Sunday, February 5th: 16 miles trail, Hobbs, 3:12:00
First lap of race course, just above freezing. Hands got puffy the last half hour. Extremely reliable internet sources say that's a symptom of low electrolyte level. I always thought that was a circulation problem from carrying a pack.
Saturday, February 11th: 16 miles trail, Hobbs, 3:32:00
Second lap of race course. Time includes about ten minutes for taking photo at lake. Temp was about 12 degrees with wind chill near zero. Hydration pack hose would get slushy in five minutes and freeze solid in about ten minutes! Hands got puffy again and I immediately took two Endurolytes. Took one more at the first twinge of a calf cramp. Symptoms went away instantly. Ah-hah!
My camera battery has pretty much given up the fight but I did manage to get this shot after several tries. I improvised a tripod with some rocks, set the shutter timer, and scrambled to this spot where I assumed a resting pose. The first several times the camera shut off because of the battery before even taking the picture, but it eventually woke up long enough to take the shot.
I think I've overpaid my taxes sufficiently to be able to replace the camera in the next few weeks. If I do, I'll try to add a few pictures to my training log entries so you can share the trail with me. This race is going to be epic!
3 comments:
Dave, I'm sure this race will be absolutely gorgeous. But um, did you look at the results for last year? Did you see that everyone completing the race ran 9:37 miles or better? How on earth can people run that fast for 50K on the trails? Definitely a faster crowd than the runners who show up for Houston road races!
Gorgeous scenery or not, you are out of your mind!
Um, are you a math professor? Take another look:
http://www.race-wizard.com/results/tailtwister/tailtwister-50k-overall-results-2011.htm
Even so, I'm just trying to post a respectable time. I define respectable time as anything under eight hours, which is the official cutoff time. Seven hours seems doable, though, depending on how hot it is. I've run the whole course now and it is absolutely awesome! If I remember right, it drops down to creek level nine times with several hundred feet of climbing after each one. The rest is rolling hills. None if it is what I would call technical but the rocks on the climbs and descents do demand some concentration. Should be great fun!
Hi Jen!
Oops, sorry! Didn't catch that they had figured the pace by km, not miles. I've never seen that before. I still think you're nuts though!
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