#nerdpoints

[mouseinmypocket]

How many #nerdpoints do I get for my new homemade office decor? #StarTrek #wrathofkhan #wreathofkhan #christmaswreath #holidaydecor #attheoffice #nerd101 #KhanNoonienSingh (at Oakland City University)

[morejuiceforthegyro]

It's been about 5 weeks since I first began toying with painting miniatures. I'm just starting to leave the "follow the recipe" phase of learning. #NameThatWookie #NerdPoints 🖖

[c3pojones]

Race Report: Skippo 10k Trail Run

Last Saturday I laced up my shoes for my first race post-marathon. My recovery went fairly well. I had a few hiccups with my IT band on my left leg, but after about three weeks I was running pain free (or as pain free as I ever run anymore). 

The Skippo is one of my favorite races in the Saint Louis area. There are 10k, 20k and 30k options. It’s held in Castlewood State Park, which is beautiful anytime of year, but especially in the fall. 

The Skippo course is a combination of some easy, hard, and medium trail. The first two miles are flat and simple. There are a few turns here and there and a few trees to avoid, but nothing too difficult. 

The race starts in waves of 30 or 40 runners. Last year I was in wave 5. This year I put in a slightly faster time and was slotted in wave 16...the last wave. Apparently this was a mistake. I asked a race official about this and she told me to just go where ever I wanted since “you don’t look like you should be in wave 16.″ Thanks...I suppose. 

So I decided to start in wave 4. One of my buddies was slotted for 4 and I figured I could probably beat him by a couple minutes given our past race experiences. 

Recently I’ve stopped using Runkeeper in favor of Strava. I like Strava’s statistics and segment tracker much better, and more of the people I run with and against use Strava. The only drawback is that the Strava app does not give audio updates of time and pace as Runkeeper does. Since I don’t have a fitness watch, I don’t know how fast I am going unless I look at my phone, which is not easy to do in a trail race. While training I’ve really enjoyed not knowing my pace. It was actually not a bad thing for the race either. 

The very opening of the race is a quick quarter of a mile or so just to get to the trail. I positioned myself in 3rd place of wave 4 and just followed the front two guys for the first two miles. We probably passed 20 or 30 people from wave 3. In hindsight Strava informs me mile 1 was 7:34, mile 2 was 7:41. So far so good.

Almost immediately after the second mile marker, the course goes through a short tunnel and then up up up 200 stairs (basically the opposite of Cirith Ungol #nerdpoints). 

I’m no stair climber, so I just walk up the steps, which is what most people do who aren’t in the first couple of waves. I had done a training run a couple of weeks ago at Castlewood and during that run I did the steps 20 seconds faster than during the race, so the congestion of other competitors slowed me down a bit, but it wasn’t a big deal. I was tired enough the way it was. 

After the stairs is some rough terrain with plenty of congestion due to the stairs. I tried to weave my way past as many people as I could on the uphill terrain that followed the stairs. Shortly after that came the downhill switchbacks. Again, I got stuck behind people at a few spots, but managed to work my way through here and there, keeping a decent pace.

Mile 3 was a lot of rough unpredictable stuff with the stairs, other uphill challenges and downhill switchbacks, so my pace was reduced to 11:23 for that mile. To be expected. 

Mile 4 included a creek crossing, which wasn’t too bad, followed by a giant, terrible hill. Last year I found walking up was just as fast as running, so I did that again. There were a few more people passing me this year than last year on the hill, but so it goes. Mile 4 was another slower one due to terrain, a 10:18. 

Mile 5 was sort of a blur for me. There was some up and down here and there, but it was the one mile that was slower than it probably needed to be. I came in with a 9:11 on that one. 

I picked it back up on mile 6 with plenty of downhill and good terrain, clocking a 7:40 and a nice sprint to the finish under the compulsion of the smell of BBQ.

I finished with a 54:24, which was a four minute improvement over last year, so I can’t complain about that. 

Skippo is a really solid race. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to give trail running a try. It’s not an easy course by any means, but it is well staffed and well attended with plenty of beautiful scenery.

This race is part of the Big River Trail Series, along with the Flint Ridge from September, and the Castlewood Cup this coming February. I’m currently listed as second after 2 events, but I’m fairly certain I’m actually in 4th as there are a few technical difficulties with the scoring. 

Other than the Castlewood Cup race in February, I have not scheduled any races as of yet. I haven’t pulled the trigger on a road series for the winter. I guess I should probably give that some thought this week.

[itsmcfassyhiddlesbatchandothers]

I said this to my tracer today when she asked me to explain something to the class.. Literally quoted it word for word! 😂 #nerdpoints #avengers #loki #thor #thor2 #thedarkworld #tomhiddleston #hiddlesworth #hiddles #marvel

[ingoodsentences]

This is a bit late… but I GOT INTO POTTERMORE!!! Seeing my name of the list of magical children made me feel so cool, and yet, SOOOO nerdy. AT THE SAME TIME.