Race directing in SA and how I am seeded

Races have become crowded in San Antonio - and venues have decreased.  So, there is a bit of infighting among race directors, as there apparently always has been.  I try to float, run most races, and not piss anyone off.  I don't want to discount my male compadres, but I have some female race directors who serve as my best sounding boards, gripe sponges, and wonderful allies.  Two of the best are Laura Campa and La Ceci Iniguez.

And, today, while LauraC comes into landing for her race, which will be great --- this was sweet (my bib - I've never been #1 before):

I'm guessing I cannot run like a seeded Kenyan nor figure those calculations on the bib.  But I'll run my first race as numero uno (or I'm Number One, I'm Number One, as my nephews/Dad/sisters say).

Let's all just play nice - no? Namaste (but I'm number one, I'm number one) :)

2-a-day races

This past weekend, I registered for back-to-back races on Saturday - the Street 2 Feet 5k and the Be My Valentine 5k - because I love the Street 2 Feet program at the Haven for Hope, and the race director of the Be My Valentine is my personal favorite shirt printer, race director, artist, and pancake maker.  Really, I just thought I needed more red shirts.

Then, I also volunteered to be a course marshal with the Brak Pak for the Street 2 Feet 5k - thinking I could run in after the last participant, jump on a B-Cycle and make it to the second race.  But I went to law school since my math skills are poor - and I just volunteered the first race and headed to the second (more on that below).

I parked at the SAMA (site of the 2nd race, checked out a B-Cycle, and rode the mile to the start of the first race).  Here's the Brak Pak - ready for course marshal duties..

It was a lovely race, with the best weather the event has experienced.  So, after the last participant passed my post, I ran South for a few blocks to jump back on a B-Cycle to spin up to the next race, since it was too late and I am too slow to finish the race and head back.  Then, I had technical difficulties (note: B-Cycle later fixed the problems and did not charge me for the bad bike/docking station), so I had to run the mile+ to the start of the second race.  It was probably the first time I have ever 'warmed up' for a race and, with my buddy Laura riding her bike in front of me, I felt like a lead runner!

So, onto race two.....

 oh boy, do I look fat!

 with my other favorite fotog - Scottydog - disclaimer:  he DROVE to the second race

 San Antonio Art Museum

And we were off...

 and 3.1 miles later, done...

 looking bad

 looking good

looking bad










looking deflated.  (saddest crazy chicken pose ever)

And after a lovely post-race celebration, we went for lunch at the Luxury - I was really not yet asleep in this picture (I waited until I got home for a nap).

Jeremy Abbott reenacts my Big Bend Fall

I think this is pretty much how I looked, biting it on the trail in Big Bend last month.  Except that I maybe only completed two rotations in the air.  And it was a trail gnome, not a toe pic, that did me in.  And I landed on my left hip.  And I smashed into cacti and rocks, instead of a wall and ice.  But we both got up and finished.  'Cause it's not how you start, it's how you finish....

Winter in South Texas

It's pretty much cold, then hot, then cold, then hot, with a sprinkle of graupel.  Even though I grew up "up North," where we have almost as many words for freezing precipitation as eskimos, this past week was my first encounter with graupel. 

And I find little training value in running in cold, wet, freezy rain (or I'm just a weenie), but I did make it out to the freezy cold Superbowl 7K last weekend.  I was surprised by the number of people who did not understand why it was a 7K - but maybe they were Broncos fans, who did not know how to score 7 points.  It was one of those mornings that started out cold - and became colder.  Wiser folks wore pants.

 

and we're off - at least I remembered (found in the car) gloves.

at least the trees broke the wind - a little.  Afterward, we made friends with this heater, Alamo Beer, and bloody marys.  This, my friends, is why Wisconsinites drink so much beer - cold and Packers not in the Superbowl.  I had to represent my fellow 'sconnies.

Luckily, if you just wait a few days in San Antonio, it becomes 70 degrees.  This morning, I ran Ceci's pancake run - a little get together at her house where "we" run 4-10 miles (me = 4) then eat pancakes.

Of course, another polar front is due in tomorrow....