4/15 is not tax day since it's sunday. in honor of the tedium that is tax filing, i will deliver henceforth a blather of words with only one picture.

started the day's activities with a 12-mile run. decided to do this run on a wooded trail. trail looked good, looked inviting. maybe a little muddy, but no big deal. it was raining, snowing, 36º.

set off along the trail and quickly learned that trails are quite different one from another, and they are all different from roads. speedy was a good sport but doesn't like woods, rain, having wet feet, or really anything much about what was going on. the only redeeming factor speedy found about the woods was the absence of birds. not sure that the woods actually contained no birds - more likely the birds were smart enough to stay inside when it was raining, snowing, 36º.
anyhooo - the run was a fabulous high-paced rainy day hike. the trail was a nonlooping straightshot 4 miles, so we went out & back, and that was all for speedy b/c she was running more later. i went back for 2-in-2-out, for a total of 12. i can testify to the necessity of different shoes for running on muddy trails. the traction and stability weren't great, and the shoes are of course now totally mudcovered.

we discovered creeks, bridges, mud holes, wetlands, large wet rocks, myriad roots, and the more plain type trail paved with small gravel. the route was through the woods near the lake. it really was fabulous, and even speedy admitted to having a good time.

the later event was the bike->canoe->run triathlon. i did the bike - speedy & i both canoed - and speedy ran. that was her 4 more miles on that trail. the biking was a 9-mile ride, 3x over a 3-mile loop through the park roads & parking lots. the highlight was a killer downhill to a hairpin turn around and back up the steep hill from a virtual standstill b/c you couldn't hit the turn too hard b/c it was a hairpin - you'd wipe out. there were other turns and a stellar straightaway.

the canoe portion... now, that was a challenge. we won't go into complete detail here, b/c there are many aspects of attempting to keep speedy's feet dry that would be boring to the general blogreading public. here's the thing, though... canoeing on a lake in 20+ mph winds is a challenge.

the course was modified from a 2-mile course to a 1/4-mile course, which was a good thing b/c it took about as long to go 1/4 mile as it would have to go 2 in normal conditions. in case you don't know anything about canoeing & wind -- you really can't afford to let your canoe get sideways to the wind. if the wind is fairly strong, you've got to actually head directly into it or have it directly at your back. there's no cutting across the wind in a canoe. if the bouys for which you are aiming aren't placed precisely with the wind, or if the wind, say, changes -- you are up the proverbial creek. [haha]

and, now for a little bit about lakes. lakes have copious shoreline. when the winds are up, waves are driven at every shoreline. and... now for a bit about waves - they will bounce off and reverb around in a smallish area. imagine a pot of water, you blow on it from one direction, causing waves, but look at how the waves bounce around and reverb off the sides.

okay, now you've got a little bit of an idea of what was going on out on the lake. throw in a couple dozen canoers with varying levels of expertise and high levels of excitement, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

but, there was no disaster. just a bunch of canoes going literally every whichaway and a bunch of people paddling madly, pushing off from rocks & shorelines, using paddles to pole through sand, laughing, yelling, and getting very wet.

not a single canoe tumped, and that just goes to show you. not sure what it goes to show you, but it must go to show you something.

the last leg was speedy's 4 miles in the woods - the 2-in-2-out i'd finished with earlier. she did it fast, of course, because she is speedy. while she was in the woods, i put the bike back in the car and put on some dry clothes. speedy came out of the woods. i cheered for her. she had a banana, and i had a piece of pizza. all of the extremely glorious oatmeal cookies, of which we had split one earlier, were gone. boohoo.

that's it. we stuck around a while, then headed on home. we were not travelling in a cattle truck, alas, but a good time was had by all.