Asa is asleep on the couch and I’m sitting here at the dining room table listening to painters work magic in the back rooms of the house.  There’s Tejano music blaring out of one of the fellow’s cell phones.  (I should get our radio off the top of the fridge for them…)  Eliot, Asa and I camped out on the living room floor last night, so we wouldn’t be overcome by fumes.  We’ll be there again tonight and then I think we’ll pull out a tent and head to the backyard when they get to the rest of the house.  Actually Eliot’s taking a bunch of medical school students on a conveniently timed camping trip, so it’ll just be me and Asa in the backyard wilds.   (Along with two fearsome German Shepherds and under the watch of the old lady next door.)  Asa is over-the-moon excited.

We were out at Camp Eagle last Saturday where the Nueces 50 is held.  I’ve been talking with Chris McWatters and Alison and Jason Bryant about putting together a trail running camp out there.  We’d talked about it at Nueces this year, but I hadn’t had a chance to really check things out until last weekend.  And Wow!  It has the potential to be awesome — as all of you who have been out there for Neuces can imagine.  Chris knows the place backwards and forwards and the terrain is a perfect training ground for Cactus Rose, Bandera and, of course, Nueces. There’s plenty of runnable Rocky Raccoon type trails — and, really, everything in between.  Great hill running.  Awesome technical running.  Bea-uuuuu–tiful location.  The best part in my mind is the potential to make it a real family event.  There’s so much good stuff there for kids and non-running spouses.  (Mountain biking, zip lines, kayaks, camp fire rings etc. etc.)  And, of course, there’d be baby sitters for those households blessed with two runners. There’s still lots of planning and date setting to do.  I imagine we’d need at least 15 people to make it go — and we’ll try to keep the costs as low as possible to that end.  All of us want to get out there and run again ourselves.

Eliot and Asa did some mountain biking and kayaking while we were there.  And a little bouldering.

I just ran a bunch.

I’d best get back to some paperwork before the boy wakes.