pittbrownie

Went down to the Hill Country State Park in Bandera this past weekend. One of my favorite places in the world. Have to remind myself I'm still in Texas whenever I go down there, the hills and forest remind me more of Pennsylvania.

Arrived late Friday night and was able to set up camp with no flashlight, the full moon was so bright. Drank a few beers around the fire with the crew and then it was off to bed.

Up early the next morning, off on the trails before dawn. Great, great trails down there, and this was the first time in a while that the weather was cooperative. The course we had laid out was three different ten mile loops. Got to see all my old foes. Ice Cream Hill, Karin's Climb, the Big Nasty, the Three Sisters, Boyle's Bump. All kicked my ass as usual. But I was able to average about two hours per loop, pretty good for me. Sounds really slow, but if you've ever been to Bandera you'd understand.

So thirty miles, just over six hours, my ass thouroughly beaten, it was off to the Bandera Saloon to cool down and watch football! But the horror, the Bandera Saloon is no more. Closed down. It is for sale if anyone has a few extra bucks to toss around. But adapt and overcome, it was immediately off to the 11th Street Cowboy Bar for cold Lone Stars and some great grub from the Cowboy Capital Pizza joint. Yum yum, I downed almost an entire pizza while watching UT drub Colorado and keeping an eye on the ticker for the Pitt score (we really put it to South Florida! I'd also like to point out that PSU lost).

So this greasey pizza is still sitting in my gut like a rock when we arrive back at camp. Our coach then brings up the possibility of a night run. I know that pizza is gonna cause me problems, but I get all excited anyways. Night runs are awesome, and I had never really done a long one at Bandera. So around 9:30PM, we all take off. Bunch of slow people with me this weekend, so soon I'm alone. Doing the ten mile loop that included the Three Sisters and Ice Cream Hill, they were surprised to see me at night but they still kicked my ass. I did leave a little something behind on ICH, as I finally barfed up the pizza. Felt a lot better after that. Except for my puking, it was a beautiful night. The moon was so bright that I was able to turn off my flashlight at points. It was really cool getting to the top of a hill, you could see the entire park in the eerie glow of the moon. About two and a half hours later it was back to camp for more beers and then off to bed.

Up early once again, my body aching, ten more miles. Very, very slow, but I plodded along and finally finished.

Great weekend of running, my first good mileage weekend in a long time. Gives me a lot more confidence going into Rocky next weekend, and puts me back on track for Sunmart and the Bandera 100K.