Practice run on the Chuckanut 50k course. Beautiful spring Sunday, plenty of folks out on the mountain, ran with Krissy from Clayton Beach parking lot (which is now being called Lost Lake, apparently). We planned on the middle 30k of the race from that parking lot, which is everything but the 10k out and back portions to Fairhaven.
Wanted to go nice and easy, since I'm not confident of my mileage right now. So we started out slow, hiked a bit here and there up to Frangrance Lake, then ran the whole way to Cleator Road. Walked maybe the first half up Cleator, when it leveled out we ran again, and hiked the final steep stretch. Stopped at the top to talk with some folks doing the same thing, then ran the ridge (beautiful view of Mount Baker; best I've ever seen), then after dropping down to Lost Lake we more or less hiked or ran slowly up all the hills you climb out. I was a little low on energy and water, but other than that we probably *could* have run a little harder. But no reason too, really. This was just covering some distance.
My legs were a little tired there, but really none of the tightness or pain that has been bothering me. Very, very encouraging. Finally up Lost Lake and then the big downhill to Chinscraper. There my left hip flexor started barking (more fatigue than anything; its just not real strong yet), so we skipped Chinscraper and ran up the road to where the split to Frangrance Lake is, then took that route back in (which is the same as the new course map). My legs actually responded really well at that point, I thought I was cooked but found energy and ran a nice pace in (helps that it's downhill). But I finished well, not too beat up, tired but not entirely spent. A very positive sign for two weeks from now, and I have some confidence I can finish this bad boy. I won't go fast, but I'll go. 3:33 total on our feet.
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