Last night was the best trail run I've ever had. We left Pike's Lodge in Fairbanks at around 10:30pm and started backwards along the Iron Dog trail. I was worried tonight about so much mileage this week but honestly couldn't care less about messing up future races this year. This stuff is why I run. The sun was shining straight in our faces until we got buried in the trees along the trail and for the next few hours I felt like a little kid again. My legs were pretty tight and my plan was just to head back if they felt like they were getting worse. Dan was pretty patient as I knew I needed to hold a slower pace. After 10 miles the soreness all faded however, and the rest of the run was just fun.
We traded off the backpack when either of us felt like it. I was pretty useless for anything on this run since I had no idea where we were. Serious trail stuff like this is so new to me, I can only guess on when my body needs water and how much too eat, or when. What is cool, is that we are fast in Utah. We are used to hill running and altitude. It's a relief to not only keep up but get stronger at the pace. I'm pretty tired today so I'll keep this short and maybe catch it up later. The scenery was awesome. It is so different than road running. These trails were a lot flatter than what I run around Anchorage which was a relief. We stopped a few times for some sandwiches and even walked up a hill or two instead of running them. We stopped finally in a tiny town for the turnaround and even debated sleeping for an hour or two, but the mosquitos were enormous. They killed you when you stopped. I have no idea of the pace tonight, I would guess just a bit slower than 8 minute miles. The trail took us over 4 1/2 hours which would be about right and I was as wasted as any marathon I have ever run.
Tonight could be a short run up to the hotsprings and back, but it's pretty much a question of if I have any legs left at all. I sat in the river when we got back for about 20 minutes freezing my legs. Hopefully that will help with some recovery. Yesterday after swimming in this river my core temperature was so low I was shaking for about an hour. | 