Feb 4, 2012 Sharon Woods

Weather cooperated this morning - allowing 4 wolf veterans (Mayhem, Iron, Tong and Mull) to break in the newbie (Mario).  We showed the old dog some new tricks - introducing him to the golf club hill and long slope up the parcourse.  He hung in tough and we're looking forward to breaking him of his flat course habits.  

Iron put up the numbers today.  Rather than hitting the beer break after 5miles, he pushed on for another 2miles just as the rain hit.  The rest of us took advantage of the covered picnic area and Tong's beer selection, scoring more of the Sammy Alpine Spring to match the warmer weather.  Although, i think Mario was still in disbelief of this post recovery carb loading.

Jan 28, 2012 Caesar Creek

Muddy run made the 4 3/4 mile loop seem more like 6+, evidenced by the 10min+ mile pace.  Amazingly only one mayhem award - the Elk took a spill after a large tree almost feel on him.  He redeemed himself with a wide variety of beers, including a new favorite: Sam Adams Alpine Spring.

Winton Woods 10-8-11 (Wk #12)

Crisp and colorful.  The autumn fog rose over Winton Wood's lake revealing 8 wolves eager to tackle the new venue.  Gracing the troupe was Long-Lost Lustig, after hiatus since week #2.  He was joined (more like dragged) by his dominant doberman.

Winton is 2,555 acres and exceeded our expectations (we were expecting parity to SW). We set out for 7-8 miles of paved paths, parcour, and off-road trails.  After a couple miles around the East side of the lake, including a steep dead-end hill, we gave up on finding the parcour course and headed to the West side for the off-road trails.  This looped us past our cars and prompted She-Wolf to later comment that it was a cruel faux finish.

But fortunately she powered on with the pack, up a gradual but lengthy incline to the Kingfisher nature trail.  RJ bolted through the woods and the rest followed.  The trail offered a good mix of stairs, bridges and roots for a 1.1 mile closed loop.  We then headed further up the main road's hill to the Great Oaks trail - a 0.7mile loop.  Bearing right, it offers more steps, roots and a deep dive down to a hairpin left at the stream bed.  Amazingly no one flew off the path, or at least not all the way.  More amazing is the fact that no one earned a Mayhem badge this day . . . were there not enough roots and bridges?

But fear not, Iron Wolf showed off his merit badge from last Saturday.  He earned it on/through the decrepit Caesar's Creek bridge between the Visitor Center and Day Lodge.  Kudos to the short-distance wolves who flipped it to prevent the official half marathoners from similar fate that day.  Current mayhem count:  3 Iron, 3 Mayhem, and 1-2 Safi?

After safely emerging from the woods, we headed downhill for the last paved mile+ to the cars where Iron had a wide variety on ice.  I've gotta believe we'll be seeing more of Lustig, as he was clearly impressed to see both 60 and 90 minute (his fav) Dog Fish IPAs included with the Fosters, Peroni, Sam Blackberry, Sam Black Lager, and Bud Ice.  But, the winning wolf of the day was clearly the doberman.  She looked as strong at the finish as the start.  Total of about 7-8miles, of which ~2 were off road.  Iron can comment on the official run time.

Wow Wael's Half Marathon - Caesars 10/1/11

Winning!  Wael embodied the wolf spirit yesterday, completing a half marathon through the rugged terrain, against the cold & windy conditions, and without walking or complaining.  Fantastic!  The sandbagger has never run above 7miles before.

This is a major milestone in the Safi-Hogben saga of one-upmanship in the battle of the fastest slowest big man of the pack.  After weeks of strong showings by Peter, we weren't sure whether Wael would answer.  Clearly he has.  Pete best rest-up from his wedding and be prepared to battle.

Saturday started early and cold at 8:30am (note the # of crossed arms in the pic).  Our group of 8 found themselves heading out from the Visitor Center ahead of an official half marathon event starting from the Beach at 9am.  Upon reaching the Lodge (2.5-3mi), the pack split in two with the 3 Winklers & Paul heading back and the Matts, Iron and Wael intent of completing the half marathon course.

The event coordinators had added helpful red flags along the course but the trail still had many branches obstructing passage.  So the Pack took on the challenge to clear what we could.

So we felt a clear conscience partaking of the drink stops.

The long course took us across creeks, over bridges, through the woods, and past 50 Springs.

We ended rather cold but found solace in some high alcohol content beers, followed by a trip to Chipotle.

PS - Another rivalry is coming to light.  I thought Dave was fond of his Iron handle, but he appears to be trying out for title of Mayhem again.  Recall, Dave was the first to fall during the initial Rowe Woods run.  During today's run, Iron fell through a decrepit wooden bridge and later was grabbed by a root.  Breaking his streak of falling ever other run, Malloy came away unscathed.

9-29-11 Mason

I'll keep this short, as this wolf's night ended being caught in some steel claws . . . see further below.

The Pack continues to post strong turnout - 9 wolves descended on the Mason trails & track.  We also had another new attendee tonight - Paul (no, not Paul Morgan . . . we still need that old bum to come out, guess he's too busy manscaping away his time in retirement).  I hear that this Paul has an interesting celebrity runner in his family.

The weather was nice when we arrived, but that would change before we were finished!  We first ran out to the street and up toward downtown.  We joined the trail that led into the other side of the park for a 1.5mile warm up.  Something was missing in boy wonder's (Cub #2) step.  They tried to make excuses that he caught a cold kissing some fox, but i think it's a sign of age - Ryan turned 23 today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN).  Next phase was a 1mile semi-fast run through the park's inner concrete trail.  RJ tore off fast and Ryan wasn't far behind (my hope of besting him this stage were dashed).  Wael felt proud to announce he hadn't seen Mike and when we said Mike was already back i think Wael felt a pain of defeat . . . . well, we quickly let him in on Mike's secret shortcut . .  so you're not last Wael!  (i'm sure RJ will post something to stick up for you).

Third stage was running through the dirt trails (Mike can upload monkey vine pic) and out toward the track.  Mayhem proudly announced that he didn't trip, but that he realizes it occurs only ever other run.  I'm hoping we can convince Wael to join the extended leg on Saturday, we'll need some muscle if Mayhem falls late into the 14mile stage.

We made it to the track but couldn't find the tires for flipping.  So up, up, up the steps for stadium runs.  Upon completing the full set, a few rain drops fell and quickly unleashed a downpour and gusting winds as we raced to our cars.  (note the difference of the before and after pics below).

In total we logged about 4-4.5miles, sadly lacking the fitness challenges we'd all have liked.  Everyone headed home so we never saw what beer selection Mike had in his cooler.  I think Mayhem was glad to leave early as he still had energy and mentioned something about recreational intimacy.  I hope that event didn't also come up short.

Ok, now my reference to steel claws - while driving home the traffic lights and most power was out around Fields Ertel & Mason Montgomery.   I got to Montgomery & Union Cemetery where lights were also out.  After waiting my turn, i pulled through and someone who didn't wait their turn plowed into me.  I'm fine and she admitted fault to the police, but my front end is a mangled mess!

Next event:  Saturday, 8am at Caesar's Creek Visitor Center near the damn.  At least 10 already confirmed:  Iron, Mayhem, Safi, 4 Winkers, Paul, Tong, Mull.  We'll all start together with majority turning around after 3 miles or so (insert pushup challenge for all here), and the real wolfmen (Iron, Mayhem, Mull, Safi?, Tong?) completing the lower lake loop for 14miles.

Just starting to cloud up

Rain, wind, and darkness stormed in fast

 Wolf-worthy car limped home:  you should see her car - taken away on a wrecker

9/24/11 Rowe Woods

Mayhem Malloy to comment with the recap.  Until then, 2 pics of the day.  Kudos to the newbie (Mike) for coming out after not running in years.  Props also to Winklers for a global variety of beers.

Today's pack with Mayhem behind the camera

Winkler's keep the bar high

9/21 Recap (Sharon Woods)

Back-to-back turnout of 9 wolves.   

New member:  Cub #2 (Ryan), and damn if he’s not a spitting physical image of Cub #1, with the addition of a wolf-man beard.  Maybe we should have an autumn beard growing competition?

Attendees:  Iron Wolf Burgio, Alpha Matt, Omega Matt, Cub #1, Cub#2, She-Wolf, Papa Cub, Golden Wolf, and last but not least (but sill last) Safi.

The Event

Stage 1:  Mild warm-up for 1.25 miles as a group.   

Stage 2:  Unleash the hounds -  an approx. 1-1.25mile hard run to complete the lake trail and then up to the Clubhouse.  Objective was to set handicaps based on each person’s completion time.  As expected, the Cubs set the leader pace.  They were scary to watch – looking at ease in tandem, striding like the Terminator.    It was all Mull could do to stick with them through the .75mile around the lake, but upon reaching the hill he morphed into an old-man shuffle while the boys kept their robotic stride.  Mull ended 50 sec behind the Cubs, next 15 sec was Malloy and Ron, Burgio another 15 sec, Laura and Bob spaced 15 more and Safi sandbagging the anchor.

Stage 3:   Run down the rabbit.  With the handicaps set, we released the rabbits in reverse order and spaced per the Stage 2 times.  Route was down the hill, gorge trail, and to the far parking lot (1-1.25mi).  The chase worked as planned and many of the late starts were catching the earlies.  However, Mull expected to hear the pant of the Cubs as the finish approached, but it turned out to be Papa Cub.  The Cubs appeared to have missed the early gorge turn.  The pack searched the routes on the way back to the start (1mi) where we found the Cubs shirtless and telling tales of girls necking in the woods.

Stage 4:  Parcourse events.  Pictures tell a thousand words (see below).  Phase 1:  60 second Dips.  Strong showing by all.  Cubs faced off and hit 50, assuming no one could match it.  Cub 1 said he started getting nervous when Mull followed and came close at 46.  Phase 2:  pull-ups.  Burgio and Ron almost pulled down the bar.  Phase 3: 60 sec push-ups.  There are 3 levels, so the Cubs showed compassion on Mull and allowed him the higher/easier bar.  The pics are so blurry due to the speed of the motion (gravity wasn’t fast enough so we not only pushed up but also pulled ourselves down to the bar to crank out 70-80).  You’ll love the picture of the Sign showing the parcourse trail – they seemed to have anticipated a Hogben-Safi event – you decide who’s in the chair and who’s pushing.

Stage 5:  Easy jog back to the cars . . . then on to another wide selection of beers.  Total run 4.5-5mi.

Malloy pointing at the Golden Wolf

Notice the 2 small brown biathlon signs.  Is that Pete and Wael?

Perfect 90 degree form

Specimen

Ron well above the chin

Blur of speed

Elderly abuse

Keeping the variety bar high