Trail Nerd Lovin'

I write about the Trail Nerds often and I run with them at least once a week. So here is a photo of one of our group runs a few weeks ago. Pre-run, of course. If it was post-run, we'd all smell too bad to stand that close to each other. Here's the line up: Bad Ben (behind the camera), The Girls (left to right): Erica, Lisa, Me, KT, and Sophia. The Boys: Jason, Johnny K., Mike from FL, Brett "Snap Snap", Barefoot Josh, Dan, Mike K., Dr. Mike, and Jared. Shane showed up after the picture was taken. Fun people, fun run. The Thursday night run is starting to take on a life of it's own. Funny how the numbers have grown since we started going out for beer afterwards...

Saturday night, John and I swapped our running shoes for some volunteer shoes and leis at the Rock Creek Night Race. We held down an aid station for the 20k and 30k runners. Note to self: Even volunteers need flashlights at a night race. I was impressed with how great the runners were. Everyone said please and thank you, and only one person threw any trash on the ground and that was only because he missed the garbage bag. Trail runners really are a class act (even if they do sometimes smell bad). This was the first time we have done an aid station and I had a new-found appreciation for volunteers that can fill a bottle without slopping it all over the place.

The Saturday night race meant we were up kinda late (I know, I know midnight is not that late) so I slept in this morning. And I skipped my run this afternoon. Bad Sam! I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to make up those miles just yet. Tomorrow's bike ride may turn into a brick workout, which I'm a little excited about. It's been a while since I've done a brick. I'll just chalk today up to additional rest and worry about the miles later. Lesson: always run first thing in the morning on the weekends, then it is done and can't be skipped.

Saturday morning I did get 15 miles in and I'm starting to feel a little more rested. The last three were the strongest finish miles I've had in a while. Maybe a little more rest today wasn't a bad thing since I didn't really take any time off after Psummer Psycho. I'll have to check my totals and adjust this week. I think I'm down somewhere around 460 miles to go!