Gasser-up

I took my last preview of the 50K route this weekend. Saturday was an Irish green day. The trail was gushing with run off from nearly 10 straight days of rain. The grasses were as lush as they get and the grazing cattle seemed to make no dent in the trailside growth. However, they made their presence known in other non-subtle ways. The trail was often churned into clay-glue or strewn with cow pies a la mode. Pleasant.

But that was just backdrop to a great run. I started out at the midway point again, climbing out of Sunol at 390 feet to a quarter mile short of the highest point of the run--Rose Peak --at 3590'. Temperatures were perfect for running (low 60's-high 50's) and the sun obscured by puffy cumulus.

With lessons learned, I concentrated on regulating my pace and heart rate and minimized peaks out of my 124-157 range. Mainly successful in this effort. Passed a number of through hikers relishing in the fact that it would take me 4 hours to cover what would take them 2 full days.

Books on running encourage you to never run with foods you haven't tried. Having read about the benefits of raisins I took a long a pack to augment my usual powergel and balance bars intake regime. A few miles into my descent, and a half pack into some raisins, I began "sounding off" with a few ear blasting, belly brapping burps that picke up in frequency. So did the ache in my gut. Each heel strike seemed to bounce my stomach like a mad pin-ball. Sweet Jesus! I had discovered gastro distress. And there wasn't a damn thing to be done about it but stop eating those bloody raisins! I gave them an evil glance after passing a 3-some of hikers a stomach bouncing that I'm sure must have been able to see. I'm sure they heard me belching for several miles after I passed.

Focusing on my stomach, my feet decided to rebel in a vain attempt to get my attention back. A mistep in the earthy trail goo (thanks cows) and the next thing I saw was sky, land, sky, land, sky... My first ever trail running fall. 8 miles from my truck. Fortunately, only my pride was damaged. A mile downhill I washed off the mud from my butt and right forearm in a watering tank.

I finished out the run tired but not overly so. Bear in mind that my final run will have 2 big hill sections. I'll handle them ok. But with 8,000 of climb, its going to be tough.