Category Archives: Running

Ruby Running on Sunday

Sunday Morning I went out to run with some friends starting at the Jenks bridge.

I got there a little late. There are three directions that one can head. I thought they might be headed west so I went on across the Jenks bridge across the Arkansas River.

Guess What?

I didn’t find them, but I had my camera, so this was my first Ruby Tuesday photo of the morning.

I went down Main Street. Jenks is a suburb of Tulsa and they have really spruced up their downtown trying to lure the suburbanites out of the malls and box stores.

It’s a nice place to come and shop. I had it all to myself at 6 am.

Note the self portrait above. What kind of dufus uses their flash to take a photograph of something across the street. Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

Looks lke an ice cream shop but its just the local paper.

Want to relive the route with me? Sure you do, here’s the map.

Check out lots of red themed photographs from all over the world at Ruby Tuesday

Early Morning Arkansas River Run

Tuesday morning I ran four miles early in the morning along the Arkansas River trail here in Tulsa.

The trail is on both sides of the river is extremely photogenic.

Who’d of thought that Tulsa makes a great River City. I had it all to myself that morning.

Well, except for one guy that is. We didn’t bother each other at all.

Where were you Tuesday morning?

Watery Wednesday

Turkey Mountain Trail Run

Last Tuesday I went on a run on Turkey Mountain. I was going to run with a group, the TATUR running group, but I was a little late. I actually saw them take off while I was still in my car but it took me a few minutes to make sure that I had all my stuff together and they left. I wasn’t too worried about it though. If I caught up with him them, great, if I didn’t, I’d still have a great time. I run Turkey Mountain in the summertime to beat the heat of the concrete trails and to get my head on straight.

I like to stop and take pictures. Turkey Mountain has a bunch of pretty good sized ponds.

Sometimes you can spot things. Like somebody using a battery to illegally shock fish. Turns the sport of fishing into catching.

When I lived in Texas close to a lake I knew several people who unashamedly would use such devices. Game laws to them were just a means to make sure that the suckers among us left plenty of fish and game for them.

The mountain bikers flew past me. The TATUR’s passed me on their way in. I could have turned around and gone with them but I wasn’t ready to quit. I was rewarded a little later with this sight.

I’ve seen lots of deer on Turkey Mountain. This one is the only one with the manners to wait while I got my camera out and ready. I have seen three fox on the Arkansas River trail, they seem to know when I don’t take my camera with me. Mannerly wildlife are always appreciated.

I passed through an area that burned last year. I don’t think it took many trees but it sure cleared out the brush and opened things up.

I got up to the top of the hill and had a good look at downtown to the north. To the south though, where I parked I had a ways to go. See the notch on the left side of the road? About where the car is on the road? That is where I parked.

Here is a closer look.

That is a long ways away. I made it though. I considered going down the highway or the adjoining power line right of way but I didn’t. I went down via a trail. Everybody was packed about and about to go. When you are a slow runner like me and take lots of pics, that happens a lot.

One last pic though and time to head home.

I had my handy dandy Garmin running watch with me and heart rate monitor so this is the fully documented route.

That’s My World Tuesday

Ready, Set, Run 2011

Saturday, the Autism Center of Tulsa had their annual Ready, Set, Run 5K and Fun Run at Hunter Park. It is a major fundraiser for the orgainization and a celebration of the Heroes of the event which are the children who have been diagnosed with a form of autism. The idea is to form teams around the Heroes. Our Hero is SuperPizzaBoy.

(Don’t worry about the trampoline, the mat has been replaced and it is back in service. I am a little worried about the maniacal grin though. What do you think?)

His team was called “Logan’s Stormbreakers.” He had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t make it. Sweetie was his ride so she didn’t make the event either.

From left to right, Jonni, lucky Me, and Alyssa. I don’t know how I got in between two of the hottest women at the event. They are also two of the hottest mommybloggers in Tulsa. Jonni has That’s Baloney. She has a a great sense of humor and if you want to know what it is like being a mother to a child with Asperger’s Syndrome, hers is the blog to start with. Alyssa’s blog is Out on a Lam. She has a great sense of humor and blogs a lot about her children and her views on life in Oklahoma. Both are must reads whenever they post for me.

Alyssa was also nice enough to join SPB’s team and run in the 5K race. Kudo’s to you Alyssa. Jonni’s team for her son Michael was “The M Team.” She didn’t run the race, her husband “Doc” did. As usual, he kicked my butt, so I guess Jonni kicked my butt by proxy. Alyssa and Jonni are both killer facebook scrabble players.

The 5K is fun and all that but the big thing at this race is the Fun Run. This where the families who are affected by autism line up and walk around the pond at Hunter Park.

The line is incredibly long. The gun sounds and everybody proceeds in a leisurely stroll.

Since SPB wasn’t there, I started at the very last of the line with the team sign. It took about 10 minutes just to get to the starting line.

The event was very successful in terms of raising money, raising consciousness, and generating fun. I helped out a little bit before the run but there were some very hard working staff and volunteers.

Jennifer is a cofounder and codirector of the Autism Center of Tulsa, (“ACT”)and one of the nicest persons I’ve ever met.

Michelle and Robert. Michelle is also a cofounder and codirector of the organizaation. Her husband Brian is great guy and was SPB’s soccer coach for several years. Robert and I worked together the night before the event putting up signs and marking the course.

Christine is a hard working member of ACT and genuine nice person.

Shannon was in charge of the volunteers. She also put up signs and banners the night before the event. She is tireless and a demon facebook scrabble player besides.

We all had a lot of fun and am looking forward to next year.

TATUR Snake Run

The Tulsa Area Trail and Ultra Runners (“TATUR”) had their annual Snake Run on Saturday. This run is a little different. Most runs one runs a fixed distance and how you place depends on how fast your ran the fixed distance. Everybody runs the same distance but different times. In the Snake Run everybody runs a fixed time and tries to maximize the distance. There were two times one could pick, three hours or six hours.

It is also a trail race not a road race, run on a relatively flat area of Turkey Mountain. They had two loops, The big loop was about four miles long and a smaller half mile loop. The idea is to run the big loop as many times as you can, when there is not enough time for you to run another big loop you run the small loop until the gun goes off. You get no credit for partial loops. So there is a little bit of a mental edge to the run.

Of course being a Trail Run they make even the parking fun. See the cars way down the hill on the left. That is the parking area. Everybody is walking up the hill to get to the start.

Race Director, Ultra Runner, fellow blogger, and geocacher and all around good guy, Ken, aka Trail Zombie.

He and Brian of RunnersWorld Tulsa started the race and off we went. Brian is a good guy also. He told me that he peeked at my blog every now and then. That is how I know he is a good guy.

I just love trail runs. You get to run through the woods! What’s wrong with that?

I had planned to run just two loops or eight miles but I settled into a pretty good run walk rhythm that I carried on through the whole race. I would run 0.20 miles or about a 1000 feet and walk 0.05 miles or about 250 feet. I had my GPS running watch so that’s how I knew how I was doing.

So I just put my brain on autopilot and let the watch tell me when to run and when to walk. So I was able to get into my trancelike meditative state and just be in present. I had only two hiccups to my trance. I tripped on root and fell. Nothing messes up a trance like a face plant into some dirt. Also, somebody was handing out little liquid energy drinks. I tried it and lucky for me I was close to a comfort station so I could get a little comfort. That stuff ran right through me. I was able to get back in the groove pretty quickly into my trance.

So I didn’t take too many photos. I finished two big loops and then started running the small loops. I think I must have run about 8 or 9 of them. I hadn’t seen the results yet so I’m not sure how many I ran.

I finished my final small loop 2.76 seconds before the gun went off, so I didn’t waste any effort. When you are as old and fat as I am, you darn sure don’t want to waste any effort. I was very pleased with my effort. I haven’t run 12.45 miles since the 1990’s when I was running marathons (ok, only two marathons) and a bunch of half marathons. So I’m thinking about training some more and maybe runnning the half marathon part of the Oklahoma City Marathon coming up later this spring. Maybe a 25K trail run. Maybe I have a few miles left in me.

I got a nice participant medal for my effort. As you all know, I am the king of participant medals. One of these days I am going to just buy my a trophy just so I have one. The young man who won the three race ran 25 miles. Incredible, he ran almost marathon distance on a trail with rocks, roots, and stumps.

TATUR and RunnersWorld Tulsa certainly know how to put on a race. They had all sorts of goodies during the race and after there was barbecue beef sandwiches, soda pop, malted barley flavored gatorade, brownies, chips, all sorts of stuff. A bunch of volunteers showed up and worked hard making sure that everything ran smoothly. Trail Zombie and Brian were here, there, and everywhere making sure that everything went well.

Of course, I had to make my way back to the parking lot. I had a lot of chores at home to do. Sweetie took this pic of me working hard.

Post Oak Lodge Trail Challenge 10K

Saturday morning I got up early and traveled up to the Post Oak Lodge in the Osage hills northwest of Tulsa to run the 10k segment of the Post Oak Lodge Trail Challenge. Usually there are some pretty good vistas to be had but Saturday it was overcast and misty.

They had something for everybody. The ASPCA was out there for a 1.3 mile “dog jog.”

The 10kers assembled in a field and off we went.

We ran through fields and woods and hopped across small streams.

This being Oklahoma we ran by oil wells and tank batteries.

I met running, geocaching, and blogging friend Trail Zombie at one of the aid stations.

In addition to being one of the nicest guys a person could know he is an ultra runner. He runs, and finishes races that upwards of 100 miles or more. Oh, and word of warning. If you are thinking about dumping trash on or vandalizing any areas where he runs, his smile quickly turns into a frown. Saturday, he provided me with a an adult malted sports beverage to revive myself.

You see I had just run to the top of Holmes Peak and needed a little reviving (all of you mountain state people please hold your snorts of derision. That hill kicked my butt.)

After finishing my sports beverage I headed on. Maybe the sports beverage wasn’t that great an idea. About a half mile later I tripped on a rock and took my first trail run spill. It came as a great surprise and knocked the air out of me. Unfortunately I didn’t even get any scrapes or bruises (except to my ego) to elicit any sympathy out of anybody.

So I finished and got my participant medal.

You can tell from all the mud on me that I had a great time.

The thing about running trail racing is that they give me energy. Here I am, the life of the party, at a gathering of family and friends that evening.

Please check out That’s My World.

Lets Go for a Run

Lace up your shoes and lets go for a noontime run around downtown Tulsa. I brought along a recyclable film camera to document.

First up, …

a Penguin? Yep, a penguin, in the lobby of the building housing my health club, that was part of a Tulsa Zoo fund raiser years ago. I like penguins but I have had nightmares about this one.

Here is a more manly sculpture in the same building.

Tulsa is the Oil Capital of the World, just so you now. At least it used to be.

Now on past the biggest retail establishment downtown.

Sadly it is our downtown porno outlet. Downtown Tulsa used to be teeming with all sorts of retail establishments. At least the owners keep the exterior nice and the building maintained.

I have no idea what this is about. It has lots of smashed aluminum cans in it. Maybe the commission required so much recycled content. I don’t know.

I love Centennial Park just outside of downtown. I try and make a loop through it on all my runs. There are about five geocaches in and around the park. I have found them all but I’ll tag along if you want to look for them.

This is the office building for our Mayor’s oil and gas production company (Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s family owns Keener Oil and Gas Company). You can see just on top of the building a solar panel. Tell me solar energy is a bad deal when oil and gas companies are taking advantage of it.

We are on the home stretch now. We pass the iconic Boston Avenue Methodist Church built in the 1920’s. It is beautiful inside and out.

You have heard of Tulsa’s giant Praying Hands? What about our giant Rabbit Ear TV Antennas?

Self portrait, look at that gut. It would give me at huge advantage in a close race at the finishing line. Of course they would have to lower the ribbon down from chest level for me to take advantage of it.

Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.

My brother Bob, a huge runner from when running wasn’t cool, gave me this book. It was written back in 1978 and is recently back in print.

It is novel about running and runners written back during the days of “no pain, no gain” and “pain is what weakness feels like as it leaves the body,” and “sweat is just your fat cells crying.” The plot doesn’t really matter, it is about running by real runners.

The book starts our really slow. One problem is that the author seems to have gotten a brand new thesaurus and is really giving it a workout plus he is pulling the stops on every simile, metaphor, adjective, and adverb he has ever heard about. About halfway through the book though the author starts writing in a more natural style and the story grabs you and pulls you through to the end.

The book is about obsession, dedication, and hard work and has the best description of running a race I’ve ever read (not that I would know a thing about running a race.)

Buy this book (or get it from your library), and read it. You’ll like it.

I rate it 3.5 stars out of 4.

Proof

I came across this photo of me crossing the finish line in the Tulsa Run 15K race last October. I’ve had lots of pictures of me running but this is the first where both feet are off the ground at the same time. Generously, they listed the chip time instead of the gun time for the race.

So there.

Where in the World is Brother Bob?

Here in Tulsa we had the Route 66 Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday. I didn’t run it. I hadn’t trained for it so like W’s dad H says “it wouldn’t be prudent” to run it. My brother Bob did. I wanted to see him off but we didn’t drive over together, I told him, “I’ll find ya.”

Ya right.

I got to Veteran’s Park, the starting point, and it was wall to wall people.

(I don’t see Brother Bob, do you?)

He was meeting some of his friends from California and I wanted to meet them. Oh well.

Next time I’m going to see if he’ll carry the Canadian flag, at least until the start. That’ll make it easy to find him. Right? So I thought that I would just watch the start.

When the motorcycle cops turn on the lights it means that the race is starting.

and here they came

Brother Bob is not in this picture either. I don’t think.

I did catch a glimpse of him actually but it was too late to get a photo.

I decided to walk over to Woodward Park. Get in front of him and get an action photo.

I found this guy.

Nope he isn’t Bob either. But look there are runners in this park.

Now there is a guy carrying the American flag. But its not Bob. You know something the guy is wearing an Arkansas t shirt. Some people are all worried about Obama not being an American citizen and all. You know something though, I worry about people who call hogs during a football game. Can they be real Americans? I don’t know, you tell me.

Here is my friend Darrell. He is a very cool guy. He hadn’t seen Bob either.

No that’s not Bob either. She is definitely better looking though. No offense Bob.

The Great Spirit hadn’t seen Bob either. Of course, I don’t think he really knew what Bob looked like.

So I walked back to Veterans Park. You know I thought about entering the race and walking. I’ve walked 14 to 15 miles geocaching before. I walked several miles looking for Bob.