Post-Rita Report

Alright. So I made it out of Houston in time, right before they started to cancel flights. How do I know? I had a cell phone update telling me the flight I was supposed to get on Friday was cancelled. I actually have to thank Sam who relayed something our neighbor, a pilot, was telling him. He was saying that not even the pilots were making it to the airport because of the mass exodus out of Houston that was in effect. It was total chaos--all highways heading out were gridlocked...no one was moving. So seconds after Sam told me this, I packed one backpack full of clothes, packed my laptop, and loaded up my car with water and snacks...just in case. I tried to go get gas the night before at about 4am but stations were either out of gas or the lines were several cars deep. So I was operating on only a half tank of gas. Normally, not even a thought of if I could make it to the airport, but today was different. I was hearing stories of people taking 12hrs just to get from 610 to the beltway on 45, I10, or 290...your choice.

I knew if I was to get to the airport under double digit hours, I would have to take ninja routes not on the highways. So I did as soon as I jumped in the car. It was working well at first: Kansas to I10 feeder to Shepherd north to Tidwell east to Aldine Westfield north...this is where it slowed to a halt. This was the route I decided on earlier when using my mapping software (I also was using my gps on the fly) and the lady on the news also recommended Aldine Westfield. Either everyone heard her recommendation or she had no idea what she was doing. It was terrible. When I finally made it to the beltway feeder I got off Aldine Westfield and headed east and took JFK north the rest of the way. It was smooth again. I'm sure there was a faster way (some guy confirmed this to me when he said he left from the Galleria area and was able to get to the airport in 1.5hrs...it took me 2+hrs).

The airport wasnt that much better...there was hardly any parking left and I had to park on the top floor of the garage...not a threat to flooding, but definitely exposed to high winds, driving rain, and random debris. I said a prayer and left Audi. I'm sorry Audi. Anyway, I got inside and it was chaos again! Apparently only 20% of the airport employees showed up to work so there were not enough people to efficiently serve all the passengers. I was really getting worried. I only had carry on baggage so I tried to just use a kiosk to sign in, but something was wrong. It didn't recognize my reservation. Trouble. I sat in one of the lines and finally got to the front and the nice lady was still having trouble identifying my reservation. I told her "I have the confirmation number!" She says jokingly angry "Show me!" I pulled out my computer and let her read it off. Okay, the problem was that my name on my Expedia account says FARROWPHD...they were doing a search on Farrow and weren't getting it. Thankfully I brought my computer or I would have been in huge trouble...I doubt we could have resolved it otherwise...considering all the crap that was going on at the time.

Despite some security line fiascos (being herded in the wrong line by a lady who had no idea) I finally made it to my gate. BTW, the kind lady was able to book me on an earlier flight that day, without putting me on standby. So nice. That is how I made it out safely, not getting stuck in Htown.

ND vs. UW Revisited

So, this weekend was another fun-filled training spectacular. Actually, it wasn't too bad. I was first planning to go to RHR on Saturday with Caroline and Co., but I mixed up my dates and didn't realize the Challenger 7 orienteering meet was on Saturday not Sunday. So I made the tough decision to go to the meet and delay going to RHR until Sunday. If things go well...I will tell you why this was a larger decision than it may sound at the moment.

The meet was probably the fastest course I've done. I had an almost flawless course (there was one that was in the middle of a thicket, but it only took me maybe a minute or two longer) and if it wasn't so hot (I think the heat index was in the 100s again), I might have had some world record time or something. As it is, my time was around 41min. The reason I don't know for sure is because they were having "issues" determining the times. I think I got first in the advanced course, but I won't know for sure until they post results on their website. Another reason we left early is because Ross had a "Pimps and Hos" party to go to...and I would never get in the middle of that. Ross had a rough time at the meet only because he's still trying to recover from his knee surgery...and on top of that, he got DQ'ed! Apparently he had a mispunch, punching the wrong checkpoint. He was not happy about that. Oh well. Can't wait to see the actual results.

Sunday was training at RHR with Stan (Crash) and Messer (Wafer Boy, Big Dog). Nothing spectacular. We only did one 15-16mile loop and called it a day. I wanted to go for more but they were done. Randy and Kristina were there too. I think we're going to do fine. We just need to get in the Sevys one of these days.

This coming weekend is the ND game at Seattle...man, so glad--need a break.

K-sizzle

Week 2 of Recovery

Well its been a couple of weeks since my total meltdown at the No Sweat race. I felt so rejuvinated last week, my first full week back to practice. Well, it wasn't really a full week of practice because Monday was Labor Day and Wednesday was the committee meeting and social. But we did ride RHR on Monday and I felt fresh and didn't have to get off as many times as I usually do.

Tuesday, Mey ran practice and made it pretty tough. But, again, I felt fresh so I was running strong and biking strong. I even did 80 pushups, unofficial personal record! Of course I probably had a personal worse of 31 situps afterwards, but I didn't care. Thursday, Rick had us do the brick workout that we haven't done in a while. Run ~3 miles, bike ~ 9 miles, run ~3 miles, trails. I stayed with Turnbull the whole time because I didn't want to overdo it my first week back...plus I later found out that my front brake was rubbing the whole time...that was actually a relief because I couldn't figure out why I felt so slow on the bike.

Saturday we had a trail ride at Memorial with Drost of CR100 fame. We are planning (we being Andrew, Tommy and I) to do the 24hrs of Dirt at RHR and Weihan had to drop out due to work obligations, so we were kinda having a "tryout" for Drost. Not really. Just wanted to ride with him to see his style. We started at noon because Drost and Deb had brunch with Rick...of course the rain caught up with us and came down just as we were pulling our bikes down. Crap. Thankfully, it only lasted about 10mins, but I was sure the trails would be nasty. They were. The first uphill on the yellow train, I washed out because the clayey ground was slick as, well you know. It was Drost's first time at Memorial so I'm sure he was impressed by all the mud, mosquitos, and humidity. He was cool about it though. The triangle was drier so I was able to open it up a little bit more there. In all, it ended up being about 10 miles all together.

Then today, I went for my long run. I'm getting really nervous about the marathon, so I wanted to get a long run in this weekend. I ran from the house to the backwood trails at memorial, around the jogging trail and then back to the house. About 10 miles. I felt good for the most part, until the run back to the house on the pavement. That made me realize that I have to do more of my miles on road to get my muscles used to it. Plus, I got some bonus points as Talmo saw me runnng across Washington this morning...he gave me the thumbs up! Nice.

Just call me LL Cool J.

Retooling

Alright, its been a while. I say that alot when it comes to journals of any type. It just seems that life happens and I no longer have the time or focus to keep up the logs. Anyway, I have found a little sliver of time here so I thought I should just jot a few notes about my blog and maybe a little about what's been happening. Plus, I just got a new laptop (finally!) so I will have it with me during coffee on sunday mornings...when I'm not racing of course.

That brings me to my first topic: I'm refocusing this blog to talk about adventure racing alone. With this, the topic should be for the most part inocuous for the most part and easy to talk about. Besides, that is my life right now, so it would be fitting that this is what I focus on.

Here's a recent photo of the team...Texas Sprint Series Club Champs!

Alright, that's it for now. Next will most likely be a report on my disintegration at the No Sweat 24hr race.