Running Chick

Last weekend, Josh and I worked radio for the Lake Superior Pro Rally. We were assigned two stages, 7 & 10.

Our pickup was 5:00 at the Kenton wayside on Forest Highway 16. Everybody working stage 7 met at the same time. Here we are checking in with our stage captain (in the blue jacket). I’ll refrain from making comments about how disorganized and frazzled she was.

We all head out to the stage to get laid out. Here are the cars in front of us.

And more cars behind us.

Kenton residents have put up some interesting Halloween displays. At least I think that’s for Halloween.

We hit the gravel on the way to the start of the stage. The dust would cause some issues with the drivers later on in the evening.

Here’s the start of the stage, workers were dropped off in order of job assignment, so these guys were ahead of us.

We get dropped off at our stage and the rest of the workers continue.

Rallymaster James and his little buddy.

Our position. We had to string up banner tape in front & behind the car so no spectators could get onto the stage. We were in position by 5:30.

By the time the cars got going, it was pretty dark. This was the only decent shot I could get, and it’s not really all that decent.

The cars entered the stage at one-minute intervals, but because of the dust, that changed to two-minute intervals for the final stage. Our job was to document the car numbers and times as they went by our position and report this information to Net Control at the beginning and end of the stage. Bonus, we had a really good spot for watching the cars zoom by.

By the time all was said & done, we rolled into the driveway at 2:30 with a bag of Taco Bell (Thank you, Taco Bell for staying open late) and a car full of dust. Fun times!

More pictures in the gallery.

Six miles into my eight mile run this morning, I bonked. It wasn’t a huge bonk, but it was enough to turn those last two miles into a real struggle. It’s clear that I’ve completely forgotten how to properly fuel and hydrate for anything over five miles.  I was carrying two bottles of a Gatorade & water mix and a pack of sport beans. I took swigs from my bottles every two miles and at four miles I ate some beans. I probably should have forced myself to eat the entire package, but I only ended up taking four or five of them, which wasn’t enough to keep me going. Actually, I really should have taken a gel with me instead of the beans for more calories. Ah well, live and learn.

I came home and my legs were doing a fair amount of complaining so I decided to hop into an ice bath. Fill the tub up with 4-5” of water (enough to cover the legs), climb in and get accustomed to the cold, then dump an entire bag of ice over yourself. The first 30 seconds are pretty unpleasant, but you quickly acclimate. It helps if you have a giant mug of hot coffee and are wearing your warmest sweatshirt. I stuck it out until the ice melted (around 15 minutes) then took a hot shower. My legs felt so much better!

So, the mileage report for this week:

Monday – 3 miles @ 10:17

Wednesday – 3.5 miles @ 10:19

Saturday – 8 miles @ 10:32

Total – 14.5 miles @ 10:26

We’re spending the rest of the day doing amateur radio stuff for Lake Superior Performance Rally. Our shift starts in Kenton at 7:00 and ends sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We’re stationed at the mid-point of one of the stages so we should really see some action.

This time when I heard the squeaking, I just picked up my camera and waited. Spencer's getting better, there was no gore to clean up afterwards.

Simon, he's all meh, whatever.

My flower garden is quickly becoming a Northern Short-tailed Shrew graveyard.  There’s three there now - one from a couple of weeks ago, one I found dead in the driveway last week and this one - resting their eternal rest. I don’t even want to think about how many more could turn up.

I’ve been doing some reading on the little rodents. They mostly eat bugs (hello, spiders in my basement), but their saliva is toxic. The toxin is used to paralyze whatever critter they catch and is not harmful to humans or other animals. Apparently they are super aggressive, too, which would explain all the screeching I hear when Spencer pounces. They also eat up to three times their weight daily (HELLO SPIDERS IN MY BASEMENT). Ugly little things, though.

Dead rodents aside, I knocked off 3 miles at a 10:16 average pace tonight. I have no idea what got into me, especially since my legs were feeling a bit tight & heavy after Saturday’s long run.