Weekend Lessons
I had this long post drafted about what I believe, what I think needs to be done and why. About how I was disappointed on social medial this weekend by discussions on one topic that somehow raged out of control onto other, unrelated topics. I get it. I opened the door. On one topic. To one room. Not to every topic, every room. My lesson. But I scrapped it. You can thank me later.
Instead you get a weekend recap. And some pictures of other people doing things that I won’t ever do. Sorry the pictures are fuzzy.
Saturday started with some errands and prep work for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. It RAINED all damn day. I didn’t think that happened in the desert Southwest. Once everything was prepped and things were in the oven. I took off to see the Desert Solstice. This is a 100 mile/24 hour race run around a high school track. There were several people attempting to break records (American, World, Age Group) and I wanted to see what it looked like to run for that long.
The rain didn’t seem to be helping morale or slowing them down at all. But it was crappy, cold and rainy. I went around 3:00pm so they had already been running for 7+ hours. The first picture is what it looked like at 3pm.
Then we ate dinner. After dinner, I convinced Michael to go back to the track with me. It was after 8pm and the rain had stopped. They had been running for 12+ hours. We must have just missed Jon Olsen taking the 100 miles. As we got there, we heard Michael Arnstein’s crew talking about him finishing a sub-13 hour 100 miles and trying to convince him to go for the 200k record. He came in at 12:57:45 and it took all that he had. It felt intrusive to take his picture after his finish, so I didn’t.
But there went Nick Coury (pic 2), who set a new PR for him self and Connie Gardner (pic 3), who holds the current AR for the 24 hour race. Debra Horn set a new 200k record in the 50-54 age group. Jay Smithberger (pic 4) came in third in the 100 mile. His picture seemed less intrusive!
By Sunday morning only 6 were left on the track. 2 men and 6 women. Nicely done! I can’t even comprehend what it takes mentally to run for 24 straight hours.
As for me, my IT Band pain has been worse and I am taking it easy. I swam on Sunday. I will try to ride the bike some this week and give the IT Band a break. Lots of stretching and foam rolling.
Posted on December 17, 2012, in Food/Restaurants, Running and tagged Aravaipa Running, Childfree, Desert Solstice, Fitness, Food, Racing, Running. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Hi! I love your blog and the topic 🙂 I would love to see how people look after 24 hours of running…around a track! Wow. Too bad the weather was bad.
I personally would like to read more about what people think ought to happen re: CT. While I understand why many bloggers are holding back, I would like to think people are open enough right now to educated dialogue that I think would be productive. I know there are frustrating people out there who are not open to it, however, and they are, unfortunately, the ones blocking any kind of meaningful action. Sigh. I am so, so sad and angry about it all. But I have seen and heard people changing their minds and that gives me hope.
Thank you for your comments. Once again, I had this long response and I just can’t seem to pull the trigger (pun INTENDED). I will sum it up: I am anti-gun and think the 2nd Amendment is grossly misapplied. I can back up my positions and offer alternatives. But more than that, I am just disappointed at the deflection from one issue to another and the lack of constructive conversation. Shooting down ideas without really offering any new ones. I think most people are frustrated as well and that is why we shy away from putting it on the blogs.
I saved the post I wrote. And I saved my initial response to you. In case I ever do feel that it is appropriate to share them.
I totally understand and I agree with you. I feel like over the past decade or so, people have been deflecting discussion about this, which has led to no progress at all. Anyway, I will not let your comment section become too filled with this stuff and I will restrain, but I am glad you have saved your posts 🙂