DEAD LEGS

Today the group met at Caviit and were planning on a 17 miler with the option of adding on an additional 3 miles at the end if you were feeling really good. Not all of us showed today, some decided to do the AR50 training run that was also being held today. I knew I didn't have another 30 in me today so I opted for the group 17 miler with perhaps an additional 3 at the end.

Here we are in the parking lot before taking off. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. It was a no arm warmer day for me and that felt good. What didn't feel so good were my legs and stomach when we started running. Uh-oh.

Coach Nikon and Captain Kirk led the crew out and we all seemed to fall into our spaced out sections along the trail. I was alone with Pigeon pretty close behind me tempting me with PayDay bars. First bathroom spot I saw I stopped. We had only gone 4 miles. Not good. Pigeon passed me and went on her merry way to try and catch Captain Kirk and crew. Me? Hit the porta potty and then about 1.5 miles later needed to find mother nature's porta potty. I am so happy this happened today though and not last Saturday!

Once "business" was taken care of I felt extremely better minus the dead leg feeling that just would not go away. I had zero energy or spunk today. I kept thinking it was a good thing I didn't opt to go on the AR50 training run. Still, it was a glorious day and I just focused on keeping my feet moving.

As you can see, the day was just beautiful! The poison oak was in full bloom too as it was everywhere. I used to never be able to tell what poison oak looked like but when 90% of the trails are covered in it . . . it is now easy for me to tell! Eek!

I was almost to my group meet up and turn around point when I crested a hill and came around a corner and heard "GO TRAILMOMMA!!!! YEAH TRAILMOMMA!" What a boost! It definitely made me smile. Who was it? It was none other than my two favorite blogging trail friends Pam and Shannon from Our First 50K blog.

In hindsight I should have taken a picture of all 3 of us. Bloggers meet up! Woot woot!

Not long after that, was the turn around spot. Here I learned that not everyone was feeling 100%. It was nice to hear. I decided to turn back before the whole group made it because I was feeling sluggish and at that point had to walk most of the technical downhill sections due to my knee screaming at me. 

We ran into some of our group who were out with the AR50 training crew.

A little chit chat here and there and then it was off running again. Starting to run again from a stopped position was not the wisest move today. Ouch.

Soon we were on the home stretch and Coach Nikon decided that the only thing missing on today's run was a really big hill. 

Enter the really big water tower hill.

Pigeon and I just kept moving watching Captain Kirk and Coach Nikon's cheddar shirts just slowly drift farther and farther away from us. We made it and the climb felt pretty good . . . that is until we had to go down the back side with a few steep technical bits that just about sent my knee into a frenzy. Really need to fix this knee. Or amputate it. 

Eventually we made it back to the car and I quickly Technu'd myself. I fear poison oak and will be miserable if I end up getting it. I have never been so happy to be finished with a run. According to my watch we ran about 16.57 miles. It took forever. I felt 100 times better last Saturday both during and after the run than I did today. Daylight savings has kicked my butt too so I need to catch up on some much needed sleep.

When I arrived home Vans was cleaning my car. Nice! I hobbled my muddy body to the complex pool and stood in the icy water for about 5 minutes. It was all I could stand but boy did I feel good!

Next weekend we are doing 31. Our last big hooray before AR50 on April 10th. This week will mean I need to plan for Saturday the way I planned for Way Too Cool. I can't have what happened today happen next weekend. 

With all that said, I still think it is pretty amazing that I ran 31 miles last weekend and still was able to do almost 17 today . . . never in my life did I think I'd be here. Thanks team!