The Big Dam Bridge and more....

I've been a lazy blogger, well maybe more busy than lazy but either way I can't believe I haven't written about the BDB yet.
It was awesome... The weather was perfect for a bike ride, maybe a little cold at the beginning but once the sun came out it warmed up nicely. I was riding with Brenda, Vicki, Bruce, Linda and Charlotte. Pretty much Brenda, Vic, Bruce and I stayed together for the whole ride and Linda and Charlotte would ride ahead and wait for us at the aid stations.
Ahhh the aid stations now those were great!! I wish I could go on 50 mile bike rides like that more often! The first aid station in Cooks landing we stopped but I only had time to use the port a pottie and skipped the food drink, it was early and I didn't really need anything yet. Maumelle aid station had the BEST EVER pickles, seriously I love pickles and these were the best I have ever had... Brenda agreed with me and we told everyone who would listen how great they were!!
Mayflower also had a great aid station,while we were there we had homemade cookies some of them fresh out of the oven/ The aid station was set up in a Church parking lot and they went all out for us. I made sure to drink gatorade at each aid station but I didn't really drink enough water although I didn't have any ill effects from lack of water, nor did I have any ill effects from mixing pickles cookies and gatorade believe me that is a bit of a minor miracle!!! Brenda counted how many cookies she ate and I think I had about the same amount if not one or two more but I'm not going to tell how many it was ;) I will tell you I had 6 or 7 pickle spears.. the big one's!
This ride was a lot of fun but it wasn't all fun and games and eating! There were plenty of hills, lot's of rough roads etc. but we had a blast and I was surrounded by great people. Vicki made the hill's easier, about half way up she would yell out HILL, for some reason that always made me laugh and that would help me breath better.
After our ride was over we headed to the Wyndham to change clothes and then over to Creegan's Irish pub for some lunch. With all the pickles and cookies I wasn't really that hungry just wanted some real food so I had a tuna salad croissant and some fruit, the sandwich was great, the fruit not so much.
We ran into Jame's (Gabby's husband) he was relaxing at the bar and I forced him to come sit with us he is a super nice guy and boy is he proud of all of Gabby's accomplishments!
We headed out to the finish line and waited.. and waited... and waited some more for all of our 100 milers to finish. We didn't mind and it was great to watch people finish knowing what they had just accomplished!!
I was especially happy to see Arland, Rock, Gary and Curtis all ride in together and of course Gabby her face was just priceless as she approached the finish line and what a great hug I got afterwards!!

I think the waiting out in the hot sun took more out of me than the ride did or maybe it was the combination, all I know is when I got home I was beat and promptly feel asleep on the couch until time to shower and get ready to go out to dinner. which wasn't really very long considering it was almost 4:00 by the time we got home and we were going to dinner at 6:30.

Sunday morning we had 16 miles on the schedule, Brenda and I were the only one's who made it for the 6:00am start when I got out of my car she looked at me and said I am exhausted!! I was so relieved to hear her say that because I was feeling beat myself and just didnt' know how I was going to do 16 miles. We decided that we would make it a back down week, no set mileage was discussed but we did say around 11 or 12. We ran the first 5 together and I had to make an emergency bathroom trip in the first 2 miles but after that we were just cruising along. We ran back to the elementary school at 7:00 and Cindy C, Lisa F, and Jane were waiting for us along with Bill and Aracelly.
Jane had run the Arkansas 20K the day before and had gotten sick during the race... she had a similar experience to my Lila loop/Ballard rd. long run from a couple weeks ago. Her stomach was bothering her and she was having breating problems..... so when we started up I said let's just take this easy! When Brenda and I ran the first 5 miles we didnt' take our fuel belts because it was cool and we knew we would be back at the school in a couple of miles, when we got back I strapped mine on but I soon realized no way was I going to be able to wear the darn thing. I swear it felt like it weighed 20 pounds, so I ran back to the church across from the school and stashed it under a bush... what a relief. We kept a nice steady pace nothing fast but no lollygagging around either and no walk breaks, we ended up with 5 miles and I decided 10 miles was good enough for the day and at a 10:07 avg pace. I finished feeling really good and knowing that I could have run more. The run really energized me and i did feel bad later that I didn't push it and run further like Brenda she ended up with 14.
After having some breakfast and laying around on the couch for a little while watching Biggest Loser (I love wattching that show after a good run) I showered changed and went to Magness to pick up Kylie and Livia. We went to Target and to "Star-Books" Kylie's name for the starbuck's inside Barnes and Noble. We headed over to the kids section and let her play and read for an hour or so. It was hard to say good-bye to them when it was time to take them home.

Monday night Jane and I met at Michele's house and ran 6 miles together, we started off with a walk to help Jane's shin's warm up adn then a slow jog... it didn't take too long for her to warm up and we ran a good pace again not fast but not too slow either.. no walk breaks, towards the end Jane's leg started bothering her a little again :( all those darn hills on Saturday and Sunday!
The timing was perfect for me to end my run with Jane and start running with Michele and her gang (Timmy & Karen) my goal for the night was 10 miles, I guess I was trying to compensate for having shortened my long run on Sunday. The last 4 was a slower pace until the last .75 and then Michele joined me and we pushed the pace until I hit 10 miles. The awesome thing was that I felt like I could keep running all night!

Tuesday ended up being another "Tuesday with Kylie" we had fun at the "kid's running clinic" and then we headed over to the Martin house to have some fun. Poor Kylie was so tired by the time I got her home at 7:35! She did not want me to leave and ended up having a bit of a meltdown, but I blame that on being overtired.

This morning Kelly and I met Jamie (coach O) and her friend Erin at the Community center. Jamie is a fast runner she is just a natural and I was a little worried about being able to keep up with her, but we ended up having a great run, we all stayed together and finsihed 4 miles in 39:30. Our first mile was a 10:25 and then 2 and 3 were in the 9:38 range with mile 4 being our fastest at a 9:24. Kelly and I added on another mile after that but it was not a great mile, I ended up having stomach issues probably because of that big drink of water that I took after we got back to the CC parking lot, it hit my empty stomach like a ton of bricks and there was a lot of leg crossing and cussing going on!

I miss Arland he is in St. Louis for business meetings all week, but my friends have been great about making sure I'm not lonely or hungry! LOL

Tomorrow will be a double.. I am meeting the girls to run in the morning and then I am going to meet Vic and Jane for Hill repeats in the evening. Double the pleasure Double the fun!