I had a great weekend. I raced, ran, rode and went to 2 picnics.
Friday evening was the 1st picnic of the weekend. We went to a birthday party for a kid from church. We had a great time. We ate hot dogs with all the trimmings, played volleyball, ate cake and then had a small food fight, nothing too crazy.
Saturday morning I went and ran a small trail race in Fayetteville,WV. It was only 4.5 miles, but a lot of fun. I elected to wear shoes for this one, (not Vibrams) because I really wanted run this short race pretty fast. Also I knew there would be a small field of runners and I didn't want to finish last again. There were about 30-35 runners. Mostly people I normally see at local road races. I guess that is why there were only a couple of us wearing trail shoes. I have gotten used to not wearing shoes when I run, so by the time I put on socks, shoes and gaitors, it felt like I had a cinder block tied to each foot, but I figured it would be ok. I went to the trail to warm up and I hadn't gone 30 yards when I hit the dirt. I did what everybody does. I jumped up, dusted myself off and then looked to make sure nobody saw me fall. ha ha....
The race started and I settled in about 2/3 back in the pack. I was running with a couple of women in front of me and a couple more behind. We passed a few people. Things were going pretty well. I was talking to the woman in front of me and BOOM !!! she hits the dirt hard. I pick up her hand held bottle while she picks herself up. She says she is ok, so I go ahead and she follows. I catch back up to the women in front of me and we run along for a while, we are talking and having a good time and BOOM !!!! this other women in front of me falls. She jumps up real quick and says she is ok too. I am thinking it is NOT a good day to be around me. It is like gravity is stronger in my vicinity, or something. We are past half way so I decide to pick up the pace a little. I am moving pretty well, especially down hill. Anybody that runs with me knows I don't like downhills, but today I am just hammering these little short technical downs. It feels GOOD TOO. I finish in 48:21, which on trails is good for me.
After the race I had to go to work for a couple of hours (oh the joys of being self employed). Then I went to my 2nd picnic. I really ate too much at this one, so I came home and jumped on my road bike and got 26 miles in before dark.
Beckley now has a Developmental Base Ball team (college kids). Churches and other groups volunteer to help out during ball games and pick up trash afterwards and our church was doing this at the game Saturday evening and then again Sunday afternoon, so the wife and I decided to go to the ball game to help and then we could watch the fireworks afterwards. We got there during the 6th inning and the score was 0-0. The Beckley Miners ended up winning 9-7, so it was a good game. They really had a good fireworks display after the game, then we helped picked up trash and got home after midnight.
Since we were going to be at the ball park all afternoon on Sunday, I got up at 6:00 am and got a 15 mile run in before church. That might have been a mistake. I really had a hard time getting thru the last half of that run. I was a lot more tired than I thought. Then we sat at the ball park in the hot sun all afternoon. Man I ain't gettin no younger, this stuff is getting hard on me.
I was going to ride today, but decided not to.
