First entire Northshore run
Posted on 09. Oct, 2006 by Brad in Training
Surface: Dirt
Mileage: 18
Duration: 04:32:00
Pace: 15:10/m
Shoes: Montrail Hardrock
Since I had gotten lost earlier in the week, I decided to head out early Saturday morning to see the entire Northshore Trail at Grapevine Lake. I was also eager to meet many of the NTTR club members who regularly post messages to the mailing list.
Deborah kindly offered to drive me into the MADD shelter since the surrounding area is a bit messy. I met her at 6:35am in an Exxon parking lot before heading to the MADD shelter. After arriving, I pulled the things out of my paper bag that I’d readied the night before. I had two amphipod 20oz bottles filled with pre-mixed Gu2O powder, a few Cliff Bars, and some new Cliff gummy squares. I finished off part of a Cliff Bar I’d opened the previous night (the brownie one is hard to resist!) and then started chatting with the group as more people arrived.
Before I knew it, we were out on the trail and the morning was quite brisk. There were about 8 of us in all and we headed towards the south section first. Before too long, I realized that the wrong turn I’d taken was exactly what I thought. The group split up around here and Deborah and I continued together for the rest of the 18 miles.
We are both pretty talkative and the miles were just flying by. I was watching my bottle closely to make sure I was drinking regularly but saving enough to make it back to the half-way point and pick up my other bottle.
Around the 4-mile mark, I looked over to the lake and noticed someone going for an open water swim. I don’t know what temperature the water was but the air still had a very welcomed crispness to it. Right after this, we came upon the group of 4 that had split off earlier but somewhere along the way they picked up Letha. I went for a pit stop at Rockledge and then we headed right back on the trail.
The miles really were just slipping right on by and everything was feeling great. My legs weren’t tired, I didn’t feel short of breath, and my feet weren’t developing any hot spots. Our pace was a bit slow, but I figured I would be dying long before 18 rolled around so figured it was for the best.
We got back to the MADD parking lot and I had a gummy and some Cliff Bar and exchanged my empty amphipod previously filled with lemon-lime for my one filled with orange. As we headed on the more northern trail, Deborah reminded me that it was a bit hillier and rocky that what we’d just done. I expected it to be a lot worse than it turned out to be but it was nice to have some climbs to mix things up. She was certain to point out the hills that one club member “requires” everyone to run, which I found pretty humorous.
We stopped a couple times to chit chat with club members, the second time was for quite a while. After we’d finished, we realized that we might have actually been going faster on the second half of the run than the first since there was only 9 minutes difference in the split times.
Late in the run, after we’d been talking about electrolyte replacement, working, sleep cycles, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, water ice, gelato (were we getting hungry?), we starting talking about upcoming races and training goals. It was mentioned that I should consider running the 100K at Bandera and then Umstead in March and Javelina next November. I couldn’t get over thinking about the 100K at Bandera. Sure, the training runw as going great, but I still have a pretty big mental block I need to work through. My 2004 Bandera 50K was misery and I was super slow. I can’t imagine putting myself through twice that and for some of it in the dark! But honestly I am pretty psyched right now because I’ve got myself thinking that a 50 mile run on an easier course is within reach.
This was an excellent run for me and I really needed it to get my confidence up for Palo Duro. We both knew we could have gone faster but it was nice to finish it with such ease. I’m looking forward to heading back out there soon to put in the miles!
