39 miles on my 39th birthday

Saturday, March 6, 2010

This was my best birthday ever! It was great to celebrate my health doing what I love best with great friends. Last year I ran 38 miles at Kendall Kreft's 6 hr run, which is a flat, paved out and back bike path up north. This year I wanted more variety and decided that running on trails sounded fun. I had 3 gals stupid, ...er, I mean willing enough to join me: Jess Mullen, Allison Moore, and Gwen Scott. All were super excited like me. Unfortunately, the weekend before my B-day run, Gwen did a serious number on her ankle at Tiger, sustaining a painful avulsion fracture of her fibula. She couldn't bear weight on it for 2 days and the swelling was intense, as I'm sure was the pain. She was supremely bummed to miss our outing, but being the true friend that she is, Gwen hooked up with Allison Friday to have her pass on her present to me. Allison said she was limping in pain. Gwen knows me so well and got me post-run recovery foods: Kettle Salt and Pepper chips, bananas, and organic chocolate milk. Jess got me Bialy-a special ciabatta bread/bagel with onion in the center, Succeed caps (perfect timing since I just ran out), and some Nuun. Allison baked me yummy pumpkin-chocolate bread and brought candles for post run lighting, a scone from Starbucks, and Expletive band-aids (also perfect timing since I ran out of band-aids too). The band-aids said "F-ck," "Sh-t," "Crap," and "Balls." Fun!

The weather forecast looked really good and it was actually accurate. We met at 7am in the parking area off the top of Hwy 18. Temp at the start was 31 and would more than double by the time we finished to 63. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect! I must have done something good lately. Allison brought her camera and she took a pre-start picture. Several more pictures during the run and a post run pic as well. The run was split into 3 parts (see description at the end if you are ever interested in a good training run for a 50 miler or beyond). I told the gals it should take us about 8 hours. We finished in 8:03. Do I know my pace or what? The first leg was all on service road. I didn't want to be out there forever, and I thought this would keep the total time reasonable. Jess had introduced me to this road when she needed to avoid single track for awhile to let her foot heal. It is a 16 mile round trip to Poo Poo point that is rolling (so not straight up and straight down) with general direction up of course to get to the point. We did it in 2:50 and came back to the cars to replenish. It was good to get a significant distance out of the way in a relatively short period of time. At the point, someone took our picture.

The next leg included a lot of single trail. After a short section of road, we turned onto the Iverson Railroad trail and pretty soon ran into to Jamie Gifford, Jim Kerby, and another guy I didn't know (or maybe I have met him somewhere but couldn't tell you his name). Jamie amd Jim gave me a hug. I told them it was my brithday, and Jim said, "29 already?" We enjoyed the Iverson trail and hit the road for a short section before hitting the TMT, which we stayed on for a while. Jess and Allison had not run on some of the parts of the TMT that we ran and enjoyed those trails as well. Finally, we hit a familiar section when we got on the Paw Print trail and a short section on the East Tiger Trail. Instead of continuing on that trail, we turned down on the Preston RR Trail for 2.6 miles of downhill, with quite a bit of technical. Allison fell here onto one of her sides. Although a little slow to get up, we were running again soon. I had tripped twice already but didn't fall (just a couple of pulled muscles that relaxed back quickly). We then hit 2 miles of road, mostly downhill before getting onto NW Timber Trail, which had a net descent but there seemed to be a lot of up with each down. Allison fell again, on the other side, a little quicker to get up this time. We finally arrived back to the cars with this leg being 14.7 miles that took us 3:20.

Replenished again and headed out for the last and shortest leg of 8.4 miles. After 2 miles on road, we turned towards the South Tiger loop and ran a nice downhill on the TMT before turning back up on the South Tiger Traverse and finishing off on the road back. With all our stops, be finished strong in 8:03, even running the last hill. Hugs all around at the end. Sunshine, T-shirts, and shorts were the order for the day. After a quick change of clothes, we put candles on the birthday bread and Allison and Jess sang me a birthday song! I made my wish and blew out the non-blowable candles. Jess said my wish should still come true. For the last half of the run, all Allison could talk about was how she was going to get Jamba Juice afterwards and Jess was going to get some chips and a soda. They also said they were going to have an ice bath tonight. Damn! That means I should ice too, and I didn't really want to!

I called Gwen and left her a message saying thank you for the card and gift. I headed to The Rock Pizza place and got my birthday dinner (Ken was still out climbing). It's nice that he did something fun as well. I hate to be out all day having fun when he is working. I came home and had an ice bath then a nice long shower. Ken came home not too long after and we heated up the pizzas in the oven. It was just as good as if it had just come out of their wood-fire ovens. I got roses, a fun-loving card, and tickets for both of us to a ballet/dance show in April. Some stretching and then to bed for a 50K the next day. Jess ran it too and even did 17 miles on Friday. That makes 87 miles in 3 days. That out did my 70 miles, but then again, she is younger....

Here is my B-day route:

B-day run-39 miles
Park outside gates. Up road thru left gate 0.4 mi
Through gate to West side road 1.5mi (1.8 total)
Onto Road 1000 3.7mi (5.5)
Right onto West side road 2.3 (7.8)
Run to the paraglider take off point 0.2mi (8.0)
Back down road 8mi to cars (16.0)
Done with first leg-replenish

Go up road thru right gate 0.3mi (16.3)
Left Iverson RR Trail (stay right after 0.3mi) 1.8mi (18.1)
Right onto Road 1000 0.3mi (18.4)
Right TMT 1.2mi to Karl’s gap (19.6)
Stay on TMT 0.4 mi to Millan’s Crossing (20)
Straight on TMT (not Middle Tiger Tr) 1.2mi to Hal’s Cove (21.2)
Stay right on TMT 0.7mi (21.9)
Right on 15 Mile RR grade 0.2mi(22.1)
Cross road thru rest stop to Paw Print Connector tr 0.7mi (22.8)
Right onto East Tiger Trail 1.1mi (23.9)
Left Preston RR grade 2.6mi (26.5)
Left then quick right to Road 7000 (not thru gate) 2.0mi (28.5)
Right NW Timber Trail 1.9mi (30.4)
Left down road to cars 0.3mi (30.7)
Done with second leg-replenish

Start out like first leg up West side road 1.8mi (32.5)
Onto Road 1000 0.3mi (32.8)
Left towards S Tiger thru gate and stay left on road 0.2mi (33)
Onto to TMT 1.1 (34.1)
Thru powerline tr and look for trail left to keep on TMT 0.8mi (34.9)
Next intersection stay right 0.2mi up through powerline trail (35.1)
Continue on South Tiger Traverse 1.8mi (36.9)
Left on Road 0.1mi (37)
Right Road 1000 0.3m1 (37.3)
Stay right on West Side road 1.8mi (39.1)
Finish! And feeling my 39 years of age!