Good and Bad

Running can be an interesting sport one week you want to be sick and post your worst time ever, the next your easily cruising to a PR. Life in general it turns out is a lot like this as well. I've been treated to two especially horrible days running recently as well as one that was just perfect. It's important in running (and in general) to roll with the punches.....it's your actions in these moments that define you.....just pick yourself up and hang in until things get better......they always do.

This quote pretty much says it:
 "Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

55+ Miles last week. Less than a month to Flag!


Specifically what I'm talking about:

Bear Canyon Loop 17.5 mi 3:57 (Personal Worst)
Bear Canyon Loop 17.5 mi 3:15 (Personal Best)
Mt Lemmon 17 miles ..... gave up after 9 miles and 2 miserable hours.

Mountain Repeats / Monsoon in the Face

Hill repeats are a large part of a runners training and are made to build speed and endurance. They generally involve running up a hill that's about 300 feet multiple times. This results in tired but improved runners. Ultra training ends up taking this to the next level. Today some of us went for some mountain repeats

The Santa Rita Mountains are about 60 minutes south of Tucson and are home to one awesome / brutal mountain, Mt Wrightson. The trail up Wrightson is 5 miles long and involves 4000 ft of elevation. Korey, Mike Duer, Dallas, Chris and I all met up in Madera Canyon at 6 am with the intent of doing multiple ascents of the mountain. I have run up this route once before for my first run with TTR, it was brutal and I wanted another shot... this was it.

We all started up the trail, Korey and Mike shot ahead and a long day of climbing began. I stayed with Dallas for about 3 miles but he pulled away too. The top of the mountain was socked in but they were nice white fluffy clouds so I was excited to run through them. I hit switchback city and powered my way up to the Baldy Saddle. I ran up along the ridge through the clouds and made my way to the summit. The others passed me on the way down. The view of the summit was really cool since I was above the clouds. I knew I wanted to do another climb so I only stayed about 2 minutes, ate some Accel Gel, drank some water and started back down. I was happy and feeling good and way ahead of my previous time. An uneventful run down brought me into Madera Canyon again after 3:10, a 30 minute improvement.

I refueled grabbing a turkey/avacado wrap and a coke, refilled my water and got some more Gu and started back up. Looking up at the summit the clouds were getting thicker, I knew I probably wouldn't make it to the top before some weather rolled in so I resigned to only making it back to the Baldy Saddle again. The first two miles were brutal and humid and I felt like crap. I pushed through and ended up really enjoying the second part of the climb. There were a few light rain showers but they only lasted for about 2 minutes each.

At the saddle I looked around and the clouds were starting to get dark. This confirmed my decision to turn around. I figured with about 4 miles back to the canyon I could hopefully get down before the rain started since I had made good down hill time before.....this was WAY wrong. I got down through the crazy switch backs (~1 mile) and it promptly started to rain  monsoon. This slowed me way down...the trail was pretty much turned into little rivers which annoyingly covered up all the rocks....I decided not to push speed and just walk it in....getting a sprained ankle would be bad....

The rain was cold....I trudged along....my foot started to hurt..... other than that I felt great.... plenty of energy.... Chris had passed me on his second time up and passed me again on the way down, he seemed pretty adept at running through the rain soaked trail. He stopped and lent me a goretex vest and walked with me for a bit then took off to get down off the mountain. The vest warmed me up and I walked/jogged the rest of the way in..... I got back to the parking lot thoroughly soaked 3:50 after I started up for the second ascent....this is really slow considering I skipped the final summit part.

This run kicked my butt.....but in a good way...overall I got more than 7 hours under foot, great training for Flag! Also the total elevation gain/loss was 7500/7500 which is just short of the total gain/loss at Flag! So I figure if I can do that in less than half the distance I will be ok! Overall a good day...well except for the Monsoon in the face.

There was a little bit of climbing today!

Cuyamaca 3 Peaks.....Lots of Climbing...Slight Breakdown....100% Awesome

The Cuyamaca Three Peaks 50k is a small mountain Ultra located just outside of San Diego in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. The course boasts over 6000 ft of climb and is just within range to get to by car. This makes it the perfect place to go for a race during the hot hot Arizona summer. I headed out Friday night and camped in my car about 2 miles from the start the night before the race. Some people might say that camping in your car is weird, but, it is cheap, it lets you stay close to the start line, and my Outback is exactly the right size if you put the back seat down…so it was great. Sunset the night before the race was beautiful and after the sun went down the stars were out in force. In the past I have almost always been nervous the night before a race. In this case I wasn’t. I knew I had trained hard but most importantly I had finished a 50 miler before so 50k just didn’t seem as daunting. I knew whatever the course threw at me I would be ready and be able to finish. Anyway I had talked my buddy Korey into running this race...Korey is a speed demon and we both knew he was going to do really well. I love it when I know other people at the race it makes it more fun....even if they are miles ahead of you!

I'm stoked lets go!

Stonewall Mountain 1 (0-6.5 Miles)

The race started out at a pretty good pace as the sun was rising. We looped out around the lake past a bunch of horse stables and toward the back side of Stonewall Peak. We started climbing the peak, everyone started to slow down a little bit as we climbed up. The girl in front of me told me to pass her whenever I was ready but I told her “I don’t want to do anything stupid this early”. This turned out to be a great choice as the current pace ended up being perfect. After climbing the peak there was a great run down a series of switchbacks to the first aid station at the Paso Picacho Camp Ground at about 7 miles. I grabbed some food and then took off back into the woods.

Middle Peak (6.5-13 Miles)

The next section started out pretty flat but pretty quickly started the climb up and around middle peak. One or two people passed me here but I felt like my pace was right. I also remembered that we still had over 20 miles to go so I decided to just keep it nice and steady. The climb up the peak was almost all single track mostly through some awesome tall grass. This section of the trail was beautiful and it was still nice and cool. After the climb the course turned down a fire road for a nice easy descent back toward aid station two which was located at the start. On the way down I saw my buddy Korey coming back up I yelled out to him that he was in second place and to keep it up. At the aid station I grabbed some more food and a little ginger ale to calm my stomach down. The volunteers helped me refill my water pack which was awesome because even though we were only 13 miles in I had already drained it. I had looked at the next section on the course map earlier in the week so I knew what was coming and I braced myself.

As you can see 13-19 is a bit of a climb

Middle Peak (Again) then Cuyamaca Peak (13-19 Miles)

I’ll just be up front about the next section. It was hard, it was hot and it took a lot out of me. After aid station 2 we turned around and re-climbed middle peak up the fire road. The sun was finally out in force, so this area was hot, and my stomach was not co-operating. At the top there was a short descent and then we were all faced with the daunting last climb of the day to the top of Cuyamaca Peak.  The trail up the peak is pretty rugged and due to burns in the past is fairly exposed. Me and Jeff (who had been running with me since about mid way up middle peak) slowly made our way to the top. It seemed like this trail kept getting steeper. About half a mile from the peak the trail dumped out onto a road which just progressively got steeper.

We finally got into aid station three (19 miles) at the top of the peak. I was tired but this aid station was like a shot of adrenaline. The aid station was manned by women in bikinis and they had fresh strawberries, watermelon, and ice pops.  I’ll admit up front (and if you ever run an ultra with me you’ll find out) that I act like a complete idiot at aid stations. I’m always excited by the food and the cold drinks.  I also usually end up calling the aid station workers “My best friends ever” or “The coolest people in the world” or something like that. In this case since we were over half way through this was my first chance to drink Mountain Dew of the day (In general, I have a rule that I don’t drink caffeine during the first half of the race).

Life giving frozen goodness!

 I drank two cups of mountain dew, ate a mountain of strawberries some watermelon….some more food that I don’t remember…there was also a bucket of ice water and I may have dunked my head in it….it was wonderful….everyone laughed at how excited I was. Anyway after aid station goodness I headed out with another full water pack as the climb had depleted mine.

Down to Cold Spring (19-26 miles)

The next section of the course was almost entirely downhill….yes…..it was great. We all bombed down the hill for the first couple miles and everyone who I ended the climb with eventually spread out again. Three miles into the section it flattened out a little bit and I started to hit the wall. I slowed down and got passed by about four people. I worked through the wall but it was a little hard. At one point I was going down some single track that was overgrown and brushed a plant out of my way….it was totally covered in nettles….it was awful….I swore….but luckily about 5 minutes later I broke through the wall and started running again. I passed some park rangers on horses on the way down the trail, flashed the hang loose sign to some guy taking pictures and rolled into aid station 4 at like 26 miles.

I got a band aid for my nettle sting from the plant, ate more food, refilled my water pack (empty again), grabbed a couple more GU’s and headed out.

Cold Spring to Finish

The next couple miles were a slow uphill section. I decided to go for a 7 hour goal and I knew I had plenty of time so I decided to take the uphill section slow, knowing that the last 3 miles were downhill or flat and I’d be able to run. My thought was if I saved my energy I’d have enough energy left to run it in strong to the end. Anyway a good deal of walking up hill here. For such small hills they were really tough, I was physically and emotionally drained and just didn’t want to climb anymore. I’m not ashamed to say that I just lost it for just a minute or two. In past races when I have come close to breaking down like this there has always been someone around, but this time I was all by myself so I just let it out (I totally cried a little...so what). After a few minutes I gathered myself up and pushed forward as the hilly section was ending.  After I hit the top of the hills I finally started running again. I could see a couple people out in the distance and my competitive side kicked in. I knew they had passed me while I was hitting the wall and I really wanted to gain on them again. I eventually passed all four people who had passed me earlier and ran it in toward the end. One runner did pass me in this stretch, but he really was killing it so good for him! The trail looped back around the lack in reverse of the route at the start and in no time I popped out onto the road and ran it into the finish area closing out my race in 6 hours 52 minutes placing 27 out of 84. Korey had finished long ago (coming in fourth) but he and his wife held up at the finish line and cheered me in. Afterwards I drank like 3 bottles of water and ate a bunch of food to get my energy back. Overall I felt pretty good considering I had just knocked down a tough mountain 50k.

I’m really happy with how my race turned out, while I’d always like to be faster I kept a good smart pace and for the most part didn’t pass or get passed by many people….This usually means you aren’t doing anything stupid! I’ll remember a lot of things about this race, the awesome sunrise and the breeze blowing on me running through the tall grass. I’ll remember how happy I felt to be out running in the mountains and how liberating it was to push through the hard parts of this race. After the race I hung out for a bit with Korey and his wife, they are great people. That night I drove back as far as Yuma before getting a hotel and crashing. It was really a great weekend….I would totally run this race again.

Running through the desert and/or mountains

So I haven't updated since my initial post after moving to Tucson. However, things have been really busy between work, running and trying to meet new people I just don't seem to have all that much free time. Luckily I seem to be doing really well at all three so I'll call it a win.

Needless to say I've been training hard...but not quite as hard as I should. I've been a little more diligent since I signed up for another 50k....having goals forces you to train! I'm going to do this kind of like my update I did after Antarctica....there are several runs so I'm just going to play them out in order!

Wasson Peak


Ok so one day off after the brutal run up Mt Wrightson I went out to the Tucson Range and did Wasson Peak at sunset. We ran up and hit the summit right as the sun was going down. It was pretty spectacular! The trail was all single track and it was pretty technical the whole way. The climb up took about 1 hour 10 minutes and then it was about 50 back down leaving me at an even two hours. One thing I've noticed is I don't go as fast as I should on technical down hills....if I work on that I can improve my times a lot!

As you can see from the map the route is a simple out and back. The first 3 or so miles you are stuck kind of low. But, once the climbing begins the views get great and there is some really good running while you're up on one of the ridges! I'm glad we did this at sunset...because man it was hot that day....also it gave me a chance to do the last 30 minutes with my headlamp and get some night trail practice.

Catalina Peaks


I did this run with Tucson Trail Runners who are an awesome group of trail runners that just relish being surrounded by Tucson's mountains and trails. The route was supposed to be 22 miles, however early on the group I was running with took a small (5 mile) detour and then late in the run I twisted my ankle a little bit. Luckily at mile 17 which was at the top of Mt Lemmon (9000+ ft) there were some people setup with an aid station, so me and another runner hopped a ride back to the start and called it a success at 17 miles. I think my time was something like 3:40. Anyway, I met two pretty cool people Korey and Guy and we ran pretty much the whole way as a group....Korey actualSly finished the run and after the detour at the beginning probably hit 27 miles for the day. This was a lot of fun and I even saw a snake sleeping under a rock ( I gave him like 15 feet of space :) )

Bear Canyon (Or adventures in hydration)


So I've done this route twice now and the two times were VERY different. The first time I ran this I stayed out late the night before...I'm trying to be social and meet people remember....anyway there was a cool band playing downtown so I listened to most of their set before going home....anyway I woke up the next morning to do the 17 mile Bear Canyon Loop....Instead of downing a whole bottle of Gatorade like a good runner I just rolled out of bed and out the door. I'm going to take this moment to relay some advice that Running Legend David Horton gives runners at his races "Don't be stupid". I think its obvious my first encounter with this route didn't go so well. I downed my whole 2L of water in the first 8 miles, luckily I was running with Korey and he had plenty of extra....and there is actually running water 14 miles in when you get to Sabino Canyon.....anyway....Hydrate!

The second time (2 weeks later) was much better. I've since figured out hydration a little better and didn't even use my full 2L of water on the run. Repeat...."Don't be stupid" ..... this is great advice for endurance athletes. Anyway the views on this run are spectacular you run through two canyons and up and around a small mountain....its great...I love it....I'll probably do this route at least once a month. Anyway 17 miles....currently running it in about 3:40.....I really think I could do it in 3:10 if I quit being a wimp and just push through some of the tougher parts.

Sunset Loops


Another TTR run. This run was a lot of fun, again it was up in the Catalina Mountains and involved the climb up Mt. Lemmon. However, this run is nice and has all the climbing at the beginning. The run starts with a climb from the Sunset Trailhead to Mt Lemmon and then goes out along the ridge for several miles before dropping into a really cool place called the Wilderness of Rocks (It's just what it sounds like). The only bad thing about this part of the run is that sometimes the trail kind of disappears for 50 feet. Eventually the trail loops back around to the Sunset Trailhead making a giant Figure 8. 17 Miles....I ran this in 4:50.....I felt really slow all day.....I want another shot at this....I feel like 4:10 should be my goal. Anyway lots of elevation lots of miles.

Summary

Tucson is great! Socially I'm doing pretty well getting out there and meeting people. Running here is awesome, 20 minute drive to great mountain trails and there are plenty of other crazies out here who love to run long in the mountains......Oh I almost forgot....There is this awesome hill on my way home from work....there's a road to the top, I do hill repeats up it once a week for training! Each lap is 3 miles 700/700 ft gain/loss!

Mt Wrightson

So after the Bull Run 50 miler I immediately relocated to Tucson Arizona for a new job. New adventure in a city surrounded by mountains...yay! Leaving all my awesome friends in DC not so yay....but anyway the adventure is on and I'm now based out of Tucson!


Lucky for me a quick google search of "Tucson + Trail Running" leads straight to the Tucson Trail Runners a group of local trail runners / ultra athletes living right in my new back yard. Since, Tucson is surrounded by mountains it's not really that surprising. Turns out they are a pretty cool group.


They have a yearly series of runs with a different event every other week ranging from 10 miles to 50k and many of them train for 50 mile and 100 mile ultras as well. I was lucky enough to enlist in time for this week's event the "Multiple Wrightson Massacre".


Mt. Wrightson is the tallest mountain in the Tucson basin rounding out at a nice 9453 feet. The Multiple Wrightson Massacre takes place on the "Old Baldy Trail" which starts in Madera Canyon ( 5420 ft ) and climbs to the top in about 5.4 miles. The TTR people come out every year and do this route out and back as many times as feels right. My initial plan was for two ascents but it took me a little longer than I expected (turns out 4000 ft in 5 miles is a little rough) so I ended up only doing the route once.

So, I started in Madera Canyon around 7am and began the climb up. The lower part of the trail is some very sandy single track, it's runnable if you are up to it. However, since it was my first time on the route and I was quickly alone on the trail I decided to take it easy. The trail quickly winds up and begins a series of switch-backs up to Josephine Saddle. From there the trail gets much less sandy and more normal dirt as the environment changes from desert to alpine (this is really cool). A few more switchbacks and another mile or so and you're facing a giant rock face to the right. The trail takes a left and a series of crazy switch-backs swerve up along the west face of the mountain to Baldy Saddle. Seriously.....this trail should be called "Old Switch-Back".... from there there's a good half mile of good running along the saddle until the earlier rock face appears again, except this time I was on the other side and had to navigate my way up some narrow single track that looks like it was blown out of the rock. I took it slow here and made sure I had good footing.

I got to the summit and got spectacular views of the Tucson basin (and Mexico). I didn't stay long, it was pretty windy and I was anxious to get down to the main trail and start running down. The way down was pretty quick compared to the way up. Aside from a few rocky areas I got some really good running in and was down much quicker than the ascent. Overall this is a fun run, I'll probably go back in the future although in the interest of saving time and logging more miles I'll probably skip the summit and do a loop trail (which includes most of Old Baldy) which loops up and over the entire mountain. Good run, good fun, good hill training!

Total 10.8 miles, 4000 ft gain, 4000 ft loss.

Bull Run 50 Miler

After having such a good time at Holiday Lake I immediately signed up for the Bull Run 50 Miler, an awesome event put on by VHTRC. The event is a double out and back near Clifton VA not too far from where the battle of Bull Run took place. I got some pretty good training in including a 7.5 hour training run near Hawksbill in Shenandoah. However, my training was not as thorough as I had wanted. February through April involved me interviewing for and accepting a job in Tucson Arizona and doing a house hunting trip. Oh and I got called in for jury duty where I spent three days as part of a jury for a trial. This pretty much broke up my training more than I wanted so I had good weeks and bad weeks. My overly confident goal was 9 hours but on the inside I knew it would probably be more like 10...but I figured "hey maybe I'll have a good day". Anyway, I spent the night at the race start at Hemlock overlook and was both excited and nervous when it came time to start at 6:30 on Saturday. The course is a 16 mile out and back followed by a 34 mile out and back. I had been warned that the first 17 or so miles is pretty easy and to not fall in to the trap of going out too hard to soon.

Anyway at 6:30 we all set off using two hand-held bottles for hydration. I settled in to a pace I felt comfortable with and immediately knew my 9 hour goal was out the window. It felt more like a 10 hour kind of day already. Things went pretty well and quick all the way to the first turn around. About 3/4 of a mile before the turn around I saw my friend Snipes and he gave me some quick encouragement before blasting past. There were a few camera guys along the course. As you can see....I was feeling pretty good.

The turn around back to Hemlock Overlook was also pretty quick and painless. I saw my crew at an aid station and they replenished my supply of Hammer Gel. Time flew by and I was climbing the hill into Hemlock Overlook at mile 16. I got some candy and refilled my water bottles and my crew hooked me up with a Big 100 bar which I scarfed down, yum 350 calories! Soon enough I was back on the trails and running through a sea of Blue Bell flowers which was pretty cool. After crossing a soccer field we started into the "harder" part of the course and started hitting some rolling hills. The day was starting to heat up so I was relieved when the hills abated and I arrived at the Bull Run Marina Aid station and saw my crew again. It was really cool that so many people were interested in coming out and spending their day in the sun mainly for the purpose of handing me a box full of Hammer Gel every 60 - 90 minutes.

The Bull Run Marina aid station (mile 21ish) was awesome...and here is why.....this is important stuff!! Bacon....they had bacon and it was amazing. Apparently people had been turning them down on the whole bacon front which at the time I found to be pretty much a crime. The aid station volunteers hooked me up with two slices of salty-protein goodness and I continued out under a bridge through some precarious rocks. At this point you start thinking "Man these rocks are going to really suck in about 25 miles when I hit them again".

Not a good way to start this segment of the course. Things were getting even hotter and the next 5 miles until I hit Wolf Run Shoals was starting to get tough. I hadn't hit the wall yet but I was starting to dread it. Also the thought of still having 25-28 miles to go was starting to REALLY get into my head. I started thinking about a dirty 4 letter word that starts with a "D" .....but luckily I got a hold of myself a little bit and toughed through till I hit the next aid station at mile 26.

Things got a little bit tough for a while

This aid station was good and bad news for me. I refueled and saw a sign that said "2 miles until next aid". This led me to think I'd be at the next aid station in no time! Wrong! 30 minutes later I had navigated a pretty hilly stretch and finally got into the Fountainhead Aid Station (Mile 28). I was right in the middle of hitting a wall at this point so I ditched my shirt with my crew and grabbed about 4 gels (I didn't get to see my crew again for 10 miles). I stalked over to the aid station table where the volunteers helped me refill my water bottles, I ate some food and for good measure took an S-cap to keep my electrolytes up. Then I was out onto the white loop.

The "White Loop" section of the course went much better for me. Things finally started to cool down and the extra time I took to eat at Fountainhead paid some big dividends. I had broken through the wall, was into the second half of the race and feeling good compared to a few hours before. There were some small rolling hills and before I knew it I was coming up on the Do Loop Aid Station (Mile 32).

I ate some fruit and nuts at the aid station as well as some Mountain Dew and then moved out toward the start of the Do Loop. Right as I started the loop my stomach turned on me really bad, so I took a quick bathroom break. After the break I felt really good and made great progress through the Do Loop. I had been warned it was pretty tough but I actually had a lot of fun (and there was a nice breeze off the river).

Coming back through the Do Loop Aid Station they hooked me up with a fudgesicle it was amazing...until I dropped part of it on the ground (a true injustice after 35 miles of running). The two miles back to Fountainhead went by pretty quickly but I was starting to have trouble keeping pace. It wasn't a matter of my legs being cramped up (they weren't) and it wasn't a matter of being out of breath (I wasn't). It just seems that after running for that long.....sometimes your body just doesn't want to listen to you!

Coming in to Fountainhead (38 miles) I saw my crew again, but I quickly got distracted by the pizza at the aid station. I ate a slice of cheese, it felt really good to have some real food in me. The next section was the tough hilly section. I was having trouble with motivation, I knew I was going to finish but I just couldn't make myself run. Luckily I had been running relatively nearby some girl since entering the white loop. She asked if I wanted to run together for the end of the race which made me feel a lot better. Having someone to run with was an immediate improvement. It's much easier to motivate yourself and conversation beats an Ipod any day of the week. Anyway Siobhan (cool name) ran and chatted about how she and her husband were getting into ultras and my upcoming relocation to the southwest. Once at Wolf Run Shoals I was treated to an ice-cream sandwich  (Wonderful) and the knowledge that there were only 10 miles to go!

The company really really helped in the next section. Siobhan and I took turns taking the lead and pacing (although truth be told I think she led a little more than me). We agreed that so far this was the toughest part of the race since it was hilly and there was still a good distance to go. There were a couple places at the bottom of hills where there was a small stream about a foot deep. This was awesome, while other runners hopped over, I soaked my feet in the cool water and felt a lot better! After what felt like a long time we crossed the crazy rocks again (it was a lot tougher this time) and rolled in to the last aid station at Bull Run Marina (45 miles)

It was really rocky!

I saw my crew again dropped off my ipod and then headed over to the aid station. I drank two cups of Mountain Dew and tried to eat a decent amount. With 5 miles to go I didn't want to crash and burn. We plodded along at a good pace and eventually hit the Blue Bells again. This section seemed to drag on. I was ready to be done, I knew the end was close, I knew once I hit the hill I'd be 0.5 miles from the end. Someone had told us that if we saw a trail sign marked "11 miles" we would be one mile from the finish, so we kept our eyes open. I was pretty happy to see the sign until about 6 minutes later I saw a sign put up by the race people that said "1 Mile to Go!". I cursed pretty loudly but some people nearby assured me that it was way less than that. They were right about 30 seconds later we hit the hill up to Hemlock. In retrospect the "1 mile sign" being about 1/2 a mile away is a good thing. It makes you feel really good when the end pops up! After a quick climb up the hill I decided to run it in to the finish.

In the end I came in at 10 hours 56 minutes. Way slower than my goal. But for my first 50 miler I'll take the finish. Overall, I had a really fun day running out near Bull Run! Great course, great scenery, great running buddy for the last 12 miles, oh and did I mention there was bacon! 

Post race I took my crew out to Matchbox Pizza in Rockville... I may or may not have devoured an entire large Spicy Meatball Pizza.

Bull Run Training Update

So with the Bull Run 50 miler just one month away I am starting to peak out on my training. I took a few days off after the Holiday Lake 50k. However, recently I've gotten some back to back high mileage weeks of 30 and 50 miles.


Saturday I did a nice 5.5 hour run in Prince William National Forest on the South Valley Trail. The route consisted of two 11.5 mile loops. Starting at the Turkey Run Education Center we headed clockwise on the South Valley Trail until we reached the TREC again. Along the way we found a cooler full of goodies left by fellow VHTRC runner Toni Aurilo! We didn't steal any but we knew that some friends would be that way soon. So after a quick bathroom break and refuel we headed back out counter-clockwise and soon ran into Toni and her fellow runners one of which is apparently a general in the army! They quickly filled us in on their 20 mile run they were doing and then the following exchange happened something like this:

The General: "Haha well Toni told us it was 20 but it looks like it will be 23"
Toni: "You say that every time we do this run and its always 20 miles so SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE!"
The General: "Well..."
Toni: "SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE"

Moments like this are awesome cause they are totally non-serious and fun. It's one of the many reasons I love running with VHTRC people. Anyway, so while doing the loop in reverse we stopped at Toni's cooler since they had already passed by. Inside were some chips, beef jerky and coke. After eating a little bit we pushed on. Miles 17 to 23 were pretty brutal as we were purposefully setting an easy pace and it was getting hot outside. By this point I'd been on my feet over four hours and I started to get a little cranky. Anyway good run, good training.

Today, even though I was still pretty tired I went for a 90 minute run and ended up going out for about 11 miles. The first 2 miles or so were a little rough and my legs were not very fresh. The good thing was it was a perfect day for a run out, and it was the first day this year I've been able to ditch the long sleeve shirt. I felt pretty good and at the half way point ate some shot blocks and a fruit leather. On the way back things started to get pretty tough and I slowed down a little bit but still managed to put through to the end. The reason for doing this 10+ mile run so soon after a 20+ mile run is to get my legs used to running while they are tired. Doing a 40 mile training run at full speed could be a really easy way to get injured, so a good way to train instead is to do a so called "bonk run" which helps simulate the later miles.

One month to go for Bull Run! Very excited!