Some New Beer, and a New Race !

Dora was kind enough to pick me up a very large beer from trail running camp in Juneau, Alaska. She had carried it for miles when we hooked up last weekend for a run. Dora is the type who runs an hour to get to a training run. It's a pint bottle of Alaskan Amber Ale  (holy alliteration, Batman). It's on ice right now and will be toast by this afternoon.

 

Thanks, Dora!

Me, Dora and Phantom.

 My run with Dora and Phantom was painful, too many miles for me lately. I ran for 2.5 hours. Unfortunately it was s'posed to be a 3 hour run. I ran/walked the last half hour to give me 3 hours on my feet. Dora only did 4 hours because she is tapering for Fat Dog this weekend. She might even meet Tracy Garneau and Gary Robbins. She's taking her camera, should be many good photos coming.
   It's been spectacularly hot here for the last two weeks, hit very close to 100˚F yesterday. I hear it was 116˚F in Tennessee (where we ran last June).
  Captain found a beauty for us in November, it's the Mesquite Marathon, and it goes through 3 States, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. Should be a blast. Meanie, Beaver , me and Captain are in. Unfortunate that it's on roads, it should be a Boston qualifier for me. I haven't run a road marathon since I lost all my weight. I did that one in 3:50 @ 185lbs, so I'm hoping to knock 20 minutes off that.
  Next up, however, is the North Country 50 miler in Michigan. Here is a brief course description, it sounds good for a "First 50".
"What is the course like?"
The course is a well marked 25 mile loop. There is an additional 1.2 mile section for the marathon runners and now a revised half marathon course. The trail is a single-track hiking trail with enough hills to make for a challenging race. There is no high altitude to contend with, no rocks to jump over, and no stream crossings to wade through, just a beautiful forest with a few roots to remind you you’re not on pavement. This year, major roots will be marked with safe biodegradable marking paint, mile markers will be posted at each mile point, and also every 50 ft will be a course marking to let you know that you are on the right trail. Along with signage at each trail crossing your path to indicate which direction to go in and printed course maps you'll enjoy running in the right direction. 


   I had a more successful 3.5 hour run with Eddie and the Captain on Wednesday, I felt good the whole way, even though I'd run an hour the day before. We did 20 very technical miles, then Eddie treated me and Captain to dinner and beers at "The Queen's Head". We got there around 8:00pm. Great food, only one of us was able to finish their whole meal, I won't mention it was me. It could be because it was the first I'd eaten all day.

Very British in this place. I had a Smithwick's or two.

 It's all coming together for Michigan, if only I could get rid of the ache in my achillies. Doh.