Miscellaneous

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Sunday morning I was just about to head out the door to go to church when the phone rang. It was the local police calling to inform me of 5 (FIVE) large goats in our yard. We live in town by the way. I went outside and saw 5 large shaggy goats with very large horns. Officer Mike and I decided that our only option on a Sunday morning was to call my Dad and have him bring the cattle trailer to town. We had no idea where the goats came from. While Dad was on his way I orchestrated a plan with my children and sleepy neighbors to herd the goats around the house and into the trailer. Our yard along with the neighbors is somewhat contained so I thought that if it did not work on the first shot we could circle the goats around and try again.

These were not tame goats. They herded quite well but were very wild and skittish. We had everyone in place and everything looked to be going to plan when the goats went totally crazy upon reaching the trailer and scattered. If you know anything about goats you know that they can jump up and over just about anything. For a few seconds the biggest of the billys was in the trailer but we were unable to shut the door before he charged at me and I scurried out of the way. I am brave but not that brave. 3 ran out the driveway and 2 jumped the back fence.

I chased the 3 down the street. I would say we were going about 10 miles per hour. I was wearing flip flops. I only stepped in goat poo once. I was able to run to the far side of the street and get ahead of them to turn them back towards my driveway. This was working well until they cut into a backyard and onto the railroad tracks. Dad and I were able to get them off the tracks and through a church parking lot. We chased them up a dead end street and they sought refuge in a playset. One goat chomped on a swing. We woke up that section of the neighborhood and with the help of Officer Mike again made a plan.

The plan was for Dad to back up the trailer between the two houses and we would herd them towards the trailer with volunteers from the fire department. You can all imagine how easy it is to again back up a 5th wheel cattle trailer all over a residential neighborhood. We managed to get 2 of the 3 goats into the trailer. The 3rd goat ran into a nearby shed.

We had her cornered and I thought with several of the largest members of the CFD that we would catch her for sure. I instructed them to corner her and grab her by the horns. Unfortunately they were not skilled goat catchers and she easily escaped. I followed her through the brush and back down onto the tracks and across several yards. A man on a bike was hot on her trail too and we searched for somewhere to corner her. She then swam across the river.

Officer Mike gave me a ride in the squad and we headed over with the Fire Dept and the cattle trailer to where she came out of the river. The firefighters had hoped to catch her there as it was a softball field and there was fencing to corner her with. She again evaded them and we chased her across about 10 yards until she took refuge in the local scrap yard. We called off the search for her then and decided that she could just live out her life there.

While all this was going on the hunt was going on in the local industrial park for the other two goats. My 10 year old daughter was in on this and one trailer loading attempt was made but failed. My dad told me that an employee of the plant where the goats were cornered decided to try to lasso Big Billy. Big Billy charged away and smacked into a office window full force. It did not break but did receive horn gouges. Dad said this event was quite humorous. Eventually the two goats made it into the 100 acre cornfield across the tracks. By this time we had firefighters radioing the goats positions and such but it was time to give up as it would be impossible to get them out of the corn.

Dad and I took the 2 goats to a nearby rescue farm. We rehashed with Officer Mike all the woulda shoulda couldas. In the end we just decided that wild goats are very hard to catch. The rescue farm did find a good home for the two captured goats.

Officer Matt did find out that the goats belonged to an infamous local farmer that all the other farmers hate due to how he treats his livestock and numerous shady business dealings. Once I knew who the owner was I understood why they were so wild and scared of people. He did not want the captured goats back at all. The two goats that escaped into the corn were spotted along hwy 151 that afternoon. The owner did go to retrieve those two goats by shooting them. I know that next to a busy 4 lane hwy that is what needed to be done but it still made me so sad that we did not safely capture them that morning. As frustrating as our wild goat chase was I did grow fond of them and they were really cool to watch when they were in my yard.

As of right now the 5th and final goat on the run is still chomping grass in the scrap yard. Even though it is a scrap yard it is quite woodsy and I suspect she will live out her life there as no one is ever going to catch her. Dad pegged her as the ring leader and one very smart goat.

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Last night I took my 2 youngest children, 9 and 6, out for a mile run. They impressed me so much that this morning we headed to the local county park and ran the roller coaster trails along the river. Of course my son decided that with all the woods and shade that we were actually in the rain forest and made monkey noises as he ran. My daughter likes a steady pace while my son likes to surge. Every few minutes we walk for 30 seconds and then they are off again. They both really enjoyed the tactical aspects of the trail and went out of their way to leap over woodchuck holes and roots. Both really enjoyed the section that was a tad bit muddy and sported mud splattered legs like cross country runners. We even went back and ran the trails with Daddy tonight so they have now completed their first double. It is only about a mile or so of running with 2 stops at Artisan wells so I hope to work up to 2 laps by later this summer.

I hope this is the start of a lifetime of running for both of them. It was a good day.

My own running has been getting better this week. I have done a few mini workouts within runs and have had a few glimmers of hope that the runner I once was is still there. Monday I did a short tempo on the track followed by a few 1000s and was very happy with my pace for both. Tonight I did a 3 mile hilly tempo in the middle of my run home from the park and was satisfied with how it went. It will be awhile before I can do the workouts I once did but I am hoping that with just 40 miles a week instead of 60 for the summer that I can focus more on quality and…those sunshine splattered trail runs with the kids

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I wrote up a super long post. Preview post ate it.

I admit that it was a long self pity party of a post. About how my little pile of dreams and goals for racing has met their end. It is hard and emotional to let go but emotionally and physically I am tapped out. It is just not worth it to train for months and months without a niggle to just get injured or sick right before a race. It is also not fulfilling to me to train conservatively and safe just to run endless half marathons with no improvement. Or to just run more miles and harder workouts to hit the same plateau I have been at for years now. I really enjoy training but am so very weary of the failure at the end. This year I had high hopes that everything would come back together as I was finally able to train like I needed to to make a breakthrough. But things did not work out and my return to running after my last injury has been really horrible. Every run is like a horrible recovery run and I hate it. It is clear that I will not be able to return to normal training and mileage anytime soon and this summer is over as far as any racing goals. This is a final blow that really broke me.

I will still run but I am not really sure where I am going anymore. For this summer and perhaps for good it will just be for fitness. I will still do workouts but not to get ready for a race but to just gain some sense of fulfilment over little victories where I can somewhat control the conditions. I need some new goals in my life. It is really hard to give up racing as I used to love it so much.

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I don’t have a lot of running to post about lately as I had to take 2 weeks off after Green Bay. If you remember I was having trouble with my left calf for almost a week before the race and managed to get it to run properly after a lot of TLC and Biofreeze. Race was not bad but not great either and I naively thought that my left leg problems would just magically disappear post race.

Not so much. I was a little sore in the quads as normal the day after the race. I noticed that my calf had tightened up again. When I tried to run a mile 3 days after the race I found that my gait was just as awkward as it was the Thursday before the race. I tried a few stretches and noticed that my left foot would not dorsiflex at all. Some quick google research told me that in all certainty that trying to run when one cannot dorsiflex will cause horrible injury to one’s leg. Not that anyone would choose to run like that anyway as it is more of a hobble than a stride.

I made an appointment with Suzie, a sports massage therapist specializing in neuromuscular therapy. She worked on the calf for an hour and prescribed that I not run on it, relax, do gentle stretching, and stop living on Diet Coke. I was pretty worried after the appointment as after an hour of intense work the calf muscles still would not release.

But the very next morning I was able to dorsiflex!!!! I was so relieved. Each day I got back more range of motion and I went back to Suzie the following week and she suggested some more specific stretches that have really loosened up the entire leg.

Yesterday, I went for my 1st run in 2 weeks. It was super slow and just 3 miles but there was no pain at the back of the ankle and I had full range of motion from the start. Today I ran 6 miles and it was again frustratingly slow. Part of this is that I am terrified of hurting myself and cannot break out of a gentle jog. Also I think the leg was slowly tightening up in the weeks before the half and I need to figure out how to run with a leg that works instead of whatever I did to alter my gait to compensate beforehand. It sucks feeling like I am starting over just when I wanted to be gearing up for summer races. But I can run and that is what is important. I just have to keep telling myself that but I admit that my failure to improve for so very long now is really weighing me down. I am 35 years old and the clock is ticking. I trained all fall, winter and spring with hardly a twinge and now just as the racing season starts I am back at square one.

I do have some really good news and it is that my daughter’s 4×400 relay was 4th at State this last weekend. They ran a great time of 4:01 and we were so happy to see them on the podium. I had a great time at the State meet and got to watch a lot of really exciting and dramatic races. The level of competition was really high this year in all events. Over a dozen State records were broken.

This article was originally posted by RandyS at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

In a couple of days it will be 3 years since I last had a day without a run. I wasn’t planning that; it just happened. For the past 15 years I’ve been nothing but consistent. Usually missing a few days a year, often going 16 or 18 months between days off.

This streak owes more to the fact that I switched my weekday runs to the early morning than to any other factor (perhaps luck, life hasn’t gotten in the way either). Little stops me from going for a workout at 5 or 6 in the morning!

At 55 I’ve come to accept that my PB’s are in the past. Yet, I step out the door every morning, without racing goals, able to enjoy the act of running for its own sake. It took a long time to accept that! I struggled as I slowed; thought of giving up on the sport.

In a way I did give up on the sport; I haven’t raced in 3 years, but I didn’t give up on the activity (logging 2-3 thousand miles a year without a goal race in sight). And after struggling with the frustration of slowing as I age; I’m starting to feel motivated to race again, my new age group means new pb’s. I may race again I may not, but I’ll still get out the door every morning.

Randy