A lot of the stress is finally off and best of all, I am finally getting caught up on some badly needed sleep. The annual Haunt Event appears to be another successful venture and since the last post we have received a lot of positive feedback from the attendees (including Brad and Jan, but they may be biased as their annual performance review is coming up ha). The first night we ran out of time for some of the props thanks to an unfortunate late hour incident that took a bit to resolve, however, we were able to catch up on Saturday and get everything working and additional props deployed. I made a quick summary of this year’s efforts up on the mothership if you are interested (link here). Most surprising of all is the weather held for both days even though there was an over 60% chance of rain for both nights at the start of the week. Mother Nature either took pity on me or she is waiting to really hammer me during the fast approaching ultra-race.
Since I am sitting here trying to heal a few leg/foot kinks that developed while hauling all the props back out of the valley, thought I would feature a feathered friend that also has a kink …in its neck.
Hit the jump to read more about this turquoise-eyed beauty.
It’s been a few since our last meeting, well, at least on the wild side. Brad was manning the sister sight while I hunkered down on the mothership to get caught up on the latest race posts. I recall B. from the UK requesting more gory details on this year’s failed 50K ultra trail attempt – well that is officially out there (link here). Warning it is “graphic”, but does answer B’s real question as to why you should NEVER run an ultra ha. On a better note, the Bix7 race recap is also published (link here). That road event went a whole lot better, but ended more emotional as it marked my official retirement from that race after 20 consecutive years.
Somewhat running related, I decided everyone could probably use a good laugh about now. Chaos has laid siege to headlines – the world’s on fire, drama is the rule rather than the exception and angst has consumed empathy. Time to smile at my expense ha. This morning I competed in the new TC .3 mile sprint. Did the recent Olympic events spur that commitment…no…did the glint of a finisher medal catch my eye…no…perhaps a personal misogi purification ritual (currently reading the Comfort Crisis) to rekindle the fast twitch leg muscle fibers long since forgotten…nope. Truth is it was the garbage truck. Normally our trash isn’t picked up until after 11:00am. The Monday morning routine, internal alarm clock rings, the covers are thrown back and jump into the day. Translated, Linda comes in and announces it is garbage day reinforcing her “Waker of the Dead” moniker earned at the last ultra race. Fast forwarding, I slapped on some slip in sloggers by the door and head out to the trash container – halfway there, the ears pick up the distinct beeping of the truck. Power walk the best I could in the loose shoes the 300 or so feet to the street – it had moved on to the neighbor. Mind you this is rural, so when I say neighbor, think at least a 10th of a mile. I started running down the middle of the road pulling the can behind me waving like a lunatic to get the driver’s attention. No luck, gets in truck and goes to the next one which is two 10ths past the last stop. Now I am sprinting..mind you it looks more like the ministry of silly walks because I’m hauling the can down the middle of the road trying to keep the damn shoes on while waving. THANKFULLY none of my neighbors saw me or I would have assuredly made it into the local newspaper – pretty sure I heard a couple of Deer yucking it up in the nearby trees. That stop had several cans giving me extra time to cover the ground. Not sure who was more startled, me for being able to run that fast in those conditions or the driver who kept looking at me and then back up the road where my driveway was. Apparently our previous driver quit and the new guy went back to the original order of the houses. I am here to declare that if the Olympics are willing to add Breakdancing, they need to look into Trash Can Sprinting for Los Angeles in 2028 – gonna get me a medal!!
Quite pleased with myself (although still glancing around to make sure nobody was watching beyond those heckling Deer) I limped back to the house dragging the now much lighter garbage can. Walked in the house and was met with “What the hell happened to you!?!”. “Well, I started training for the 2028 Olympics, but we should get better wheels on the trash can – now I must hydrate”. Linda simply turned and went about her day. Tells you something about the things she takes as normal when it comes to me hehehe. Hopefully your smile will last the rest of the day!
In honor of my post competition limp, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend!
Hit the jump to read more about the “Limp”kins spotted on our trip last year through the Florida Panhandle.
Howdy everyone, been a bit of time since I last posted. Big thanks to Brad for leading the ship while I was preoccupied. I have two quick running updates to give you before we get to tonight’s featured feathered friend. The first is I want to wish Jan and Brad best of luck on their St. Jude run. They headed down to Memphis, TN this week with the rest of the St. Jude runners to make their annual charity run ALL THE WAY back to Peoria, IL – and you think ultras are hard! Luckily the runners are given segments to run so there is rest involved, but I believe at least one group is running on the road at all times with an accompaniment of chase vehicles. Jan is the one doing the running and I just got a report from Brad she completed her first segment in the rain and will be up bright and early for her next stage tomorrow morning. Brad has a chase vehicle role making sure everyone has the support they need to make it all the way back home. It is a wonderful charity event and wish them all the best. I am sure Brad will be able to give us an update in one of his future posts.
The second running update is … hmmm.. damn, I forgot what the second one was. Let me try my trusty mnemonic I’ve used since my freshman days in college to remember things (see end). Nope, sorry. Anyway, let’s get to our “purdy” bird.
Hit the jump to learn more about this rather stupid officially named bird … and details on my mnemonic if you are interested.
It has been a long time since I have felt birded out. No worries though as this is hopefully only a temporary state. This point has been reached thanks to several weeks of hardcore birding. Multiple days of birding while we were in St. Louis to start, followed by several days of birding the state park down the street and then two long days of birding with Ron over this Memorial weekend. On that note before I go any further, I would like to express our deep appreciation for those that are serving, those that have served, the families that support/ed them while they serve/served and most of all, those who lost their lives for our great country. I will ALWAYS stand and pay my respect for my father and the rest of the brave souls that fight/fought for the freedoms we enjoy. Ron and I spent the two days leading up to the memorial observation hunting for birds at Montrose Bird Sanctuary (Chicago) and Chain O’ Lakes State Park – Linda was running the boys in an agility show they were having close by in Spring Grove. Have to admit, the weather was fantastic for both those days and probably an understatement to say they were very productive. Not sure yet what Ron’s count is, but I crossed off 14 new species bringing me to 319 at the midpoint of the year!! All that birding has left me with “Warbler Neck” and thanks to the weight of The Beast I can scratch my knees without bending my legs. Followed that up with a mini-mini triathlon (10m bike ride, 1m kayak paddle, 5m trail run) before hitting it hard Monday with a 10 mile hill infested trail run. Today, legs are getting their revenge…which brings us to today’s featured non-feathered friends.
Hit the jump for details behind this glowy specimen and another leggy creature we came upon during this year’s travels.
Wildlife Intrigued 