Early morning light at the summit
Although I felt great during my hill workout on Thursday afternoon, I feel like I haven't slept well all week long and I woke up feeling extremely tired. This feeling persisted though the early miles of the run, so much so that I was reaching for a caffeinated gel at mile 3. Then by the time I had looped back up to the summit again at mile 5, I was texting Ryan telling him I thought I was going to bag on the day. Ugh. My legs didn't feel bad, it was just a pervasive tiredness and I was not in the right frame of mind.
Ryan knew that I was meeting Val at 9:30 and told me that I should just keep chugging away and let the mileage goals for the time I was out there before meeting up with her go and just get in what I could. I knew in the back of my mind that he was right but I just needed to hear it said out loud in order to embrace it and go with what the day was giving me. I did one more short loop around and up to the summit again and hit the parking lot with my watch reading 7 miles.
I decided to run the BBU east side loop and found a number of big trees down on the singletrack across the street from the snowmobile trail as well as one puddle so big, it was practically a pond, that required some serious bushwacking to avoid. Just like on the west side, things were very saturated. Back to the lot in around 12 miles, but still with 15 minutes or so remaining until Val arrived, so I stopped and changed my shirt - it was super muggy so I was soaked already, refilled my bladder and dropped off some trash, before heading back up the Northern Loop to do another mile. Val pulled in just as I got back to the lot, so perfect timing.
I am so thankful to Val for joining me in the final 10 miles of my run! So nice to have company and to catch up. And she showed me the new BBU west side loop, which was fun. We kept the pace nice and conversational, and I really enjoyed the tour. I think the revisions made for a great loop!
Roaring river on the Connector
Playing Vanna White at the thermometer along the powerline ;) It had gotten warm out!
Royal River trail stretch
Cool deer skeleton find just off the trail near Lawrence
Despite starting out with my head not on quite straight and feeling pretty tired, I managed to remain fairly even energy-wise and although our final few miles were kind of slow, I am happy Ryan convinced me to keep running when I was having doubts early on. By the time Val and I finished up, I had gotten 23.4 miles, pretty close to the 24 I had been shooting for, so I was pretty happy! It was good time on my feet and solid training for the inevitable lows that occur in long racing. And of course, it was great to have some miles to catch up with Val!
(I've been looking around for some new gel options. The VFuel Cool Citrus works really well for me, and the new Coffee Untapped is straight up delish, but the Honey Stinger tends to sour in my mind as it gets too warm temperature-wise and I can only stomach so many Gu Lemon Sublime gels. Those are pretty much the only flavors that consistently work for me and while I have no problem with moving on to Coke and grapes and whatever else sounds good, last week I purchased a sample pack of the Spring Energy gels, which I had been intrigued by and hoped might be good fueling options. I took along the Long Haul and Hill Aid on this run, but sadly, both were textural nightmares for me. Darn. They held such promise. Had the McRaecovery after the run and found that even worse. I hold out hope for the Canaberry and Power Rush though, and will try those out next weekend. We will see.)
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