Tired

Well, first things first. Last night, our basketball team upset the mighty Kansas Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA's. That will give this school and this whole area (Peoria) a lift; keep in mind that we have a (somewhat deserved) inferiority complex, as do most non-Chicago area cities in Illinois.

Update: Bradley whipped Pittsburgh to move to the "Sweet Sixteen" for the first time since the early 1950's.

Now, about today: I am bone tired. I did an 8 hour walk today; we had the 8 hour ultramarathon called "8 Hour Run to Reduce Stigma" in Jubilee State Park. There were 13 or so of us at the start and the course was to be a series of "5 mile" loops.

I got lost on loop one (missed a turn, had to backtrack) and missed the same turn on loop two. Also, on loop one, I backtracked a few times thinking that I was off of the course when I really wasn't.

My fastest loop was my last one: 1:47. The kicker was that our local running stud (2:24 marathon in 1998 and still knocks off sub 16 minute 5K's) took 49 minutes to do his first loop. And mind you, he trains on trails. So, whereas someone's Garmin got the loop at 7.1 miles, I'd say that 6.5 was about right, given that the trail was slick in spots due to the frozen mud defrosting. There were a few downed trees, which caused one to have to walk through some briars.

Afterward, we got together for burgers at a local bar. A bright spot is that some local tri babes were there at the end (they didn't do the race) and were wearing some very tight spandex. That cheered me up a bit.

But, I admit that I was a bit surprised that I ended up getting as tired as I did. My legs feel just a bit heavy. Still, it was good training and a beautiful day. My Brooks Cascadias worked great and I saw several deer.

Rich Breaux took some photos and here are some of them:

Here we are at the start. to my right is Andy Weinberg, the race director of the McNaughton 100 miler. Paul Kelley is on the left (black shorts) and Rich is just to his right.

There are some of the guys going up one of the many hills.



You are almost through with the loop when you see this.
This is Rich, replentishing his fluids after the race.

Note: this morning, I went out for a lesiurely 8 miles on the roads, and my time for these 8 miles was less than all of my loops, save the last one. Five mile loops? :-)