Training Log

Tupelo, MS - 14.2 mile race associated with the Tupelo Marathon. Probably one of the more interesting (and fun) races I've run. See the image below, and you'll get an idea of the tone of the race - pretty cool - the long-sleeve race t-shirt is tye-dyed and has the image logo.

The race starts at 5 am Sunday, so I stayed overnight in Tupelo, which is about an hour and a half from Collierville, and packet pickup was 1 pm to 5 pm the day before, so more incentive to get there on Sat. and stay over.

5 am Sunday - start of race - it is very dark, and the race is run on back country roads in Mississippi without many streetlights - it is kind of eerie because in several places, it is pitch black and there is mist (ground fog) rising off the surrounding fields and huge trees covered with kudzu, (which has to be the Mississippi state plant!), making grotesque shapes in the background (when you can actually see). Lots of rolling hills, typical of Mississippi. Now and then, you hear a rooster crow or a dog bark. Between miles 4 and 6, people start to spread out, and there are a few stretches where you are running down a back country road in Mississippi in the dark by yourself, not knowing exactly where you are. A little different than the typical early morning training run, but fun!

My race - felt really good until about mile 6 when I felt like I needed to make a pitstop but there was no place to do so, and finally at about mile 7, there were porta-potties out in the middle of nowhere. I was very thankful. Between mile 6 and 7, I had to slow down a bit because of the GI issues, and felt a bit tired around mile 8 or 9. After mile 9, I felt better, and it was just a matter of keeping the legs moving at a decent pace. By mile 7 or 8, the sun had come up, and around mile 11 or 12, here come the marathoners, who have reached the turnaround, running back out to do the loop again. There was one long uphill starting around mile 13, and after that, suddenly, there's the left turn into the finish!

Finish time (chip timed) - 2 hours 0 minutes 11 seconds - took home the pottery for winning the 40 - 49 age group. 8th female overall.

7 am - 61 mile bike ride with co-worker Mike.  Nice morning to ride.  We added 20 miles to last week's route and rode on some different roads up into Tipton County.  It was fun to ride somewhere different!

5:50 am - 7.8 mile loop around the lake near the town hall.  Legs felt really good until near the end of the run, when then felt a little tired from the ride yesterday and the race on Sunday.

5:00 am - Started out early in the dark so did not run around the lake but ran through Schilling Farms instead.  Felt pretty tired because I stayed up until 10:30 the night before working on a class assignment that is still not finished.  The run went well until about 1/2 mile from home, it had started raining and after I crossed a side street, my foot must have slipped or hit the curb, (although I didn't feel it), and suddenly I am falling forward, and fell really hard on the sidewalk, kind of rolled toward the left and hit my head on the sidewalk (that's how fast it all happened - not time to try to break the fall) and finally landed on my back.  Fortunately, I didn't hit my head too hard, but it did hit on the temporal side.  I got up and surveyed the damage - very badly skinned knees, skinned side of left hand and wrist, skinned back of left shoulder, and a bit of a headache on the left side, but I was still good to run, so I continued home. Feels like I'm gonna be sore tomorrow!

6:30 am - It's raining quite hard, but I need to get out there, so waited until 6:30 and headed the opposite direction from the high school where all the traffic is.  It started raining even harder for the first 2 miles of the run, then let up a little.  Did the 7.3 mile loop because I am still a little tired also sore from falling yesterday.

No chance to run today.  Stayed up late yesterday - helped my son look for a used car afer work, which took a really long time - going to several dealerships, trying to find something affordable and, hopefully somewhat reliable.  It is sometimes difficult to take some of the games the car salesmen play - I totally dislike buying a car!  I always feel taken advantage of.  We went home with a couple of possibilities and one quote, and once home, went through all the insurance paperwork, some of which requires extensive documentation and notorized forms, so we were all up pretty late.  Yes, the remnants of hurricane Fay did us the "favor" of destroying his car when it dumped 6 inches of rain on midtown in the matter of 15 minutes and flooded his apartment complex.  It was a blessing in disguise, in a way.   Thank God for insurance.   

Today (Friday)  I took part of the afternoon off to once again help him find a decent deal on a car.   One of the credit union employees was extremely helpful, explaining the NADA retail and trade values of vehicles, printing out information on various cars we had looked at, and even called a friend at a dealership who had a car in our price range.  Thank God for her - she is a blessing, too.  To make another long story short, we did get a pretty good deal at the dealership she suggested, and it helped that she put us into contact with her friend who is a manager there.  The "new" car is a 1999 Saab with 102,000 miles, 4 -cylinder engine, and one owner who took good care of it.   Affordable.  Home at 9 pm.

6:45 am - 70 mile bike ride with Mike.  The MS 150 bike tour is next weekend.  We are as ready as we're going to be.  Good ride.  Tomorrow is the MRTC first 10k at Shelby Farms.