The injury bug has not left. Three weeks after initial injury and my calf is still a bad boy. Tried a 3.5 mile easy out and back on the V&T this morning and by the time I hit 2 miles, I had burning again in the soleus/gactroc junction. I don't know if one of those muscles (I can stretch both, just fine) or the Achilles tendon at its connection point that is the problem. That should teach me to run in 5 Fingers. The last place those ran is to the garbage. Never again. 
Still far too few entries for the Spectrum Challenge to hold the event. Regardless of entries, I don't even have enough volunteers. Sure makes me want to put any more effort into that or any other events. 
On the entry front, only need 20 more to make it almost worthwhile to put on. As for volunteers, I need 6 more to have enough to do it. Both of those two things happen — and soon — or otherwise, I'll be sitting at the starting line, refunding money to those who did sign up and turning away the two or three that show up on race day hoping to run.
Is winter here yet?

I had posted the Monday run to coincide with Mikaela's soccer practice, and seeing as nobody else showed up (I really didn't expect anyone) I took off for the usual 4 miler on the Kamikaze Grasshopper loop. I even took time to stretch beforehand, focusing (as much as I ever do) on the right soleus and gastroc that have been issues lately. I took off slowly (relatively) and thought as I crossed King St., "wow, almost pain free!" A harbinger to be sure. I climbed the small hills through the Rusty Bucket Spur, and I was back on the Fire Road approaching the chain, when I got a stabbing, searing pain in the right calf. Smack-dab center of the soleus. I windmilled my leg a couple of strides, looking like a triple-jumper mid leap, since I didn't want to put it on the ground. I walked a bit to the chain and used the post to try to stretch it out. No go; the dang thing was burning.
That effectively ended the run – and, quite possibly, a week or two of running – for me. I iced it last night, and this morning it is tight and painful; especially going down stairs. I'm not sure what is wrong; I know I don't hydrate enough (a couple large cups of coffee is usually the day's intake), but this particular pain is different than the usual cramping/twitchies pain I get after a long run. Though, the baby cows did have the aliens crawling underneath by the time I gimped it back to the car. 
I don't know what the problem is, and so I don't know how to fix it. I guess I'll follow RICIE for a while and see what happens.
Bummer.

This was a relaxing weekend - spent camping at Fallen Leaf Lake - one that I didn't run a step, though there are some pretty sweet trails in the area. Even so, the aliens in my baby cows still made their appearance, entertaining my kids and eliciting "eeeewwww!" from my daughter, as she watched the micro-spasms in the muscle fibers. 
The campground was nice and quiet, being the weekend after the official end of summer. Went with a good group of people and we spent the time geocaching - fun time. Kids had a good time, though if the cache wasn't readily findable, they would give up and turn to other pursuits pretty quickly. It was the never-say-die parents that did a lot of the searching once the general area was identified.
Photos from the trip.

I'll first bring up the no-legged animal. Back a while, I posted a missive about animal encounters whereby I gave a detailed description of an encounter on a trail with a snake. Suffice it to say, that had a small amount of - shall we say - artistic license attached to it. I did encounter the snake though. 
Fast forward to last evening. Tooling along on the same stretch of trail, right about the same time (6:00 pm) and there that bad boy is: stretched across the trail, in the same position. (I'm reasonably sure it's a young rattler, about 18 inches if I'm wrong, please set me straight.) This time, he didn't peacefully move off when nudged. He  turned all REO Speedwagon on me and got all coiled up and hissing. I even kicked sand in his face. Me: tough guy on the beach. I edged around and went on my way. So anyone out there on the Fire Road in the evening around where the map is centered, keep an eye out.

The other "animal" I want to bring up is a crazy Scotsman named Don Lennox. (no, not Dave Lennox the air conditioning guy). After setting the record for rowing across the Atlantic to New York last year, he's bopped over to San Francisco and is now RUNNING to New York in an attempt to break that record (currently 46 days). In his effort, he'll be doing 50-60 miles a day. He will be passing through western Nevada in the next 3-4 days. Pass the word and get some support out there for him! His website is www.donlennoxtranscon.com. Show some support from our running community.

As a neophyte RD, I have a nagging question in the back of my head.  When to pull the plug on a race that just doesn't seem to be generating enough interest? From the RD perspective, every race should be (at least marginally) financially viable, and have competition worth the entry fee to the racers that show up. At what point do I toss up my hands and say "Basta!", refund existing registrations and walk away with a financial loss? I fully understand the racer-motivation to not sign up for a race too far in advance, in case of injury or other circumstance that would preclude attending, and losing the entry fee. I get that – especially for pricy races. 
But on the other side, there has to be a balance met at some point prior to race day for the RD to determine if the event should go off. After all, at that point, shirts and/or other swag needs to be accumulated for the expected number of racers, and volunteers rounded up and corralled. The hard part is calculating the number of pre-registrations necessary to make the call to do the event regardless, based on the expectation of late registrants. Just guessing here, but I think that number is somewhere north of one - probably in the 20-35 range. 
Tough choices, tough choices. 
Right now, I'm looking to possibly canceling the Spectrum Challenge. Things need to improve in the next couple of weeks or the event won't happen. Bummer.