Skymall

Two of my favorite SkyMall items...Protein Ketchup and spray hair.  Amazing products.  Thanks Southwest.

pay-off

Showed up at the USATF Minnesota 5K championships.  When Katie McGregor and Emily Brown of TeamUSA MN show up, you know you're in a field way out of your league!  Managed 7th in a competitive field, actually racing ladies and not racing my watch.

Crossed the line in 18:02.
A little sad until seeing...CHIP TIME 17:59.49.
Road PR!

More exciting for me was that
a) my 5K overall PR is from six years ago, on a track, as a college college athlete, at 17:58.
b) this is the closest I've come to that PR by thirty seconds.
c) that was six years ago.
d) this is only the second time I've broken 18min.

A lot has happened for me in six years in terms of body fluctuations, running sabbaticals, race distances, and training philosophies (aka pushing more body weight, running on and off, switching from 5ks to marathons, maxing at 35mi/wk then to 90+ now).  It's fun to see results from hard work.

Feeling healthier, stronger, faster, and more confident in 2012 than in 2006...excited!

Cranky track

A short workout fell apart quickly today. Maybe overdid it a little this past weekend...was post marathon stiff legs sore. 15min w/u, 2x8min repeats at 5k pace, sandwiched with 6x100m strides and 15min c/d. 6:27 mile splits...really??? Off to sea level and a 5k, that should be faster than that!!!

Jemez Mountain Half-Marathon

Caballo Peak in Los Alamos

Start of the 50 mile race

4:45 am Saturday: Watched the start of an ultra for the first time.  Fifty miles up and down a few moutains.  Pitch black, cold, headlamps, Vaseline, the best attitudes I've seen at a race start.  Asked nicely if there were any drop-outs in the half marathon, which had been sold out for months.  Was told to come back for race start at 8am.  Hour nap, back to the start.  13.7mi, 2:09.  So challenging, but so amazing.  

Los Alamos is a captivating town.  It's history is short.  Previously home to the Los Alamos Ranch School for boys, founded in 1917, the US Department of Defense selected the town for the Manhattan Project in WWII, and overtook the area.  All information, including the inhabitants and their roles, were classified until the Project was completed in 1963.  People would tell their families they were traveling, moving, or would just disappear.  Los Alamos was selected both for its geographic protection, anonymity, and its natural beauty, which was hoped to inspire those working on the project.  In July of 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped in the desert in NM.  One month later, Little Boy and Fat Man were dropped in Japan.  The town remains home to the Los Alamos Laboratories, one of four national labs.  Most recently, Los Alamos has been afflicted by fires.  In 2000, the Cerro Grande Fire was started as a controlled burn in uncontrollable winds and high drought conditions.  Over 400 families lost their homes and everything they owned in the 48,000 acre fire.  The effects are evident throughout the landscape, the mountains are covered with dead, blackened, 300 year-old tree trunks.  Green underbrush and small trees are beginning to grow, but it will be many years before the ecosystem can return to normal.  The town and forest is still in danger of fire.  In asking the people why they stay, with such a high risk, they say "this town gets in your blood."  Pretty fascinating place.  

jump start your morning...

Took this out on someone this morning.  Awesome.  He told me I could have a picture of it.  I let him keep the bridge.

I love my job.

get ready world!

Check out the link to this video of the olympic qualifier for the men's triathlon.

http://youtu.be/iP3JTXtHluA

Top two US men make it in.  Watch Manny Huerta count the athletes finishing in front of him, then count himself...heading to his first Olympics.  So inspiring :)

Hutch.

Spring 1999.  Freshman year of high school.  I’d joined the track team one year earlier, with my best friend Natalie Bacon.  We ran the 100 meter dash, threw the shot-put, duct taped our arms together, and ate Pringles.  That was track.  

In a very short time, the coaches realized my talent for the 100m dash was, well, limited.  I became a 400m runner with Mr. Clark’s middle distance crew.  I hated it.  

This was the year that Maine began hosting a new event at states, the girls 4x800m run.  The distance team was small at the time.  I mean, who wanted to run more than one lap around?  

Looking back, this was the day that changed my life.  They needed a fourth girl to form a team.  Ted Hutch, the distance coach, came up and said “Turner, we’re going to make you an 800 runner.”  And he did, and I started running.  And I never looked back.  

The York distance team has evolved over the years.  Hutch started a winter track program in 1999.  We had six members, and everyone thought we were crazy, running through the hallways of the school for practice.  Our parents drove us to meets.  By 2002, there were over eighty members.  Running was kinda cool.  We’d even stop for food on the way home.  York became a competitor.  Ted Hutch won his first state title, in 2012, with the boy’s indoor team.  

This weekend, I had the pleasure of going to the New Mexico high school outdoor track and field state championship.  My friend coaches at a local high school (lucky for his kids, he’s got Hutch’s spirit and humor).  Seeing those kids, in all the glory, drama, tears, naivety of what they have and what they can accomplish...gave me an appreciation of what I had then.  Life was simple and pure.  Pasta dinners, road trips, ice cream runs along the ocean, team parties, parades and firetrucks, support from all around.  Most importantly, we had a coach that made running fun, and gave us what we needed for success (even if it was that disappointed look when we’d hide in the bushes and skip out on miles...sorry Hutch).  

Hutch gave me the plate off his truck for high school graduation in 2002.  Three years later, my younger sister got the same gift, though Maine had changed the background of their plates by then.  I’d never realized, until now, that it’s come everywhere with me...eleven apartments in ten years.  Four states, even six months in Australia.  If you take something with you everywhere, it’s special, right?  I guess that means it’s one of the most important things I have. 

Thanks Hutch, for everything.

random

Nothing like a hailstorm and my first sugar free Red Bull in years to kick off a weekend.  Fabulous parties, events, and workouts with fabulous people!

delish

Sometimes it's just an ice cream for dinner kinda week.

So you have ice cream for dinner.

And everything is better.

Highlight of the day...the five year old future state champ pacing me in my workout.  LOVE kids running.  Mom had him doing relay baton handoffs.

Perception.

Confusing day.  Life is complicated.  Sometimes answers aren't always clear.

Run for the Zoo

Fun day at the Run for the Zoo!  Many people being active in Albuquerque!

Some highlights...an elephant waving at me.  Felt strong racing at altitude (39:19, W1).  Lulu cheer squad for hours ("Nice shoes! Go beard! Yeah strollerman!").  Met some great new people.  Tons of questions about Saucony gear.  And of course, first time at Range Cafe for brunch...mmm granola pancakes/veggie omelette with pistachio pesto.  All before noon.

Great work to everyone in the half marathon, 10K, 5K!