I told you the weeds were high

Mrs Notthat, Weird Haired Mom, and the grandkids once again braved the garden and managed to plant our summer crop.

What an awesome (and mildly frightening) picture - Mrs Notthat with a chainsaw! You know the weeds are high when the big guns get brought out.

Grandboy Riley desperately wanting his turn with the chainsaw. (Spoiler alert: He didn't get a turn.)

Grandgirl Darci holding a broom in a much more menacing way than is natural. (This was around the time the Giants were busy sweeping the Rockies and Diamondbacks, so I'm pretending that's what this was about.)

Meanwhile, Mrs Nothat switched power tools to the hedge trimmer. The weeds had actually already been tackled last week - what brought out the power tools was a desire to reduce an overhanging tree's affect on the garden's sunshine.

Fierce Dove daring you to just try and take away her ball. The ear thing is her way of rebelling against authority. She can't play by our rules man!

The grandkids and neighbor Salma enjoying a watermelon break in the treehouse.

A fierce spider waiting his turn for some watermelon. (Spoiler alert: He didn't get any.)

Darci dug up this root from one of the weeds. She named it "Rooty Patootie."

My parents sent a box with surprises for the grandkids. There was a card, but mostly there were these quilted mats.

"Cows!" cried Riley when he opened his.

"Not cows!" cried Darci when she opened hers. Each came with a soft blanket and fluffy pillow, and were designed so you could roll the whole thing up and take it where ever an emergency nap might be needed. (Note that The Blog didn't get one, and he needs more emergency naps than both grandkids combined.)

In other news, winter decided to take one more swipe at us, so The Boy's topless Jeep "Get Back" is currently sitting in the driveway, covered and hoping for winter to finally give it up and go back to annoying the Northwest as normal. (For those of you who are not from around here, we can usually count on no rain from May through October. None at all - zero chance.)

Old Dog Teddy getting down with a broccoli stem. Teddy has always loved his veggies, but he's not completely stupid; given the choice between broccoli and a plate of rib bones, the broccoli will enjoy a nice long life.

That's it - move along...

PS: Another "ironing-free" post! You're welcome!

There's never a fairy godmother around when you need one

Mrs Notthat, Weird Haired Mom, and a bunch of race friends all did the Coastal Cinderella trail race at wonderful Joaquin Miller Park and Redwood Regional Park in the East Bay. I was familiar with most of these trails, having just done a race here last Sunday. I knew they were challenging, I knew there were hills that would humble most runners, and I knew that the rocks and roots would often rob you of being able to make up time going down the hills. 

But I signed up for this race anyway, partly because the trails are wonderful, partly because there were going to be a lot of people there that I knew, but mostly because I've got the common sense of [insert the name of your favorite whipping boy, profession, or political party here]. Last weekend was a 30K, essentially one extended lap of the same course as Cinderella. For this race I chose the Marathon, which is two laps of the course. Mrs Notthat signed up for the Half and WHM for the 10K - none of these were easy courses.

The family that tapes their feet together, avoids blisters together. At least that was the hope as the morning started with all three of us taping our feet with pink Kinesio Tex. (Spoiler alert: It worked and none of us had blister issues.) 

WHM, wearing her Mermaid run shirt from last weekend, getting bibbed up for her 10K. It was chilly at the start of the race, warmed up a tiny bit, then turned quite cold, then warmed up a tiny bit again with a few short bursts of filtered sunshine. But it was dry with little wind - all in all good running conditions.

No - I didn't see anyone running with glass slippers, but there were two people wearing tiaras, including Nire (not her real name - I know it's annoying but it humors me) who was celebrating her 29th birthday by running the 10K (and ended up getting second in her age group - one rough thing about doing these races is that it's hard to hide your real age once the results are posted, but trail runners generally have nothing to hide, including their moisture-wicking tiaras).

A great pre-race picture with Etep (official tiara polisher), Eiram (who finished her Half about the time I was getting to the first aid station), Yrrek (who survived the 10K), and Mrs Notthat (the only one dressed properly for the cool weather). 

Of course Einre was there, but he was only able to do the Half since he had to attend a wedding later that day. He has slogged through more rain-infested races this winter than anyone should have to face in a decade. 

Once in a while I would turn around to look at what I had just crawled up, and I couldn't help but be impressed. There were a lot of tough climbs and descents - almost all made treacherous by roots and rocks and slugs with mean attitudes.

This is one of my favorite runners Enitsuj (man I hope I got her name right, in a wrong way) flying along with Mrs Notthat. Note that this is within the first two miles of the start, so the smiles were still easy to break out.

The Moon Gate aid station. There were two aid stations that we sort of ping-ponged back and forth between (Marathoners hit this one four times - 50K people hit it five times). The volunteers at these aid stations were heroic - having to stand there in the cool conditions for many hours is really hard, but there was always lots of hydration and food each time we hit them.

This bench cracks me up. There are often benches like this along these trails, and I use them as cues that there is probably a view worth stopping and taking a picture of. No doubt, at one point that was true here too, but not any longer - now it has a great view of a large shrub that's ten feet in front of it. (On my second lap, I was with a woman that said she thought the bench was funny too, and had also taken a picture of it. It's not just me!)

This is an example of the downhill bits that there was no way to run down (at least for mortals). I never did see anyone fall or hobbling with a twisted ankle though, so it appears most of us treated these with a lot of respect.

The Fish Ladder aid station (and no, I didn't see a ladder made out of fish). 

This is the hardest thing about these races that involve multiple loops - you see the finish line, you see a lot of people that are done, and it is really tempting to join them.

Here I am heading off to the side to change my shirt (this one was soaked with sweat), eat some soup, and head back out for my second lap.

And there was Tony the Enorphin Dude, cheering the runners in. He has been nursing an injury or else he would have been out on that Marathon course too.

I missed this (WHM took the picture), but it appears to be two of the steeds with their prince heading out to pull Cinderella's coach. 

As I was out on my second lap, I ran into Einre heading in to his finish, still smiling, even after missing a turn and adding some extra distance to his Half. (I suspect that secretly he was hoping to accidentally do the Full Marathon - I know if I was facing going to a wedding, I'd be doing my best to spend as much time as possible out on the trails.)

The hugest surprise of the day was coming up on Mrs Notthat, heading the wrong way on the wrong trail. As near as we can work out, when she was about three miles from the finish, she wandered across the loop from the in-bound side to out-bound side. What would make this tricky is that, unless you were tracking the trail names closely, you would be seeing pink ribbons and assume you were going the right way. She ended up doing an Ultra-Half Marathon at around 20 miles - and the bonus miles were tough miles with lots of hills and such. We looked at our maps and figured out what seemed to be the best way for her to go, and she managed to get to the finish line without further incident.

The first time around the course I had missed the "Cinderella" sign, and wasn't sure where that part of the trail was. On my second lap, I was determined to not miss it (especially since it gave me an excuse to go a bit slower), and I managed to spot the post. 

The Cinderella trail part of the course made up a small (but memorable) part of the race. It contained what was probably the worst downhill stretch of trail I've ever seen - you fall and your race is over since you likely will have broken something. I was nearly run down by an out of control bicyclist that had watched too many Evil Kenevil videos.

This picture does not nearly do this trail justice. The Race Director warned that this part of the trail was almost certainly created by an evil stepsister. 

After surviving the Cinderella trail a second time, it was a short jog to the finish line. That seemed to take an hour. WHM came out to pace me in, and since there were cameras involved, I did my best impersonation of a Kenyan.

As Eiram pointed out, these trail things "run" in the family. (I'm really hoping The Boy will be able to squeeze in a few races this summer as well - it's so much fun to have everyone out there.)

I finished dead last for the Marathon (my first DLF!), which makes it all the more ironic that I won a bonus first place medal for blowing away everyone in my age group. 

The race was a lot of fun. The only bad thing was that someone, between when the course was marked on Friday afternoon and the race started on Saturday morning, took down all the ribbons along a tricky stretch of the course. I had my map and was able to work out where to go, but a lot of others were not so fortunate.

I'm not sure what possesses people to do this - maybe they think it's funny, or they are bitter about having trail races in "their" park (these races pay significant money to do this - money that greatly helps to keep the park open), or maybe they thought they were cleaning up litter. Whatever the case, I'm thankful it doesn't happen very often. And I was REALLY thankful for carrying that map around.

In any case, I'm thankful that I won't be on these trails again next weekend - nearly 45 miles on them in two weeks is enough. (If everything goes right, I'll be volunteering at two different races next weekend - the sold out Coastal Horseshoe and Brazen Hellyer. I really need a weekend off.)

That's it - move along...

PS: I posted a bunch more pictures here.

"R" word-free post

In an effort to calm down a potential revolt, this post is guaranteed to be "R" word free! If you have to ask which "R" word, you haven't been paying attention. If you are going to stop reading because the "R" word won't appear, please indulge me. It won't be that bad.

This post is really just an excuse to post some pictures that I don't know what else to do with.

Grandgirl Darci actually ate this burger, as unlikely as it looks in this picture. (She didn't eat those pickles, however.) As far as the curlers in her hair, I don't remember what the event was that happened the next day that would benefit from unnaturally curly hair. It might have involved a train.

Grandboy Riley would probably love to get curlers in his hair, if for no other reason than to torment his sister.

Old Dog Teddy is pooped. Once in a while something snaps in his brain and he gets a bit obsessed. I came home from work to find him desperate to get to the side of the house - we couldn't figure out any rational reason why. We have a gate to keep him and the grandkids out of the garden that you have to go through to get to the side of the house. He managed to get through the gate several times - we kept making it more and more secure and he kept getting through it anyway - and injured a rear paw in the process.

He didn't calm down until I sat out on the deck with him for a while. I put an old gray sock on the foot (the paw wasn't bleeding a lot, but it wasn't showing signs of stopping either - especially since he wouldn't stop walking on it), and once he laid down, he was done for the night. The next morning he was back to normal, and was probably puzzled by all the kids toys piled in front of the garden gate.

This is a blister on Mrs Notthat's left foot. I can't remember what she was doing that caused it - maybe ironing - but she drained it, and a similar one on her other foot, and is doing fine. She even did some more ironing the next day and it didn't even bother her. She's tough.

Riley trying REALLY hard to figure out how to get in on this ironing action.

See - a whole post without the "R" word. It can be done.

I wouldn't get too used to it though.

That's it - move along...

But was mom impressed?

My guess is that "puzzled" would be more like it. I did a lot of sports as a kid, but anything that involved running was minimized as much as possible. So me, in my 50's, suddenly choosing to do trail races is a bit of a puzzle to her.

But I think she would be fine with me doing the PCTR Sequoia trail race on Mother's Day.

This was a tough one. I chose the 30K distance and found out yesterday that they had to modify the course a bit due to a fallen tree. (I can't believe that Merrell or one of those other minimalist shoe makers hasn't developed a minimalist chain saw that could be carried around during these races.) The change meant the 30K was now more like a 29K, which was OK with me. There was no word on what the change did to the elevation, which was originally 3070 feet, but now that I've finished the race I'm going to say that the elevation jumped to 6000 feet.

I love this picture. That is the sign-in table for the race underneath the large sign advertising a series of musicals. While I'm sure many in today's race enjoy a fine musical production, there are some that I cannot picture singing along to Oliver!

The trails were mostly great. Lots of single-track and almost all through dense woods. But then there were sections like this, with an evil intent to disrupt a runner's pace.

I took a fall pretty early in the race, before the first aid station (pun not intended, but pretty good, right?) and ended up sacrificing my palm to save the camera I was carrying in the hand at the time. I'd like to say this happened while careening down a particularly nasty bit of trail, but in truth, it happened while walking up a relatively calm bit of trail. (I can't believe PCTR lets me do these races - I'm such a running/walking dork.)

And there was mud on the trail!

OK, not much, and normal people could easily avoid it most times. But there were a lot of footprints in the mud - trail runners are not necessarily normal people.

A fire truck was waiting at the second aid station. I was pretty sure nobody saw me fall (sometimes it's good to be slow), but was afraid they would pull me off the trail if they saw my wound (I tried putting a bandaid on it but with all the sweat, there was no way it would stick). They were actually there for a couple of runners that had fallen victim to the evil bits of the trail.

Another example of a nasty stretch of trail.

This guy has already lapped me and is heading to the finish line for his 50K race. And he was flying down this section of particularly gnarly trail. It's fun to watch the good trail runners navigate so effortlessly over terrain that I would crawl over if it didn't hurt so much.

The first aid station a second time, making them the third aid station. Got that?

And finally, the finish line. And a cup of chili!

Me in today's running outfit. This was my first chance to wear the wonderful Skyline to the Sea shirt, and it didn't disappoint. (To be fair, it didn't make me faster either.)

This was a fun event. Having to change a course at the last minute has got to be high on a Race Director's top ten list of Bad Things That Can Happen. The only issue I had on the course was shortly after the first time through the Moon Gate aid station - we ran by a yellow-only ribbon, then a bit further down, a second one. A small group of us wondered if we had missed a turn, which seemed unlikely, but we also knew there was a point where the 10K course (yellow ribbons) veered off our course, and some doubt crept in. Two of us started backtracking while some others kept going forward, and almost immediately ran into pink ribbons (that marked our course). So it was no big deal, and the only issue or doubt I had all day.

That's it - move along...

PS: I posted a bunch of other pictures here.