Early Start

It's been awhile. We've been trying to keep up but the summer schedule makes it a challenge sometimes, plus humid hot weather is not runner friendly.

Today we bite the bullet and head north alongside a spectacular sunrise. We've started early, we want to reach our goal before it gets too hot.

20.5 miles later we're there. Along the way, we get our feet soaked by the incoming tide, run bare foot awhile to let socks and shoes dry out some, discover the Audobon trail in quackerland, dart across an airfield, get lost in PI, lose the trail entirely after that and have to resort to roadside shoulder treking, and finally, finally reached the birthday boy, Jack.

Sore toes and a few chafs are our only casualties. We're hot, oh yeah very hot.

In Style

Sometimes we think this might be the way to clock the miles.

Sometimes we know this might be the way to clock the miles.

Then we realize that as a team, one of us would have to deal with the bike. And, damn skippy, we both want the basket. So to preserve the peace we'll continue on foot. 

Not Exactly Running Part Two

So I burned the tread right off a brand new tire by accounts of this picture. Turns out the tires are so new it's not even a consideration to get two new tires, which we do whenever a tire gives out on us. Keeping things even, so to speak. Just one will do nicely. I mean the things still got some serious tread as does its partner.

What did you do? I've been asked. Dunno. Never drifted off the road (horrors), never grazed another runner (more horrors), stayed pretty much within the speed limit (read pretty much generously).

Also it turns out the spare was only low on air. Prefectly good to use. I knew Donny kept things right, but who was I to argue that night. Anyway it wasn't a great spot to be changing a tire. And I never would have gotten to spend 170 miles with Vince Vaughan.

It was my $300 night to remember.

Diversions

We pass this flock of redwinged blackbirds on our run to classes. Today we take time to take a few glamour shots. Later I read that the redwing is related to the common grackle, but they are so much prettier looking. We really do enjoy all the natives we come upon and the great flora offerings in lots of folks yards. It make the run more fun to be on the lookout for new visual treats.

About 1/2 way into our run we see a guy coming towards us. There's a real runner proclaims S. As he approached he flags us down and asks if we run this route regularly. At our nod he asks if we know where the Marathon starts. Boy, has he ever asked the right people. We tell him and then discover he doesn't know about the connecting path to KH and the start. He is delighted as he usually stops short of it and turns around.

Our new friend is visiting his parent's home nearby. S is right, he is a real runner. He has run 15 marathons, he has run Boston, he has run 70 miles straight. He admires my Garmin and we compare notes on my new model versus his older one. We wave goodbye and continue on.

We're in, we grin. We are recognized as real runners!

Not Exactly Running

150 miles from home our vintage Suburban opts to mix my life up a bit and blows a tire. The car may be old but the tires are the best and so it is only an annoyance not a bad scene.

It's 10 o'clock at night on a fast moving interstate, I'm not getting out to investigate. I am thinking I've dropped the transmission. I need to call D, Triple A, R who lives a stone's throw away. My cell phone is quite literally squeezing the last of it's battery juice into performance. Where's the charger? In the car I usually drive. Where's the extra battery? At home.

No panic. I call D, babbling the details before the phone dies. He springs into action and calls the calvary. As I wait, I envision a night in Richmond. No good. I MUST get home. I power up the phone and call home. The line's busy. I shut off the phone. 15 minutes later I try again. D answers. Someone come get me I implore. He's on his way, so is R and Triple A.

3o minutes later R pulls up. He looks at the car. He starts the car. He looks under the car. Flat tire, he proclaims. We dig for the spare. We cannot find the jack. Triple A arrives. He announces the spare flat, too flat for Fix-A-Flat which I do have. The men discuss tire options. All involve the next day. I MUST GET HOME.

100 miles free, $3 a mile after that Triple A offers. I'll take it. R shoves off after lending me his phone to call D and send him back home. I'll be along I tell him. Triple A and I go for gas, coffee, and his buddy fresh from breaking up a bar room cat fight. This is gonna be a fun ride. Do you mind if we smoke? They're nice guys, what can I say?

Imagine riding with Vince Vaughan uncensored easing back with a case of Bud Lite and you've got Triple A Buddy. We discover he used to work for the family electrical business. We compare notes on everyone. I am full of discovery.

By the time we get to Chesapeake TAB is sure we have kidnapped him. Only for his good buddy is he along for the ride, but how much farther? He's not mad, he's just VV, ready for some Mermaid Topless Bar action. We tell him we are not even in North Carolina yet. He has been to the OBX before. He has forgotten how long the ride through Currituck County is. At 3AM everyone's agony is over. Triple A from having to deal with no dash lights, TAB from an eternal trip and me from the fumes of death, even though they did have the windows down.

Who needs a limo when you can get a kicking tow truck ride.

Soaring Like an Eagle

We clocked 12 miles today, split down the middle by a stop for kick boxing class. The first half was at a steady 12 minute mile clip with only a little walking once we got started.

We were stoked and stunned to realize we could actually maintain a strong pace and go the distance. And we had the added weight of our equipment, not that much but about five pounds total.

We started at S's house and ran to class, played Jackie Chan for an hour and then it was back to S's, home for her; my waiting car to take me home, for me.

The return trip was slower. It was hotter and we didn't feel like pressing the issue so we mostly walked, although we did factor in some running. 

On An Adventure

So what do the Marathonettes do when they are hot and tired and still need to add some miles to their log?

They create an adventure.

The driveway is an off shoot of one of our favorite running spots when the heat's on, Old Nags Head Woods Road. We try to turn down it on pre-5K day thinking it is the path to the meadow, only to be rebuffed by a not so friendly lady who happens to be driving out just as we turn in. Go, go, she waves us off. Okay, okay.

Curiosity reigns today and we wander down the curving paved lane, looking for bail out places and seeing nothing but dense undergrowth and marshy bamboo. Still we venture on. S more cautious than I.

We'll turn back after the next bend, I assure S. We just need to see what that lady is protecting. S being a good sport, grabs a few sticks to thwart the imaginary or otherwise dogs and we keep going. The lane twists more than Colington Road. And then we hear it. The sound of a vehicle coming toward us. No!

Run, I shout to S who needs no prompting. We are sprinting at an amazing pace back up the lane. I realize we are not going to make the main road before being overtaken. Slow down, I shout, look like we're just out for a run. We'll look less guilty that way. We slow to a fast run, the vehicle stays behind us. By this time we are near the road, one steep hill and we're out. We turn right knowing there is no vehicle outlet that way and keep running. The vehicle turns left. We round a bend and stop. Did you look? No, did you? No. Well, they're gone now. Let's go back.

We return and venture down the lane again. Finally we can see a sprawling house and the sound just beyond. The view is flat and panoramic with just enough trees to be breezy looking. The lane has yet more bends but we stop in a clearing and take pictures. Close enough for today we decide. We jog back to the road.

How'd you like that hill training, I grin at S?

We're So Vain

13+ run/walk miles today in the humid sub-tropics. The best half was a long run on the flat beach of South Nags Head. A nice ocean breeze cooled things off a lot.

In our travels we have lost and found a variety of objects starting with my car key, which I actually lost well before we began our Marathoning. Since we were circling the monument that day it was basically a matter of recircling until said key was spied.

From there we jump into Marathon training and the list of things l&f while running reads like this:
1. one cheap watch lost and found when not even bothering to look for it.
2. one expensive digital camera lost and found when seriously looking for it
3. one jacket lost and found when neither of us even realized it was lost (we were circling the monument that day too)
4. one crystal lost, among the briars we thought, and then found in the laundry weeks later (okay so not while running but still found)
5. one 5K bib lost and then found two weeks later quite by happenstance.
6. AND, the latest, one gel energy pack lost but not worth looking for when we discovered the casualty miles later. Curses, I think, there goes our perfect l&f record. We'll never find such a small thing, it could be anywhere. Oh me of little faith, upon our return, which was not an exact repeat of the going out course, we find ourselves eventually back on the original trail anyway and therein layeth the lost gel pack squished once by a bicycle but mostly intact.

We take all this to signify, we occasionally wander but are pretty much on the right course.

What Does This Mean?

Not too much to anyone but the Marathonettes. After signing up for Nags Head Woods 5K run two weeks back, I almost immediately lost SW's bib. Only because S saw hers wiggling out of the bag as we ran along exploring the course layout, did we stop to check all the bags and found no bib anywhere for SW.

Tired, as we had already run 18+ miles, we only retraced our steps a mile back to the registration folks and explained. They laughed and issued SW a new number. Race day brought personal successes but no visual of the missing bib, not a concern anyway just a curiosity.

Jog forward two weeks and find us taking a turn through the broad meadow where the 5K made its loop. We had run this far with bags in hand two weeks earlier, but like I said were too tired to jog back to the meadow unless we really had to.

Wouldn't it be something to find that number mused S, I had totally forgotten about it. I began scanning the grasses as we headed into the field. And there, through wind and storms but no grass cutting tractor, patiently waited yet one more of our lost objects.

Me S & the Casio

Here we are half way through a 13.2m workout.

We started in downtown Manteo and walked the streets for our warm-up. Then we took a nice easy jog to the end of the island and back. 

Tranquility

A nice easy early morning 6+ mile jog/run along a pleasant golf cart trail brought us beside this field of wild flowers.

No dawling today. Only a short stop to take this picture.

Saw another quick cottontail & three dogs playing frisbee.

The Things You See

We're thinking this turtle mom might have found a better place to lay her eggs than the middle of the road, literally. We'll check on them tomorrow.

Nice easy steady 6 mile run in and out of the woods. A few walk breaks. Feeling very good about our progress.

We both agree that too many people were ahead of us on Saturday. We are working on lowering our base time and picking those suckers off one by one. 

Queen of the Castle

A Mother's Day hello from the Marathonettes, S&S 

Pace Rabbit

I spied a fleeting bunny beside the road on the way to S's this am.

Then we see this one dart across our path as we are doing a easy walk/jog along the sound. And a bonus third one a few feet farther along.

It's a sign we say. We're getting faster and we're on track.

On the Trail

It was a scavenger day. We found a dead snake, a snapping turtle crossing a dirt road, a whole street of very cool 'new' old nags head style homes (all for weekly rental), and this marker telling us we were on the right path.

To polish off our day of accomplishments we signed up ourselves and Lewis and Sarah for the Nags Head Woods 5K run.

We clocked 20 miles in 5 hours, not too shabby for our mode of stopping to take pictures and chat with folks, as well as jogging at a nice clip a goodly amount of the time, walk breaks included.

Turtle Pace

We both felt about as quick as this turtle today. Four miles seemed like forty.

We did do some hills with a pretty decent slope. We were aiming for six good runs up and over but two got rained out.

We were not disappointed. 

My House

Here's my house complete with Donny's Hummer. It over looks the bay. S's house is around to the right. 

S's Dream House

In our wanderings we found an awesome dead end street that overlooks Kitty Hawk Bay from a high enough bluff that high water should not be a problem. And it just happens to have two of the prettiest houses on the OBX by our standards. S picked this one (it's actually for sale). It even has a small barn in the back.

Jockey's Ridge SP

It's a 15.5 mile day, half of which is through soft sand, by choice, mostly.

On our way back at about mile 13 we are ready to be done. But we are stuck in an industrial park which we can only zigzap out of, the miles are piling up.

Finally we get into a neighborhood close to our cars and salvation, but not that close. We're not lost but the streets are unfamiliar. Then we spy a house we've seen before. We try to orient ourselves. Like I said we're not lost, just tired. I remember passing this house S says. Which way did we go then I ask. I don't remember says S. I remember it too say I. Which way did we go? When were we here? Ummm, yesterday.

Run Girl Run

S and I are training for the OBX Marathon. We decide to make a photo log of sights we run (haha) into.

Last week we found a really cool dune system behind the FF schools and new retirement (aka DisneyWorld for seniors) community. I thought it might be Run Hill SP but was unsure.

Later that same day, after a break to help the Queen with wardrobe, we found the front of our dune and laugh to realize that it is indeed RH the irony of which goes completely over my head until S points out what better name could there be for the Marathonettes' training ground.

PaPa & Lydia

 

Martin

The whiz kid five year old. Preceeded by equally whizzy 2 year old Lydia. GeekNanny is in for a roller coaster ride! 

Lydia

Until GeekNanny publishes photos of said babies here they are. 

One More Christmas Picture

 

Happy New Year 2006

Jess got off of work just in time to celebrate with Lewis. After a double shift at the Brewing Station she was mostly ready to collapse. But she made it to the Colington Cafe to join us for dessert. A creme brulee with espresso compliments of Carlen revived her. And off they went to ring in the New Year with the Clarks.