Andrew Schrauben

Today was definitely a Fox Mulder day...

Adopt Her Already!
First the not-so-bad. Our foster dog Reese has been wanted by a couple for over a week now but they keep dragging their feet. We met them with Reese at a pet store last week and they liked her, but then wanted to see her interact with their current dog. Makes sense, but couldn't we have done that for the first meeting if that was an issue? So we take Reese to their house, she and their dog get along great, but one of the adopters is out of town and they want to discuss to make sure. OK... Finally they decide to adopt her and we arrange to meet at my office Thursday to sign the papers but she never shows up. Today we're supposed to meet, but she calls to say she's running late and won't be free until after I leave work. Now Amanda has to coordinate meeting her while I go for my run. To top it off they can't pick Reese up until Monday since one of couple is still on travel. If they'd been just a wee bit more proactive early on, Reese could've gone home with them over a week ago! Oh well. The good thing is that Reese is adopted, and we actually really like this couple. They're nice, patient with dogs, Reese and their dog get along great, they have a big fenced-in backyard, and they go camping a lot. Reese will be happy with them so this craziness is worth it.

Bad Business
Today at home Amanda gets a call from Fidelity where the guy says he has to talk to me about my retirement account due to the takeover. (Background: my company used Fidelity for their 401K but we've since been bought by another company that uses a different financial service.) This guy leaves his name and a direct line phone number. So I call him back from work and get a generic voicemail box saying "an appropriate associate will return your call"... I get suspicious and contact HR at work, who contacted Fidelity and was able to confirm that Fidelity's sales group was using a register of names acquired during the takeover to cold-call people at my company to pitch personal retirement accounts. How incredibly unethical! On top of that, it would seem to me to be bad business. Here's a prime example: I had been planning to leave the amount accrued from my former company in Fidelity's 401K rather than rolling it over, but now they have just cost themselves my account. Prepare to roll it over, Fidelity!

Play Ball! Not.
Thursday night was my softball team's fourth game of the season, except that it never happened. We all showed up, the other team showed up, the umpires showed up... and so did a little league team that claimed to have the field during our game time! I called GRAASA, our softball league, but the number was disconnected! The little league got the city parks and recreation director on the phone, who confirmed that the little league gets the field. Our game got canceled. What the heck? It turns out that GRAASA had reserved the field and the little league was supposed to play on Saturday; however, the little league umpires had a conflict that day so at the last minute the city gave them our field but never told GRAASA. What annoys me is that this same thing happened to another GRAASA game last week but GRAASA never did anything to prevent it from happening again. Isn't once enough to learn a lesson? Maybe not for these folks, as they have yet to demonstrate any thoroughness in their operation of the league. Our schedule was postponed by a week to start the season because they couldn't find enough fields. Then the first field was played on was a kids' field with un-attached bases and a storm drain in centerfield - dangerous! Turns out GRAASA never even looked at the field before reserving it. We're currently operating under league schedule revision 5 or 6 (I've lost count) because they don't proofread their schedules before sending them out. They didn't even proofread their rulebook, which explains the disconnected phone number - their phone works, but they wrote the wrong number in the rulebook! If that all wasn't enough, some of their umpires were unaware of some non-standard GRAASA-specific rules. To their credit they are 100% volunteer, but that's no excuse for not being thorough and complete. Today at work I had to write them a "nice" letter to explain my teams' lack of satisfaction.

So yeah, today was a tough day of dealing with people that can't be counted on.

Happily we still had two good reasons to celebrate the day - Haven and Beacon's birthday!

It's getting pretty hot these days here in Michigan. Tuesday morning I went for a run at 0600 with our newest foster dog Reese and it was already in the 60's! We only ran for 2.5 miles but I surprised myself (and perhaps Reese, too!) by holding a 8:15 pace without feeling too tired. We stopped at the river halfway and I discovered that Reese does not like water!

Today I ran with my co-workers at lunch, but beforehand I tried an experiment. Results? Don't eat before running! I completely wonked out on our 5-miler and practically dragged myself back to work. 87 degress and humidity didn't help the issue.

As long as I'm linking to my running blog I might as well add a link for my Memorial Day article honoring dogs.

How about run 500 miles? Back on April 25 I ran my 500th mile and on May 3 I went for my 100th run of the year. Just 500 more until 1000... "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more..."

Today was a 9.8 mile long run - I ran to Meijer where Amanda met me and we went grocery shopping afterwards. Before and after the run I felt really good and somehow managed a 9:17 pace despite thinking that I was taking it easy - walking up a half-dozen hills, stopping to enjoy a couple scenic views along the river, etc.

Later today we took all three dogs - Haven, Beacon and foster dog Honey - to my Grandma's pasture to run around. We spent two hours hiking around and the dogs are completely worn out now! They got to have a ton of fun - they chased a rabbit, two nesting turkeys, a ruffed grouse, a deer, and a pheasant! Amanda will post the pictures as part of her DITL for today.

Yesterday I put a nifty new post on Why Run? about the physics of speed, pace and energy. I started thinking about it when Katiebell described some frustration when treadmilling recently:

"I was shocked to find that the difference between 5.4 miles per hour and 5.7 was negligible, but bump it to 6.0 (a mere ten min mile) and I could barely keep on pace...6.5 and I was struggling."

Thursday I was on the treadmill doing speedwork and it dawned on me how explain the physics of this phenomenon. If you're curious then check out my Why Run? article which even has a couple of cool graphs!

It seems most of my major hobbies had a big event recently:

Saturday - spent about 10 hours volunteering at the Pet Expo
Saturday - conducted my Mach League player draft 8pm-10pm
Sunday - went running TWICE for an hour each run
Sunday - fetched the dogs at the river before the Pet Expo
Sunday - between runs, volunteered about 5 hours at the Pet Expo
Monday - went to the softball managers' meeting after work, got home around 9:30pm

So there you have significant events for my hobbies of dogs, running, dog rescue, baseball, and co-ed softball. To top it all off, I'm a tad under the weather. This probably explains why my second Sunday run was so painful - my body was diverting its resources to my immune system, not to my "running" system.

I debated whether I should run today or take the day off, but since Amanda was feeling tired and sore and still went for her workout today, I figured I should get my work in, too.

It was very warm - 78 degrees - when Haven and I set foot (and paw) on the road, heading for the trailhead. Just before the trailhead we passed a couple kids playing with an unleashed dog in their driveway. Upon spotting us the dog - a border collie mix - started to follow us. She was very shy and Haven kept trying to chase her away, but this dog wouldn't go away. She had very bright blue eyes so I called her Blue Eyes. I suppose I could've been more creative but sometimes my mind turns off when I run!

Anyway, Blue Eyes followed us into the woods for about a 1/4 mile on the trail, so I decided I better bring her back to the kids. I walk up the driveway and ask the kids if this is their dog. They tell me no, that this dog came from down the road somewhere. Great. I checked for tags. Blue Eyes had a collar, but no tags. At least she was pretty submissive to both me and Haven and kept trying to play with Haven, so she was a friendly dog.

My next plan was to get her tired. One time a german shepherd followed Haven and I on a run and we got him pretty tired before his owner drove up to get him. We ran back into the woods and Blue Eyes followed; of course, border collies were meant to run. I exited the trail further up the road and decided to head back towards where the kids said she came, hoping to find an owner. Once on the road Blue Eyes took off, obviously familiar with her location and hopefully heading home. When she wasn't looking I unleashed Haven, pointed at the trail and said quietly but urgently "Let's go let's go let's go!!!" and Haven bolted down the trail with me in hot pursuit. I figured if Blue Eyes tried to follow us, she'd be less inclined the more distance we put between her and us.

It worked! No sign of Blue Eyes. Haven and I finished our work on the trails and headed for the river where we planned to meet Amanda and Beacon playing fetch. I could hear Beacon's eager screams half a mile away! Partly because of the strong NW wind that was bringing a cold front our way. Just before we saw Amanda and Beacon the skies opened up with big fat drops of rain!

We continued fetching with the dogs even as the pouring rain turned the surface of the river into what looked like a giant lemon zester! Despite the decreasing temperature and increasing mud and thunder we kept throwing sticks and the dogs kept fetching them. What a blast! We were soaked when we finally headed back to the car; when we got 100 yards away the rain simply stopped and within seconds the sun was out. Perfect timing!

Normally Amanda and I do our long workouts on Sunday mornings, but this morning we had a bit of a time crunch due to volunteering at the Pet Expo. I could only run for an hour so I planned to get in my long run via a "daily double" run.

This morning was 60 degrees and overcast; in fact, thunderstorms had just rolled through before sunrise. I got my running gear on, grabbed a water bottle and my iPod and hit the streets. Let me tell you, it was one of THE MOST ENJOYABLE runs I've ever had! Why this morning of all days? Perhaps the perfect running weather and the good music, but for some reason my feet were just floating. I was cruising along at just over a 9:00 pace and I felt as if I could've gone on forever. Never once did I feel even a hint of fatigue; I just ran and ran and ran for 7.3 miles, going faster every mile.

Before heading off to the Expo our dogs convinced us to let them get some activity, so we drove them to the trails to run around and fetch in the river for about half an hour. They would've preferred more, but it was all the time we had. Still, they were pretty happy. Dogs can be so easy to please! Then again, are we any different?

After the Expo it was time for the second half of my long run, and what a contrast! My legs were tired from the morning run, tired from standing at the Expo for hours, and here I am trying to make them run again. I eked out 6.75 miles at a 9:30 pace and barely made it! At least the weather was great: 75 degrees and partly sunny - perhaps the heat was part of my trouble for my winter-adjusted body? In any case, the first two miles my legs felt stiff, then for two miles I felt OK, then the last two+ miles my legs felt heavy and listless.

Hopefully one of these days I can figure out how to replicate the feeling of that morning run!

We've had a busy weekend and hopefully I'll have time to write about everything tonight. First up is the West Michigan Pet Expo, a two-day event that Amanda and I attended as volunteers. Lots of people explored the dozens of pet-related exhibitors in the convention center and it was pretty crowded.

One of the dogs we were trying to adopt out was Lucy, a one and a half year old black lab mix. She was there both days and during our time there I grew quite fond of Lucy and she took quite a liking to me as well. It all started when I took her out for a walk, during which I ran her about 1/4 mile along the road. After that she would sit in her crate facing me rather than all the people who might want to adopt her!

She's a real sweetie. Occasionally we'd let her out of crate on leash to sit with us and she kept trying to crawl into our lap, and she's a 70 pound dog! Whenever kids would pet her she made sure to lick them solidly on the face. Over the two days I took her out for walks a half dozen times and each time I'd run her a 1/2 mile and she'd come back happy and tired. Problem was, nobody was interested in adopting her...

...until tonight! Someone took notice of her sweetness and Lucy got adopted! Lucky Lucy. :)

Now that the weather is nice (if you call upper 30's nice, that is) and the roads are clear of snow, I finally got to make use of the great outdoors for my weekend long run. Lately I've been running for an hour on the treadmill with Amanda, but this time I took on one of my usual routes from last year, a 14.4 mile out-and-back on rural country roads.

Boy was it difficult! I never felt comfortable even in the beginning, so it was just one of those days I suppose. The last hour really sucked and it's probably because I haven't run more than 1:15 since running 2:08 on January 7, a 12-miler on trails. Today's time was 2:30, a 10:26 pace, a tad slower than the 9:30-10:00 that I would expect. I just never felt in rhythm and my legs complained the entire time, those wusses. My legs must've forgotten what it takes to endure a long run!

Luckily Amanda brought home some Subway sandwiches after adopting out Amber. That right, Amber found a home! I'm going to miss her and her crooked ears.

One question that sometimes gets asked of people who volunteer for dog welfare organizations is "Why dogs?" What they usually mean is: Why devote so much of your time and energy to saving dogs, when your efforts could be spent saving children or sick people or those in poverty? Aren't people more important than dogs?

Every person has their purpose, and every living thing has its place in this world. Somebody has to take care of the dogs, and I want to be one of those people. Ever since I first visited a humane society in 5th grade, I concluded that dogs not only need our help, they deserve it. In fact, we owe it to them because we made them who they are; we created them to be dependent on us. We can't just ignore them when they become a burden.

Dogs need humans. Wolves don't. What's so special about dogs? Over the past thousands of years humans have domesticated dogs to the point that, I believe, dogs expect humans to be in their lives. Many dogs couldn't survive in the wild; those that could, wouldn't be as happy. I've always believed that, and recently I found a study that puts some science behind my belief.

A researcher discovered that dogs instinctively respond to human gestures and other such physical cues. Wolves don't respond to us like dogs do. In fact, not even chimpanzees - our closest genetic relatives - interpret our gestures the way that dogs do innately. Follow the link below to a video on National Geographic's site to see a demonstration of this study.

National Geographic Video: How Dogs Became Man's Best Friend

Note: I had to use Internet Explorer to view the video - I couldn't make it work with my usual Mozilla Firefox. The study I'm referring to is in the second half of the video, so be patient; although the first half is pretty interesting, too.

The next time your dog responds to your body language, think about how and why it could be that another species of animal instinctively understands you. No wonder we love dogs!

My first race of the season is complete! This morning I ran the Heart and Sole 5K, finishing in 22:44. That time was good for 6/13 in my age group and 33/160 overall. Not bad, but I was hoping to finish under 22 minutes. I never really got into the groove during the race - I just felt slow and unable to speed up. Part of the problem was the trace amount of snow on the road - not enough to risk falling but enough to reduce traction a bit. Oh well - I'm planning to run another race in about a month and hopefully the weather will be warmer! It was 15 degrees for today's race.

The race runs part way around Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids; you can find a rough map of the race course here (I say "rough" because I don't know exactly where the start/finish line was). The entire route runs along blocked-off residential roads with a few mild hills.

Amanda and I arrived plenty early and I warmed up a bit by running the first part of the course. I saw that Roger Bonga was there... Roger is a local endurance athlete who I met at the Cascade Winery where he works. He's a very nice guy and a very fast runner. I ran part of my warm up jog with him and he told me that he was planning to "run it easy" and finish in about 20 minutes - I wish I could run "easy" at that pace!


Ready set go! Enjoying the first few seconds of the race.

The race organizers were very no-nonsense. We got a "5 minutes to start!" warning, and the next thing we heard was "10 seconds!" No speeches, no instructions, nothing. At the starting line I placed myself among the middle of the pack but once we got going, I quickly passed a few dozen people. However, it took forever to feel settled at the pace I wanted; usually after a couple minutes I'm locked in and cruising, but today my stride didn't smooth out until around seven minutes into the race.

Occasionally running among us were local residents simply out for a morning jog. Aside from the finish line, there were two spectators and three volunteers out on the course. Unfortunately there really aren't any good highlights to this race.

Around 12 minutes along I starting feeling pretty good, but at around 15 minutes I felt totally dead. Luckily that only lasted a minute or so and after that I was just "race tired". I pushed hard for the last mile but it just didn't feel like I could accelerate. You can see how hard I was working in the photo as I approach the finish, and also how worn out I looked immediately afterwards. However, within 15 minutes I was feeling recovered! Apparently I didn't run fast enough...


Almost there! Pushing hard down the final stretch to the finish... and not smiling.

Sadly, when I finished there was nobody nearby that I could chase to the tape - I love sprinting out a contested finish but the nearest competitors were about 25 yards ahead and behind me. Speaking of my competitiveness, only two women finished ahead of me! :)


Recovering just after the finish... whew!

Race headquarters was at the nearby high school and I used the locker room there to change into street clothes since Amanda and I had to head directly to the Grand Rapids Museum for an adoption event, helping out Vicky's Pet Connection. Our foster dog Joyce was there along with two others. I'll leave it to Amanda to tell that story.

Amanda isn't a big fan of running in cold weather, but she was tired of riding the stationary bike, too. We finally decided to "sneak" her into the fitness center at work - technically they don't want employees to bring family members there since it's a small facility, but who's going to be there early Sunday morning? Nobody, as it turned out - we arrived at 8am to a dark, empty fitness center and hopped on two of the treadmills. Amanda convinced me to bring my iPod, which was a good idea.

It's not often I get to run next to Amanda for any significant length of time, so this was pretty fun for me - we were running for an hour. Her plan was to alternate running and walking every five minutes, but she got bold and ran the entire last 15 minutes! I think she went 4.0 miles in 60 minutes via 25 minutes walking and 35 running, which is an impressive workout for her.

My plan initially was to run easy, about a 9:00 pace. However after 2.0 miles it was feeling too easy so I began incrementing the treadmill speed every mile. At 5.0 miles I was at an 8:30 pace and feeling strong so I got impatient and started ratcheting up the speed more frequently and in larger jumps. Soon I was running 7:30, then 7:00, and finally I ran a 6:00 pace for minutes 56:30 through 59:00, then ran the last minute at an 8:00 pace. I swear, the faster I ran the better I felt - almost as though I were designed to be a sprinter? I crossed the imaginary finish line of 7.1 miles in 60:19, an overall ~8:30 pace which for that distance is fast for me, but I don't feel overly worn out. Cool!

We rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Burger King, then did grocery shopping and finally headed back out to pick up our latest foster dog Joyce! She's been a real sweetie so far.

I took the day off from work to give myself a longer holiday weekend, and decided to do my weekly long run today instead of the usual Saturday or Sunday. I planned for about 12 miles but ran out of time before Amanda and I had to pick up a couple dogs from the vet for Vicky's Pet Connection, so my run only lasted 9 miles.

Both Haven and Beacon joined me for the run and they got pretty tired, but they tired me out, too - it's hard to manage two dogs using two leashes while running! At least on the trails they were able to run off-leash. In order to give them access to water, I detoured down an old two-track that's strewn with giant downed trees that I had to climb over rather than "steeple-chase" over. This is important because once the dogs and I left the river, I got stung by a hornet on the elbow! OWWW!! They kept chasing me so I flat out sprinted back up the two-track, somehow jumping and clambering over the massive tree obstacles.

My run ended when I met up with Amanda, who was walking our foster dog Ella. Amanda left just five minutes after I did and had trekked 5 miles already, and then we walked the last 2 miles home together. While walking home, wouldn't you know that Haven got stung by a yellow jacket! Right on her front leg - I had to use my foot to knock it off her. She was clearly in pain when it stung her, but the little trooper didn't complain once we resumed walking.

A 9-mile run isn't terribly long, but it helped that I had the 2-mile walk at the end of it. My big 50-mile race is just two weeks away, so next week's long run might be just a long hike to ensure that my legs are rested up for the long day of running. Just a few more miles of training until I (hopefully!) add a cool 50 to my training log!

Today's long run was shorter than usual because Amanda and I wanted to take some batting practice before heading over to the local animal shelter to pick up our new foster dog, Ella. I was planning to run 12 miles but wound up doing just 9.25 to make sure we had enough time for softball.

The cool thing about this run was that I ran a 10:30 pace for the first four miles, but then started feeling good and ran the last 5+ miles at a 9:20 pace! Negative split! Amanda arrived at the local park just five minutes after I did, so I changed into my softball cleats and stepped onto the field.

I must've been a bit tired, or maybe just out of practice, but my swing was UGLY. I can't remember any ball that I hit really well, at least right handed. My second series of swings I took lefty and made some pretty good contact. When I play softball I bat and throw right-handed, but I'm fairly capable left-handed and I have a smoother swing from the left side. Often times I'll bat lefty just to remind my right side how to swing a bat!

We didn't have any big plans for Saturday other than dropping off our foster dog at an adoption event for Vicky's Pet Connection. The event went well because Darva got adopted and we got a new foster Marty. It was what happened on our way back home from dropping off Darva that changed the day's (lack of) plans.

The drive home took us through Ada and as we skirted the quaint downtown, we noticed a main road was closed off. It seemed like a parade was getting underway until we saw the "floats" fly by - a group of cyclists with bib numbers pinned to their team jerseys. It was a bike race!

The event was the Ada Criterium, a series of ten bike races sanctioned by the US Cycling Federation and also serving as the Michigan criterium state championships. Riders of all abilities, even pro, were competing. It was about 12:30pm, so we found a parking space and found a place to watch along the sidewalk.

The race course was simply a 0.8-mile loop on the downtown streets and there were very few spectators. That isn't to say it wasn't crowded, because the sidewalks near the start/finish line were full of cyclists and their friends and family. We watched the men's Cat 4 race at 12:40 where the riders race 30 minutes plus 5 laps; they ride the 30 minutes at whatever pace the peloton feels like, but once the time is up then there's automatically 5 laps to go.

We chatted with a few volunteers who informed us that the premier race of the day would take place at 4:50pm with the Cat 1-2 (and pro) men. They neglected to tell us that the pro and Cat 1-2 women were racing next at 1:30pm! So after watching just one race we drove home to take care of some errands and grab lunch. Soon we were on the road again, heading to Vicky's to pick up our next foster dog, Marty. Then, we were back at the races.

The elite men's race was 80 minutes plus 5 laps, so we decided to walk around the entire course (it's only 0.8 miles, remember) during the race to watch from every possible angle! It was just like going for a stroll on the neighborhood sidewalk with a pack of VERY FAST cyclists humming past every 100 seconds or so.

While walking near the start/finish area I ran into David, a guy I'd met twice before. The first time was back in February while running on the North Country Trail near my house - he was running, too! We said hi, but didn't introduce ourselves until we happened to meet at the bookstore during the Dean Karnazes book signing! He's a triathlete and recently completed the Lake Placid Ironman in a little over 12 hours, a very solid time - at least I think it is, but I've never done a triathlon before. Maybe someday...

David stayed to take some photos while Amanda and I continued our circuit of the race loop. We talked with one volunteer whose son finished 3rd in the junior men's race, and another volunteer couple who had a son in the last race, the Cat 3 men. At one point a police officer, whose job was to keep the public OFF the race course, nearly got nailed by the race leader when he tried to cross the road without looking! I felt bad for the rider who had to shout "Watch out!" and swerve when he was doing his best to attack the peloton.

Finally the race was over, won by a local rider, and Amanda and I decided to go home. Not without a couple souvenirs - the sponsor Ada Bike Shop was selling nice water bottles for $3 each! It was our first time watching an organized road bike race and it was quite thrilling - the speed, the strategic tactics, the competition! It made me feel like racing, and I'm not even a "roadie"! But I'll stick to running and adventure racing for now.

Several weeks ago my wife and I took one of our foster dogs, Bella, to the local vet to get her health certificate updated. The vet who checked out Bella was Dr. Bruce Langlois, owner of the Lowell Animal Hospital. He proclaimed Bella to be perfectly healthy, and then we chatted a bit about running.

See if you can follow this chain... Back in March I went for a run with Dean Karnazes, who was in town for a book signing thanks to a guy named Don Kern, the director of the Grand Rapids Marathon. One day I was reading Don's blog and was surprised to find an entry about Bruce! So I asked Bruce about Don during our visit with Bella, leading to Bruce inviting me to join him and some running buddies on their weekly Saturday morning run. Finally on July 19, I took him up on the offer.

There's a group of runners who show up to Townsend Park at 8:00am every Saturday to go for a run. However, Bruce and a friend of his named Dave like to get started early at 6:00am! So I dragged myself out of bed ready for a hard run because these two guys like to go FAST. At least, fast relative to me. They were planning on 8-minute miles for 13 miles! I wasn't sure I could do that but I figured I'd be close and might as well try.

Well, I can't run quite that fast. After about 4 miles I dropped a few yards behind them on a long hill, and each hill after that put them farther ahead. Luckily they were planning a stop around halfway at Bruce's lake cabin to grab a drink of water, so I caught up to them there. Five minutes later we were off again, and after a mile I just couldn't hang with them. They went on ahead and I eventually stumbled back to Townsend Park, but not that far behind them - I ran 8:30 miles! A good run for me.

Last Saturday I was back at Townsend Park, but this time at 7:00am. I ran for half an hour on the trails, then rested up and waited for the 8:00am crowd to show up since they run at a slower pace than Bruce and Dave. A little after 7:30am those two came striding into the parking lot, having finished their 13-miler at a 7:30 pace! As it turned out, however, only two guys showed up for the 8:00am group run - Andy and John. I was looking to run 12 miles, but Andy and John were planning on less. We started off together but after 3 miles Andy turned around (to run 6) and then after 4 miles John turned back (to finish with 8) while I pressed on alone.

The next few miles were miserable, not because of my fitness because I felt fine, but because of the hordes of deer files! I was getting swarmed and even bitten a few times. Then to make matters worse I started to run out of water! Even though it was early in the morning the temperature was already into the 80's with a forecast high in the mid 90's. I turned toward the main two-lane highway for two reasons: 1) I figured there would be fewer deer flies than on the tree-shrouded dirt roads, and 2) I needed to find somewhere to refill my empty water bottle.

As it happens, my aunt and uncle live along that main road but when I ran by they weren't home. No problem, though, because just another mile down the road is a convenience store where I was able to refill my water bottle. However, I had already dehydrated and was forced to walk soon after leaving the store. I walked about a mile and then started feeling better and managed to run the remaining 2 miles back to the park. Boy was it HOT that day! I drank three bottles of water over 15 total miles of running, which is twice what I normally drink.

Now I've gotta run - literally. I still need to go running this evening. Today was the hottest of the year, reaching 98 degrees a few hours ago and it's still in the lower 90's right now (7:30pm) so it'll be an interesting run. I'm planning to take one of my dogs with me, so I'll be carrying two water bottles - one for me, one for Haven, plus a little water bowl for her to drink from. Gotta keep her hydrated, too!

Saturday night's forecasted high for Sunday was 97 degrees! I made sure to set my alarm to wake up early enough to get a head start on the heat for Sunday's long run. I set out at 6:45am and the sun was just peeking above the treetops.

Unlike most training runs, I had no route planned out this time. My only plan was to run for 4-5 hours at a slow pace and end up close enough to home that Amanda wouldn't get too mad at having to come pick me up once I eventually bonked! Although my reason for going slow was to avoid bonking. :)

It was a comfortable 68 degrees when I set foot out the door and the sun was low enough that I didn't need my sunglasses for almost the entire first hour on the roads. I basically headed south for a while, then headed west for a while. I made sure to drink and eat plenty and to keep my level of effort down at a manageable level. To do this I had to walk up the steeper uphill sections to ensure my heart rate didn't go too high.

The first two hours went by like a breeze and even after three hours I was feeling pretty good. By then, however, I could feel the fatigue so I reminded myself to eat and drink and gave myself a couple extra walking breaks. At four hours I was still feeling OK except that my stomach was full and it was hard to keep drinking enough water. Finally after 4:30 I called Amanda for a ride home since I was still an hour away by foot, and she picked me up after 4:43 worth of running (and walking) that covered 21.7 miles.

I lost about 6 lbs during the run, drank 2.5 L of water, and ate about 650 calories. I wonder if I could've (or should've) eaten more? I definitely could've drank more considering my weight loss but my body seemed to be running low on calories more than anything else. Nevertheless, it was very effective training and I enjoyed the entire run!

When we got home Amanda immediately took off to pick up some Subway subs while I filled the bathtub with cold water and epsom salt to soak my sore legs. Actually they didn't feel too bad but I wanted to stave off any further soreness. Plus, I really needed to cool off because the temperature had soared to a humid 88 degrees! Good thing I started early.

At Amanda's suggestion, I locked our foster puppy Sue in the bathroom with me so that I could keep on eye on him. No sooner had I turned on the shower when I heard a KLUNK and turned to see Sue trying to climb out of the tub! He got soaked by the shower, but this didn't deter him. Even with a tub full of water he kept jumping in to join me but then hopping right back out to avoid the cold water! What a dufus. Luckily for Sue, he got adopted later that day!

My alarm clock went off at 5:00am Saturday morning to ensure that I would have plenty of time to drive up north. Striders, a local running store, was hosting a casual training run on the very course where their North Country Trail Run will take place this September. Since I'm planning to compete in that race, I thought I would take Striders up on their offer to join them for a run.

It was a beautiful morning to go for a 2.5 hour drive. A bright red sun was just peeking above the treeline as the nearly empty highway allowed me to enjoy the scenery. Low areas of the countryside were delicately covered by an airy blanket of fog. I kept wishing I had brought a camera but it's probably better that I didn't because somebody had to drive!

The trails are located roughly halfway between Manistee and Cadillac within the Manistee National Forest at a trail system called Big M. All of the signs there describe it as a network of cross-country ski trails, but with a forecasted high temperature of 80 degrees these trails were going to see other uses today.

14 runners of varying ability showed up by 8:30am ready to go. Steve (co-owner of Striders with his wife, Deb) briefed us on the trail markings so that we wouldn't get lost and then we were off! Quickly two packs formed: the fast runners and the slow runners. I fell in line with the slow folks, running about a 10-minute pace with five others.

I ran at the end of the line - ahead of me were Deb (Steve's wife), Mary, Don, and another woman named Deb; the four of them were all friends. Just ahead of the five of us was Paul, a 65-year-old guy with 25 years of ultrarunning under his belt! In fact, the four friends had 10-15 years of ultrarunning experience apiece. Then there's me, training for what would be hopefully my first ultra on these trails.

We all talked quite a bit for the first several miles until the first aid station at mile 8, where Steve & Deb had set out some water and Gatorade. We all refilled and then I continued on, deciding not to wait for the foursome to finish "taking care of business" in the woods. I remained at their pace, but now a few hundred yards ahead on the trails with Paul a bit behind the four.

Around mile 10 I stopped to dump some trail debris out of my shoes and the talkative foursome passed me by. A couple miles later I developed a sharp cramp on my left side so I took a few minutes to walk it off, during which time Paul passed me. Feeling better I started up again, but it wouldn't last.

Within just a few minutes I was feeling exhausted and light-headed. I even dropped my water bottle - it just fell out of my hand as if I were falling asleep on my feet! Clearly I was bonking, which was very surprising because 13 miles was WAAAY too soon for me to be bonking at that pace. In fact, I had already drank over 1.5 bottles of water - during my training runs at home I'd never been able to consume more than one bottle on a 14.4 mile run.

I downed the rest of my water - 2.5 bottles thus far - and tried to move on but couldn't maintain a running stride. My blood pressure must've been low, too, because I would nearly faint if I stood up from a squat and my ears were ringing. Yet the entire time, I was never upset. Quite the contrary, I was enjoying myself despite having to walk.

One good reason for having fun is that the trails are just spectacular! The entire route winds through deep forest - mostly hardwoods and occasionally some pines. The trees kept most of the bright sun at bay, but the views were still great because the ground cover was short. Ferns dominated the ground and prevented almost anything other than trees to grow, so I could see quite far through the woods. It reminded me of the Return of the Jedi when the speeder bikes were dashing through the forest of Endor.

Finally I reached the 15 mile mark with an aid station. I drank a full bottle of water at once, and decided to take the short 1 mile track back to the start to complete my 16 mile run. I had thought about running the 25 or 20 mile routes but in my current condition there was no point in running farther. While is was disappointing (and confusing) to have bonked so early, I was thrilled at being able to down 3+ bottles of water without feeling sick; in the past I would've been lucky to finish off even one!

I was the fourth runner back to the parking lot, where the three others had also run just 16 miles. Soon two runners appeared who had just finished the 25 mile course in a very fast time. Then the friendly foursome showed up, having run 20 miles. Eventually the remaining runners trickled in, the rest all running 25 miles. We all sat around for a while eating and drinking, recovering and of course, talking.

One of the runners there is quite an accomplished ultrarunner - Jeff Christian has completed five 100-milers and even won one of them in a time of less than 18 hours. This guy is also planning to run a 220 mile route across Michigan later this summer!

All good things must end, and it was time to head home. It was a great time to reflect upon the day - it's amazing just how FUN running can be when you're out running beautiful trails and meeting new people. The weather was perfect, too. I reminded myself to try and find other trails to "explore" via running. Spending time in that part of Michigan made me wish we had a cottage up there. I wonder what it would take for Amanda and I to make it work?...

Halfway home I stopped in Big Rapids to pick up some Jimmy Johns subs for dinner for myself and Amanda. She had spent most the day at Petsmart with Vicky, working an adoption event for Vicky's Pet Connection. We helped clean up and haul some supplies over to Vicky's, then headed home to finally eat our dinner. Ahhhh, food!

Last weekend Amanda and I volunteered at an adventure race at Ionia State Rec Area. The race is called the GRAAR Spring Adventure Challenge, a 6-hour race geared towards beginners. GRAAR is the Grand Rapids Area Adventure Racing group, the local AR club that I occasionally train with. One of the club's founders, Mike, was a one-man race director, doing nearly all of the organization and planning by himself. Pretty impressive, and the race went smoothly! My job was to help out at the canoe put-in with another GRAAR member plus two of Mike's sisters. We helped unload the 40 aluminum canoes, lined them up by the launch area on the river, and instructed all racers to "park your bikes in the woods, grab paddles and life jackets, and don't forget to punch your passport". During the canoe unloading while holding a canoe over my head, the guy on the other end twisted it the opposite way I was expecting, resulting in me falling to the ground with the canoe landing on top of me! I was OK, just a bruised knee as it turned out. We had great weather for the race - in the 50s - and of course there was pizza at the post-race awards ceremony! If anyone wants to try adventure racing, this is the event to get your feet wet (both figuratively and literally!)

This weekend we adopted out our foster dog. We've been going thru foster dogs like runny nose goes thru kleenexes - you can read all about them on Amanda's site. Down to just two dogs, I decided to let them have some fun and come running with me. This week's training plan was a 20+ miler and neither dog has gone over 14 miles before. I didn't feel like pounding my joints on pavement for such a long distance, so I figured out a good trail run. My usual route on the NCT near home is an out-and-back that covers 11.6 miles, which I've done with the dogs before. This time I did it with both dogs - I ran out and back with Beacon, and upon returning home I switched dogs and went out and back again, this time with Haven. Boy did they get tired, but I think I was the worst for wear! 23.2 miles, just 3 short of a marathon, and entirely on hilly, muddy trails. Once finished, I quickly showered and then took a nap on the floor for half an hour! Then Amanda and I went out to Pizza Hut since we earned it. Oh yeah, during my run Amanda went out and ran, too - she ran one mile, walked a half mile, ran another mile, and walked a final half mile for a total workout of 3 miles. It was the first time she's ever run two miles in one day in her entire life!