Camping & Rocky Raccoon Volunteer Report

Originally I had planned to drive up for my noon to 6pm Rocky Raccoon HTRex aid station volunteer effort and drive back later that night. Then I went to a foam party with my improv peeps.  It turns out Joe is moving to LA in a month or so and we were discussing one last camping trip.  A couple of drinks later and the master plan was hatched.  We arrive Friday night, setup camp, and began the weekend of fun.

I’m finding volunteering at the races is a ton of fun, and a lot more hard work than it appears from the outside.  Trying to keep the food and drinks ready for the runners as they come in waves is challenging.  Just when you think you have things under control the next wave of runners comes through and you’re behind again.  I ended up staying until about 7:30 ending with traffic duty.  HTrex did a great job, everything was very well organized.  As a volunteer it is great to be able to shout out a runners request and be told exactly where something is, or on the odd occasion the request cannot be met.  It’s always great to hear things like “This is the best aid station” by many many runners. 

Joe went to Sam Houston State and is very familiar with all that Huntsville has to offer.  We headed to Zach's Bar & Grill for a beer (or two) and some fried pickles.  I know going out to dinner at a restaurant isn’t camping but this was a going away trip for Joe and he really wanted to show us some of his favorite local spots.  Joe wasn’t lying, the fried pickles were amazing.  We headed back to camp and smores were for desert.  

Overall it was great trip.  Remarkably I didn’t run at all while I was there.   If I don’t run the 50 miler next year (something I told myself I would never to again), I am definitely volunteering again.  I’ll make a  whole weekend of it either way.  I really want to see how crazy it gets out there at the midnight to 6am shift.  Next up Hot Chocolate 15K with my sister.  I can’t wait!

January in Review

It’s been a bit since I’ve had anything noteworthy to write about.  Although my MacBook’s hard drive going belly up certainly didn’t help any.  Still need to figure how I’m going to get the last couple years worth of photos off of the old hard drive.   I’ll just give a one month update on how the year is going so far.

Running

This month has been all about running.  I only missed one day of running this month.  Amazingly, I ran no races this month.  Volunteering at the Houston Marathon with Team RWB was a great experience despite temperatures in the low 40's and rain. I did manage to log 218 miles.  Longest run was 16 miles, shortest run was 3 miles, and 8 runs over 10 miles.  Good enough for third place in the HTRex 2013 Challenge.  I’ll make up for the lack of racing next month as I prep for my first sub 1:40 half-marathon attempt.  Hope to run the Ghirardelli Chocolate Run 15K and the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run 10K at a low 7:30ish pace.  I am really looking forward to running the Chocolate Run with my little sister.  With all the racing and tapering for the Woodlands Half my mileage will be quite a bit lower this month.  I’m shooting for 150 or so miles.  I signed up for the TransRockies race (gulp).  Right now I’m in the three day solo run, with an option to do the second three days.  Hopefully, I can find a partner and switch over to the six day team run.  May do the MS150 again this year, but it is the weekend after the 50K which has me a bit nervous.

Vacations

Nothing new to report.  I may have the opportunity to go to Japan around Thanksgiving.  I need to book my plans for my other vacations and be done with it.

Work

Nothing to report here.  I still show up, they still pay me.

Personal Development

Started four separate books but didn’t finish any of them.  Flatland is a really good book, but it’s not light reading despite being super thin.  I have not signed up for salsa lessons yet.  More than likely it will be on the back burner until after the 50K.  We had a surprisingly great improv show at ComedySportz.  My expectations were low, but my team pulled it out and won the match.  Next show will probably be a farewell show (at the White Swan?)  for Joe as he’s moving to LA at the first of March. 

Social

This has probably been the most dramatic change.  With the exception of the Foam Party, which was a blast, I really didn’t go out much.  It's odd to be rooting for not having any dates.  Although to be fair I have been sort of (casually?) dating this woman since the end of October, but that's over now.  I held to my plan and have started doing more things with a core group of new/old friends.  It really has been nice.

Next up Camping/Volunteering at the Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Trail Run this weekend.

Going Vegan = Epic FAIL

This is way overdue. With all the racing there have been better things to write about.  I tried going vegan, I really did.  The first week went really well.  I was committed enough to order vegan at Benjy’s during a first date (there wasn’t a second date after the vegan thing, oh well).  Then the beginning of the end came.  Going out to eat would prove to be my down fall.  I went out with the improv crew after a show at Third Coast Comedy.  After catching much shit from the guys about “this vegan thing”, I ordered a portabella mushroom cap “burger”.  Thinking it was a mushroom cap instead of a meat.  Halfway through I noted to the guys this was the best vegan burger I’ve had.  That’s when it realized what I was actually eating was a normal burger with diced mushrooms mixed in. 

A couple days after the Space City 10 Miler I got pretty sick.  No food sounded good, but I was able to run so I didn’t think too much of it.  Then I had to take a day off work.  So I made a smoothie and added some protein powder.  After downing a few glasses I felt a bit better pretty quickly.  I’m not sure if it was lack of calories, protein or something completely unrelated.  The second to last week of October I had a full social calendar and went out quite a few times.  Every time, I ended up with a meat centric meal.  I kept up the vegan thing at home and lunch.  The last week I went off being a vegan about every other lunch and I felt great again.  

I have no idea if going vegan and getting sick had anything to do with each other.  I did miss eggs and cheese quite a bit.  Going forward I will probably fall back into my limited meat diet.  My next food challenge is in December to finally kick my diet coke habit.  Hopefully it goes better than this did.