The desert peach was still in strong bloom this weekend when I was volunteered to work a local race. My volunteering consisted primarily of directing traffic at registration (e.g. yakking with the runners while they were in queue to get bibs and register), and unload stuff at the end of the race. Pretty simple and easy work to score some race swag and food!

Sandwiched between those two activities, I got to run the route and clean up any trash along the route, remove any trail markers, and roll any leftover runners down the hill and off the trail. Can't have bodies cluttering up the place, you know.

Okay, so I didn't really do the last one. but the others were actual assigned activities. I doubt I'd have rolled them over anyway. That's not a nice thing to do, and above all, trail runners are nice to each other. Seriously.

Take a closer look at that photo on the left. See those stilettos cleverly disguised as innocent thorns? I was a bit bloodied when I got done removing ribbon trail markers. That made me think: removing markers should be a prerequisite for anyone who wants to mark a trail. A couple of biggie issues:

1. Don't tie ribbon on thorny things - unless there is no other option;
2. Don't chalkpaint on rocks - it doesn't come off easily.

What made running sweep so special is I got to run the course with absolutely no expectations of performing well and pressure of beating any arbitrary time. In fact, I was expected to be DFL*. That is the best way to go!

I ran the North Loop and as I was headed back around to do the west traverse I came across the guy in the next photo. I could just imagine what was going through his atavistic, reptillian mind at the time:

"Nobody can see me, nobody can see me! I can't see anyone, so nobody can seeeeee meeee!"

I don't have a fear of snakes, but that isn't the case for all people, so I skritched the little guy (4' or so) into the bushes and off the trail. I didn't want anyone to hurt him, or themselves in a panic!

After completing North Loop, I heard from the exchange point coordinator that another runner was sweeping and was about a mile or so ahead of me. Since he was passing through, the aid stations would be folding up before I got there. That was fine with me; I had all I needed to do the entire distance unsupported, and the solitude was wonderful. I thought I'd catch the other runner, since I could go "all out" (insert laugh track here) and he would be having to stop regularly to remove ribbon and rub out arrows. 

I did catch him. It was Peter Fain. He had already done the route that day: He won the race. Apparently it wasn't enough, he swapped shoes and shirt and headed out to sweep. Great guy. We had a great time chatting and cleaning the course for the last 6 miles together.

For any Twitterati reading this, the race has a Twitter handle now (@Escape_Race) and a Flickr photo page. It'd be great if y'all would follow and/or look at the pics. More photos will be added from this year and previous ones.

Below are the route (looking north) and elevation profile.

I think I'm going to coin a new acronym: YAWBE. Pronounced "yaw-bee" it stands for "Yet Another Weekend Blog Entry." Seems to fit. Since it sort of forms a word, it can safely be called an acronym. Otherwise it's an initialism. I learn something new every day.
 
Go ahead and notch another action-packed and fun -filled weekend on the books. Why does it seem they seem to come and go ever faster as the years pass? Reminds me of a particular kind of doughnut. A "Sucks, don't it?" kind of doughnut. There is a theory out there about time moving faster as one gets older; I'll do some research on it and get back to y'all when I recall what I've read and/or find out more.

As for this weekend, it was great! It started on Friday, when I was just about to walk out the door for a casual run. A friend called and asked if I would be willing to lead a visitor on a trail run in the area. Nothing too difficult, about 7 miles or so. I agreed, though the mileage was higher than I really wanted to do, since I was planning a 13 on Saturday morning.

We met at the Carson Station Best Western, and I lead the way up Lower and Upper EZ trails on C-Hill. Theresa was having some difficulty given the elevation (she's from much lower - <1000') and a recent cold, so we cut over on the Flag Trail, down the Goat Trail and headed back. I was fine with the 5.5!

Saturday morning was a posted run on ccrunners. 9 miles at 8:30 in Ash Canyon, and a pre-loading 4 on the V&T Lasso at 7:45 for any who were willing. Well, none were. I did the lasso solo (always nice) but the wind was biting and the temps on the chilly side: around 45. I got back to the start and waited to see who would appear for the 9 miler. Again, none. 

Sad really. Invite a crowd and get nobody to show. Perhaps I should have showered between the Friday run and the Saturday one? At any rate, I decided I didn't want to play in the cold wind, so I bagged the 9 myself and went home to get ready for my son's 13th birthday party. The party was originally slated to be at a local water park, but given the chilly conditions, we moved it to an indoor trampoline park. Wow, did they have a grand time!

After the party, a few of the new teens came back to the house and had a sleepover. I'm glad I don't have to do much about those anymore; pretty much clean up the kitchen after late night snacking is all.

Sunday was a run and run and work-a-run day. I first ran to Hobart Reservoir from Lakeview. Tough climb up. According to RunningAhead, it was a 5000' elev gain and loss in the 11 miles. Yikes! But the view was spectabulous:

I spent a few minutes in the sun stretching, snapped the above photo, and headed back down the hill. I had a busy slate still ahead. After getting home, it was a couple of chores around the house and then off and gone to the Melanie Pfieffer Melanoma 5K. I had volunteered to do the timing for the event. I got there early to scope/run the course. It was an easy out and back, with only one street-crossing hazard. Get a couple of people at that point for safety and all would be good. 

I had my camera in my pocket, but never got around to snapping any photos. Bummer. Maybe somebody who was there will read this and send me some. Far fetched, I know, because it implies people read this. :-)

Only about half the participants had pre-registered before the cutoff, so I was a busy boy, tap-tap-tapping data into the timing app on my iPhone (PocketTimer Pro). I had barely gotten them in (OK, I actually hadn't gotten them all), when the starting horn sounded. I added a few after the start (Nice feature, by the way.) and was prepped for the finishers.

If you're interested here are the results. I didn't hang around for the free buffett afterward at El Charro, though it looked amazing. The room was crowded, and there was nowhere to sit by the time I got the results organized. I don't do crowds well anyway, so I let the organizers know the results had been both sent to them and posted, and bugged out to a great roast beast dinner at home. 

After totally oinking down dinner, it was crash-and-burn time. What a great weekend!

With apologies to The Drifters'  "Under the Boardwalk": 

Over the weekend, out in the sun.
Over the weekend, I had me some fun.
Over the weekend, I went running around.
Over the weekend, I watched soccer in town.
Over the weekend, weekend. 

Yes, I managed to mangle yet another old popular song  in my head as I finished up a run on Sunday. Saturday was spent at the soccer fields, as Mikaela had a soccer tournament. The weather was spectabulous with brilliant sunshine, and high temps in the low 80s each day. Great for Earth Day. 

Unfortunately, Mikaela's soccer team wasn't up to the level of the weather and lost all three of their games. It was hot, they got tired, but in the end, they simply didn't have it to win. On the bright side, I did manage to snap a few good action photos.

Quick Hits:
During the run, I had a couple of quick hitting items cross my mind. 

QH#1: The most serious is – in my mind – a glaring stupidity in the Garmin software for my FR405CX. For the last couple of runs, it's been deleting the oldest laps to make room for the new ones. That makes sense. Then, today, inexplicably, the timer stopped on a lap recording. The screen said I had to manually delete an activity for any new activities to be recorded. WTF? In the middle of a run (thankfully I don't race, and it wasn't in the middle of one), I have to stop, and manually slog through past activities and delete one for the timer to continue to record the current one. That. Is. Retarded. What's the first thing I did when I got home and uploaded my data? Deleted it all. I never refer to it on the wrist anyway. But still, forcing me to stop and delete an old activity to continue to time the current one is beyond the pale.

QH#2: I thought I would give a new-to-me nutrition method a go. I bought a tube of Perpetuem Solids sold by Hammer Nutrition a week or so ago and took them out for a run. I've never been a fan of goo-type running foods, and gummy cubes are just plain gross. Looking at the Perpetuem Solids, I'm reminded of Sweethearts - on steroids. Or giant Tums. I popped one in a was surprised by the lack of flavor. Maybe I've burned my taste buds out with my green chile, or the strawberry-vanilla was too subtle for me, but there really wasn't much flavor. Which in my mind, isn't necessarily a bad thing. The consistency is unusual, and took a bit of getting used to. But by the second one, I was firmly in favor of them for me. I like 'em, and will be using them on any future runs that require foods.

QH#3: After uploading my run to connect.garmin, (And deleting all of them on the wrist assembly - see above) I noticed that this run was the longest in 6 months, and my weekly total is the highest in 4 months. Nice. Maybe, just maybe I might be getting back into the swing. The elevation gain was a top 10, too. Must be the Perpetuem.

And a happy birthday to my bro who shares the celebration with our globe, though he came a bit before Earth day. 

That's it from the Slang weekend. Hope it was as good for you, doing whatever it is you do, as it was for me, doing what I do.  Do be do be do.

Monday Morning edit: I apparently missed seeing the fireball and concomitant booms while I was running in the early morning. I guess my breathing was so hard at that time (I would have been climbing the Ash Creek trail), I heard nothing. Bummer.