Houska Houska 2013: How to Chick and Motivate an Old Man

This morning was the best annual Memorial Day running event in Colorado and fundraiser for the Bone Marrow Donor program and Poudre Valley Cancer Center, the Houska Houska 5K.

There are no starting waves or qualifying times for this one. No computer chips strapped to your ankle, or mats to step on. You are more likely to fit in to the crowd here if you are wearing a costume, running with a dog on a long leash, or pushing a baby stroller with at least two kids in it.

No one knows if the course is accurate, it's pretty close, but nobody cares. There is no timing, there are no bib numbers, age groups, awards or anything found at typical running events, except for a cotton t-shirt with an original, creative design for the year's theme.

The course starts off in the grass on an overgrown two-track parallel to the railroad tracks, then makes a couple of sharp turns at 1/4 mile in, to the Poudre Trail bike path, and runs a loop through a short hill on another overgrown dirt path and re-connects with the Poudre Trail in a partial out and back course with a twist.

You finish where you started, in the lumpy, tall grass and gravel next to the railroad tracks, across from Houska Automotive, under a billboard along Riverside Avenue.

Having slept in until 5:47 am, which is about an hour and a half later than I've slept the past two days of work, I got up in the daylight, made coffee, and let Dennis sleep. I really felt like crap. I don't race this race, it's not even what you can call a race, I just run it as hard as I can and get a good workout, because you usually spend half the time weaving in and out of people, strollers, dogs, and bikes.

I was hoping I would be able to run a respectable time despite my weeks of decadence, but it's not a race at all, it's an event. There is no comparison with road 5K times. Besides, the Casper Marathon is just 6 days away to challenge me.

Dennis has been running occasionally, just a few miles with the dogs on the weekends. His foot has improved with the plantar fascitis he's had since his fracture healed last summer. He's been hinting that he feels fat, which he's not. But he is not as fit as he was a year ago, and he often talks about getting motivated to run regularly, but hasn't managed to do it.

This was his first race since he broke his foot last June. And I decided a little motivation was in order.

Once Dennis woke up, he was moving slowly. I told him I was taking Iris for a run, and that I wanted to leave by 8 so there's time to warm up. He lifted his face up from staring at the paper and gave me that blank look. He wasn't awake yet.

I said, "You know, I have a feeling about this year."

"What's that?" He looked at me over his reading glasses.

"I think this is the year I'm gonna chick you."

"You think so?" He rolled his eyes.

"Not today, because I have a work hangover and feel like crap, but today in this race, I am going to get closer to you than I ever have before in a 5K. And sometime, over this coming year, I'll beat you in a 5K. You'll get chicked by your old lady."

"No way."

"Way. I'm gonna see the whites of your eyes when you look over your shoulder."

I took Iris out for a short run and when we got back, Dennis was ready. We drove down to Houska, parked, and signed up for the run.

At the start, I lined up on the starting line, in front, next to Dennis and our friend Forrest, who is not Forrest Gump but is a fast runner. Usually I get in behind a whole bunch of kids and strollers but this time I wanted to see what happened if I got up there.

I knew I couldn't beat Dennis, not today, the way I was feeling, but I was going to give myself a challenge by seeing how close I could stay to him.

When the gun went off, I took off and basically did what is an all-out sprint for me, for the first 0.2 miles down the overgrown two-track until you make a sharp left onto Lemay Avenue before the bike path. Running down the first little hill, I was right behind Dennnis. My lungs were burning! I was in anaerobic hell. Running down the first little asphalt hill under the bridge until the bike path levels out, I was already paying for it. I laughed to myself, thinking it would be interesting to see how this run turns out.

I ran pretty fast the first mile, but no one knows where the mile mark actually is, and I didn't have GPS. I could still see Dennis's back, he was less than 100 meters ahead of me, but I was having trouble keeping a fast pace. When we were close to the turnaround point, slightly more than halfway through, Dennis was not far ahead. I forget what I said to him to taunt him when we passed each other. He was far behind the lead runners. Forrest was way ahead of him.

It took me the first mile to recover from the sprint, and by this point, all I could do was hang on. I could feel my pace slipping, and I had no idea how fast I was going. I thought of looking at my watch when I rounded the last turn at Riverside and Lemay.

I decided against it because I had to hang in there for another 0.2 miles and I didn't want to be disappointed. I shut my watch off at the finish line. Ugly. 24:51. I saw Dennis walking around in the grass, down the road, but I was hurting too much to go tease him.

As it turned out, I was right. When we met each other in a spot in the shade, we compared notes. I was exactly 2 minutes and 4 seconds behind Dennis, the closest we've ever been in a 5K. By far. He ran 22:47. I think that's a personal worst for him. But I could tell he didn't feel defeated. He was smug, I had not beat him. Not even close.

The special thing about this morning was, it's the first day of training for me. I've been a slacker for the past 5 weeks since Cleveland, and last week I ran a grand total of 18 miles. I also consumed some rather decadent things. Like ice cream. Brownies. Chocolate chip cookies. Take out Chinese food. Beer.

And these Pellegrino Passion coolers. Actually those were pretty weird.

I've been trying not to worry about it but by the end of the week I felt HEAVY. And when I thought back to my pattern of consumption over the past week, it was pretty disgusting. I decided to scare myself and got on the scale this morning for the first time since my taper. 132!!!!??? It scared me. Nine pounds up since Cleveland? In 5 weeks? Really? It was definitely sodium and fluid-related, but still.

It amazes me how my weight can fluctuate. That's why it's not a good idea to weigh yourself frequently. But it is a good idea to weigh yourself when you need a reminder of why you can not indulge in those things on a regular basis. Especially when you're running 18 miles a week. Weighing myself before running this morning's event was a wake-up call.

The first order of business is, run my ass off, drop the extra weight, and get my butt in gear.

This morning I did not allow myself to indulge in the root beer floats they always serve at Houska Houska. Dennis had a couple of Bloody Marys. We walked around and talked, enjoying the sunshine and watching people. It was a nice morning, a little warm but not too bad.



This year's theme was the Roaring Twenties, so there were lots of flappers running around.

Of course the purpose of the run is to raise money for community cancer-related services, like Bone Marrow Donation.





And Houska Houska is big for the kids- there is always cotton candy, and this year, ziplining.





Dennis and I got a picture together, at a race. Something that rarely happens.

After hanging out and socializing, we didn't get our cool down run in so I suggested we go home and do our cooldown together. I only needed to do about 4 more miles. Dennis said he would do that with me if I'd take it easy on him. Uh-huh. It was warm outside, already 80 degrees. We took off for the Power Trail and after a mile he was whining.

Yes! Whining.

Dennis never whines. I started to tell him it was because of the Bloody Marys and not eating anything. WAAAAH.

I said we could make the first mile in under 11 minutes if he picked it up. He stopped and stretched and then we kept going. We got to our two mile turnaround and started heading back. At three miles he said he'd had enough and started walking. I ran home and he showed up a few minutes later. He said, "I'm dead."

So, maybe I didn't chick him in the race but I definitely kicked his butt on the cooldown. It's that endurance thing.

My plan worked. After 23 years, I know him well enough that I know he will need to avenge this.

Back in the old days when he was running for Reebok and I was running at my fastest, we used to run together and do pickups at the end of our runs, and I'd try to outsprint him at the end. I never could beat him for anything back then, he was running regular sub-15 minute 5Ks compared to my rare sub-19 minutes. As we've both gotten slower, we were always about 4 minutes apart in the 5K. Until now.

Looks like we'll be running some 5Ks this summer.

I can't wait.

The other news is that I planted a honeycrisp apple tree the other day. It was either that or I was going to have to buy stock in Whole Foods to earn dividends off my habit. I don't think we'll get fruit this year, but in two or three years it should pay for itself.

I also planted some tomatoes, peas, spaghetti squash, jalapeno and habanero peppers, cilantro, basil, thyme, yellow squash and zucchini, and beets. And then we have the oregano and parsley and chives that come up every year. I've never had any luck with beets here, the ground is too hard, but we're going to do one raised bed this year and see how that goes. Maybe we can finally grow beets. I love them.

The raspberries started to really take off last year. I miss our yard in Arizona. If I could get grapes to grow I'd want a trellis with grapevines on it. We had amazing grapes in Arizona, everyone in the neighborhood would walk by our house and marvel at the grapes. We had a bottlebrush tree, lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, and grew plenty of basil, tomatoes, cilantro, and tons of serrano peppers. We grew serrano peppers like they were on steroids. I think we might still have some dried serranos floating around somewhere in our kitchen cabinets that came from Arizona.

And the front yard flower garden is bursting out now. Every day there's something new.




This is it. I'm back to training again. Tomorrow the plan is hills at Horsetooth. Oh, it will hurt, but I need to do hills, I've become such a wimp on the flats. It will pay off.

Now I'm off to take a nap, sleep off this work hangover, and maybe later I'll soothe Dennis's ego...

Getting Tall: 12 Hour Race at 24 The Hard Way

What was it that Steve Martin the comedian used to say about getting small? I did the opposite today. I got tall, by standing at the top of the podium.

The short version is: I am still waiting for official results for distance to be calculated by the race staff, but I can tell you what I know. I ran over 63 miles, and I'm guessing it was about 63.8 based on where I finished. They go out and measure the distance for your last partial lap.

I won the race overall. I was ahead of the second place finisher, also a woman, by about 8 miles. We chicked some ass!

And, I don't have the official word on this, I am just going by the stats listed on ultrasignup.com, but I believe I set a women's course record by about a mile. The old record was 62.6 miles.

So, all in all, a successful day.

I got decent sleep the night before the race, about 7 hours. In general I haven't slept so well on this trip. But I didn't feel sleepy when I woke up so it must have been enough. I did have a slight sore throat this morning, I wondered if it was just from the way I slept, or if it was the beginning of the crud that everyone else at work has been getting lately.

Later in the race I talked with another runner from Oklahoma and he said his allergies were terrible today, so I guess it could have been that. I guess I'll find out in the next day or two, if I am diseased.

It was absolutely FREEZING, especially for the first 5 hours of the race. We started in the dark at 6 am and the grass had a hard frost on it, we did luck out with no wind, which is a good thing because I was bundled up in 3 layers most of the day, I think adding more layers because of the wind would have slowed me down.

There were people out there in tank tops or shorts, and I was wearing my thick long sleeved PVHS foundation shirt, my fleece jacket from Across the Years, and my two layer fleece and windshell Hind jacket, plus thick gloves. I had my thickest tights on, plus my knee high calf compression sleeves on underneath. I finally got rid of the outer jacket around 11 am, but that was as far as I dared to strip. I think maybe it feels colder because of the humidity.

I went out there to run hard, and I knew I was risking blowing up. Instead, what happened was more like a slow leak than a blowout. I ran 17.5 laps in each of the first two 3 hour segments of the race, 15 laps in the third, and about 16.5 in the last 3 hours. So I didn't slow down all that much.

Each lap is about 0.96 miles. It's a certified course, all asphalt. There are three hills along the loop, and I walked these, or parts of them, in the middle of the race. They are short and not very steep. In the end when I was picking up the pace I ran them, and they aren't that bad. There's one big aid station tent where the chip timing mats are, and they had a display, like Across the Years timing system, where you can see each lap and the time, and your total distance and number of laps.

There were three portapotties fairly evenly spaced along the course, and they weren't occupied all the time. And there were flags from different states around the course, my favorite was the Arizona flag, which was about 1/8 of a mile from the timing mats, so it always gave me a little boost to kick it in to the aid station on each lap.

My hydration was perfect, I took 2 S caps per hour since I figured I'd be sweating a lot underneath my layers of clothing. I peed once an hour, and didn't have any blisters. I did get a little quad cramp in the last 2 miles but I was picking up the pace to about 8:30 miles, and it never got so bad I couldn't keep running. I did contribute nicely to my running bra scars, despite applying more aquaphor several times during the race. I felt that in the shower! Searing!

I said I wouldn't be satisfied with less than 100K, and I surpassed that, but not by much- less than 2 miles past it. But I really can't expect to be setting any PRs right now, I haven't trained for it and I am much slower now than I was in 1994. But I am happy that I ran hard and consistently. I didn't stop at all except for pee breaks. I grabbed things off the table, I had everything organized well so it was within reach, no stopping or searching necessary.

I have to admit I was getting a little disapppointed with my 50 mile split, but I got over it quickly. I'm just being impatient with myself. Again, I haven't trained to get faster at these distances yet. I went through just a hair over 50 miles in 9:18:45, and my 100K split was somewhere around 11:40-11:45. Not sure, because those points aren't marked. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe something with an 8 in front of it, I guess. I'm not there yet, but I'll get there, and get beyond that too.

Things were very well-organized. Chisholm, the race director, is getting married, right on the course, tomorrow afternoon. He is also running the 24 hour race right now. I guess he likes to stay busy. Congratulations, Chisholm.

I got to see Chisholm's dad, Harry. He happened to be standing next to my table when I came through on one of the laps. I hugged him, it was so good to see him, an old ultra icon from days past.

I also saw another superstar, Jack Christian, out there. He is a machine. I was running behind him, and we were running about the same pace for a while, and talked briefly, but he is in the 24 hour. I ran with Don Winkley for a while, and another runner, John Hargrove, who has been around ultras for years.

There was also a super fast runner in the 24 hour race, Jon Olsen, who ran 158 miles this past year as a national champion in the 24 hour. He kept lapping me, but was really nice and always said something encouraging every time.

I had to get a picture with Chisholm before I left. He said next year they will only have 24 hour race, and I'm seriously considering it. This was an awesome event. Everyone was so nice.

Actually my whole trip here has been amazing, everyone here, the hotel, in the restaurants, downtown at the memorial, every place I've been people have been great.

Including Dora in the 24 hour race, and her husband Ben, who helped me set up all my equipment on Friday, and dragged it back to the car for me after the race tonight. I appreciate that more than anything, trying to deal with stuff after the race is the hardest thing you do all race day.

I wore my smiley face earrings, that must be why I ran so well. They go well with my salt-crusted face.

It's time to recover and get some sleep, I have a long drive tomorrow. I feel pretty good after my shower and a huge piece of lasagna. I don't feel trashed at all. We'll see what an 11 hour drive will do to that tomorrow.

One more thing though...I didn't break the rules for driving on this one, because I ran 12 hours and the drive was only 11 hours.

Drink a beer for me when you read this, I'm too tired!

Dodging Rockets...

A 5K podium finish for a middle-aged ultrarunner? Yes, this REALLY happened. This is the only time I ever get to be the tallest person around!

I didn't win the race overall, I was 2nd overall woman and 9th overall of everyone, but this was the age group awards and I had to get a picture of this. And I wasn't even wearing anything from Walmart!

This was the Berthoud Family Fun Festival 5K, small race, small town, probably had a hundred or so participants. It was for the kids, and from the look of the starting line, it was ALL kids. But it really wasn't, because almost all of the kids in the race lined up on the line itself, leaving the adults to dance around and avoid tripping over them for the first quarter mile or so. Once we got past a quarter mile, the kids were no longer in front.

But it should have been called the Obstacle Course 5K, because that's how it felt to me out there. There were other, much more scary obstacles than little kids: hamstring cramps and snot rockets.

I got through the first mile just fine, hit the mile marker in 7:09 and was very comfortable, it was actually a good thing to have the kids in front at first as they held me back from sprinting out.

Lots of turns on the course and a lot of jumping on and off of sidewalks and bike paths. Not blazing fast at all, but I'm in it for the workout. There was one woman about 20 seconds ahead of me at one mile, and I wondered if she was fast or if she would crash and burn.

Soon after mile 1, there's a sharp right and you drop down a steep little hill. About halfway down the steep little hill my right hamstring cramped up, which nearly brought me to a stop. I hopped for a few seconds until I realized it was just a cramp, and I had to slow down.

At the bottom of the hill there was a flat but winding section of sandy trail and the cramp started to let up. Soon this came to an end and we got back on city streets and climbed a BIG ASS hill, pushing as hard as I could without making the hamstring hurt, until the course flattened out again around 2 1/2 miles.

At this point I had lost sight on the one woman in front of me, but there were three men who had passed me while I slowed down for the cramp, and I was gaining on them again.

I passed two of the three, and as the course wound back onto the bike path before it hit the final nasty little hill climb for the last tenth of a mile, I was gaining on the last of the three. As we made a 90 degree turn I saw him look over his shoulder, his face had the unmistakable, eyes wide with fear, "I'm not gonna let her chick me" look and he dug in.

Well, that dude doesn't know me. That look summons death, the grim reaper, the chick machine. Any man who dares show me that look in a race is now in my sight and THE PRIME TARGET. He began to blow snot rockets, one of which I narrowly dodged. That made me laugh. Ha! You think you can hold me off with a snot rocket???!!

WRONG!!!

I decisively blew past him and up the hill, beating him by a couple of seconds.

Not only was he chicked, he was sharpei'd too...he was only 40! HA!

Finish time, 23:42. Not fast, but it wasn't a fast course, and I was running intentionally slow for most of that middle mile with that cramp.

So I wonder, is snot rocket-blowing a last ditch desperate attempt by a man to avoid being chicked?

These questions run through my head...

The race itself was a bargain. For a $15 entry fee, we got a decent t-shirt, a jump rope, some recycled pencils, a magnifying glass, and some coupons...except for the Chick-Fil-A coupons, which I wasn't thrilled about. Nice that they would sponsor the race, and they kept their presence low-key. I'm just glad they weren't giving out Chick-Fil-A cows as prizes. Instead, we got orchids, which were really nice.

Next race: Equinox Half Marathon in 2 weeks. Tomorrow's plan: More Bacon!

Go, Granny, Go!

I almost hit 20 miles today in two runs. According to my calculations, I got 19.56 miles in. No I don't have a Garmin. I'm not that technologically advanced and I hate carrying those big clunky things on my wrists. I map my runs with aerial photos on google maps on Map My Run. And no, I'm not obsessive enough to go back out and do another 0.44 miles to make it an even 20. Food was calling my name.

I did a shorter, slower than usual tempo run with Shannon tonight, we did about 8.7 miles together at a little under 8:40 pace. He is tired, he's recovering from pacing his friend Chris in his first 100 miler at Leadville last weekend, which turned out to be one of those runs where you get your money's worth out of the entry fee. As Shannon was describing the pacing experience at Leadville it was taking me back to my own first 100 mile experience at Leadville 20 years ago.

Chris finished in 29 hours and change, and I can relate to his pain and the feeling that it will never end. All four of my Leadville finishes were between 29:20 and 29:40 no matter what I did. Finally I retired from high altitude, moved on to lower elevation 100s. But congratulations to Chris because Leadville is tough first time 100 to do. And he stuck it out despite all his troubles and sleep deprivation.

So tomorrow we're headed to Manhattan Beach and I'm running a 5K on Saturday, the Jet to Jetty 5K at Vista Del Mar. The 5K training for 48 hours continues. I did have a decent workout of 800s earlier this week where I was consistent at 6:30-6:40 pace. I need to keep working on it. I'll have to see what sea level feels like this weekend and if it helps me run a little faster than my 23 minute 5Ks of late.

I do have some animal print stuff to wear, including an old animal print swimsuit that I looked much better in at age 35. Sorry to disappoint everyone but I won't be a Bo Derek at the beach.

Giving myself as much credit as possible, I might be a 6.5 on a good day when I'm not bloated from something I ate. And I don't think Bo Derek had a menopausal belly, sagging boobs, wrinkly thighs, or gray hair. And I don't have gray corn rows either.

I'll be more like the little old lady from Pasadena, taking my old body out for an occasional spin in an attempt to terrorize, sharpei, and chick the guys. (I included this video and then realized that there is a stupid baseless political ad at the beginning. Sorry. It offended me, so I put it on mute until the ad was over.)


The Little Old Lady From Pasadena by sirnarnian

Geritol vs. Testosterone: A Vertical Challenge for the Vertically Challenged

In my ongoing quest to prevent myself from flying to Florida to run a 100K race I decided that instead of running hills on the asphalt at Horsetooth, I would do Rock Repeats for the first time this season. We've had enough nice weather that the trails should be pretty clear, free of snow and not too muddy.


It was a good choice. It wasn't even that cold. I started out in shorts, but kept my long sleeved shirt and gloves on. There wasn't too much wind and the sun finally came out after a while. I felt amazingly good, it seems like my recovery has been so much faster than I thought. Maybe it was the refueling yesterday afternoon plus another long nap.

Yesterday right after my run Dennis and I went over to Tortilla Marissa's, a restaurant owned by our running friends Doug and Connie DeMercurio. They were having a celebration and fundraising event for a puppy rescue organization in honor of their daughter Marissa's dog, Tortilla, who was having her first birthday. Tilla looked adorable in her little green bandana. Tilla's grand-dogma (Connie), baked a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for everyone who attended.

I indulged in each of the three basic food groups, green chile, margaritas, and chocolate, for a well-balanced, wholesome and appropriate recovery meal on the patio, in warm temperatures, where I was wearing one of my Walmart tops underneath a sweater (Seventy degrees and drinking a cold margarita is not warm enough for me to expose skin). But it helped me feel like I was getting a little taste of Florida.

I took Iris for a couple of miles this morning and then came home and drove to the park trailhead. My plan was to run the first one and see how my ankle held up, and possibly do a second one, but I sort of doubted that would happen. Usually I start the year with just one Rock Repeat because my quads are shot after that. It's 1100 feet of climb in 2.1 miles and then you have to descend. The plan was to run super easy, especially on the downhills, so I'd be able to walk, squat, and crouch for the next two days at work, which really helps when you have to sit on those low stools to start IVs and do dressing changes and such.

So it was my vertical challenge for the day, and being 5'1" tall on a good day I am already vertically challenged. I also thought of Bob and Paul, my two vertically challenged running friends, both of whom have made this past week an extreme horizontal challenge to my willpower to resist a trip to Florida.

It was also a vertical challenge for my ankle, because the last time I ran this trail last June, it was screaming at me.

I started out on the Southridge Trail as usual, which is really not a trail but a service road for the park. A few yards into it I noticed the first changes since last season, which was the construction of numerous waterbars across the trail, which act not only to drain water off the trail, but also as giant speed bumps, which would have the effect of slowing mountain bikers who tend to fly around the curves of this heavily used trail.

The waterbars themselves made the trail even more of a vertical challenge, some of them were huge, big enough to swallow me up.

It was cooler today, and mostly cloudy. Whatever is causing that rain in LA and made the temperatures in Death Valley cooler than here yesterday is moving our way, with snow in the forecast for tomorrow. But I'll be indoors at work all day, right? It won't matter. I don't run on my work days anyway. I won't even notice, because it will be dark by the time I leave the hospital both days.

I ran the whole way up, taking it super slow and easy, stopping to take pictures along the way. It was uneventful, not too many people, just a big herd of deer in a snowy draw on the way up. They stopped to stare at me, acting more like cows than deer.

So I reached the top, snapped a few pictures, wondered how I ever survived my pre-iPhone days, and started heading downhill. Very cautious and slow, mindful of my ankle, because I wasn't wearing a brace and this was the longest excursion on uneven, rocky technical terrain I've done since last spring.

There are several parts of the Southridge Trail that are rocky and technical, but they are short. I did just fine, not a peep out of the ankle! Yay!

I reached the bottom and went to my car, feeling like I didn't do anything. I decided to do another Rock Repeat just as easy as the first one, hoping that running slow downhill would preserve my quads. But then I thought: if my quads do get sore, that will keep me from wanting to run a 100K in Florida next weekend!

At the beginning of my second trip, I started about 30 seconds ahead of a group of 5 cyclists. I was running easy, and expected them to pass me on the gentle grade at the bottom. I got to the first switchback ahead of them, and then going up the long, steep grade to where the trails fork, only two of them passed me at the top, the others were close behind. Again, I continued running on the next flat section and they were with me as we all made the turn to start up the next steep part. The whole way up these 5 guys were with me. A couple of them would be ahead by a few feet, and the others were right behind. A few times one of them would do a quick sprint and get ahead of me, and then fall behind as I ran past. Finally I think he realized he wasn't going to avoid being chicked and just rode a steady pace, which happened to be my pace.

When I got to the first saddle, before the final steep rocky technical climb, where there's another trail fork to take a gentler, less technical route to the same place, they stopped. They looked at the fork in the trail and started to go to the right. I couldn't help myself. The RPB (random perimenopausal bitch) was rearing her ugly head.

"You guys are taking the wimpy route! This way is more challenging!" I continued running up the rocks, enticing them to go with me. They waited for the rest of their group to join them, and I continued on to the top. When I reached the saddle for my turnaround, I looked at my watch. I ran one of my fastest times ever on the ascent. It didn't even feel hard.

Cool!

I stopped at the top, took a drink, and started heading down. I decided to take it easy on the descent again, I didn't want to risk twisting my ankle and I could feel my quads at that point. Just as I made the turn onto the technical section, the first of the 5 cyclists was coming up the short slickrock section.

I cheered for them. "Good job!" (I'm so cruel and heartless. RPB for sure.)

One of them said to me, "I don't know how you do it."

I said, "Good riding, this is tough."

I reached the bottom again, uneventfully, feeling good about my run and my fast ascent. Judging from the look of the 5 cyclists, not only did I chick them, but I sharpei'd them, too!

Hey, when you get to be my age, you gotta take what you can get.

And if I can't walk tomorrow, I can only blame myself for getting caught up in the Geritol vs. Testosterone race to the top, but it will make me less likely to want to go to Florida, where the old people hang out...right?

Geritol wins!

OMG.