Running Sunday

After 2 days of travel I've arrived in VT.  The damage from Irene is really quite remarkable; it's amazing what a flooding stream can move.  I'll put some pictures up next week, but today I'm thinking about the Blues Cruise.

I'm picking up my rental car this afternoon and driving to Ithaca where I'll crash at my Dad's.  I've got to pick up a hand bottle for the race, so I expect I'll hit this store tomorrow.  Afterward, I'll drive down to Reading and start getting into race mode with my old friend Running Moose.

Speaking of race mode, I've been nurturing a "playoff beard" ever since I decided to come up here and run.  I absolutely have no problems growing hair on my head, but the face - that's another thing entirely.  It'll be good to shave.

It looks like the weather for the race will be touch and go.  Temperature wise, perfect, but with a chance of rain on top of already muddy trails.  I'm going to go with short sleeve tech shirt, shorts, buff, gloves, and my Bikilas.  I brought my Trek Sports, but they have a tendency to rub the outside ball of my feet much more than the others and given the wet trail conditions, I'm going to try and minimize my chance for blisters.

The trail conditions will also rather significantly impact my goals for the race.  Priority #1 will be to maintain a positive outward appearance (smile).  After that, well, I'd like to knock over my time goals, but muddy trails with steep hills may make that difficult.  It's a bit weird to write this, but it will probably be good to be near the front in the second half of the race - hopefully that's some place I'll find myself.

Thanks for reading, and don't count all of your chickens before they hatch.
J