Women's Race FAIL

Well, I would have posted spectacular pics of me chugging up hills like a funky chicken at today's Women's 5k.  However, the doc gave me a shot of Tramadol for my piriformis/hip pain late yesterday and it KNOCKED ME OUT.  I fell asleep on the couch without dinner and woke up around midnight.  Then, I laid out my race clothes and put some water in the fridge and re-crashed in bed - only to wake up an hour or so after the race started.  I guess I'll just deal with the pain instead of side effects :(

In other news, look who's back for a 2-month stay:

Yep, it's the real slim shady - Driver the tail-less military foster cat.

And another one of my favorite inspirational videos

Since I now figured out how to embed these - albeit cut off on the right side.  Here is one of my favorite videos from FancyBoy Productions.

Ah, step down week

After a tough week last week, this is a stepdown week in marathon training, which always reminds me how fun it is to run. 5 miles, even in heat and humidity, feels 'easy.' (remind me I typed that when I'm whining next week) Anyway, this was a run with Brak Pak - and I had "Ali in the Jungle" running through my brain the whole run (even without the MP3 player).

Here is the Nike Human Chain commercial with that song in it. 

Celebrating another 25 or so years

What a nice birthday weekend!  On Friday, I joined up with folks for the First Friday Cruiser ride - starting with shrimp lasagna at Guillermo's, then riding down to the Alcapulco Drive in for frosty beverages, and then to the Friendly Spot for some more libations.  Saturday morning, I ran 12 miles with buddies out of Run Wild at the Pearl Brewery.  It was a tough run in 99.99% humidity, dodging AA conventioneers downtown. 

On Sunday - my 25thagain birthday - I slowly ran the Freedom Day 4 miler out at the National Shooting Range.  It was a tough run with heavy legs and an uphill finish.  Here I am slogging through the run

And here's me phoning in the finish - I wouldn't want to be out of breath at the end, after all.

And contemplating the fact that I came in 20th in the age group!

After a shower and a birthday nap, I headed to Adrian and Darlene's house for fish/pickle/shrimp/jalapeno/onion fry and partying.  From their hill country mansion, we could see no fewer than 10 firework shows on the horizon (various Hill Country towns, Fiesta TX, etc.), along with Adrian's own show from down the hill. 

Thanks to Tom Lake and R.U.N. for the pics.  Thanks to all my buddies for the running miles and birthday fun!