Photos courtesy of Linda Reed, Susan Kelleher, and Robert Thille.
Not only was this a training run to prepare for my race in August but it was an opportunity to get out the tent and get some nights under the stars with my fellow trail runners.
We hiked about a mile down to the ocean to watch the sunset on Saturday night. Tim, a fellow runner and hunter had three abalone we enjoyed grilled with butter and garlic. We finished out the night around the Campfire.
The next morning we enjoyed coffee as the birds tweeted their wake up calls. I could feel the prior evening’s hike in my hamstrings so I was a little hesitant about how today’s training run would be. Last year here, I had a very bad training run and that caused me to almost bow out of the race.
1375 feet of elevation gain at the start AND at the finish OOOFFF!
This time I was familiar with the trail so I knew what lay ahead. I ran when I could, walked when I had to and I took advantage of the downhill whenever possible.
Our route for our training run
As far as fueling, I had a powergel at 30 minutes in, and 1 hour in. I was doing one salt tablet every 30 minutes until I discovered that the sweat had dissolved the last three gelcaps in my pocket. My 45 oz Camelbak reservoir never got empty and travelled well between my shoulder blades, in my Badlands Reactor Pack (now sold as the Hyper Hydro).
On the long single track down hill of the two mile Stump Beach trail, my toe caught a root and I went rolling I scrambled to my feet and looked behind me…No one in sight. Perhaps no one would know I took a tumble.
At the end of a long downhill stretch with 3 miles to go.
When I hit the coast, SueK and the Reeds were on hand to take photos. As our Coach Marc said “When I hit the coast, I was toast” My two mile shuffle along the coast was rewarded with a pleasant breeze, crystal blue water, and sunshine.
Climbing up out of the creekbed was the start of the coast section and a momentum shift after two miles of fast downhill. Zach Rounds, a 70.3 (half-iron) triathlete, passed me at this point.
Soon I was back at the uphill section of our hike the evening before. I knew the finish of the run was only.8 miles further so I tried to maintain a trot as I jumped over the down logs, crossed Highway One and arrived back at our starting point. I had covered the 8.79 miles in 1 hour 43 minutes.
Soon I realized my tumble was not going to go unnoticed. Although superficial, that little scratch made a dramatic blood trail. I had to fess up that I had wiped out. After catching my breath I walked back to our campsite for a nice cooldown. A quick clean up, and change of clothes and we broke down camp and bid farewell to one another until next week’s long trail run.
