Yes! I get to post about our epic run before Cody! Neener neener! So, we have been planning this run for a long time, wanting to scout out the Pocatello 50 course, and we got our money's worth on this run. Joint RD Luke Nelson was gracious enough to join up and act as our tour guide. We met him at about 7 AM after a brief period of being slightly lost because Cody had to pee so bad he couldn't think straight. I guess we'll give him a pass. We dropped Cody's car off at City Creek Trailhead (50k start) to act as an aid station at the halfway point, and Luke drove us to the 50M start at Mink Creek. We started running around 7:30 AM. Temperatures were a tad chilly but we warmed up quickly. The weather was totally perfect for a run like this. It would get warm later in the day, but not debilitatingly hot, at least for me. We swapped stories of moose encounters with Luke and enjoyed ourselves. Cody was enjoying having someone on the run who is more talkative than I am. The run had a little of everything from perfect, buffed out single track, to bushwhacking climbs up the side of mountains, to rocky, rough, and crazy fast descents, to brutal climbs back up the mountain...it had it all. I thoroughly enjoyed this run. Cody spent most of the time trying to convince me in every way possible to switch from the 50k to the 50 miler, but we will see. I will withhold judgement until after I don't feel like I got hit by a bus. Actually, most of the run felt great. The last 4 miles or so were pretty much a suffer-fest though. I was definitely beginning to break down. But the last couple of miles I decided that it wasn't going to hurt any more no matter how fast I ran, and if I ran faster it wouldn't last as long, so I bombed down the trail as fast as I could go. Which probably wasn't all that fast, but I actually did start to feel better. My fueling and hydration definitely need improvement, but in my defense I won't be rationing water on race day because there will be aid stations. I was pretty toasted, but a nice soak in what I assume to be Mink Creek (dirty, has weird bugs) was awesome. Luke drove us back to Cody's car (the aid station idea was really really good and totally worth the 3 extra miles) and gave us directions to a local Mexican eatery. I was pretty deep in the post-run pain cave, and wasn't sure if I would be able to keep anything down, but a couple of tall glasses of Coke revived me to a large degree, and I was able to eat a couple of really good tacos and some beans and rice and tortilla chips. So good. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was really good and cheap too! Can't beat that. The drive home was pretty comfortable and I found when I got home that I had my walking legs back. Now to see how long it takes to recover. A great run though. Probably one of the most epic I have ever done, races included. A big thanks to Luke for joining us and thanks to Cody for arranging everything and driving us out there. Race day it will be my turn. This was a really big week for me, but so far I feel pretty good!
5:30:00ish (~9:55/mi.)
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