Hit the Dusty Trail

Ran to the station again today.  this Saturday is the Logan Peak Trail Run.  28 miles.  I'm not planning on tapering at all, so we'll see how that goes.

Pushed hard on the 2 miles to the train station.  7:30 pace, aproximately.  I love beating cars to the intersection.  They get to wait at the light and in the traffic while I go up the road.  Slowed the pace some on the run from the station to home, but still went faster than I usually do.

Felt really old this morning.  The run yesterday left me a little tired.  I've also been pulling hay bales out of a field for the past several days and last night I managed to kick the trailer while boosting a bale and now my big toe is sore.  The right elbow is hurting as well and the last insult was getting a pretty good dog bite on my finger while playing.  Not the dog's fault.  I'm a mess.

The run home wasn't much better.  Just slow.  Hope I can get some decent sleep tonight.

Felt a little better this morning.  Got more sleep, don't have to worry about getting more hay tonight.  Might even get to bed early.  What a thought!

Took it easy going home.  Legs are still alittle tired, but oh well.  It's part of the gig.

Finally got around 8 hours of sleep.  I felt a whole lot better this morning.  Decided to just run at lunch today rather than run in to work.  A little bit warm, but not too bad.

Talk about a tough course.  Even though it's o nly 28 miles, this race runs like a 50K or longer.  the first 4 miles are all uphill and you gain roughly 3000' going up Dry Canyon.  This is followed by a traverse around a mountain until you get to the second aid station at 11 miles.  then it's another 2000' climb in 3 miles to the top of Logan Peak.  Oh, and long the way we ended up covering around a mile on snow, some of it 4'-5' deep, especially near the top of the peak.  Now we had 2000' of downhill, a run along some jeep roads to connect with the Dry Canyojn trail.  for the next several miles this was some sweet single track, rolling, twisting, and very runnable.  Finally you get back to the aid station at the top of the canyon and now you have 3000' of descent in the 4 remaining miles.

My race went great.  I did no taper at all so I wasn't expecting great things out of this.  I was hoping for a sub 5:30 (ideally) and a sub 6:00 (realistically).  I ran a 6:12 adn was happy with it.  I tried pushing where I could, stayed well fueled and hydrated.  I had no issues with altitude like I have had in the past.  9700' at the top of Logan Peak didn't bother me at all.  When I got to the last aid station, there was another runner only 40-50 yards behind and gaining.  Since I love downhill trail running, I figured I'd pour it on and see if I could stay in front of her.  I have no idea what time I ran for the last 4 miles, but I'm thinking it was around 30 minutes.  I knew my quads would pay for those last 4 miles but I figured I'd tough it out.  I did manage to stay in front and even gain some ground as she finished about 5 minutes behind me.  I was hammered when I crossed the finish line though.

Two thumbs up for this race.  Beautiful scenery, great trails and jeep roads to run on, the aid stations were fantastic, lots of food and drink and wonderful people manning them.  Great food at the end, and a really tough course  Kelly and her crew did a great job.