I Got Lost On A Run...

Yeah, this happened. let me set the scene for you with a little background information.

It was Fall break 2014, and we were headed back to my hometown of Fort Smith AR, for a few days seeing family and then hanging out at the lake. We were planning on fishing, cooking out, having a fire, shooting guns and turtles and just having a blast (which we did). This was all going down on the weekend, Friday through Sat evening.


One of my favorite pictures of me and the "Bigs"

We got to town on Wednesday afternoon after stopping to see my folks at their work and then got to hang out with my sister and her family that night eating pizza. Thursday was a good day as my wife and I went to Ben Geren Park and ran together. We found this fitness trail that was a huge circular path with these little stations for you to do push ups and other exercises. So the wife and I ran 4 miles on it, almost 3 loops. Good run!

Earlier in the week, I had posted on FB if anyone in Ft Smith knew of good places to run, and one of the replies I got was from a guy I had graduated with, he had also just completed his 1st Ironman in July. So we made plans, along with another guy he knew, to meet up at Ft Chaffee, an old ARMY training base that is pretty much empty. My plan was to run 4 miles at a nice 9:30ish pace. Well that did not happen.

I am not sure what it is, but you get two competitive people together, especially two triathletes together, and things change. I knew for a fact that the 9:30 paces was going out the window and I quickly figured out that 4 mile run was going to be extended also due to the fact hat we just took off running, we had no plan. This is totally unlike me. I normally know how far I am going and where to turn and all that good stuff, but we're Ironman right? Let's just run. Wrong!!! Ft Chaffee is much unchartered waters as far as I am concerned. There is not a lot of traffic or signage along the route, so if you do not know where you are going, well that's tough Sunshine. Our little 4 mile easy pace run turned into a 6.5 mile 60 minute run. Not what I was looking for...

But, it was fun. We had to cut through some fields, make some guesses on where we needed to go and we had swapped some stories. My friend is faster than I am so it was good to be pushed on a run like this. I have always thought how cool it would be to just one day to just go out and run, and while I hated it at the time, I liked it now.

Fall Break was a lot of fun this year. Spending the night with just my wife and boys at he lake in a cabin with no TV or Wi-Fi is something you can do and live! The only way it could have been better is if the rain had stayed away and more family could have made it, but we fished in the rain, and got lost on a run. Good times, good time indeed.

Randomness...

SO here is another random blog post because I really just don't have one thing to talk about, but I want my blog to stay up. So here goes:

• My running is going well. I am about 6-7 weeks out from my half marathon and I feel like I am where I need to be. My long run has been 9 miles to date and it felt pretty good. So I have no doubt on completion, just depends on fast I finish it.
• I had my first visit to Cowboys Stadium in Texas last week. I went to watch my Arkansas Razorbacks play Texas A&M. Great game, but we lost it in OT. The stadium is very cool and the big screen is every bit as impressive as you would think it would be. #WPS
• I am planning on doing four (4) half marathons  through March. The St Jude Half in December, The Fort Smith half in Feb, the LR Half in March and the Germantown Half in late March. It may seem like a lot of running, but as you know, I need to work on running, so this will be good for me.
• While in Texas, I was able to meet up with my Redman rival, Brad D. It was a nice visit and there was not a lot of trash talking until the end. We are doing the LR Half together, so it will be fun running with him. Photo evidence provided...
  
• We are currently on Fall Break with the kids. It has been nice to get away from work for a few days and just hang out.
• Today (Friday) I got to run with a guy a graduated high school with. He recently completed Vineman Tri in July, so we got to meet up and get a run in together and trade stories. We were only scheduled to run 4 miles, but when you run in a non familiar place, sometimes you go longer. We ran 6.5 miles in 1:00:42.
• We went and watched the Equalizer the other night. Great movie!!!

Well that is all for now, hope everyone's training is going well!!! Thanks for reading.