Well, Mr. Murphy reigns supreme once again. First the good news. My 50K simulation run last Monday was a huge success. Made it through the planned 26 miles on that hellspawn of a course and ended upright. Big thanks to Linda running support for me, driving from each checkpoint to the next to keep me fueled and my spirits up. A great feeling to complete knowing I only had to grind out 8 or so more for the actual race in two weeks (as are most trail races, actual course is longer than stated). Taper officially started the next day with a quick run with friends at another park we train at regularly. A little more than .5 miles into it, an unexpected root and an unwavering tree resulted in an ambulance ride. Ortho-surgeon confirmed surgery for tomorrow. In short, I will be out for a while dealing with recovery and getting over the absolutely sickening reality all the training since December is now for naught. In the meantime, we will be heavily relying on Brad to keep you entertained… starting today! Take care everyone, Brad or I will try to keep you posted on the progress.
Take it away Brad…
Have I mentioned before what a gold mine Huntington Beach State Park is for birders? Nearly two weeks after our February trip, I’m still sorting, selecting, editing, and writing about the birds Jan and I saw while we were there. The more seasoned birders told us it was not a very good birding week to be there. Not good?! They assured us that later in the season we could expect to see 100 (or more) species in a single day. As it was, we saw 26 species at Huntington alone. That’s 26 of the 56 we saw on the entire trip from just this one location.
Just past noon the tide was about halfway through outbound cycle. Jan had walked to the end of the existing portion of the observation deck near the nature center. I had not seen brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) that close before, and the long zoom lens really helped bring them up close and personal. So close, in fact, that I had to back off the zoom a bit to fit them in the field of view.
Hit the jump to learn more about these unique fisherbirds!
Continue reading Giant Flying Fishing Machines…by Brad Marks
Life Intrigued 