DC Temple

Took a trip to the temple to clear my mind. Always worth it.

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Don't touch Jacob it's hot

16-month-old boys are more adventurous and curious than the ol' Spanish Explorers. Here's Jake a few hours after grabbing a hot iron.

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PHUNT Marathon

More details to follow...

50k...T minus 48 hours

I have just over 48 hours before the PHUNT 50k trail run.  It's an ideal run.  Not that 31 miles in a predicted 39 degree day is "ideal" per se.  (Fun thought, for sure).  The ideal part is the cost.  Free-ninety-free.  Zip. Nada. Cero.  No timing chips. No finishers medals. No crowds.  Only a loosely organized group of 200 people running in the middle of winter.

My buddy Andy is coming, too.  We'll help keep each other motivated and un-lost.  I've run this distance once before, but not on trails.  

Only 3 aid stations on the entire course.  And those will be stocked with whatever the other runners bring and donate.  Gotta make a run to the store so I can pack some water and food for what I'm sure will take at least 6 hours to run.  

Hopefully I can send some photos from my phone.

Northern Centrail Rail Trail Marathon

November 29, 2008  (a little over a month ago...)

Marathon #4 for me.  

TIME:     4 hrs 14 min something seconds

Ran a marathon on the rail trail in northern Maryland.  Essentially a very flat marathon along a comfortable trail that used to host a rail line.  Further north, near my house in Pennsylvania, the rail is still intact and the trail runs along side it.  Down in Maryland, at least where this marathon was run, the rail was gone.

I ran in trail shoes that I've used before on my technical trails.  This marathon was so flat I really should have stuck with my regular road shoes.  By mile 5 I had hot spots on my toes and by 7 I had stopped and taped the outside edges of both small toes. Unfortunately the tape then rubbed against the 4th toe on the right foot and I had to baby a very deep, painful blister over the next week.  That was the first marathon that really gave me blister trouble.  

The hardest part of the marathon was the last 1- 1 1/2 miles.  We exited the rail trail and headed up paved, steeeeeep roads back to the sch

ool where we started.  It was a mean trick to play - 25 comfortable miles then steep uphills.  But I survived and even stopped to kiss my wife a few hundred feet from the finish.