Three looper at Greensfelder, revisited, and FINISHED

RUN 32 miles in 7 hours

OMG I Just looked up the revisited version of this run! And the co-ink-a-dinks are TOO COOL!

I was looking forward to my first 30 miler of this training season. The past two weeks had 26-27 miler. Like the marathon training 20 miler, 30 is sort of a benchmark distance.

I was not looking forward to running alone, again!, but that's how it went. Me and my podcasts.

The plan was to stay on a familiar and well-traveled trail, since I was going to be alone. After some hemming and hawing, I stuck to my plan of doing the DeClue-Dogwood loop three times. Back in May, I attempted this but did the last 10 miles as an out-n-back. So in the back of my mind, I saw this as a chance to actually finish the three loops.

And I was excited to run on a full moon day. And believe it or not, when I did this the first time in May, it was also a FULL MOON DAY!!! Holy Cool!

But even better, this run was 2 miles longer and 7 mins shorter! In all fairness though, that run was preceded by gut symptoms.

Another perfect day: clear, dry, humid but not hot. The weather lately is WINNER. My plan was three evenly paced loops fueled with rice cakes, powerbar, gels, and a test of dextrose candy. Meal timing set to every 50 mins, with the dextrose candy as desired. At the gas station near Six Flags, I decided on a box of Bottle Caps. Pre meal was a few eggs, banana, small potato, and butter about two hours prior. No gut symptoms this time around! (And no worm threads either! And no stalker!)

(For fun, my fueling strategy in May was rice balls with raisins, salt, and maple syrup. And I'll reveal here that rice balls were way better. Way. Better.)

So bippety-bop down the hill with mountain bikers everywhere, a few horses, and fewer runners. My first loop podcasts were SYSK Nirvana, SCD Unspoken Forces of Food, and ATK Radio Soul Food. I was going and doing and feeling great this first loop, 10.5 miles in 2:15

Second loop just the same, a little more stumbly on the rocky sections. Listened to MTA's double marathon report, SYSK Hot Air Balloons, and ProYou Marcus Pierce. 21 miles in total of 4:37.

Third loop! Now this is the one that I out-n-backed on in May. I knew I had extra miles banked during the week and didn't need 30 miles and besides I was going to end with 31.5 given the 0.5 mile overage in loop distance. Still going good, I finished up the bottle caps (and threw most of them to the squirrels in the end), wrapped up Marcus Pierce in the first 5 miles, had no qualms about being able to finish, and rounded out the last miles with 10 Junk Miles.

In May's report I said I was cooked, stumbly, and seriously mental over the distance. I worried about being burnt by 30 miles when I wanted to run 100. None of that today. In fact, this felt EASY if I can can that without being jinxed! No falls, no pains, no ticks, no stomach or hydration issues.