I lied. It was a busy weekend.

Saturday kicked off with a 16-mile trail run split into a 2-mile out and back to see Cascade Falls (there at left with Cascade Lake in the distance), then a 14 mile out and back from Eagle Pt. Campground to D.L. Bliss State Park and back. Then it was off to a fundraiser for the kids school at probably the largest single-family dwelling I have ever been in. 

Sunday, I worked as a volunteer for a local charity race in the morning, and still had to take care of the normal weekend activities (marshaling homework, laundry, shopping, cooking). For the race, I had agreed to do the timing, and course marking for a 5K, so there wasn't a lot of rest involved from the activities of the day before, and it was an early morning (on site at 0600) after a late night of festivities. But first, Saturday!

I had never visited Cascade Falls, and the runoff was near peak this weekend, so I thought it would be a good time to look. As it turns out, the trail is extremely rocky, and a lot of it wasn't runnable. But the parts that were runnable, were fun:

After that quick out and back we popped down the road a few miles and followed the entire Bay to Bliss race route. Once again, the scenery was spectabulous, though I didn't see a single Sasquatch. I was nearly as disappointed in that as I was with my legs. 

Legs weren't feeling it this weekend, and I was happy to simply finish vertically, with only a one trip and near shin-bash on a rock.I was significantly behind the other runners. I guess DFL is better than DFD*. As the saying goes, "good days and bad days..." 

The gala event in the evening was a fund raiser for my kids' school. The home was absolutely beautiful as were the grounds. Unfortunately, the weather didn't hold up well, and we had to do the dinner inside rather than outside. At my house, that would be a significant issue, as I am not sure my entire house could hold 150 people standing up, let alone sitting down to a dinner. 

However, this home accommodated all of us at tables in the great space area. Solely. I figured when the space wasn't filled with people and tables, they host roller hockey games. It was that big. There was an auction to raise money and I participated up to the $100 level. Unfortunately for me, I was unsuccessful at the winning bid on several items; they went for $10,000 or more. 

I was successful in bidding on one item, though. I'll post about it and my grand plan for it another time.

The race was a nice 5K on a flat course by the Carson River. Although marking it was going to be painful enough with my feet and legs as unhappy as they were from the previous day's running, added to it was the alcohol- fueled late night with little sleep and even less restful sleep. 

I woke at 0430 to the sound of pounding rain. Really? Really?! It's the stinking high desert! We are supposed to only get snow in winter! 

I dragged my ass to the venue, and - with the rain falling - marked the course. By the time the race itself started, the sun had finally broken through, so the competitors had really good conditions, as the rain packed the often-sandy route. I heard many comment as they finished that they had a beautiful, and peaceful run. 

I was happy to have been a part of their positive experience. :-) Hearing that made the rain and cold of marking the course inconsequential.

Wow, my last post was a tad over three weeks ago. Seems longer. With a combination of increasing workload, decreasing interest in anything outside of work other than SOMA*, there hasn't been anything even *I* think is worth jotting down. Kids are busy with school  and that is going well, thank Hermes (god of knowledge), Titan (god of intellect) and Athena (goddess of wisdom). As time progresses, I am more and more impressed with Sage Ridge. All I can say is I consider myself fortunate to be able to afford to send my kids there, though it is a fiscal challenge.

A couple of things I have done at work are kind of interesting that I intend to post about in the near future. I need to lock them down a bit more, then I'll post them in all their glory. One is a SQL query generator for non-SQL folks, and the other is a comment and review tool that hides a LOT of the complexity of Microsoft  Word's Track Changes functionality, without hamstringing it. Both very useful for my peeps.

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!