Monday, May 18, 2009

Spodi Odi Running

"Cold Tubbing" with Brian Morrison, me, Jenny Appel, and Steve Stoyles at the completion of the Watershed 12 Hour in Redmond Washington.
Womens open winner Shawna Wilskey @ Watershed 12 Hr. with over 70 miles. Her first effort over 50 miles. Shawna has really made a splash on the West Coast running scene over the past year. She runs as hard as she did when she was racing sprint cars and winning event after event. Now she owns a company that builds race cars.
Mens winner Sam Thompson Watershed 12 Hr. with just under 80 miles and a new course record. Sam was the first American to run 50 Marathons in 50 States in 50 days.
Jenny Appel and Steve Stoyles finishing goal of 50 miles. They let me pace them the last 7 miles or so of their run. Jenny is training for her first 100 mile at Cascade Crest in late August.
Bob Stoyles still running strong at 80 years old. Tough guys wear cotton shirts!
Sometimes you need to choose the most difficult path to get to where you need to be.
Does this toad have a look of relief in his eyes? I'm just wondering because I took the picture shortly after it took a pee in Jonathan's hand.
Myself and Jonathan Bernard trying to speculate our whereabouts.
Linda Barton warming herself by the faux fire. This fireplace is a remnant of days past on Squak Mt.
Jamie & Linda on our first 15 mile loop on Cougar Mt. Shortly after we got to see the field of runners participating in the Cougar Mt. 5 mile trail run put on by Seattle Running. Our route which was the North Face 50 mile course followed a section of the race course.
After being stung by some new growth nettles I did some research and found that contrary to my initial opinion and curses of this being a useless plant they are a often used holistic treatment. Apparently the tea, raw leaves, and roots have well documented medicinal properties. One being lowing blood pressure which may be useful if I keep getting stung by the ones that hang into the trails. I guess nettles are better than poison oak or poison ivy.

Well that is a consolidated version of my weekend. I got in 34 miles on Saturday with some good vertical at Cougar & Squak Mts. Had fun running the first 26.5 miles with Linda, Jonathan, and Jamie. We had visions of running 50 miles but I think everyone is still recovering from recent long runs. We decided to bail and go to Watershed and see all our buddies. Linda, Jonathan, and I all had a blast running as pacers for the last few miles of the Watershed. Jonathan paced with Sam Thompson the eventual winner. I ran a fast 5 mile loop at Pt. Defiance in Tacoma on Sunday to wrap the weekend up.

Live!

10 comments:

Laura H said...

Nice running Saturday! Wish I'd stuck around long enough to see you all there.

Backofpack said...

You forgot to mention that you failed to wash the nettles, and discovered many bugs in them after you drank the tea. Ewwww! I think you had too much fun while I was gone, guess you were trying to fill the hole in your life with me outta town, right? Right!

Journey to a Centum said...

Michelle - In your absense I was just stumbling around without direction. The maps we had didn't even help.

Gotta Run..... said...

Somebody buy that 80 year old young man a tech shirt!!! Makes me hot even thinking about running in cotton anything.

Cold Tubbing sounds nice!

Jenny, Maniac #401 said...

Thanks for your company those last miles and listening to me hack up my bug snack on the little loop. It's always nice to have someone more fresh than you at the end to see you through!
Jenny

Anonymous said...

Great photos! Look at you running with the celebrities. Wow!

That was a big ol' frog. Glad I wasn't holding it! ;)

Olga said...

That is a blast of a weekend! Live!

Unknown said...

I'll have to get up to Squak with you guys one of these days. Looks like some great trail.

Scott McMurtrey said...

I'm itching to get back on the trails. Looks like it was a fun day. :)

lizzie lee said...

my admiration for Bob Stoyles. Please, let him know... great pix as always!!!

Are you running R&R?