13 Miles on the AT

I'm far enough behind in my blogging that I'll just hit the highlights when I catch a few minutes here and there.

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So last weekend was hot and humid. I thought it would be fun to do my long run on the AT instead of the road so I'd have a little shade. [I was supposed to be in southern MD, but something came up that I needed to be home for which was cool because it was hotter and more humid in SoMD.]

Because I don't want to be traipsing around in the woods all by myself, I asked Jake to hike while I was running.  My plan was to go 3.5 miles northeast and back to the parking lot. Then 3.5 miles southwest and back for a total of 14 miles. It was seriously humid, and I didn't bring enough water so I cut it short to 13 miles.

I figured 13 trail miles are just as good as 14 road miles since the time on my feet was about 3 hours. I walked the last 2 miles with Jake. It was his birthday so we enjoyed some uninterrupted mom/son time.

the view from White Rock

~3.5 miles from Gathland headed northeast

On my first leg, I was met by a group of runners and darn if one of them wasn't Abbi from Higher Miles. [insert It's a Small World chorus here] 

Of course I didn't fully make the connection until the group had all passed. I hoped to run into her again on their return trip but they were running a point to point in prep for the JFK50. I'm going to try to join them on a future training run which will be very fun.

I sweat a.l.o.t.

ick

It wasn't a bad run. These trails are definitely much less technical than the ones I've been running in Gambrill with my running club so it was a nice change in that regard.

I did learn something new... the fun, neon yellow shorts my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday become SEETHROUGH when you sweat excessively [like I do]. So I'm thankful for the beige undies I had on that day and that there weren't many people on the trails that morning.

It's good to have things like that happen at least occasionally because it keeps me humble. ha!

I love looking at the elevation data from my trail runs. Makes me glad I don't live near the Rockies, but does make me wish I lived somewhere a little flatter.

And another Epic Trail Run

20 miles, Hamburg to Manor, roundtrip by tracyrunning at Garmin Connect - Details

The Catoctin 50K trail race is fast approaching and several members of my local running club are gearing up to toe the line... though like true trail runners, they're more likely to be relaxed and chatting somewhere behind the line when the race director says Go.

The course is brutal, grueling, rocky and slow. It's also shady, beautiful and teeming with wildlife.

As locals they have the home trail advantage and have wisely taken advantage of that. Each weekend there are several groups running portions of the course for a variety of distances.  Just a few weeks ago I joined one of the groups and ran the first half of the course, a challenging 12 miles in oppressive heat.

This week one of the guys invited me to join his group for a Saturday morning run on the back half of the course. We worked it out so that I could run a manageable 10 miles point to point. He met me at Point B where I left my car with water, bananas, etc, and we drove to Point A to meet the others to start our adventure.

I have to mention that we enjoyed an early morning rain shower and the temps were in the low to mid 70's for almost our whole run. Such relief over the mid to upper 90's we had been enduring all week.

I had never run with this particular group other than my friend, Eddy so I wasn't sure of what I was in for. Well, what I was in for was hours of laughing, jokes, pranks and fun...in addition to running, walking and sweating. It was great!

One of the stream crossings. Don't bother trying to stay dry cause it ain't gonna happen

I love trail running. And trail runners are my kind of people... laid back, funny and happy to be running no matter the pace.

The last mile or so before the turnaround Eddy started trying to convince me I should make a go at the whole 20 miles. He and the others assured me it wouldn't be any trouble to bring me back to my car. And more importantly they promised not to leave me to the bears or snakes.

We got to the turnaround and I felt really good. We had enoyed a nice easy pace and the lower temps made a huge difference so I decided to go for it.

I thought to myself that I would re-evaluate how I felt at 12.5 miles, and if I felt like crap I would turn back to my car and head home with 15 miles under my belt.

Well darn if I didn't feel pretty good still. Onward and upward!

This half of the course is pretty deceptive, and I didn't realize how extreme the elevation changes were. During the 12 mile run two weeks ago my quads were crying, and I had no doubt I wouldn't walk normally for days. Yesterday I was tired and figured I'd be sore but otherwise felt good.

I think the lower temps are a huge contributing factor to how good I felt.

Um, hello there Mr. 3 Thousand Feet of Gain! 

We got back to the parking lot and tossed back some Mike's Hard Lemonade (yummy yumsters!) and telling funny war stories about past races. (Ultra runners are insane...in a crazy, funny way)

They also tried to convince me to show up on race day to try to score a rare race day entry.

Instead I offered to cheer them on with stupid things like "You're almost there!" and "I saw a bear just behind that tree!" and my very favorite "It's flat with no rocks from here to the finish!"

I think they'll appreciate that.

20 miles and still smiling. Life is good

How do I feel today? Sore and tired. We had a busy evening yesterday so I didn't get a nap, and I helped with the 3 y/o's in Sunday School this morning so I'm pretty beat.  I'm going to stick with flat, slow runs this week and just take it easy.

And I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I ran TWENTY miles. Hot dog!

Broomes Island Rewind

Gah! I need a personal assistant so I can keep up with myself. Busy, busy. Fun stuff...just LOTS of fun stuff!

There was space in the 'big house' so we headed to Broomes Island for an unscheduled second week. It was hotter than heck and the sea nettles (jelly fish, ouch!) were bad so we couldn't swim much. Now worries though. We fished and kayaked and used Bill's aunt and uncle's pool pass.

Shovels make great oars.

idea credit to Aunt Annmarie

Just a sampling of cousins

Rednecks + Explosives = Fun..in this case, anyway. it often = ER visit though!

Fishing on the jetty with Uncle Mark. Hank snagged a stingray which broke his line. Totally freaked him out. They caught tons of fish...maybe because the storms pushed them up river or closer the riverbanks?

They went night fishing with Uncle Hervey and caught just a crab and a couple of oysters. Better luck next time!

We spent a lot of time rocking on the porch watching the river roll by.

I managed to squeeze in a few super sweaty runs. I forget the distances and haven't had time to upload my Garmin data. gasp!

Slowly catching up!

Epic Trail Run

I'll start by saying I did it! It wasn't fast. It certainly wasn't pretty. But my feet took me 12 tough, technical miles in a little over 3 hours.

It started with a FaceBook post asking if folks were interested in going from Hamburg to the Tea Room and back. I knew where Hamburg was but wasn't sure where the Tea Room and certainly had no idea what was involved in getting there.

I commented that I'd love to try it but was sure I couldn't keep up. This was met with promises that I would not be left behind no matter how slow I was....I don't think they imagined just how slow I'd be!

We met at the start, divided into two groups - slow and fast - and off we went. The lead runner for the slow group, Larry, is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and he promised he would stay with me.

I've only run the 5mile loop, twice, ever so I had no idea of what I was in for. The pace was nice and easy, and we were definitely moving downhill at a steady rate. Two thoughts crossed my mind - my quads are going to be really sore and this is going to be tough coming back.

The trail is really pretty in spite of the pain it inflicts. It's quite technical with a lot of rocks and streams. I was very grateful to be able to follow Larry's lead because I had to run head down almost the whole time and would have missed the turns without him.

want a little cheese with that whine? these babies were tough!

We made it through the valley, up to the parking lot below the Tea Room and took a minute to regroup and catch our breath. While chatting, a couple of the guys were surprised to learn that I had never run "the valley" before. And one of them commented that we were running one of the most challenging 6 mile stretches in Frederick. Oh cool, and we get to turn around and do it again! gulp

We pressed on to the top of the mountain to the Tea Room and then back down to the parking lot where a couple of guys had water for us to refill. Good thing we had it because for the first time ever I drank all the water in my handheld (and still didn't have to pee!).

I was a little worried on our way back. I was drenched in sweat - dripping off my skirt - and I felt a little funky. I had been taking 3-4 Enduralytes/hour but only brought 3 Gu's with me. I also had just straight water instead of some sort of additional fuel. Serious noob mistakes because that was nowhere near enough calories or carbs. One of the other guys was feeling rough too so Larry stayed back with him and me, and we moved pretty slowly on the uphills.

A few times I wanted to just lie down in the streams we crossed or just crawl on my hands and knees up the hills. Thankfully better sense prevailed. Really dumb things started to coming to mind and I kept saying to myself, "there's no crying in baseball or in trail running. " and "just keep moving and be grateful you can." [such a mom thing to say!] And I was craving a Coke like crazy... which is weird because I almost rarely drink soda.

I was never so happy to see a parking lot in my life and quickly downed 2 Gatorades and ate an orange. Surprisingly, we were only about 10 minutes behind the middle group [the speedsters were long gone for more miles when we got there.] 

After picking up the kids, we went to the nearest fast food place where I drank 3 big Cokes and inhaled a hamburger.

Today my quads are really sore, but I'm so glad I did the run. I did it! It was hard. It was definitely ugly, but the next time I do it, it will be less hard and less ugly. ;)

Thank you, Larry!

Many thanks to the very kind and supportive folks in the Steeplechasers... some of the best running partners you'll find!

Broomes Island Rewind

We had the best time ever, as usual, at Broomes Island last week. We stayed with one of Bill's aunts, Sally, who is by far the coolest aunt evah! The kids completely love spending time with her because she's very adventurous and fun and just an all around nice person.

 We also did some bird watching and ID'd at least 20 birds and saw many, many others that we weren't sure of. Sunday afternoon we spotted a little fledgling Blue Jay. Very cute, but we don't know if he made it through the night. There are *a lot* of foxes in the area.

A handful of Bill's aunts and one uncle came down for the weekend. Uncle Hervey's arrival made the boys very happy because he took them for a boat ride to go fishing. Sadly the fish weren't biting so they made plans to try again later in the summer. Uncle Hervey also untangled about 4,000 line tangles for Shane who is a very exhuberant fisherman.

I managed to gain just 2 pounds despite eating ice cream almost daily and drinking more wine than usual. Cocktail Hour is a great tradition!

We went on several kayak expeditions to 'glass beach' so Ella could restock her supply of sea glass and fun shells. I also paddled to the end of the creek and back which was ~3 miles. I think I could happily kayak every day. So relaxing and peaceful.

I did a little strength training each day but not the full routine. I figured dragging the kayaks in and out of the water counted for something. Sadly, I didn't do any OWS like I usually do because it's the breeding season for the Northern Water Snake, and we had at least 3 who were looking for love at our little beach. :shudder:

The kids were happy to swim and then just swim out whenever we saw a snake. I knew that if I was in the water the same time as Walter (the first snake spotted each day was dubbed Walter) that I would probably panic and drown. Not a good vacation memory.

I ran 4, 5, and 6 miles over the course of the week. And let me tell you it was hot, steaming hot and so humid. Sweat dripped off my elbows as I ran. I could wring out my shirt when I finished. And I ran first thing in the morning. Unreal!

And we did our usual trip to the marine museum in Solomons as well as a quick trip to Sotterley Plantation in St Mary's county.

It was a FUN trip and we hope to make it back later in the summer.

Now to finish the mountain of laundry and prepare for my race on Sunday!

Forest of Needwood 5 Miler Race Report

Forest of Needwood 5 Miler by tracyrunning at Garmin Connect - Details

This afternoon I got to run the Forest of Needwood 5 Miler which is the second oldest road race in Frederick County. Pretty cool.  It's a fairly challenging course with lots of rolling hills and little shade so if it's hot - like it was today - you're gonna feel it.

I woke up this morning feeling like I was full of lead again. I felt like that all week but I was really hoping I'd wake up today fresh and ready to go. I considered not running because I was just flat-line in terms of energy, but I knew I'd regret it so I put on my big girl panties, sucked it up and ran.

I was all set to wear this cute little number

The skirt is a little big in the waist, but I've worn it with tights and it was just fine. I took a little jog down the road and it almost fell off. Think I need to take the waist in. Whoops! So I turned around (the race starts w/i running distance of my house) and changed into shorts.

Then as I was standing around waiting for the race to begin, my legs were beginning to feel really warm. Off came the cute socks.

The race started and off we went. It gets a little bigger each year, but there were still probably fewer than 50 people. That's nice because you're not jostling in a big crowd. Not so nice because the crowd thins out and you're often running on your own.

If you click the link above and see my data, you'll see I kept it together for the first 3 miles. A smidge past 3 miles, I caught up with one of the kids from our cross country team and she was struggling mightily. So being the responsible adult I am, I used that as an excuse to stop and walk with her.

Big mistake because I never really pulled it together after that. I felt like I had stopped sweating (I didn't. I was drenched); my head was feeling funky and my legs felt weak. Thankfully the second water stop was at mile 4 so I stopped and downed a cupfull.

I didn't feel much better after that and just slowly plodded to the finish. The last 100 or so yards to the finish are relatively flat and I tried to pick it up for a stunning finish. My legs would have no part of it so I just kept slogging away. Not pretty at all.

Splits:
1 = 9.21
2= 9.26
3= 9.33
4= 11.18
5= 10.02

Official finish time= 49.47

Not a great race in terms of performance but in a lot of ways, I haven't raced in such a long time that I feel like I'm still figuring out how to get my act together in terms of fuel, pacing, etc.

It does sober me a bit as I consider what I need to do for the Harpers Ferry Half. Without a doubt I have to be more disciplined with my strength and cross training so I can train on the hills I need to without injury. 

Steady, consistent progress is what I'm looking for. I may need to write that on the back of my hand so I don't forget!