Remind me to never try to organize a long run again. As of midday Friday we were planning on 8 of us for the 20 miler from the top of South Fork to the lake. Six started. Four made it to the lake. I had already run this 20 miler twice with different groups, and maybe would have preferred the run up to the girl scout camp and back, but it seemed like the best run for a couple of the newer/slower runners...the ones that ended up not coming. Oh well, all we can do is the best we can do.
Actually, the run turned just fine, just not as expected. The weather was cool and pleasant. So was the company. And I was plenty tired and beat by the end of the run. Larry, Wayne, Kevin, Kerry, Nick and I started together at the top of South Fork. On the way up we had to stop for a very large moose that was crossing the road. On the way down, Larry and Wayne ran a little ahead while Nick entertained the rest of us with stories about BYU football (his son Christian is a freshman quarterback on the team this year) and with quizzes on LDS Church trivia (he's got a steel trap memory for statistics and was recently memorizing things from the Church almanac). After stopping at Vivian Park, Wayne, Kerry and I pulled ahead while Kevin, Larry, and Nick hung back. We knew that Kevin was cutting out at the mouth of the canyon to run home to get to a family activity, and we could tell that Nick (who hasn't got much mileage in) might be joining him. When we hit the mouth of the canyon, Kerry took his headlamp to his car and Wayne and I ran back to meet the others. It wasn't long before we saw Larry. He had left Nick at one restroom, who was going to call his wife for a ride, and Kevin at another. He went on ahead to catch up to us so he wouldn't have to run alone to the lake. Shortly after the four of us started the last 10 miles to the lake, Wayne started pulling ahead. He built up quite a gap. At 15 miles Larry told us to leave him and go after Wayne. Kerry had put in high mileage this week and decided to stay with Larry. I wasn't as wise, and picked up the pace. I had been averaging about 8:45/mi to this point. The splits for the next 5 miles were 8:34 (included bathroom/gel/water stop), 7:22, 8:03, 8:19, 8:44. I started my pursuit well, but didn't have the juice to hold it to the end. Shortly before I got to the end Wayne passed me going the other direction. He was headed back to meet Larry and Kerry. I was planning to do that as well. However, my left foot had started to feel a litte sore at about mile 5. By mile 20 my achilles had joined the fun. I decided to not risk injury and be content with 20.1 miles (avg pace 8:37).
I thought about soaking my feet in the water near the trail, but it's a stagnant swamp. I was afraid I'd catch some deadly flesh eating disease, or have the flesh on my feet picked clean by pirannah. Instead I sat down and drank a cold Powerade while I waited for the others.
This run was nothing to write home about, but it's worth blogging about.
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