Honey, I Broke the Neighbor

Well that was fun.

What a weekend. No rollicking good times to be had. I don't have time for that stuff. Instead I ran a 10k on Saturday and did a good mtb ride on Sunday.

The 10k was on the new Legacy Highway or Parkway or whatever the hell they call it. 3.1 miles out and back on about the most boring road this side of Nevada. I figured I would go at a sustainable pace and see how it went, if I started getting passed right off the bat then I would slow down, recover and then hammer the last 5k to get some training data. As it turned out, I took off and watched a handful of people literally run away from me while I ran with a lopey-striding teenager, behind one other guy.

Long story short, I dropped those two and had two guys pass me just before the turn around. I followed one other lopey kid until he blew up (I started feeling bad for doing this) and then saw the overpass where the start/finish was.

I saw that thing for an eternity. It just didn't get any closer. I think it was the headwind.

Finally I finished in 41.59. That time, shockingly put me in first place in my age group.

First place. No shit. Not bad for a guy who doesn't train to go fast.

Of course the dude that won the overall was in my age group and creamed me like an eclair coming in just under 30 minutes - a 4:27 minute/mile pace. I didn't think it was possible to run that far, that fast and have your feet actually touch the ground.

Anyhoo, they have me as numero uno in the 30-34 age group with my far from record-setting time at 7:25 minute/mile pace. I'll take it. I promptly took my medal home and gave it to Smarty Pants who then showed it to everyone and told anyone who would listen that her dad had won it for her.

Which I did.

The race was a benefit for the Hess Cancer Foundation. Which I had no idea what they did. The founder, Travis Hess, explained that he started the foundation after his 3 year old daughter died of cancer. After the treatments, Travis and his wife Sherry couldn't afford a funeral. Fortunately their families stepped in, as did an anonymous donor who gave $1000. The gratitude they felt caused them to start the Hess Cancer Foundation, which helps the families of those who have lost loved ones to cancer, to cover funeral expenses.

This is a worthy cause. If you get around to it, go to hesscancer.org and make a donation, or look at their event schedule and try to participate in one of their events.

So I broke my neighbor yesterday. He called and wanted to do a mountain bike ride and the idea of having someone to ride with at 8am kept me from going out alone at 5am. We rode on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and did the ride we've been doing in the dark. Everything was going just great until we came to a technical little climb on the Beus section of the trail. I got through and heard an "oh shit. " I figured he just dabbed a foot so I kept riding and got to the top of the climb, pulled out the rest of my carrot cake Clif Bar and started munching away. After a couple of minutes of marveling at the actual cream cheese tasting bits o' frosting (this was a good bar, people) I sort of realized he wasn't here yet. I gave him a couple more minutes and was getting ready to head back down the trail when he came riding up.

And he was bloody and bleeding. Apparently he'd tried to wheelie up and over a rock on the steep part and wheelied right of the trail and the edge of the mountain. Not a vertical drop, but steep enough that he went ass over tea kettle 3 or 4 times.

After the ride he was stoked because I took him on some gnarly shit and he hadn't ridden most of the trails we'd been on. He wants to ride again on Thursday. If his girlfriend will let him ride with me. Or if Wifey will let me take him because she thinks he's cute....

Of course I need to fix my tire that I had to pump up 5 times before getting back to the vehicle and find out why my chain is hanging up when I shift into my small ring before then.