AM- Long run. Left the house at 5:45 am, drove 70 miles to FHT Sloan Bridge. Ran the trail to WWF and Bad Creek, then turned around and ran past Sloan Bridge to Fish Hatchery and back. Just under 22 miles in 3:55 with somewhere between 3500-4000 ft climbing. Finally got home at 1:25 pm- over 7.5 hours. Gee, I can't understand why long trail runs don't interest Paul! I finished with 76 miles this week- I'm happy with that, considering my toe surgery plus the fact I only had 20 miles when I woke up Thursday morning. So 54 miles the last 3 days. You know it's hot when: a) It's 75 deg with 95% humidity when you start... before the sun is up b) You take off your shirt within the first mile c) You sweat so much that your Nathan Krissy vest actually puddles sweat in the big back pocket such that you have to empty it and wring it out d) The heat index is triple digits when you finish e) All of the above Ok, enough about the heat. It was quite the delightful run- I was much better prepared than a few weeks ago and had plenty of water (drank ~1 gallon during run, another gallon before and after). In my 22 miles, I saw one small camp of 4 backpackers, but did not see a single other soul on the trail. Solitude. Beauty and solitude in the great outdoors on some wonderful trails. Except for the wasp/bee/spider that bit me midway through- man, it still stings. And I bonked my head 4 times on branches- ouch. No wildlife of note other than a black salamander. And the spiders- the webs were worse than ever (I might have had a 30 second stretch sometime where I wasn't wiping webs from my face or body, but I can't recall it- also took a web right in my open mouth). Overall, though, really an enjoyable run- biggest issue is Achilles, which is painful but held up ok. Toe is fine. Recap of the trail to aid me with FHT attempt- Bad Creek to WWF is 3 miles- runnable at first, and the uphill wasn't as bad as remembered though sometimes technical and slow. WWF to Sloan is 4.5 miles, uphills for a ways but mostly runnable, and the descent is awesome. Sloan to Fish Hatchery is 3.1 miles- flat, but pretty technical and slow the first 1.5 miles or so, then very nice singletrack with slight uphill grade to the aid.
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