Still Here

A week ago, my son and I went camping.
Then Sunday morning, we went to Buena Vista. At Bongo Billy's coffee shop, we ran into Kyle Skaggs, Tony Krupicka, and a friend (I'm so bad remembering names the first time). My son was very excited to meet the fastest two ultra-runners in America - maybe the world.

Then I got to meet Meghan, Leslie, and Keith the day before their TransRockies Run started. They were kind enough to let me scope out their daily maps. It looks like a very fun set of runs. They were a very lively bunch, and Keith was hilarious!

It has not escaped my son's notice that I have a set of "mountain friends" that are very different and exotic from the types of people he's used to seeing in Denver. Hopefully this will have a positive impact on his psyche and the direction of his life. I don't believe in forcing anything on him, but if he gets exposed to many things in life, he can make his own informed choices.

Since the LT100 required much sloower speeds than I'm used to, I haven't needed any time off. I haven't been running as much, but mostly that's because my chores have been neglected, and I wanted to spend more time with my son before school. I've had to catch back up on my financial situation. An insurance payment was not made, so I had to make amends and assure the insurance company that I was both alive and healthy (boy, am I healthy!)

I've also been trying to plan the rest of my season. I've registered for several more races and there's a few more I need to get registered for.

I'm undecided about Javelina and the Rim2Rim2Rim. Arizona is SO far away! I want to see my friend in Arizona, but not sure if her busy schedule will allow it. Being the techie that I am, I hate to do anything unless its done "efficiently". That means for a trip this far, at least one race needs to be in there. So I'm thinking about taking a week and a couple of days off, driving to Grand Junction/Fruita to do the Rim Rock Run (22.5M), then drive to Zion N.P. to run. The next weekend is the Javelina Jundred in McDowell S.P. in Arizona. Then drive back.

Even though I'd be right there in Arizona, I'm not sure my friend could ever get time off to spend with me.

Also, there are a few friends from Colorado who had expressed interest in doing a Rim2Rim2Rim with me at the Grand Canyon. So there might be a group of us traveling down together sharing expenses and driving. I don't want to waste any of the desert sky by sticking a roof over me on any nights, so it would be a cheap and dirty trip - as in stinky trail-trash bodies!

So what's a guy to do? I don't want to drive or fly that way twice - it's too far. Doing Javelina and R2R2R is too much in one trip - or is it? (Is that crazy-talk?) So I'm having a hard time making a decision.

Golly, golly! Isn't life SO HARD?! We're so extremely lucky to live in this country and have the freedom and opportunities that we have.
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Ailments...
- My right foot keeps introducing sharp pains now and then. I'm not sure what the right thing is to do - I've been pretty much ignoring them because they come and go. A real injury would hurt full-time, right?
- My left elbow is still healing from my fall during the Leadville Marathon. It didn't hurt that bad at any point - except several times when I put weight on it. If I held my elbows next to each other, the difference was obvious - the left elbow has been noticably more filled-out, and still is. I can feel a difference. There's a groove where there isn't on the other elbow, but it really never hurt very bad. Hell, it took me more than a week to even realize it was more than a simple bruise.
- My many sprains are healed enough that I hardly ever notice.
- The only real problem is my chronic pulmonary edema. It seems to be getting worse. The albuterol and Astelin combo are taking care of the asthma and bizarre naso-motor gushing sinuses. My doctor had me try acetazolimide to see if that would help with my pulmonary edema, but so far nothing has had even the slightest benefit to the problem of pulmonary edema.
Pulmonary edema is usually triggered specifically by...
1) climbing
2) from a high altitude to an even higher altitude
3) through physical exertion - you won't get it from driving to a higher altitude
So as an experiment, I'm going to run the Boulder 100. There's virtually no climbing, it's the same altitude I've been used to living. If my lungs fill with fluid, then it's more complicated than the usual high altitude pulmonary edema. Then I'll have to see a pulmoary specialist to figure out WTF.

Have fun, everyone!