Still Windy

Got in another day yesterday. Waves were bigger but wind was steadly dropping the whole Time I was out. I will take it. 4.7 again. I got a couple of good drops but waves were pretty gentle all in all.
Still Windy today. Will go again. Tonight a front hits and it will blow hard from the north in the morning and be cold. I think I will pass on the north wind sailing. I sdon't sail well going out port and rideing waves comeing in Starboard. I am weird like that.
Instead I am going to do a Down Wind Run on the beach from the South Pack Jetties out to Bird Island and make( ask very nicely) for this friend to pick me up. I can pretty much judge when I will be done and he can sleep a little later.
Gotta love the temps here in South Texas at the end of Feb. 80's here on the coast and 93 inland!!!!!!!

First Good South East Gulf Day

Finaly the South Wind is sticking in the Gulf. Everything was perfect for my first day of the year on a South East At North Packery. Waves were knee to waist and some bigger on the outside. Warm 4.7 windy. 5 Windsurfers and about 20 kites. There are lots of windsurfers here in Corpus but most people sail the bay or out at Bird Island. Looks like more wind for the next 4 days... this is realy going to upset my running.... as long as I get a good run in sat, I will be fine!!!!!!!!

Cold Front, Light winds and a 20 miler

Friday was one of those picture perfect days... just beautiful sunny and perfect temps. Went to a big wedding party for some friends that had gotten married on the 14th. Tons of food tons of beer and wine.... So decided to wait on my 20 miler until sunday so I could party.
Saturday was another incredible day. Went shopping for Tomatoes, Basil, and a fig tree for spring planting and waiting to see if the cold front would come in time to windsurf before dark.
It hit about 4pm with Gusto...winds 28 to 34 so everyone was networking and heading to
Port A. The waves were so so but disapointing wind. The cold front had come in with a punch but was quickly dieing.... Lots of people went out to Schlogg for a wave. I decided to set it out since I was running 20 on sunday. Now don't get me wrong. If it had been good 20 miles or not I would have been out there. I went on the Pier to take pictures. I will post some later. They are not that good because people were mostyly Schlogging. 2 friends got sucked under the pier. One because he just rode a wave in to far to No wind and got caught in the current. The other just rigged to small from the get go. Never got out of the break and the current pulled him all the way down the beach and under the pier. The pier can be nasty. Covered with barnacles and waves breaking under it. Can tear up your gear just like the rocks at Hookipa!

I did get up and run my 20 miler on sunday... Dang it was cold. The front realy dropped the temps. It was 41 when I started and wind was about 15 from the north. I waited for the sun to come out. So I could wear shorts and layers on top to peel. I am experienced enought to know not to wear tights on a long run. As it can warm up fast then be a BRUTAL run! The will be my longest run now since the marathon in prep for the 50k. Still haveing some hip problems but.......
I can do it...I can do it....I can do it.... It may not be pretty.......... but I can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was another beautiful day. Met some friends with their dog on the bayfront and walked around lookeing at the boats. Then we went to the Executive Surf Club for apps and pints. The dogs were hanging with us on the patio. Nice end to a wonderful weekend.

Getting Older Healing Slower

Wind has been good around here lately with warm temps.
After my couple of epic days in the bay I ended up with a jacked up back/hip. This prevented me from doing all the things I love...windsurfing, running and playing.
Thankfuly a chiro friend from new mexico was here. I used his stem machine on it for a few days and he gave me an adjusment. Still was stiff and uncomfortbale to sit. Plus the blisters on my toes were still bothering me. Throughout I continued to run. Seems my blisters hurt worse than my back when running. Did a 14.50 miler on sat and it was VERY Humid. I started on a slow place from AJ and stopped at 7 to fix the bandades on my blisters. The group kept going before turning aorund to get 15. So I decided to head on back as my blisters were screaming. So happens one of the fast guys was haveing a real bad day so I ended up running faster the last half to keep up with him running slow........PATHETIC!!!!!!!!! Made me forget about the blisters.
So last night I started doing some different back side and upper body stretches. Not just my legs like I had been doing and Viola.....I feel great. Did 5 on the red yesterday rest today and back on track for Prickly Pear 50k March 7th.....Yes that's the ticket I am telling myslelf I am going to do it. Signed up and ready to Rock and Roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oleander 2-7-09

Here are some pictures of Oleander also know as Ole, and Cole Park. This is one of many sailing spots along the bay. The bay shoreline is round. Our wind direction is mostly SE so this is the most sailed spot.

Here are some of my friends hanging out by my van after sailing. Probably because I had the cooler of Beer! :-) Notice they are in shorts in Feb. 80 out water still a bit cold this day was upper 60's water temps...Gotta love South Texas winters.







Nice grassy rigging area. There is a sidewalk that runs through the park so lots of runners, bikers and walkers are going by.

This used to be the sight for lots of windsurfing races. US. Open, The Nationals were here a few times and The Whataburger Windsurfing Series. The US Open was sold and is now called the Velocity Games and has moved to a beach closer downtown. Not as good a venue.








The other direction you can see the city skyline. There is a table and water fountain behind the palm trees. The orange fencing is because the city is doing some work makeing the cliff more sloped and grassing it. Before we had little trails that are steep and slippery. Hard to get your gear down to the water.








Lots of people out. It was actualy realy windy. I was on 3.7 and 62L board. Some good swell rolling by and ramps for jumping. This day the wind was real South so there was a wind shadow. Most people were walking there gear out. It is real shallow like knee to waist deep for a long way out. Sandy bottom.

The bad thing about this beach a very long time ago they hauled in all this rock and it kills your feet. I do not wear booties.





The lone Palm Tree.

You can tell we have not had rain. The grass is Brown.

Lots of Wind

The Gulf waters are still too cold for the South wind to stick so I headed to the Oleander on the bay. It was very windy. It is funny how some people who aren't used to sailing there will think there is not much wind up on the point but just looking upwind when you see the water is white. You know. You know it is WINDY! I rigged 3.4 on my 62L and it was AWESOME. Mostly overpowered in the gusts. It was a great jumping direction and there were plenty of ramps. Toward the end it was getting real gusty and I was getting into some holes. So called it a day to save myself for today. Already it is 25 to 35 in the bay but just got back from the beach and like yesterday...notta... Not even enought up high for the kiters. So I think the call may be North beach. The launch is sooooooooo much better over there. Even though the city has been working on the launch at Oleander the rocks on the edge of the water are brutal and I just can't wear booties. Lookeing good for the next 2 days. Windsurfing always (mostly always) trumps running unless it is an actual race that I have been training for. I am suppose to do a Pancake fun run with the club sun morning 10 miles with 4 added early with a friend who is in training for the Rome Marathon..Her first and I am excited for her... So we shall see. I may just have to be a wuss and do 10. I always like to do at least 13 the weekend after a marahon but may be sailing all day!!!!!!!WWWWoooooooooooooTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

New Orleans

This is New Orleans..... these guys were putting on a show on the side of the street at the little ampa theater on Decatur and they were awesome. It was a cross between comedy and Serc de Sole. I laughed so hard. They did some incredible gymnastics and break dancing combined with drawing in the crowd and makeing fun of people walking by. You can see the size of the crowd.

The Superdome! This was the start and finish for the Marathon. I walked over the day before so I would know how long it was going to take race morning. There wasn't anyone around I could not get past thinking about all the people that were staying in there after Katrina and how horrible it maust have been.

This is my and Ultra Don haveing lunch. Ultra Don is incredible. 70 years old and jran the marathon faster than me. He has done 100's of Marathons and countless Ultra's every year he does the run accross London. He donates his house to the running club for runs and get togethers. Hes a great source of running knowledge.

The Mighty Mississippi!

It is hard to tell from this picture (I took it through a window) That tall building still has all the windows blown out from Katrina. Just standing there like a skeleton. The building around it have been restored. I saw this alot.

The old JAX Brewery on Decatur. I poked my head in but did not really look around good. Someone told me later the story is JAX quit brewing becuase the beer tasted so bad because they were useing water from the Mississippi River! Remeber those old JAX commercials.

Cool Building I forgot what it was???? Also here are the horse drawn carriages you can ride in through the French Quarters. This is near the French Market.

My Flight Home out of Houston Check out the Guy in the Orange Vest! OK!

There is a zoom shot bellow.

I hope he is not supposed to be checking out the plane while he is eating those Hot Dogs!!!!

Thats it. You can see that most of my pics were down around Decatur. I liked the atmosphere a whole lot better down there. I did not care for Bourbon Street. Maybe I am just too old for that.

Maybe it was because I went down there friday evening after my arrival at the Disaster Hotel.

I booked through Hotels.com The Canal Street hotel. I did not read any reviews except the ones on the hotel website. Great reviews! Beautiful pictures of this great historic hotel with a awesome entry and awesome pool. I invisioned resting up by the pool on sat reading a book.

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God I arrived early in the morning and not at night. Remember I was traveling alone. This place was HORRIBLE! First of all it was NOT SAFE. It was Filthy. It was NOT the hotel in the pictures. Holes in the walls Tile and chunks of carpet missing in the room. The gangsters in the lobby all came to the counter to see who I was and what room I was staying in. I threw my luggage in the room and took off! I found another hotel and was afraid to go back alone to get my luggage. Not knowing that it would even still be there. I did get in a nice safe hotel but I think that changed everything and set the tone for my stay.

Been there done that not sure I will ever go back.

Mardi Gras Marathon Feb 1, 2009

This post is only about the Marathon. I will post later about my New Orleans adventure.

I arrived in New Orleans on Friday morning. Packet Pick up started at 2:00 so I went ahead and got that out of the way. It was a nice Expo pretty much same as all the rest. We got a long sleeve tech shirt but the problem is they are huge. My small would fit a large man! They would not let me use my own chip. I was happy to hear they would not be useing bottled water on the course but would be setting up a water filteration system to hoses at all the water stops. So they would not be running out of water either.

Sat I met up with some friends for Pasta on Decatur. They had all done the race and one of them has won it several times. So was good to hear their take on it and their preperation.

Race morning I walked about 7 blocks from my hotel right over to the start at the Superdome. It was warmer than I had expected somewhere near 50. I had planned on ditching some clothes along the way but went ahead and ditched them before the start. There was plenty of port o potties and water/gatorade.

The course was basicaly two 13.1 mile loops loseing the half marathoners back at the start. I do not mind looping back but they had us run the first 13 through the french quarters starting straight down Bourbon. I did not like this as the streets are narrow and there were lots of Delivery trucks restocking the bars and resteraunts. Of course lots of people do not line up with their finish time so it was slow going trying to manuever around everyone while watching out for potholes, uneven roads, and trolly tracks. Crowd support along the French Quarters was not much there were a few people still drinking and I heard one lady yell out asking why we were running. Someone yelled back something about Forest Gump! We continued up and around Auduborn park around a paved walkway. At the half we kept running and they had the halfers exit to the left. Just as we were heading on. They started the 5K race right in front of us.... Great now more people to run around. The roads were in pretty bad shape and somewhere I think around mile 17 they had us running on a road that was being resurfaced and all the asphalt had been scraped off leaving a pretty bumpy mess. I am not sure how long we ran on this 4 miles? It seemed like forever and that is where my blisters started. I had slowed down at a water stop to fill my bottle and could not catch back up to the pace group trying to run faster on the messed up road. We ran around another park and back. I realy don't remember much else after mile 20. My Feet were screaming and I was nauseated so I was haveing trouble Guing or drinking Gatorade. I do remember a few spots with lots of people yelling and dressed in their Mardi Gras attire.

At the Finish they had Red Beans and Rice, Subway Sandwiches and Beer. All Good. I went to see if the clothes that I ditched were still there. The Jacket and Pants were gone but my vest was there. My stomach was still not good so Red Beans and Rice did not sound so good. I talked to My friend Ultra Don for awhile to see how everyone else did. Grabbed me a subway to go and headed to the hotel. After about a block I had to take my shoes off and walk in my socks. The blisters were huge and the one on the side of my foot was bloody. The last 6 blocks were endless. I soaked in an ice bath bandaged up all my blisters and headed to the Cresent City Brewery on Decatur for some Brew and the freshest Oysters I have ever had. Like Melt in your mouth good.

It is for sure a Very Flat Marathon but the running surface is bad and the course could use some tweaking. Everyone was Super Nice and they had a well stocked Course with Gu, Cookies, and Pretzels at every stop after the Half. Nice Medal and nice oversized Tech shirt. I would have liked to run it in 4:00 hours but ended up 4:12:38 not too bad. It is acutaly a PR for me by about 2 min. I have never had a problem with blisters but I do need to figure out the nausea problem and learn what I can eat on the course. The Nausea had happened on Every half and full Marathon I have ever run and if it is hot even the smaller races. Another one down....how many more to go????? I guess I will keep running until I can't run anymore.