Mad Manatees 2015.4 CLOSED (or Poptart/pet pic ticket) (Page 24)

TJ - I missed the FB stuff, my condolences to you and yours.

Adrienne - Great job!  I can only imagine the talent you get to race against in that area, it is so cool to see you using the tools you have to be successful.

Lisa - We had 4 kids at the door for candy. Both sets of the neighbors grandkids. But a couple miles away, we have friends that easily see 700+ kids every year. One year I had to deliver our candy to them. I jumped on the bike and rode over there. What a zoo! I'll take my quiet neighborhood, thank you very much!

Ann-Marie - I have come to the conclusion after one day of eating Twix bars all day that each of us needs to keep our candy home and eat it ourselves. It's going to suck if I "have to" eat everyone else's candy!

Laura - Your swimming improvements keep me thinking that there is hope.  Keep it up!!!!  And I believe I can find a pic of Vivaldi.  Give me a little time.

Sean - Great job on your race! Overcome the challenges and keep on going strong.

Jen - Nice weekend of running, congrats.  Especially cool to be running with "important" people. Or not. Has the mouth settled in from the work done?

I hope everyone has a great week!

Over in my sister's area there was one street that was over run with kids. Every single house is backed up and sidewalks are fully lined. I didn't feel safe going any faster than like 10 mph. Could easily see the visitor numbers being that high there. Then just one block over is like 5 kids for as far as I could see. One block. And I can't really see any difference in the street. Another one over even has "witch" in the name, but might see a group every 10 minutes or so. No one really knows why.

Yep, exactly that way here. For years now, every kid in town goes to Mark Twain Lane.  People are warned when they buy a house there now. In years past, there are golf carts, trucks with trailers and hay bales, the police are on the ends of the street, parking is in the empty lots at the end of the block. It is an odd phenomena indeed.

Sorry to hear that TJ. My condolences.

I have NO idea how many kids went door to door on Halloween (because of the rain/flooding it was apparently a pretty slow year according to the neighbourhood FB page) we were in Dallas to see the Cowboys keep their losing streak alive. 

GO SEAHAWKS!! 

Originally posted by marysia83

Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by brigby1

Originally posted by cdban66

Lisa - We had 4 kids at the door for candy. Both sets of the neighbors grandkids. But a couple miles away, we have friends that easily see 700+ kids every year. One year I had to deliver our candy to them. I jumped on the bike and rode over there. What a zoo! I'll take my quiet neighborhood, thank you very much!

Over in my sister's area there was one street that was over run with kids. Every single house is backed up and sidewalks are fully lined. I didn't feel safe going any faster than like 10 mph. Could easily see the visitor numbers being that high there. Then just one block over is like 5 kids for as far as I could see. One block. And I can't really see any difference in the street. Another one over even has "witch" in the name, but might see a group every 10 minutes or so. No one really knows why.

Yep, exactly that way here. For years now, every kid in town goes to Mark Twain Lane.  People are warned when they buy a house there now. In years past, there are golf carts, trucks with trailers and hay bales, the police are on the ends of the street, parking is in the empty lots at the end of the block. It is an odd phenomena indeed.

We went to the neighborhood where my friend lives. She knows exactly who lives where and was pointing to us: "let's go this way - there are rich people living on this street. This one just bought a Porsche. This house was just bought for 300k." etc... Although, I have noticed that sometimes poorer people gave more, so I don't think there is a rule. But it is a nice observation. If I had more time I would do some ethnographic study on this Mary

Yeah, the best thing to look for I've seen is houses being close together. Some places with money can have bigger yards, longer driveways and such. Lots more running walking between stops. Once in awhile one might give out something great, but most areas tend to go with similar things. What's commonly sold at the store's Halloween section. Still, tends to be more fun going places where at least someone knows the area.

Shoot TJ, I somehow missed this. I am so sorry. 

Did you decide on Moab?

What a great story!

I love the running community.

Speaking of the marathon itself, it was strange to watch this year. Most of the Americans likely passed this year because the trials are in February. I thought it was interesting Meb ran it anyway! And did quite well, of course. Breaking the masters record and all. I haven't had much time to read too much about his training but I wonder if he held back a bit, saving some for the trials (and of course the Olympics.)

Love all the Halloween stories!

We are never home for Halloween so we stopped buying candy since we ended up having to eat it all. 

We took a bit longer to make final adjustments to our last minute costumes and some kid rings our doorbell. I was downstairs right in front of the door (it's frosted glass, I am certain they could see my silhouette) J yells down "Don't open it, we don't have anything to give them!" I froze. I stood there, racking my brain to think of anything I could maybe give them but everything I thought of was pretty ridiculous since we don't keep snacks in the house (A sandwich bag of Chex cereal? A cornbread muffin?) So then I jump to the side of the door and hid. Gave it 45 seconds then turned off all the lights. 

OMG I am the grinch of Halloween! We are THOSE people!

Oh, and J and I were Cheech and Chong, not bad for last minute eh?

Adrienne and Steve (or anyone else) - have you ever run the Jack and Jill marathon?  If so, how'd you like it?  If not, what have you heard about it?  Thanks!

I've not run the exact marathon but a marathon that uses almost the same course. In fact, I plan to run it again! I see Jack and Jill is in July and the Light at the end of the tunnel is in June (the one I want to run)

The difference in the course that I have ran (and will) and J&J is that you don't run through the tunnel.

Both have a gradual downhill almost the entire way, as I am sure you saw. 

The marathon is fast, as you might assume but before you get too excited there are some things you need to consider, namely your quads. Never have my legs been so incredibly sore. Just think about the math. A marathon already puts an extraordinary force on your legs, now add the force of the "fall."

Also, the whole thing is gravel and there is a portion where the rocks are big and sharp and from personal experience do NOT play well with racing flats You may even want to consider gaiters to keep everything out of your shoes.

The marathon I did din't have full support so many of the aid stations were unmanned, meaning you had to manually fill a cup of water, drink it and take off. Not sure how this one would be.

Any specific questions?

Another thing to consider is the temperatures. It's probably not nearly as big of a deal for you, coming from FLA but despite what you might think, July can be HOT (although generally low humidity) here. We're talking the 90s. The good news is that it's a higher altitude (another thing to consider, although we're only talking 2,500 starting elevation or so) so generally it is cooler up there (unless there is a temperature inversion...don't get me started.) The sun will be on the course all morning except the portions where there are trees on the northeast side. There's a fair amount of exposure.

Oh, one more. Heights. You go over a couple trestles that are quite high. 

Originally posted by marysia83

Originally posted by Asalzwed

Love all the Halloween stories!

We are never home for Halloween so we stopped buying candy since we ended up having to eat it all. 

We took a bit longer to make final adjustments to our last minute costumes and some kid rings our doorbell. I was downstairs right in front of the door (it's frosted glass, I am certain they could see my silhouette) J yells down "Don't open it, we don't have anything to give them!" I froze. I stood there, racking my brain to think of anything I could maybe give them but everything I thought of was pretty ridiculous since we don't keep snacks in the house (A sandwich bag of Chex cereal? A cornbread muffin?) So then I jump to the side of the door and hid. Gave it 45 seconds then turned off all the lights. 

OMG I am the grinch of Halloween! We are THOSE people!

 

Oh, and J and I were Cheech and Chong, not bad for last minute eh?

 

hahah what a story! I love the costumes I made my son's costume myself (even though I have no craft skills), because I did not feel like spending fourty bucks for cheap crap. He was a scarecrow and my daughter was an angel (her was bought - thankfully, because making one costume per year is enough for my two left hands).

Soooo cute! I LOVE home made costumes. They turned out great! You clearly DO have craft skills!

TJ, I didn't realize the Moab Trail full is the USA Trail Championships. Whether you race or not it would be fun to spectate! 

My teammate Joe will be there along with a whole slough of other excellent professionals

That is gorgeous!  A friend of mine is signed up to run it next year. When he told me about it I looked it up and it intrigued me and another friend.  If we did it, it wouldn't be until 2017 though.  Neither of us have done a marathon in a few years and have been having passing thoughts about doing another sometime. Maybe. Regarding the heat, I told both of them that the area can get hot.  I remember when I did my internship out there and it was in the 90s in August.  Everybody was freaking out with the weather!!  

Thanks for the info!  Lots to consider for sure. 

ETA: According to the website, all the aid stations are manned.

TJ, so sorry for your loss.  

I'll toss in a Halloween story. We went to another neighborhood where several friends live. After almost 2 hours, a "haunted house" that Mak declared "wasn't even scary", and a TrTing donkey sighting, we went back to our friend's to decompress (aka watch baseball and have adult beverages). Kids came to their door til almost 10! Of course, from 8-9:30 Mak was on the front porch with two other girls yelling "Free candy! Come and get your free candy!" to get more "customers".  When the bowl ran out, Mak was going to give out her own supply. We figured we could turn off the lights at that point. lol

I've got the sassy little bat and the dread pirate in the group. Sunday we took them to Papago Park for some riding and running/hiking/climbing. They were exhausted.

(costumes.jpg)

(mak.jpg)

I remember when you ran it.  Always thought that would be the coolest race.  If I recall, doesn't it sell out? And yes, downhill running is overrated.  The marathon I do every spring has a similar elevation profile and nothing is more painful on your quads.

If J & J doesn't go through the tunnel I'd forego for the Light at the end of Tunnel.  Half the fun would be running the tunnel.

I've decided to go ahead and do it.  Not looking forward to more time on the road but I'll enjoy the race and DH will enjoy Moab.

It'll be fun to see the pro's go at it!