Starr Pass Trail Run

I was craving a solo trail run today, so I ran Starr Pass trail (and part of Yetman trail) in the Tucson Mountains (Tucson Mountain Park). It is finally staying light longer (Spring is upon us!), so I'm able to check out the trails mid-week after work instead of waiting for the weekend.

It feels like Summer is upon us - it was about 85 degrees at 5:15pm when I headed out. I did about 6.8 miles. My legs felt terrible at first - shins and calves were sore and tight - but they loosened up after a few miles. I think they were a little worked over from the massage yesterday. But they felt great afterwards, so I think the massage did the trick.

My new toy: the Gorillapod. It enables you to take pictures on any non-level surface. Just wrap the tripod legs around anything, including cactus! Of course, mine is pink/black. It just screws into the bottom of the camera. Cool!

Oh yeah, I lost another lip balm. I'm going to attach some velcro to the next one, with some string attached and tie the string to my vest! Any ideas, anyone? I think I've lost about $20 in lip balm in the last two months. Have to have it when I run.

I ran into Bob B. and Gene from the TTR group while I was out there. Bob read me the riot act about not volunteering at OP50 (and instead, I posted to the TTR Yahoo group site asking a question about my Wasson Peak run, which I scheduled for the same day as the race). He wanted to know what I was training for that was so important that I couldn't volunteer that day. So, I told him about Bataan, and he appeared to let me off the hook. Whew! I had thought about volunteering, but I knew I couldn't volunteer one day (it is a bit of a drive from Tucson) and then take up the other day with a long run. Training really does take up a lot of time. But, I think I got the message - make time to volunteer at OP50 next year (unless, of course, I choose to run it).

It was a good run - saw about 25 mountain bikers heading out into the sunset wearing headlamps as I was coming into the trailhead. Guess those crazies are going to be riding their bikes in the dark.

I got back home after dark (actually, it was almost dark when I returned to the trailhead), just in time to watch Lost and do a weight/abs/pushups workout. What a good day!!!!