RUN 20 miles in about 4.5 hours, 100F temps!
I fully meant to start this run at 7am even though the park didn't open until 8am. But of course, I didn't get out of the house on time. So the run started just after 8am. Not sure if this would have made a difference at all for how this story goes.
My plan was two loops of the 10 mile DeClue to Dogwood loop, thinking that would give me a stop at the truck and practice at the feel of a 10 mile loop for the upcoming (11 weeks!) Farmdale. Ran this time using DeClue first. Last time I ran the oppo direction and fell on Dogwood within the first mile.
Why is it so hard for me to find the right trails on this?! Once again, mixed up at the myriad of crossings as DeClue branches from the other trails. Seriously, my sense of NS/EW on these trails is for nothing. Added on a small amount of mileage here, again. I need to get the Garmin downloaded and really look at this.
I had seen SK's TRR-stickered vehicle in a neighboring parking lot, and sure enough saw some of the runners I met Friday coming towards me on the trail :) It seemed everyone was going the opposite direction today, very few if any passed from behind.
Running good, enjoying it, it's how but I'm drinking all I can. Really though, the warm water in the Camelbak could have been better. But I had my mints, on the 2 mile/mint plan and even skipped some. Powerbar broken up into 4ths every 45-50 mins. Somewhere on Dogwood JCash came WHOOSHING down a hill superflyfast and I felt the breeze like a bike pack go by. Damn he's fast! I finished the first loop uneventfully at 11 miles and just over 2 hours. So far so good!
Foreshadowing...
Bathroom break, then the plan to was to run out at least 4.5 miles then decide on finishing the loop or turning back. I wasn't sure I wanted to be out here much beyond 20 miles and certainly not on the more rocky and technical Dogwood later in the day. It was somewhere only 0.3 miles into the 2nd loop that WHAM I went down AGAIN! This time I did not get up right away. I think I rolled, not sure, also not sure what I tripped over in the end. But I just sat there....thinking...cursing...wanting to cry. My right deltoid and shoulder were scraped, bruised, and swollen before I could even stand up again. My right knee/calf and hip were banged hard and scraped. My right wrist and Garmin took a hit too. I just sat...took a few breaths, then decided I'd have to hurt a LOT more than this to stop. I got up to at least walk for a bit.
My shoulder looked awful, the swollen knot had formed rapidly. Everything else seemed OK, so soon enough I was running again. Surprisingly, my pained right ribs weren't as loud right now, they took a mild hit and hurt but had lots of competition.
Continued on, now it seemed like I was stumbling over everything as if I wanted to fall again. But I was OK, kept rolling and when I got to mile 15 I walked up the long slow hill until my planned turn around at 15.5. Started to struggle right about here.
Was able to run the slow incline back, refueled on Powerbar, and felt actually pretty good the next few miles. In fact, it seemed mostly downhill until mile 18.65, at which point I mentally and physically just stopped. I was OK with this. I was suddenly stumbling a lot, it was rocky, and now uphill most of the way home. I was low on water, so I decided to walk it in.
Felt wiped and pained at the truck, but I've been there before. Took some cold water from the cooler, toweled my head off and took a short bath. Changed clothes, started drinking my recovery water, and drove home. Even stopped for a few errands on the way.
I was feeling OK that night, did my cook up. Tired but nothing terribly noteworthy. Yet. Keep reading into the next post.
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