Meier's Mammoth Minnow and other Fun Times

By mid week we’ve hit our stride and our training has gone exceedingly well. The runs have been smooth, beautiful and challenging. But spliced into the work has been some play, and on Wednesday and Thursday we were able to find time to just sit back and enjoy some R and R.

Wednesday afternoon and evening we spent down at Shady Rest park for a good-old fashioned bar-be-que, grilled up nicely by Marv Alvarez, Andy Schupp and Coach Peirce. It was scrumptious; yours truly downed two burgers. The athletes participated in games by gender, the boys roughing it up in skins vs. shirts game of football, while the girls sat in circles and moved swiftly through a series of lawn games and giggles. When the girls circled up for mutual back rubs, an on looking Glendora XC runner under compulsion of ten wagered bucks from his teammates made his way into the girl’s circle for his own piece of the action! Not sure if they paid up, but by the look on his face as he made his way back to his bettors, it appeared the money was no longer as important!



This morning we ran our traditional Big Smokey long run (12 and 10 mile distances), and then in the afternoon we drove up 395 to June Lake for a couple hours of eating, laying around and wading in the shallow water of a beautiful mountain lake. A giant bolder some 50 yards off shore beckoned many, though the 5’ of frigid water didn’t require any swimming to get there.





An unplanned moment of hilarity came when many discovered tiny minnows swimming near the shore. Kelsi and Rebecca were quick to grab some Ziploc bags to double as fish nets, and Dave Meier gamely offered to eat one should they be so lucky to lure one into the bag. After 30 minutes of failure, Dave retired to the shade of a pine tree on shore until a mammoth sized outburst of joy came from the shoreline: a Mammoth Minnow had been snagged. Meier’s name was written all over it.



Beckoned by the bellowing, Dave laughed and made his way to the water as a crowd of onlookers enjoyed his “man vs. wild” moment and swallowed the little fellow in one gulp. As of this writing, he appears to be fine, the little critter … not so much.




Here's the view the other night from our condos, an almost full moon!