her quality of life had really gone downhill in the last year or two. It's hard to watch a loved one wither away like she did. She's in a better place now. A couple of local runners are doing the Kettle Moraine 100 on Saturday. I'm anxious to see how they do. I'm going to be spending more time out at Wyandotte County Lake, both for training and working on the course for Psummer Psycho. I'm hoping to get some long runs in out there. It looks like I'm headed to the Leadville Marathon again in July against my better judgement, so I better get my ass in shape.

Shawnee Mission Park Trails!

Last night I finally got a chance to check out the new trails at SM Park. My tubeless setup on my mountain bike was jacked up so I didn't get to ride them, but I ran a loop with a small pack of Trail Nerds including one new recruit(Phil).It's also good to see James back out on the trails. One word comes to mind-SWEET. I would like to thank everyone who worked on these trails and made them a reality. They really are nice and if the planning meetings go well and there is room for more trail, this trail system will be stellar. All of the old jacked up, eroded rock pile crap is gone and in it's place is a 4 mile loop of sweet singletrack. I think my favorite part is where the trail crosses the powerline for a short stretch. I I love the figure-eight format as well. I look forward to a summer of running and riding out there. Hopefully we can get everything lined out and have our Summer intro trail race out there.

I don't like the price of gas.

I ended up wussing out on my plan of not driving my car at all last week. I rode one way of my commute every day and drove the other half. I filled my Beetle back up on Sunday for $21.00. Not too bad considering the price of GAS. It really is getting ridiculous. I'm giving some serious thought to selling my Jeep. I ran on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, so I ended up riding about 50-60 miles, running around 20 miles, going to two baseball practices, two baseball games, and working like a dog all week. I was plenty tired, so I took today off except for Jackson's baseball practice. He wanted to stay after and catch some fly balls. He ended up getting hit right on top of the head with one. From the sound of it, I thought his head was going to be split wide open, but he was pretty much ok except for a knot. He even wanted to keep playing. On Sunday we had a small group out at Wyco park to check out course options for a possible Psummer race. It was a nice day-not too hot. We've pretty much got a 15 mile loop dialed in. Some of the additional mileage will come from gravel and dirt roads and it looks like we will have a 2 mile out and back comprised of new singletrack. Should be pretty COOL. I almost forgot to mention that the maintenance dorks are still "helping" us out by cutting big logs out of the trail. They just don't have an effing clue. DOH! Sidenote- The Floyd Landis hearings have really taken a turn for the weird.

Ride you bike to work!

I filled up my beetle tonight at $3.19/gal-SWEET! May 14-18 is Ride your bike to work week. Do it! Save some gas and some money. Oh Yeah, Happy Mother's Day too! The photo is the summit of Mt. Bross in Colorado.