The hay is in the barn.

It's tapering time at the Martineau Tribe.

This past weekend I ran my last double workout of the season. Saturday I ran the Cougar Mt. 13.1 miler. And on Sunday I ran part of the 2ND loop of the Plain 100 course, about 38 miles.

Saturday's race went well. I started off fast as to not get stuck in the dreaded Congo line (that back-up of runners that stretches from here to Africa). I pushed hard the whole race. I broke down into a walk a few times because it was faster or I was stuck behind someone. I had one Gel, on a downhill section about 5 miles into the race. While hauling ass and sucking on the gel, I hit my head on a tree that was across the trail about 6 feet high. It knocked me back on my rear-end and the string of F-bombs lasted about 5 minutes. Damn that hurt. I don't know how I wasn't bleeding all over the trail. Seeing stars slowed me down for a while but after that I was determined to catch back up to where I was. I did. My goal for this race has always been to break 2 hours. This was my 4Th attempt. When I got to Red Town I looked at my watch and saw the I had just under 10 minutes to cover the last .9 miles, all of which was uphill. I figured it would take me 15 minutes if I ran most of it (it's a really steep hill). I almost gave up a few times but I didn't. I covered the distance up the trail and across the finish in nine minutes finishing in 1:59:25. I was 20Th overall, 20Th male, and 7Th old guy (over 40).

Sunday I was up before the Sun for the long ride out to Plain. It was a nice day out there, partly sunny but a bit chilly in the wind at 6000 feet. We ran the loop in just under 8 1/2 hours.

I stopped here to try and catch some sun but I was too cold and actually had to put my jacket on.




I saw about a dozen of these birds.


I'm ready to race.