Twenty in the Wake of Irene

We are feeling very lucky here this morning. While we did have a fair amount of wind, and some rain yesterday, we never lost power and definitely escaped Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene unscathed, especially compared to people in central ME, NH and VT, who are currently experiencing some major flooding. We spent yesterday inside, enjoying a big breakfast and keeping Sam entertained. She decided that it would be a good day to not nap, so there wasn't much downtime, and neither of us went out for a run, but we all survived :-)

As there was no running yesterday, it meant that I needed to get in my long run today. Ryan graciously agreed to watch Sam while I went out. I had plans for 20 miles. I wasn't sure what would greet me on the trails, so although I had a general route in mind, I knew I would have to be flexible. I headed out a little before 8am, with a heavy heart, as Sam didn't want me to go. She kept saying "No, Mama, no." :-( It is hard to have to schedule my long runs during the times when I am home with her, but as I don't have a flexible schedule like Ryan and so can't do long runs during the work week, there is no way around it. I know she was totally fine once I left, but it made it a bit hard to leave. However, once I was out the door, I was happy to be out. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there wasn't any humidity in the air, and there was a gentle breeze blowing. Made it hard to believe that a tropical storm had passed through yesterday!

I ran the Mt. Ararat trails over to Highland Green, noted that there were no cars in the golf course parking lot, and so headed out onto the cart paths to run the course. I veered off at Hole #5 to run the Heath loop before continuing on the cart path, just to add in a bit more mileage. I skipped the last hole, and instead, headed up to the Quarry and out onto the trails. The Garmin was reading 5 miles at this point. To my surprise, the trails weren't really wet at all, aside from the few typically swampy spots. However, they were definitely damp and slippery, or greasy as Ryan would say,  and the many bog bridges ranged from simply slippery to downright treacherous. The river flowed along peacefully, and although slightly high along the banks, hadn't overflowed at all. I had the woods to myself, and enjoyed the fact that someone had been out trimming back the overgrowth along a lot of the trails, making most of the trails easily passable and much less itchy! Although my pace certainly slowed as I wandered along the twisty, turny Cathance trails, I was feeling good as I ran over Mt. Ararat and back to the powerlines. The Garmin was reading 12 miles, and before I crossed the Highland Green Road, I stopped in the shade to have a snack and call Ryan and see how things were going. Things were going well, so I told him my plans and headed on, happy to know Sam was enjoying her morning with Daddo :-)

I ran the extended dump loop to get in the additional 8 miles. The powerline trails were in good shape, although there were a lot of deep puddles to run through or sneak around, and although I was beginning to tire, I still was feeling pretty happy mentally. I started to lag a bit in the last few miles, and noticed right near the end that my fingers were feeling a little tingly, but not swollen?! Don't know if I needed more water or less water, or if I was just holding my hands a weird angle? Anyway, once I got home, had some water, some Gatorade, some grapes and a few chips, and relaxed for a few minutes, they were fine. I guess this whole long run thing is a constant experiment, and I'm still trying to figure out what works for me. I ended up downing about 40 oz of Nuun during the 3:20 that I was out there, along with taking in one gel, 1/2 an Odwalla bar, 1/2 a Honey Stinger, and 1 1/2 packs of Shot Blocks. My stomach seemed to handle it all pretty well, which is always a good thing, but maybe the balance of water/salt/etc was off a bit and that contributed to the tingling? If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them. And if not, who knows. Anyway, I was very happy to be done, and to have gotten in the 20 miles without too much trouble. 3:20 is, however, a long time to be out running by yourself, I will say that!

I still haven't signed up for the Pisgah 50k, and although I'm feeling a bit trepidatious about the race, I feel a bit better about it after today's run. Yes, it would probably be better to be going into the race with a bit more mileage under my belt, but hey, such is life. It will be hilly. And it will be painful. I will likely be out there for a while. But I can't let the fall pass without getting in a long race! So, Pisgah it is :-) Off to fill out that registration form! How's that for a turn-around in three sentences :-)