Mud, mud, and more mud! Shannon

"If they can’t be outside they begin to feel run down and out of their element."

Chinese Astrology - Year of the Horse

I've been having fun in the mud!  First, last weekend, I went for a mountain bike ride on the Olmstead Loop with Linda, Ralph, and Justine.  All three of them are way more experienced than I am MTBing, but they took me under their wing and showed me the way.  OMG - I had so much fun.



Me, Justine, and Linda



Linda, Me, and Ralph



I was covered, head to toe in mud, by the time we were done.  My bike was even muddier.  We had perfect weather for the ride, but it had rained the few days prior and left the trails a muddy mess.  It was awesome.

 

I discovered that I'm a turtle on my bike as well as on my feet.  I was always the last one to get to the top or the bottom of the hill.  Last going up hill cause I usually had to get off and walk (just like my trail runnin) and last going downhill cause I'm a chicken - LOL.



At the bottom of a long downhill, my legs were so tired, I couldn't hold myself up - LOL



At the end of the creek crossing

I even got to ride through a major creek.  It was pretty deep and I watched as the other 3 did it.  Well Ralph got off and carried his bike across cause he didn't want to get it wet - just kidding, he wanted to get across quickly so he could take pics of Linda and I attempting our crossing - LOL.

Ralph carrying his bike across the creek

Toward the end of the ride, we had to go through a really muddy area and you had to try to stay to the far right, well, I missed that far right part and got stuck in the mud, so one foot came off the pedal and went deep into the mud past my ankle.  Well being stuck, I had to get off the bike completely, thereby putting my other foot in the mud.  My feet, when all said and done, looked like I had gone trail running not MTBing. I don't know where my muddy feet pic is, but here's one showing off - LOL

Look Ma, no hands

I can't go on any trail ride or run without enjoying nature and I even got to go on newt patrol.  We also saw a decorated tree out in the middle of nowhere - awesome.

Spiderwebs - beautiful

decorated tree

I love newts

All in all I had a blast and I can't wait to get out there again for some more muddy rides.

Skidmarks - LOL



I've been suffering from quite a few different things.  First off my foot.  I thought I had PF (plantar fasciitis) but it turns out its most likely just a sprain ligament in my heel.  Well with a foot problem, comes a gait change thereby causing my back and hips to be out of alignment, plus with the lack of movement (very limited running) my hips have gotten extremely tight.  So my back has been hurting A LOT!  Plus I've had a shoulder issue for quite some time and my doctor decided it's time I see an orthopedic doc, plus she had me take another x-ray.  My appointment isn't until next week with the ortho doc, but my x-ray has come back with arthritis of the AC joint - WHAT?  I'm too young for arthritis - this is crap!  This must be fixed because I love to workout my upper body, especially shoulders, and I've been limited on what I can do because of the pain in my left shoulder.  The ortho doc better be able to fix it!

So anyways, I digress, over a month ago, before my heel pain, I had scheduled a trail run out on the Quarry Road taking us up Goat Hill.  Now I know I probably shouldn't have gone out there yesterday for that run, but I had 30 people sign up and I needed to get out on the trails.

The group that was still there after the run - love it



We've had some rain for a couple of days and we expected heavy rains for Saturday.  The weather actually held up nicely.  There was only a couple of times where we got a downpour, but for the most part we had only sprinkles or NO rain at all.  The real element battles came on the trails themselves.

Me toward the end of the run, in pain.

When we hit single track we were running in little streams flowing down the single tracks.  Then we would hit the big STREAMS.  During the dry season, these are usually just little streams.  Not yesterday! We had major creek crossings at least 5 times with water up above our knees.  It was fabulous.

Human chains made crossing some of these rushing streams much safer

Pam on one of the crossings

The best way I can share yesterday's run is to share some of the comments by other runners:



First from my fellow Trail Turtle, Pam: “ Absolutely an EPIC run in EVERY WAY! Incredible weather and water crossings, not to mention the many gentlemen FTRs who helped us women across those treacherous waters! Hearing the hooting and hollering from everyone while running down water filled singletrack put the biggest smile on my face the entire day...and Kamran finding his camera, well, it just would've been a tragedy if all the great photos from today were lost. Truly one of the best runs I've ever had...thanks everyone!! ”

These are comments from other FTR members who were out there as well

Diane Cressey (FTR founder): "I think that was THE most fun I've had on a run! The water never stopped...it was coming from above, below and sideways. We were either running through it, against it or with it on the trails. Some creek crossing were deep and swift...thanks to the guys for helping us through them...it was pretty scary. Thank you Kamran and Shannon for hosting this epic run and for David B. for your help and leadership. An awesome run!! WTC watch out...we're ready for anything now!!"

Greg (FTR member): 'Um that was straight up nuts with a huge side of fun. I cannot believe I made so much of an effort to not get my feet wet. LOL It felt so good to pour the rocks out of my shoes and slip on some really dry clothes. Thanks for putting this together. You are all certifiable."

Gary (FTR member): "Cant wait to see the pics, I lost count of all the thigh high streams we had to cross. Some with waterfalls just inches away. Thanks to everyone who helped in getting us all across safely. This run was the best!"

Shannon & Nancy

Pam & Shannon

All I can say is that I'm SO glad I went out, I'm paying for it today with heel, hip, and back pain, but it was so worth it.  I'm trying to look at it as my farewell run for the season.  I didn't sign up for Way Too Cool 50k 2011 beacause I knew I couldn't start training for it. (and even though Pam got in the lotter for WTC, she didn't get in - she's bummed)  So I have no races on the board (until May - Wild Wild West Marathon) and I'm going to do my best to behave and let my foot rest.

Watch for my MTB adventures.

Stay muddy!

To see all of the pics from the Quarry/Goat Hill Mud run, click HERE