Sunday, September 9, 2007

Four for Two

Don't know what this is all about, but many times when I run long two days in a row I run better the second day than the first. Now, this doesn't go for the real long runs, they have to be 31 miles or less.

Yesterday Becky, Woody, Candi, Julie, Andrea and I ran up in Croom. Woody, nice guy that he is, brought along a saw and chopped up some of the felled trees that have been blocking the trails, the rest of us took off around an 8 mile loop, the plan was to do 3 of these loops. The Beckster and I veered off after loop one and did the regular 15 mile loop with a two mile adder for a total of 25. It was a fun run with Becky, Candi and I running much faster than we normally do, but it felt good. What didn't feel so good was that the woods were trying to get us! I am not kidding. I guess they were revolting against Woody buzzing them to dust. On more than one occasion a tree grabbed Becky. And close to the end I saw Becky brush against a tree, so I figured I'd go under it, but the branch snagged my circa-1980 1/2 shirt and allowed me to run forward about 6 feet before it snatched me and threw me back the 6 feet I'd traveled. It was a weird run.

Scary Tree!

Ok, that was yesterday. Today Woody, Candi, Becky and I gathered at Flatwoods for a 16 mile sprint. I took out the early spider webs. Then Becky took over at mile 8 and I guess there were no webs left to slow us down, because Becky picked up the pace and we flat cooked around that loop. It felt so good to hit those last two miles and have energy left. Usually it's a walk/run/walk for me those last couple. Not today, I even sprinted up the last hill and down the path, just maybe I can get off the schnide and break 24-hours at Arkansas, don't bet against it.

Tomorrow I'll have the final grand slam tally for you, 30 started, 13 were still in it with Wasatch left to go, it's tough, but the generous time cut-off of 36 hours leave me predicting that 10 or 11 will end up finishing the Slam this year. Speaking of the Slam I am using the header as a Slam countdown, so check that out it will change daily.

Be good, and watch out for those branches!
......This Branch Caught Everything near him in the 1970's......

4 comments:

superdave524 said...

That would be Cliff Branch, which is what I always assumed Beatle Bailey was hanging from. Cliff frequently batted down badly thrown footballs at 6710 Gateway Drive, if my memory serves.

Mr. Matt said...

Cliff was the reason for many a do-over! What a wild concept, the do-over, really if you throw a ball into a tree why should you get another chance? A fast growning tree still shouldn't be as fast as a 10-yard out pattern.

Mr. Matt said...

Looks like two bit the dust at Wasatch, looks like 11 slammers finshed. Pretty good guess, eh? eh? Think that's what I said, 10 or 11.

superdave524 said...

Unless it was Mike Barnhill doing the out-pattern (though he could run with power. Oh, sure, maybe not Amy Grigg power, but power nevertheless).