Goin Back to Cali

OK, so here's the thing, I'm no home right now. If you'd like you a leave a message, I will get back to you as soon as I feel like it. If your matter is urgent, you are probably not very bright to be reading this with other urgent matters at hand.

Wow there are a lot of 'rest days' the last week. I'm just not making enough time to run. I would say I'm "too busy" but when people tell me they are too busy to workout I snidely say that they just "are not making enough time". I'm a bit of a jerk though.

Last week was rough. Airplane rides on Wednesday and Friday and a few long days in the office. I went to Phoenix for the weekend since I had to be back in Cali this week. It saves me about 10 hours of flying time over the weekend. Dr. DB set us up with a half marathon in Prescott Valley a couple hours north of Phoenix. The PeeVee Tour something or other. Here is a quick race recap.

6:00 pm Friday DB picks me up in Phoenix and we start rolling North after grabbing a large peperoni pizza for the road. Pizza is Dr. DB's favorite pre-race food even if we have to eat it in the car. Fortunately Dan knows that a large pizza actually fits on the dashboard of an Isuzu Trooper. I've had my Trooper for 9 years and never new that. We get to Prescott at about 10:00 and bunk down at his church retreat camp. By "bunk down" I mean we were actually in bunk beds.

4:30 am we get up and head for the race start. Registration is opening as we pull in and Dr. DB breaks open the check book. This one is only $30 a piece so he covered the entry fees. There is an iHop near the race start but it is not time for pancakes. We down some toasted bread products and some coffee.

Back at the race start we start sizing up the competition. Dr. DB has scouted last years race report and mentioned that a low 1:30s will probably get top 10 overall and that was what I was aiming for. Dr. DB has run 12 miles since August so he was hoping for mid 1:30s. We plan to start out easy together and then see how it goes. I should mention I was a little nervous about the elevation since we were at about 5300 feet (1 mile). We roll the first mile in about 6:32 and we are sitting in about 8th place. We hold that position through some hills and are getting about 6:30 - 7:00 minute mile through mile 5. I was feeling good so I went ahead and started picking off a few of the guys in front of me. Miles 7 - 11 were on a bridle trail that was out and back. I see the lead runner coming back after the turn around and I realized I was not going to catch him. His lead was huge. As I got to the turn around I was sitting 3rd and pushed hard for the next mile. I thought I had a chance at 2nd but it just didn't happen. A few more tough hills on from mile 11-12 took it out of me. Either the course was a little long or fell to pieces. The last 2.1 miles were 18:30. I really think the course was about 1/4 mile long but can't confirm it. Dr. DB had the GPS and he missed a turn and went 14.1. There were some bad course marking because about 5 of the top 10 after the turn around missed a right hand turn.

All in all it was good fun. No PR but it was fun to race near the front even if it was a small event. 3rd place overall and 1st in my AG. I even got this:



Back to hotel life this week and to Phoenix for the weekend. I'm racing Pinnacle Peak Events Ride and Stride this weekend. Dr. DB and Feebs race event management company's first race.

9/16 Wednesday: rest
9/17 Thursday: 4.5 mile run (no timing)
9/18 Friday: rest
9/19 Saturday 13.1 mile run (1:32:41)
9/20 Sunday: rest
9/21 Monday: rest
9/22 Tuesday: 9 mile run (3 morning 6 evening)
9/23 Wednesday: 4 mile run (34:37)
No weight report