Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Osprey Sirrus 36 Pack
I love this pack! Really does fit my small back well and stays in place. Ive tried several packs and this is like no other. Thank you Nurpu for hooking me up! It can hold A LOT 
Suunto t6d is awesome!
Have to work out all the ways to set up workouts but love it. Fits my small wrist great too. Goodbye garmin 405 you have been replaced!! Take that!! 
12HR Over Night Hike, 2012 Ohio
Shawnee State Forest, in south east Ohio
Full loaded expedition Packs, including PFDs, Pack Rafts and Hiking Poles
Goal: 20 miles in 12 hours
As I write this report I am still not sure this expedition race is a good idea. Its going to hurt, A LOT! The team decided to get together to do a over night hike in the most "similar" area that we could even get close to what we thought Maine terrain would be like. Brian says to us that this forest is known for NO SWITCHBACKS, its all straight UP and straight DOWN. I said "Great"(not enthusiastic what so ever and thought to myself why? did I say yes?) In my old age, as I was to turn 42 just a few days after this hike, I was beginning to think my better judgment was totally toss out the window when I turned 41!
Off to Cincy to meet Brian and Shawn(new teammate) to drive to Shawnee together. We meet at Shawn's house and wrapped our feet with moleskin and lueky' tape. Shawn was so kind to help me learn how to do this as we all know no matter how good a shoes and socks you have your feet will go first out there if you don't tend to them. Only one of my fears. :) Shawn's sense of humor fit right in with Brian and I so it was a total good fit! :)
Stopping at subway on the way to the park for some much needed dinner fuel before we hiked off into no mans land. Brian says about 10 min from the park, we are about to lose cell service so shut down your phones now. I thought great, first response to call 911 is out for the next 12 hours. And this was a good idea? LOL
We arrive at the lodge of the park to change cloths and back to the lower parking lot to "sign in" a log that we are leaving our car and going into the woods. Huh? I said did you sign us in? Brian said "Nope, there wasn't a pen". As we hiked away across the road and straight up into the woods, some how we all thought that reply was funny(no one knows your out there and your cell phones don't work! huh, whatever) but then stopped laughing to catch our breath as we hiked straight up out of the gate. Typical AR crazy people.
Let me just tell you, the trails are NOTHING like the trails back in Indiana. These were barley trails in most parts, over grown, not marked much(orange paint) that Lupine Wilma helped us find in some overgrown parts, very rocky, lose rocks and several stream crossings. We were lucky that every 6 miles there was a water pump station that we could refill(if we didn't find ourselves hiking right by it) so we didn't have to treat water that night. It was SO HOT, our gear was like we just got rained on and rained on again, every minute. Dripping! off my chin I thougth, OMG, its so hot. We hiked away taking turns on who was leading, the person in the back got the best of the bugs for some reason we couldn't figure that out but we all took turns.
Up.....down.......UP.....DOWN(don't slip)....."you OK?".....huff puff......"I like those crackers, A LOT"....."I'd like to slap some peanut butter between two of those"......."Want to try some rice in a bag?"..."Sure"!......"I got to pee"...."that's ALL Poison IVY!"....."That Snake is HUGE!(while poking his hiking pole at it!)"...... OMG, (high pitch squeal) I just jumped over a copperhead!, %*&$!....."How far is that?"....."Lets go this way"..."If we go in a circle I be pissed"...."I think I just ate a bug and several up my nose"....."Go away BIRD"(I think hes your new bff and hes staking us!).........Up.....Down......UP.....Down........
As the sun was coming up we were coming up the road to the car from the woods and all happy it was over. Great times, tuff hike and team energy was at its highest still! :)
Finish: 21 miles, 10 hours, 2 miles an hour, 4000 foot elevation gain
Indianapolis Mini Marathon, 2012 Indiana
Indianapolis Mini Marathon 2012, 13.1 Miles, largest 1/2 in the world
The morning started with coffee and a honey stinger. Yum! I tried to dress light as I knew this was going to be a hot one. The Indy directors were saying to stay cool, temps would reach in the upper 80's and very humid. Being a road race, I was a little worried not on the distance but the pounding on my knees of the road. I have been running/jogging trails mostly and have not trained on road. We lined up at the start, corral J I was in. LOTS of people and it took me back to memories of mini's before and how awful crowded it was and knowing it wouldn't break up til we got to the track 8 miles in on the course. The gun went off, took 12 minutes just to get to the start line with all the runners.....1 miles in and i really had to go to the bathroom. :) So I went, still fighting stomach issues from PA30 the weekend prior. The miles went by, as we approach the track I got this feeling of excitement when you revisit something that has a lot of history. This was the first 1/2 marathon for me back in the day and still holds a special place in my heart. We entered the track, the temps getting hotter and you could tell some runners were not doing well. I continued to pour cold water on my head as I went Thu the aid stations. Brrrr....down my back it went, but so worth it. I had two hammer gels with me and used both of them as my legs wanted to cramp so bad in the heat.
I stopped to kiss the bricks on the track as lots of runners did and continued on. We reached mile 10 and I knew it was time kick it up. Two bathroom stops, 3 walk breaks to talk to friends, lots of cold water from aid stations.....I turned to my friends and said "I got to go!". I turned up so good old 80's rock and kicked it in high gear. Mile 11... Turn to Mile 12....as I turned to head down town Indy the last home stretch I saw the checker flags on each side giving a nice feeling in my chest that it was almost over. I knew that we still had 1.1 to go but runners around me started to sprint and I thought to myself, its a lot farther than you think......so I held my pace and when i saw the camera crew above and top of the finish line in the distance.....its was time. I pushed my legs, as I could feel the heat trying to cramp my calves up and crossed the finish line. With a happy ending to my run, I just wanted to walk and stretch my legs but the bottle neck past the finish line was so packed I felt like I was at the start again. Moving Thu the finish line and photo op I got to a shade spot in the grass to wait for my friend. Nice job Indianapolis, another successful Indy 500 Mini. Done! :) PWILD
ICO 12HR Rogaine, 2012 Indiana
ICO 2012, 12HR Rogaine, Owne Putnam Forrest, Cloverdale Indiana
April 7, 2012 up at 5am and out the door by 6am to get to the race start by 7am. It was still dark as we loaded up in the car, Zender and gear, the air was very cool and breeze. Maybe around 35 but was to be sunny and clear with a high of 65 that day. But Brrrrrrr til then! After several twisty turns down country roads and stopping at a gas station on the way as Paula's stomach was not doing well. We arrived at 730 am to a small open field surrounded by tress with two cars and frank standing under a canopy waiting. Our thoughts first were, where is everyone but then slowly cars started to pile in. Paula immediately ran into the woods as there were no bathrooms at this location. Zender and I went to check in and get our map, clue sheet and passport. The main map didn’t have any trails on it but frank was so kind to have a forest map posted that we could transfer over on to the main map if we so choose. BOY were we glade we did this! Start time was 9am, seemed like forever but time got away from us again. At 8:45 Frank gave some pre race guidelines and safety concerns for the course and surrounding areas. There were lots of “out of bounds” and “off limits” due to private property. This one was going to be tuff. A total of 1250 points with a total of 40cps. In any order.
Promptly at 9am frank said “GO”! We headed back to the car to finish up a few things and make sure Paula's stomach was going to be OK. She said “lets go!” (have to mention that she wanted to try out her new expedition pack and soon into this race she was like “what was I thinking”. LOL) Its like trying to run with a dead body on your back.
I broke the course up into 4 sections starting with the south east section first, then we would move counter clock wise finishing with the south west section near the start/finish. We were off to a good start leaving at 9:08am. Heading for the first cp #12 taking the road southwest. Then off to cp19, then taking cp19 to 43 on the road. #43 was a slight delay as the map showed it near the road and after reading the second clue it was off the logging road near a large log pile. Back on track we took the logging road to stream to hit 50. Cp 50 we climbed the spur to the top then east to trail to cp28. Heading north on the trail to the road we kicked it to cp30. Cp30 up the spur to cp15. Cp15 was a power line/trail xing southwest quadrant but let me tell you the power line field below was NOT like we have ever seen. Paula called it large moguls with lots of stickers and some other colorful words that made me laugh, that didn’t make her happy either. LOL After cp15 we jumped on the road to cp 18. My knee was starting to ache at this point but we were doing well and still pushing on. Paula was going after those flags! Leaving cp 18 we were going for cp24 but ended up past it and went on to cp47. Cp47 to stream to cp27 with no problem, took a bearing and a small prayer and we took off up and down to cp24. Went back to cp18 so we “knew” where we were and took a bearing to stream, stream intersection bearing to cp39. Really wishing there was a trail on this one. But Paula's pace counting really does help ya out. I found this very helpful several times. Cp 39 we took off on the old fire trail to intersection to cp16. Cp16 we jumped on the road and picked up sometime to cp21. At cp21 we went south due to out of bounds back on road to fire road to ridge to cp36. Going north west to top of peak we went to cp44. This one was like a treading a needle, we came up on several no trespassing signs, turned around and went back to the peak. I took another bearing, we got to the location on pace counts as well and realized we were with in 50 feet of it 30 minutes ago. Frustrating! CP44 took another bearing to cp17. There was a nice fire road from 17 to near cp42. This would then start the awful trek thru the most painful stickers, briers, log piles start the awful trek thru the most painful stickers, briers, log piles you can imagine. One after another…..OUCH! Stuff that is not even jog terrain. Cp42 bearing to cp33. Cp33 bearing to Cp44, this was the farthest point north east on the course. My knee was really in pain now, we jumped out on the road to head to cp37, I clipped into Paula as she towed me on the gravel road the whole way to 37. Much need relief and the added ibuprofen helped. She said let me tow you now as I'm going to need you later on the hills. She makes one laugh but always a great teammate. We got to cp37 took the trail to cp26. I drew the trail a little off on the map so I took a bearing to cp26. Cp 26 another bearing to cp45. Paula is saying we are running out of time again so we need to think about the cut off. We decide to head straight for cp32, it had an extra 30pt bonus is you got the year of Abner Frazier's death. We got it! Cp32 took the trail to cp23. Paula mention time again so we knew we had to push harder now. I tell Paula as we are coming up to a fire road that cp25 is out there. I check the trail map at the trail head and told her to grab on we were going for it!! It as an uphill dirt trail climb the whole way to cp25. She hung on and we were up and down the ¾ mile trail and back in 15 minutes. Its now 8:25 and we need to be back by 9pm. One more cp to the finish line we wanted to try and find. Off down the road we went to find cp11, on the way to the finish. The clue for cp11 was trail/road crossing 70 meters due south to rootstock along stream. Paula pulled out my Lupine Wilma headlamp as dark was setting in and took the go pro for herself. She said no time to get her headlamp out she would just due with following mine. Took the first trail we saw along the creek and with in 3 minutes realized we had turned too soon, sprinted back to the road and went 20 feet and there was another trail, the correct trail. Sprint to the creek and trail crossing not far in. Paula read the clue out load again as l was looking west down the creek, she yelled “other side! South!” as I jumped to the other side and there it was, another meaning to punch and GO! Time was ticking and off we went to the finish. Paula counting down the time, knowing we were close but she didn’t know how close we were as her map didn’t have the trails drawn in. 15 Minutes! She yelled, I said grab on! It was really dark now and with one head lamp I was afraid she would fall not being able to see. I told her to get in front of me and Lupine Wilma lighted the way. We sprinted to the finish with 10 minutes to spare! The last hour of this race was our favorite!! J Thank you ICO for another fantastic Rogaine! Our favorite event of yours!
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