Last DINO of the season

Chris and Winski the wonder dog at the finish line

  Today was our last DINO 15K of the series. We ran at McCormick's Creek State Park which is one of our "local" parks so it was nice for once not to have to truck up to Indy or farther. It was an amazing day weather-wise. You could not ASK for better weather to run through the woods.
   There were a pretty good amount of people in attendance. I had at least 3 women come up to me saying "Weren't you at Knobstone?" I said yes. One of the said "man you just flew by us at the race and we never saw you again."  Another woman had seen me at many DINO events. It is so great to get to know more and more runners/racers around the state. It's a neat feeling when you are recognized by someone who lives in Carmel or Fishers or Fort Wayne. Because we all leave our towns to be in the woods!

 The woods were beautiful. Here is obviously an earlier picture of the McCormick's Creek woods but accept for the loss of green leaves it about sums it up. Lots of good trail, some good rocky parts.

Oh and these stairs........have I mentioned the stairs?? Well these are the 150 approx. count staircases which we had to go up not once but twice. AND also go down not once but twice. OY that last time up those stairs was like a death march. But at the top of the first time we went up were Erin Hazler and Chris Banul cheering and urging us on. YAY!!!   

                
       Here is our post-race food at the Qdoba DINO races! Oh man how great it is when you finish a race through the woods and get back to rice, beans, meat and chips. And cheese! MMMMMMMMM.  It's so far hands down the best race food...unless you count the PA Potatoes from Planet Adventure races then those are mighty awesome too.

The trail was nice, the weather was great, the food was fantastic, the cheering section was amazing and all the runners I met during the race and afterwards were in great moods and happy to take part. I had three friends take awards today:  Miranda Addonizio took 3rd in her age group, Alicia Rich took 3rd female overall and Christy Victor got the overall age group win and got a plaque.                                                                                         

Here are the happy campers with our medals being cute. Christy Victor is a great photographer she can even make me look good!!

So here are Christy and me with our cool plaques..hers for age group winner and me for 3rd place overall female. I also got a cool singlet that says 2012 Champion. I will try not to let it go to my head. Ha!


The Mercury guy I mentioned in an earlier blog post was there again and we found out his name is Lucas. He always wears the same yellow singlet. Must be  his lucky shirt or something. I am beginning to see a lot of people I know as I run/race more. It is kind of like a big extended family. All in all a fantastic end to a fantastic series!!
      The only bittersweet thing is that our dear friend Rebecca Petrush was not able to share the experience with us but I sure had her in mind when I was cruising the trails and remembering October 6th when Rebecca came out with 5 of us to McCreek at the last minute because the DINO at Avon was cancelled and we forded the streams up to our knees, laughed and had a great time. You are with us definitely in spirit Rebecca!! You and trail running just go together like peanut butter and jelly. Hope we get a chance to run with you again sometime. :-)

Also here are the Hazlers and their absolutely-not-spoiled puppies Winski and Buddy. AWWW!!! It was so awesome of them to come out just to be with us and cheer us on and take photos of us and generally enjoy the day....like singing Macho Man with me at the finish line like a halftime show.