The Bounty

It started innocently as a 5K Turkey Trot. I was going for a sub 24 minute PR (personal record). I had been trying to go sub 24 for the last four years on Thanks Giving Day, but conditions were never quite right. The first two years I had ridden the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson four days earlier. Last year I thought I would surely go sub 24. I had been doing speed work, and really working on running faster. It rained on race day, and was so muddy that it was impossible to run fast. This year I have been running lots of miles on trails, with lots and lots of hills. I am getting ready for a long race in February. I hadn't been concentrating on speed at all. I still thought I might be able to to go sub 24. Philip decided to run this year too. And so it begins. A couple days before the race I heard rumors of a bounty. On me specifically. My Dad had offered to pay Philip $20 if he beat me. Philip had run a 22 minute 5K the weekend before so I figured he would make a quick 20 bucks. Thursday morning we lined up. I put Philip up ahead of me with the faster guys. After the gun went off I couldn't see Philip. He got a pretty good lead on me. There is a loop where you can see the runners ahead of you. He was about 45 seconds ahead of me. Half a mile into the second lap I realized that the kid just a little bit ahead of me was Philip. I'd know that cowlick anywhere. When I caught up to him I realized he was hurting. I thought about running with him to help him out. Maybe let him cross the finish line first. Nah, the little fart conspired against me, and I was going to PR. I patted him on the back on the way by. That's Philip getting his feet wet.

Like mother like son.

That's me coming over the hill. That kid ran in front of until the last 100 yards. His T-shirt said 2008 State Finalist. In the finishing chute I turned around to talk to him and the front of his shirt said swimming. I thought I was beating a State Finalist Runner.

New Music

I recently found three new songs that I like so I decided to put all three on BB&S this week. Breath 2AM by Anna Nalick is a very pretty song I think. Psycho by Puddle of Mudd is just catchy. Pursuit of Vikings is my favorite new song. It is by Amon Amarth. They are a Norwegian hardcore metal band that sings about vikings. Amy says it sounds like Cookie Monster singing. They may be adolescent, but I still like them.

R3 Rupley Towers

Thursday Ryan and I went to Windy Point to Climb tower #3 of Rupley Towers. We top roped Bop 'Til You Drop (5.10R). I would really like to lead it, but there are only three or four bolts, the first being twenty plus feet off the ground with two very committing moves. The crux comes at the third bolt, and a fall would put you on to a ledge with a broken ankle. It's horrible to be such a coward. We climbed both pitches of R3. It is a very fun two pitch 5.8 gear route. Here is Ryan at the top of the second pitch on R3.

That's me belaying Ryan from the top of R3.

It was getting dark by the time we left.

I like getting the moon in some of these pictures. Someday I am going to learn to take photographs.

Great Weekend

I ordered a couple of jackets and knew they were going to come in last Friday. I went to get them off the driver's truck and he said he had a couple other packages for my wife. One of them just happened to be from Victoria's Secret. Of course all the guys standing around had to chime in. "Looks like Brenton is going to have a great weekend." That's the kind of ribbing a guy likes to take.

Later when things had slowed down a little bit I called Amy and asked her "Do you know how to tell when it's going to be a great weekend?" She said she didn't. I said "When your wife gets a package from Victoria's Secret." She said "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. It's a sweater." A sweater? Who orders clothes from Victoria's Secret? New rule at our house. No one orders anything but underwear from Victoria's Secret.

Quitter

That's it I quit. I have been testing a pair of Brooks Cascadia 5 for the past ten and a half weeks. Between yesterday and today I have put seventeen miles on them. I am almost crippled now. They started to break down at about 150 miles, and by 175 they really needed to be replaced. If I had been buying them I would have replaced them by mile 175. Since I agreed to test them and got them for free I felt obligated to finish the whole 300 miles. I only made it to about 232. It would be no problem for me to finish the last sixty eight miles. In fact I will probably do it in my old shoes. It's just that these shoes have lost all of their ability to cushion my feet, protect my feet from rocks, are giving me blisters because the mid sole has collapsed so badly that it rubs a blister on the side of my foot, and are causing my knees to hurt. My knees never hurt. I know. It sounds like a bunch of excuses to me too.

Bad Friend

I ran into my friend Angela at the Sweetwater trailhead last week, or maybe the week before. I loose track of time easily. Anyway, we were discussing how we should have met up there to do the same sport. She was mountain biking and I was trail running. We also discussed how we don't get out with our friends enough. I told her that I had to turn down three really cool climbing trips in as many weekends. One to Jack's Canyon in NE Arizona, one to Red Rocks near Las Vegas, and the one I most wanted to go on to "J" Tree (Joshua Tree National Park) in California. I was telling her that I felt really bad to always be declining invitations, but that there was always something else that I needed to be doing. I was mid sentence saying that I feel like I am just being a.......when she said "bad friend". Exactly. Someone else understands. I was thinking about it today while I was running, and planning how to write this post. I realized that I spend entirely to much time with people I have no real affinity for. Either out of sense of duty, or circumstances. Not that I dislike most of these people, but I don't have those certain feelings that would make them a friend. I've decided to fix this, but I'm not sure how just yet.

Nice Rack

Steve had the winning caption. "Nice Rack!" He even got the punctuation correct. Steve was obviously impressed with my climbing gear which is referred to by climbers as a "rack". There was some rumblings of double entendre and immaturity about the contest. Really, have you read this blog. Do you really think I am that clever? Would I even be able to figure out the workings of a double entendre? You be the judge.

Since Steve posted the winning response he will be receiving a prize in the mail. He also gets to have his choice of songs play on BB&S. We will be listening to Panama by Van Halen.

Thanks for the comments and participation. It's nice to know that someone is still reading my blog.

Best Wife Ever

I know that the competition is probably not over yet, but I've decided to make it official anyway. I have the best wife ever. Not only does she take care of the house, cook, do laundry, handle the finances, shuttle the kids around, and hold down a job, but she also takes care of me too. Examples; yesterday she made me breakfast and sandwiches for a climbing trip that she wasn't even going on. I know that sounds pretty good, but she encouraged me to go while she stayed home to clean house. She also runs the kids around on Thursday nights so I can go climb at the gym. She always tries to make sure I have time to get my runs in. Best of all though, she never nags me. It doesn't hurt that she is smoking hot too. With her new title of Best Wife Ever I decided she deserved something so I took her out and bought her this new outfit. I even got to help pick it out. This is the photo I wanted to post. I even had a caption all picked out for it. I figured if I did I would just end up in trouble, but if one of you can guess what it is you will win a small prize from Broken, Beat & Scarred and Team Brenton.