Beach to Bay Marathon Relay

I'm a little behind in posting - and, really, everything.  I was going to catch up on EVERYTHING this weekend, but I got tired and, well, this happened Friday night/Saturday morning...

Yeah, that purple section in the center - that's me.  We got around 12 inches of rain in 24 hours.  And San Antonio does not know what to do with rain...

 that's a city bus - about 1.5 miles from my house

and US 281 - about 2 miles from the house.  It didn't open until early evening on Monday.

So, while I'm paddling/drying out - here are the ugly pics from the Beach to Bay Marathon Relay on May 18, 2013 - from Padre Island to Corpus Christi, TX.  It was HOT - and I ran the last leg, after sweltering in the sun in the middle of a park for about 3 hours.  (I know, I'll be running in 100+ degree temps soon and laughing the whole way - or maybe just running - but May is always a difficult acclimatizing time.)  All the better to make some funny finish line pics....

that's a bit of crazy running chicken

but I didn't want to leave other birds out - so here's a little goose-step

And here, the buzzards were circling this full-out crazy running chicken.

Thanks to MV Productions, WOAI, and TransDOT for the pics.

Ragnar Cape Cod

Even though I may have mentioned that I'd never do a crazy 200-mile, 2 day relay again, I rejoined my teammates from team Don't Tell Deb in Massachusetts for the Ragnar Cape Cod relay on the first weekend of May.  We ran from Hull to Provincetown, Massachusetts on May 3-4 - almost 200 miles.  And it was WINDY, but fun.

home for two days - Van 2
(when not running)...

Channeling the Crazy Running Chicken, while fighting the headwind, on my last leg

My next costume for Dia de los muertos?  ELECTRIC crazy running chicken?
And - Team Don't Tell Deb at the finish

After the race, John and I headed to Nantucket for a day - and saw a seal!

Sally Seeker likes seeing seals on the seashore.

We're already semi-planning the next relay...

Thanks to Team Don't Tell Deb, John, Tara, Alyssa, Erin, and Mike for the pics and great time!

I don't know why I'm always so tired

Well, maybe last weekend will explain.  First, there was the Zoo Relay on Friday night - it's a 4 x 2 mile relay - with part of the route going by the alligators.

Here's most of the Brak Pak contingent.

The next morning, I ran with my buddy, Lorie, in her retirement run at McAllister Park - she's retiring after 33 years in the USAF.

Then, I frantically cleaned the house, chopped, peeled, cooked, etc. for wine book club.  Which brought on Sunday - and rain - and muddy dogprints across my clean floors.

Sunday morning was the Loteria 5k at Brackenridge park.  I dressed as Loteria card #33 - La araña

For those of you who don't know -- this is ironic, since I LOATHE spiders.  We have a hate-hate relationship.  I once took a bite out of one, and she took a bite out of me - landing me in the hospital (dumb black widows).  Disclaimer - I was 9 months old and everything on the floor was food.

So now, when I see a spider, I usually douse it with the hose - until it writhes in the water - like this:

Then, just before it shrivels up and dies, it looks about like this:

Maybe I'll be nicer to spiders.  Or I'll just give them a beer after the dousing - it helped me perk back up.

Then I went home, dried off, mopped up dogprints, and cooked some more - for my feast of Michoacán book club - and it was tasty, but I was TIRED.

Thanks to Ceci, Victor, and Scottydog (below) for the pics.

Catching up

I sure love 3-day weekends - I get a chance to (try to) catch up on everything.  So, here's what's been happening. 

Last weekend was the Beach to Bay Marathon Relay from North Padre Island to Corpus Christi.  It was a hot one - I ran/limped the 2nd leg of 6 and the Brak Pak Chiks finished in under 5 hours.

Here I am at the start of the leg on the beach - on my bad knee, thinking "man, this is going to hurt."  It did. 

But I made it and rested my knee on the beach. 

Then, this weekend, I ran the Witte Museum Boot Scoot 5k fun run - it also hurt, but was fun.

 Awards - I did not win any of those - because I do not own a pair of cowboy boots in which to boot scoot.

Then I tried to tackle the jungle that is my back yard and tried to nurse my cardiac cat, Vaca, back to health.  In my jungle-tackling, I was really looking for a heart transplant donor wildcat (not really).

Thanks to Ceci, IAAP, Scottydog, and Brightroom for the pics

Carrabbas HM Relay

For the Carrabbas half marathon relay, it was hot and humid, as it has been all Summer.  Oh, wait, it isn't summer yet - it's just felt like that since February.  Here I am before the race with my buddy Paige.

I was running the 4th and final leg, so I volunteered to cut off race chips in the exchange chute - but first, a little flag holding.  This would probably be a good time to remind you that my birthday is July 4th and you can start bringing me presents next week, when I will commence my month-log birthday celebration!

There were no actual ugly running pics of me from this run - my photogs were probably already enjoying chicken marsala, pasta, and salad by the time I ran (I don't blame them - that's the highlight of this run)!

I spent the rest of the day napping and trying desperately to rehydrate before today's 9 miler.  It kind of worked.

Thanks to Tom Lake from SARR and Ceci from www.iaapweb.com for the pics!

Beach to Bay Marathon Relay

Well, this year was tough and hot.  Especially since I ran the 4th leg on the Naval Air Station and my 5th leg runner was not at the exchange point.  Eek.  But then, we got to enjoy the beach - here's before the race

and dinner with buddies from work - who, with the exception of Alexis, just came down to party (not a bad idea at all, really).  More pics will follow.  Here's the race report from the Corpus Christi Caller Times

Beach to Bay Relay Marathon: More feet, more street, more heat


CORPUS CHRISTI — Among the multitude gathered at the 36th Beach to Bay Relay Marathon finish, many runners talked about heat and suffering.


"I was dying," said Garrett Gregory, 29, of Lubbock. "This town is hot."

It was 79 degrees for the 7 a.m. race, which because of flooded beaches started on Park Road 22 on Padre Island. The 90 percent humidity made it feel like 83 degrees.

"I was hurting bad," Gregory's teammate, Thomas Adams, 22, agreed.

Runners dropped every few minutes from dehydration and heat exhaustion beginning about 7:45 a.m., with half a dozen down at the same time on Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, medical staff confirmed. One runner collapsed at the finish line about 11:15 a.m. and was carried by fellow runners and medical workers to an ambulance.

By noon the downtown temperature was 84, with humidity of 61 percent making it feel like 90.

In all, seven people were taken to the hospital.

Corpus Christi Fleet Feet Elite won for the second time in three years with a finish time about 9 minutes faster than last year at 2 hours, 17 minutes and 34 seconds.

There were 2,575 teams this year. That's 219 more teams than last year for an additional 1,314 runners.

That's a lot of feet as one volunteer learned on Saturday. Eric Willingham, 14, a student at John Paul II High School, sat watch over a killdeer's nest for more than two hours to keep it from being trampled near the foot of JFK Bridge.

Organizers of the 36th Beach to Bay Relay Marathon estimate that with runners, their family members, volunteers, sponsors and visitors from McGee Beach as many as 25,000 people packed McCaughan Park for the event's after party.

The only glitch in the new location was organizers finding they only had about 10 amps of electricity at McCaughan Park.

"That's about enough for a vacuum cleaner and microwave without blowing a fuse," said race director Doug McBee Jr. "We brought in a big diesel generator at the last minute."

He expects the new finish location to be permanent.

"We're not going back to Cole Park. It's better finishing along the seawall, but we will go back to the beach to start. Mother Nature just bit us this year."

Zoo and 20

Wow, this is going to be a crazy weekend.  Tomorrow night is the 26th 'animal' Zoo Relay - and this year, we actually run through the zoo!  And check this out - Dingo was 'featured' on the tshirt!

Saturday morning, I'm volunteering for the Kids' zoo runs, then heading into work for some overtime.  And Sunday is my last 20 miler - eek.  And, sometime in there, I will eat, sleep, clean, and mow.  sometime.

Beach to Bay Crazy Wet Chicken

The day started out with 99.9999999% humidity when Bernice ran down, then back up the beach and handed off the baton to me.   Then, I took off like a flash.  Or like a crazy chicken running in the sand.  As I took the right turn on SPID, the 52 mph wind gusts hit.  Then, about 1/2 mile later, the pouring rain came.  And continued for the next 4-5 miles before I handed off to Debbie.  It was tough - I think there was some hail in there too, but it could have just been the wind driving the raindrops into me.  I had my hat pulled down as low as possible and kept my head down.

So, here are my Brightroom.com pics of me as the Crazy Wet Chicken.