Woa. Time flies!

Well, it has been some time since I last wrote. So, here's a little bit of a short "catch-up" post. Last time I posted any weekly totals was back in January, so let's get that out of the way:

Week-Total-Long Run
1/30 - 34 -  8
2/06 - 29 - 11
2/13 - 30 - 12
2/20 - 27 -  6
2/27 - 33 - 15
3/06 - 29 -  7
3/13 - 37 - 16
3/20 - 36 - 11
3/27 - 40 - 19

As I've been getting ready for the Buffalo Marathon, it's been nice edging those total miles and the long run upward. My last long run of 19 miles on 3/27 was one of the best long runs I've ever had. Ever. I ran loops with stops back at home every 5.5 miles. During each loop, I drank approx 20oz of water and at each stop at home, I shot a gel plus about 4 to 6 oz of water. Also, during each loop, I sucked on two "SuperBites", sipped water each mile and walked at roughly the 3 mile mark for about 30 - 45 seconds while drinking larger gulps of water. I thought I did OK on the water but ended up losing about 4lbs. I'm going to work on that over the next couple of weeks. The next long run is scheduled for this Sunday. My plan is to do at least 19 and if I feel real good, I'll try for something in the 21 to 23 mile range. FYI, this week (week 13) of the original plan calls for 22 miles.

A couple of days ago, I posted a question about training and nutrition to a local message board at Fleet Feet Syracuse I was very pleased with all the replies that I received; some were even on topic and helpful :-) Some of the replies squared off into different opinions about "long long runs" versus "shorter long runs". I'm discovering that right now, as long as my body supports me, I'm tending toward the longer long run camp. I think I'm more confident when I know that I have already covered the distance (or near the distance) during my training runs.

I've also been running the Mountain Goat training runs every other week (when I don't have a long run scheduled). They are tons o' fun with more runners than some local races get in the summer!

Well, I need to wrap this up, post it and get my fat ass to bed. Like always, I'll try to post again real soon.

'till next time when I'll meet you further on up the road ...

Running in Woburn, MA

Last week, Monday, March 7th, thru Friday, the 11th, I was on a business trip in Woburn, MA, north of Boston. I drove up on Sunday and then back home Friday night. From my home to the hotel, I think I took like 4 or 5 turns. As I live just off of Rt 690, I was able to jump right on 690 to 90 all the way to 95. The hotel is about a mile directly off of 95. Talk about easy driving.

Tuesday, I asked some folks, who are from the area, if they knew of any decent place to run after work. Someone suggested running around Spot Pond, in Stoneham, a short drive from my hotel. The weatherman was forecasting the 'typical' winter storm warnings. Since I've been running all winter, I didn't really pay much attention to the warnings. After all, I just drove in from freakin' Syracuse, New York. Home of the lake effect snow! In spite of the dire predictions of the weather forecasters, I decided to run the perimeter of the pond. I was driving over to the Stoneham area as the crap was really starting to hit the fan. As I drove through the storm, I briefly considered heading back to the hotel. But I was determined to get in an outside run and not succumb to the hotel treadmills. As I finally made it to the zoo that is next to the pond and parked in a lot, it was dark.

So here I am, in a strange location, getting dark, and a big storm has rolled in. If you know me, I'm pretty much a big dummy. Most folks would consider the attempt a strike out.

Strange Location? Strike one.

Getting Dark? Strike two.

Fierce wind, blowing snow, ice and freezing rain? Strike three (four, five AND six, by the way)

Most smart people probably wouldn't even have packed their outside running gear and would have planned and ran on the treadmill and therefore wouldn't be in this situation.

Other smart people may have ran about a half a mile or so and, realizing how stupid it was to endure those conditions, turned around, ran back to the car and headed back to the hotel.

Another set of smart people would be able to finish this blog entry with a sentence something like this: "After seeing how quickly the darkness and the storm hit, I got back in the car, drove back to the hotel and did my five pleasant miles on the treadmill watching Entertainment Tonight".

But, like I said, I'm not the brightest tool in the tool shed.

So I took off in the dark, in a strange area, in a bad winter storm and headed out on the sidewalk around the pond. I was dressed appropriately, so everything was going great. I could still distinguish (for the most part) the sidewalk from the road from the grass. Every once in a while, when there were no trees to stop the wind off of the pond, I got a brief taste of how bad it was getting. But based on the direction I was running, the trees and the direction of the wind, I still felt pretty good as I got past the one mile mark and started to get up towards the two mile mark. I ran past an indoor hockey rink and turned to the right. The sidewalk still roughly followed the perimeter of the pond, but with some real estate between the shore and the sidewalk. So, around the two, two and a half mile mark, I was in some residential neighborhoods for the first time in the run. Then I lost the sidewalk and ran right into a crap-load of bushes and small trees. A branch grabbed the fabric of my running jacket and put a nice "L" shaped rip into it at the elbow. Swearing to myself, I crossed the road and continued along on the sidewalk on the other side. Then, when I could see the sidewalk over on the other side, I crossed back over. For some reason, I wanted to be on that side of the road.

As I continued in the residential areas, I went around a bend in the road and saw an interstate highway ahead through the snow. That shook me up a little cuz I didn't expect to see a major highway at that point. I should have driven the route first but in my ignorant excitement to get the run in, I didn't. I also could have studied a map that would have clearly shown me that the highway was right where it belonged. I didn't really want to head down to the highway and under any bridges or exit ramps. I don't know why, the neighborhood seemed nice enough and any gang members would have long ago given up on account of the weather. So, I turned around and followed my path back towards the starting point. I use the term "followed my path" figuratively because, after a couple of steps, I did not see my prints in the snow for the rest of the return trip. The snowfall was too rapid and the wind too fast for any foot prints to remain visible.

The wind. Oh, yea, the wind. Must not forget about the wind. Will not ever forget about that wind. It was strong. No, fierce. Nope. Biblical. That's what it was. It was biblical. As I headed back, the wind was in my face almost constantly. My ears, nose, cheeks, lips, chin and neck were well protected. But notice I didn't mention my eyes. Ever get pelted in the eye with a driving snow flake? How about a driving rain drop? Driving ice particle? Yea, you got that right. It freakin' hurts. I think I sustained about a hundred dents on my eyeballs. And then the eyelashes start to collect the frozen precipitation and coating over with ice. Good news: that protected my eyes from all the crap that the wind was blowing. Bad news: you can't see when your eyelashes are frozen together.

Somehow, running with my eyes mostly closed, I finally made it back to the car and was able to log just over 5 miles during a really bad New England storm. And that was just Tuesday.

On Wednesday evening, the weather was much better. So I hurried back over to the park about an hour earlier than Tuesday. I was so excited to get a daylight/evening run and see the area. I was so excited that I forgot a very important piece of my running equipment. Let’s just say that I have a chafing issue. On two upper body/chest area body parts. And those two parts get rubbed raw if I don’t wear some protection. Wednesday I forgot. But I didn’t find out till later. In the shower. With soap and running water. It stings. Alot. That’s all I got to say about that. So, back to the run. I got to the same parking lot and started out on the same path as Tuesday. When I got to the sidewalk, I knew there was gonna be trouble. The sidewalk was buried in snow from the plows clearing the streets. And where the sidewalk was far enough from the road, it was buried in drifts. After about three quarters of a mile running and walking and digging through the snow, I had enough. I turned around and went back to the car and drove back to the hotel. But I just couldn’t bring myself to go inside and run on those damn treadmills. Pride is an ugly characteristic, isn’t it? Combine that with stupid and ya got yourself a wicked combo.

When I got back to the hotel, I decided to see what I could do in the surrounding area. So, I knocked off three and a half miles in the hotel parking lot and the parking lots of the neighboring businesses. It wasn’t as bad as running on the treadmill, but it did suck. Each time I came around a corner of a building, I half expected to see the police with their guns drawn, yelling at me to hit the deck. But, thankfully, that never happened.

So, Thursday rolls around. I’m on the hook for a seven miler. I’m thinking of the experiences of the previous two days. And I’m thinking that the running gods are really gunning for me and my outside runs. So I do it. I give in. I go over to the dark side. The treadmills. Yep, I know. It’s a sad thing. But, I figure that I’ve tempted the fates too often over the past several days. So I put on my running shorts and shirt, grab a water bottle, ride the elevator down to the gym and hop on the open treadmill. The other two were taken by a man and a women, who where not together.

I started on a walking pace and gradually built up the speed until I was running at a comfortable pace. I was about two tenths of a mile into the run when all three treadmills powered off. WTF?!?!?!? I can’t buy a freakin’ run. What do I have to do to get in a good run? I walked over to the front desk and tell them the power is out. He tells me it will be 15 to 20 minutes for the ‘engineer’ to reset a circuit breaker. I almost crapped my pants when I heard that it takes that long for an alleged engineer to reset a circuit breaker. Hell, my kids could do that in my home in about 15 to 20 seconds. Long story short: I waited till the power came back, jumped back on my mill and knocked out the 7 miles. Running the parking lots would have been better.

Now I’m back in town and back in the familiar routine of running at lunch on the weekdays and around my home on the weekends. Everything is progressing on the training for Buffalo. I’m up to 16 miles on my long run but I still don’t feel like I have the eating and drinking figured out. I tried gels (again) and figs. I thought that was gonna work. But after thirteen or fourteen miles, I wasn’t feeling all that great. I’ll just have to keep at it and see what I see.

I'll meet you further on up the road.

Short Visit

Hey there. Come on in, take your boots off and have a seat over there while I hang up your jacket. Yup. Right next to the fireplace. Can I get you a warm drink to take off the chill? Coffee? Hot cocoa? Tea? Are you sure? Really, it is no problem. How about a bowl of soup or chili to warm your bones. You say you just want some water? Great, I'll be right back.

Here ya go. Let me know when you need a refill. How about this weather? Couple of days ago, we are out in our shorts and tees. Now, we got snow piling up.

I don't know, you tell me. Why do we live here? :-)

Now, let's get caught up. What has it been? Only a couple of weeks or so, I think. Sure feels longer than that.

Yes, I am still training for the Buffalo marathon. And no, this was a rest week, so there was no long run. Here, let me throw some numbers at ya to get you up to date. Last time we talked, I filled you in on everything up through the 6th, so I'll start there.

For the week of Monday, February 7th, through Sunday the 13th (week 5 of the plan), I got in all the scheduled runs. Monday, of course, was a rest day with 5 milers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The plan calls for less than 5 on Wednesday and Thursday, but I just can't bring myself to go less than my so-called base on the week days. Saturdays are different because it is the day before a long run but on weekdays, the 5 mile milk run is just what I do. So, back to the week. Friday was the other rest day of the week and Saturday was a scheduled 3 miler. I was able to pull off both those two days without a hitch! Friday was tough, but thanks to years of training, I was able to get it in without any problems. Sunday was a long 12 miles. Everything started out fine as I took off on the B'ville Turkey Trot 10 mile loop. However, I did have some lower GI issues (yet again) and when Wendy came out on the course to replenish my water at 7.5 miles, I hitched a ride with her. We came home, I took care of business and went right back out on the road to get the full 12 miles in.

Yea, I know, I do need to get a handle on that. Believe me, after the Wineglass experience, I know what will happen out there if I can't resolve some of these issues. I think I'm almost there but I don't want to say much more than that just yet.

So, the week of the 14th through the 20th, the 6th week of the training plan: Everything went great, according to plan. Monday: rest. Tuesday and Wednesday: 5 miles each (plan called for 4 both days). Thursday: 6 (according to the schedule). Rest on Friday. The coolrunning.com plan calls for 5 milers each day on Saturday and Sunday. I ran the B'ville Turkey Trot 5 mile course both days. With the little bit extra from my home to their starting line, I actually did 5.7 miles each day. I even took a peak at my pace, which I haven't been paying too much attention to. With my little groin issue, I've been ignoring the clock. I do still have a little nagging issue there and some days I worry that it might grow into a show stopper. And, it's not like I heat up the pavement or anything but I just wanted to remove that aspect from my running until I felt stronger in that area. Anyhow, back to the weekend runs and the clock: I was very pleased with my pace on Saturday. There are two small "inclines" (I hate to use the word "hills" on this course) on the last mile. I kinda thought I had a decent time going so I went at the hills a little more aggressively than I normally would. (Now, remember, fast for me is not the same as fast for you.) It felt good to open it up a tad, tackle some inclines, and pick it up even a bit more for that last push home.

Yes, the training program does call for speed work. Usually on Tuesdays. I'm still hesitant to incorporate that aspect of the plan. I'm using my groin issue as my excuse ;-) That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So, that's that. Just in time. I see that it is time for you to go. Here, I'll take your glass and grab your coat while you slip your boots back on. Where are your gloves? You'll need them out there today. I hope it lets up so I can get caught back up with the shovelling. It feels like we have a holiday today just so we can spend the day clearing the snow.

Thanks, so much for stopping by and asking about things. We will do happy hour downtown sometime real soon. I'm in the mood for a Victory Golden Monkey. Do they still serve those at the Blue Tusk? I hope so, that's a damn fine beer.

Bye for now and I'll meet you further on up the road.

Running Week 1/31 thru 2/6

It was a pretty good week, I guess. Monday, the 31st was a scheduled rest day, just like all Mondays for the next couple of months. Same as Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were 5 mile days at lunch. I'm a bit "ahead" of the training plan due to my 5 miles a day for 5 days a week "base" -- the plan calls for a little less than 5 mile days but I'm not going to drop below the 5 mile/day threshold on weekdays. When the plan starts adding miles on the weekdays, I'll do the same. As for the weekends, Saturday was a 3 mile run and Sunday was a 10 mile run. I'm enjoying the "3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off" schedule with an exception: it sucks to sit on my hands and watch my friends go out on Mondays and Fridays.

The weekday runs were pretty 'normal' types of run on the 5 mile loop at work. We've had a great stretch of nice days so getting out at lunch has been very nice. The Saturday run was in my neighborhood. It was basically uneventful except for a close call with a car. I was at a four way intersection. There were two cars at the stop sign. After the first car rolled away from the stop sign, I started through the intersection. The second car rolled through the stop sign directly behind the first car, without even slowing down. If I had a half size larger shoe, my big toe would have been flattened by the rear tire. I really don't get people. Had the driver followed the traffic law and stopped at the stop sign, I could have quickly cleared the intersection. It really pissed me off. I wish I would have punched the rear corner panel as it rolled by me. It wouldn't have done any good but I would have felt a ton better.

Then, on Sunday, I had another auto situation. I'm running on the side of the road toward traffic when a pickup truck comes along and literally brushes my coat that is flapping in the breeze. There are no other cars on the road at that moment. The ironic thing is that the truck had the blue emergency lights on it. You'd think that the driver would be slightly more aware than "John Q. Public" given the blue lights. I dropped an f-bomb at him: "f***ing a**hole". It didn't do any good but I felt a 1/2 ton better ;-)

Josh was with me on his bike on Sunday. He did the full 10+ miles on his bike along with me. He held up well except for his butt. It got kinda sore after awhile but he did hang in there. He carried our drinks and food in his backpack. It helped me out alot and it was so very nice having him with me to talk to.

I took some gatoraid and some orange wedges out on the run Sunday. The drink seemed to give me some G.I. issues. The orange seemed to work OK. I sure hope I can get a handle on the nutrition issues. It is still pretty early in the plan with lots of looooong runs ahead of me so I still have an opportunity to get a grip. Suggestions appreciated.

So, to wrap up, here's a summary of the last couple of weeks (Mon thru Sun):
Week - Totals
1/31 - 28 miles
1/24 - 34 miles
1/17 - 23 miles
1/10 - 25 miles

'till next time, see ya further on up the road ...

Long run - 1/30/2005

Sunday 1/30/2005

On my training plan (as I prepare for the Buffalo Marathon on May 29th), today was my long run of 8 miles. Since I did 7.5 last week, I wasn't too worried about pulling this one off. But, since I was not at home, I was concerned about my routine and making sure that I ate at the right time and drank enough water. If I mess up my timing with eating and running, I'll find myself out on the road with some GI issues. Yesterday, with a scheduled 3 miler, I didn't worry too much about it. I woke up, went to the bathroom and hit the pavement. With a short distance like 3 miles, I figured that I could get out and back no matter what. Empty stomach, lower GI cramps, thirsty, tired, whatever -- 3 should be an easy distance for me to pull off at this point in time. That turned out to be true but by the time I showered, I really needed to eat. You'd think that as much as I weigh, my body could find a way to draw on the reserves more efficiently that it does.

But, it's been awhile since I've been up at these distances with any regularity, so, like I said, I was concerned. Plus, being away from home normally knocks my constitution out of whack a little bit even without the prospect of a long run scheduled. So, I tried to stay hydrated all day on Saturday and throughout the night. In the morning when I woke up, I had cereal with milk, orange juice and coffee. Then, for the next 3 hours, I had a couple more cups of coffee along with as much water as I could while I tried to take care of some work on the company laptop. I was attempting to come close to the weekday work routine as possible (that's when I run at lunch). I ended up coming pretty close with the nutrition, hydration and (possibly most important of all) waste removal ;-)

I got dressed and applied some vaseline to a couple of areas that have been bothering me due to some friction issues. I wonder if I would have some of these same friction problems if I weighed less than I do. Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to find out the answer to that question. Anyhow, the sun was shining like it was the middle of summer. There were no clouds in the sky. Just a totally beautiful deep blue. Even though it was below freezing, the thermometer on the side of the house where the sun was beating down and radiating off of the siding was in the 70's. So I knew that I'd get very warm out running and I dressed accordingly: compression shorts, long pants, tee shirt, outer shell, ball cap, sun glasses and gloves (that I did not end up putting on). I also decided to try to start thinking about nutrition and hydration during the long runs. So, I put on my water bottle belt - the one with four small water "grenades". I filled one with water and the other three with some slightly diluted lemon lime gatoraid. I also took along some gels. My plan was to drink at each mile and take a gel at the 4 mile (halfway point).

So, I started out and even though I was running into the slight breeze, the sun was totally canceling out the effects of the cold. I thought I'd slip on the gloves but instead I just pulled my hands up into the sleeves of the shell and I was fine. At the first mile mark, I took a hit of the gator aid and was immediately reminded of the fun I had last year at the Buffalo marathon. It's funny how that experience has stuck with me and is rekindled by the fist sip of lemon lime gator aid. As a matter of fact, here I am sitting here over four hours later and the thought is still making me queasy. I've really got to solve this issue soon. I'm thinking I gotta stick with straight water. That part is an easy solution. However, at the halfway point when I took the gel, it was the same story. All the nausea that I experienced in the past with gels returned. I finished the package but it wasn't pleasant. Again, it's killing me just sitting here and typing about it. I'd better move on to something else before I hurl on the keyboard.

I ran down the road that my in-laws live on. It is a nice road to run on with a nice wide shoulder but the speed limit is 55 and it gets a decent flow of traffic. I don't think most of the people driving on this road are very familiar with seeing runners on it so they don't really think how nice it would be if they gave a runner just a little bit more room on the side. Last summer, the road was rebuilt and it feels like the shoulder is more level than it used to be. There is still an angle as it slopes away from the road but it is nice and wide, except for the bridges that cross over a couple of creeks. After almost a mile, I turned off of this main road onto a smaller road. This is also a nice road to run on but there no shoulder, the speed limit is 55 even though it seems like it should be slower and cars use it to go from one main road in the area to another (the one I just turned off of).

This smaller road has a small creek running next to it for a short distance right near the intersection where I turn onto it. A flock of ducks seem to have taken up residence on the water. As I approached them they were spooked and loudly went airborne. That scared the hell out of me as I wasn't expecting a dozen or so ducks to suddenly fly up next to me. Just about a half mile further down the road, there's a horse ranch. As soon as I can see the horses, I realize that they seem to be looking at me. I don't know if they've picked up on something unusual happening (me running down the road) or if it is a coincidence but they seem keep their eyes on me as I approach them. Along the shoulder of the road where I am running, there's lots of horse manure so I'm sure that someone already enjoyed a nice ride on their horse in the sunny winter day. It's kinda nice knowing that I'm not the only one out here taking advantage of this great day.

I end up joining up with the other main road in the area for about a half a mile before heading off up the hallow on another smaller road with little or no traffic. It's a very beautiful area with many dairy farms and on this nice winter day there are a few people out getting some things done around the house or barn. Out on the busy roads there were alot of cars from Ohio and Ontario. I imagine that they are skiers in town to ski at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, just over the hill from where I am running.

I keep looking at my Garmin GPS and I'm sure that it is giving me false readings. There is no way that I've been able to cover the distance that it claims I have. But, not having any other measurement of distance, I rely upon it but plan on double checking with the vehicle later in the day. All of a sudden, I'm at 4 miles so I turn around and retrace my route back to the starting point. When I get back I'm very confused because the GPS does say 8 miles (kinda validating the reading I had at the halfway point) but, again, there's no way that I could have done that distance in that time and feeling that way. When I get in the house, I describe the pretty simple course to my father-in-law and ask him to guess the distance. He actually guesses pretty close to the GPS measurement. How can that be? So, I validate it yet one more time with the mini-van and sure enough, he's right on and so is the GPS!

The point of that whole, long, story is that it was such a beautiful sunny day in a beautiful location that everything came together for a wonderful run. I'm treating this as a sign of good things to come on this path to the Buffalo marathon.

Winter Running and other ruminations

Here in Central New York State, we are well into winter running. We have had an extremely mild winter so far. Yesterday, January 17th, the temperature was in the teens with single digit wind chills. There were extreme cold alerts last night and school delays this morning with below zero temperatures. Right now, at 7:30am, it is -3 with a wind chill approaching -20. I'll have all my layers on today!

Back to yesterday. A single word best describes the run. Yes it was cold outside, but that's not the word. Yes, the wind made it colder, but that's not the word. The word is "sun". WOW. Ya gotta love winter running when the sun is out in full force like it was during the run. I wore my sunglasses for the first time in a good number of days. I can't even recall when I last wore them.

When I was sheltered from the wind, I actually felt over dressed. I would unzip my outer layer to help vent some of the body heat. That is, until I turned the corner and got hit with a full blast of the wind.

Running on a sunny day in the winter is pure joy. I come into work in the morning in the dark. I sit at a computer under horrible lighting conditions. I drive home in the evening in the dark. I gotta tell ya: it sucks. Except when I get out in the sun. The sun cancels out the bad aspects of winter. You might ask "then why run when the sun isn't out?". That is a reasonable question. The short answer is simply and honestly: "because I can". I'm lucky enough to be able to run, so I do. I have my health and I enjoy doing it. Ya also can't discount the shock factor. There are two shocks. One to your system: "HOLY CRAP, it's cold." After a cold run, any of the day's other challenges are a piece of cake. The second shock is the co-workers: "You're going/went out in that? What are you nuts? Do you know you are going to freeze your lungs?" I can't deny that I get a kick out of that reaction.

But how 'bout that sun! It was so nice to see it that it motivated me to post a blog. That's something I haven't done in a while. But, the sparse posting doesn't reflect the my running. For the most part, I've been getting it in as usual. Same distances (usually 5 miles). Same frequency (usually each work day at lunch). There have been two bumps on the road. The first was mid November with a wicked cold and the second was mid/late December to early January with a slight "upper leg/inner thigh/groin-ish" injury. I took some time off and ramped back up slowly. I'm running very slow now and working the core area to try to strengthen up that area. Sometimes it feels "tired" but nothing like the day in December when I knew there was a problem. The leg was so sore that I couldn't support myself on one leg. But I think I'll keep taking it slowly and hopefully the improvements will continue. I'd like to add a long run back into the schedule but I don't want any set backs. I'm just taking it day by day.

Since this is my first post of 2005, here are some stats from my geeky running spreadsheet [why is this HTML table injecting so much blank space? Preview mode doesn't do this. Publish mode does.] :

Year	Total Miles	Number of runs
2003	1122	214
2004	1319	217

I hope to look at each week and month and see what I see. I find it interesting to look at the numbers and see if anything jumps out. For example, I was pleased to discover the fact that in 2004 I only ran 3 additional runs compared to 2003 but the total miles was up by nearly 200 miles. That reflects a change in jobs. The switch resulted in a change in my running course from indoors on a 1/20th of a mile track to outdoors on local neighborhood streets and a situation where 5 miles is the "normal" distance. Also reflected in each year's total is a marathon in each of those years. 2003 was the Wineglass and 2004 was Buffalo. This year, I'd like to do both of them. Buffalo, at the end of May, is questionable. I may not be able to push the leg enough to get the training in. If I can't start long runs soon, I'll run out of sufficient training time and I'll have to forget about it. But, as I've said, I'm going day-by-day. After all, what else is there to do?

Also, a quick update on how my fall/winter races compared to what I thought I might do (as posted on 10/12/2004):

1. Wellsville - Ran it. Posted it.
2. Welch Allyn - Didn't run it.
3. Brueggers - Ran it. Posted it.
4. Mendon Ponds - Didn't run it.
5. Grunt Run - Ran it. Might post it.
6. Jingle Bell - Ran it. May post it.
7. B'ville Turkey Trot - Didn't run it.
   

Ok, I guess that's enough for this "sun inspired" post. If anything worthwhile pops up, I'll be back. I'm sure you can't wait!