I'm BAAAAAAACCKKKK!!!!!

First I have to share this strange and disgusting, yet colorful fungus? that is all over the evergreens in my backyard. It happened last year and a day later the gelatinous globs had dried to rusty flakes that were barely obvious from over a couple of feet away. I'm not sure if it is something that is going to kill the trees or not, so I guess this year I will check with someone who can tell me how to treat it before I lose all the beauty and privacy they offer in my backyard.

Anyways, as my post title suggests: I'm BAAAAACCCKKK!!! I know that last week I said I was back, but that was not even close to being the case. My lungs were still damaged and workouts were nil. Mai finally got better as of about Saturday ~ just in time for Jack to wake up at 2:15am yesterday with a horrible ear ache. We were up all night and then took him to urgent care as soon as they opened to find out he has a bad ear infection. The medicine has already kicked in and he's feeling great! So I figured my scheduled workout would suffer yesterday, but the 55 minute run with Ki went just great! Today I did legs and 25 minutes of incline walking at the gym. I hit the pool for 20 laps (THAT's 40 lengths people!!) and to me that is a lot! Unfortunately that is only .61 miles - about 1/2 as far as I will be swimming on race day. So if 20 laps took me 30 minutes, then twice that is an hour...and that is way too slow for racing. I've gotta pick it up!

I made a commitment on my TNT blog to work on hills for 15 minutes each day this week, so this evening I headed a couple blocks away to a some hilly streets and worked on technique for 15 minutes and then took Ki for a two mile run ~ so today was definitely successful and my lungs feel pretty darn good.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE race reports. I've only done three races myself and the reports were less than entertaining, but I got one from my brother yesterday that I thought I would share ~ He inspires me!! I loved the part about the tequila drinking 40 something woman - I want to be her! Give me a shot of booze, a kilt and I'm off...

Well it was not the best morning for a run, let alone a race.

But if the bag-pipers were going to be there then so was I.

That's right, we didn't need no sissy gun. We went off to men in skirts (kilts).

Anyways, I ran the Lucky Clover 10K this morning. 5K on the trail (a little muddy) and 5K on the road (a little hilly).

It was cold and damp, but I did a long slow warm-up, and the rain seemed to let up to a light sprinkle just before the gun, er pipes.

The trail run was beautiful, through the woods, fields, and filbert orchards of Doris Ranch in Springfield.

The road coarse had two hills in the first mile, but then was downhill and flat for the last 2+.

I was hoping to run at or below 8:00 per mile with a finish under 50 minutes, but was unsure because of the trail and the hills.

I went out a little fast but then settled in and felt pretty good through the trail section.

The hills were tough but I didn't push too hard, and used the last downhill to gain momentum for a fast finish on the flats.

My finishing time was 47:53. 7:41 per mile. I didn't know I had that in me at this point in my training.

I was 20th overall and the 15th male finisher. I think one of the gals that beat me was a woman in her mid 40s. She was standing next to me at the starting line in a kilt, drinking tequila out of a flask. It being the Lucky Clover and all, she could at least have been drinking whiskey!

I did get second in the 35-39 male division, and got a cheap medal for my efforts.

Overall it was a great morning and a good first race back.