Dave and I went out this morning to run the big hill up onto Gooseberry Mesa and then spend the rest of the time on top of the mesa. Dave kept telling me about the hill and told me it was a fun one. It was dark when we got started and my eyes seem to be getting bad so I could not see the hill up to the top. As we started climbing, we ran into 15 or so deer. It was pretty sweet seeing those to get the running juices flowing. We started up the hill and Dave and I looked at each other and said, "Screw this!" We power hiked up to the top with our legs and lungs hurting. We hit about 18:40 for the mile. Wow! We both made a conscious effort to not hurry up this hill during the race. It is only about 4 miles in so we want to conserve for the rest of the race. We got to the top and ran right along the rim of the mesa the whole time. It was beautiful. It was a lot of single track which was a lot of fun. Both of us were not able to get into any kind of rhythm so it was a little frustrating. We did 8:30 - 9:30 miles but it felt so much faster. Lots of sharp turns and jumping and climbing over rocks. Ultra baby! We ran into a couple mountain bikers which was nice to see. Planned on going a little longer but we were both short on time so we had to turn back. We both realized that the first 16 miles of the race we just need to conserve our energy and not stress about and then the last 34 miles will be easy :-) Really glad we got out and ran this section of the course. I know we are both ready. It took us close to 4 1/2 hours to run today. Yep, 4 1/2 hours! Trail running is a lot different than the road. The Zion 50 race will be sweet though.
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