TATUR night run
June 29th, 2008
Yesterday at 10:30pm I took part in my first official TATUR event, an informal night run organized by several of the “regulars”. The plan was to meet at the QuickTrip at 94th and Riverside and head east on the Creek Turnpike Trail about 7 miles before turning back. Though the temperature was kind of cool all day, the humidity was still lingering from the morning rains.
TATUR night run on June 28, 2008 ~ Photo: Ken Childress
I expected there to be only 5-6 people but in fact there was a strong group of what turned out to be 14. And that’s exactly how many miles the “long” runners went. Ken had stashed an ice chest at the 4 mile point on the way out and there was another ice chest courtesy of Cindy and her husband at the turnaround. I topped off one of my bottles at the turnaround and popped in another tablet of Kona Kola nuun. This product is really growing on me and I was digging the flavor all night.
The out portion of the run went very well for me. We walked most of the uphills and stopped to regroup a couple of times, but other than that, the pace was nice and easy but consistent. I was sweating heavily due to the humidity so I was sure to drink a lot. In total I had 60 oz. of liquid over the course of the 3-hr, 14-mile run, which I think was probably ok–maybe a bit on the light side. It seemed like I was drinking at least as much as everyone else.
I started to get a little bit tired on the way back but my feet were never really screaming. Towards the end, I was running a bit with Johnny and started powering up the hills because I knew we didn’t have much further to go. I was behind the lead group but saw a few of them as I came into the final parking lot section. They were walking so I decided to practice fast walking to see if I could catch them. Right at 94th I did manage to catch up with them.
After the run, we sat around in the parking lot chatting before Ken and Rob headed out for more mileage. I was asked if I wanted to continue but I decided to turn it in because I was having some coughing problems. At one point, I thought I might vomit, but it went away. I really didn’t have nausea, just this scratchy bad cough I couldn’t kick and it almost brought up all my liquid with it.
Though I need to get in some longer runs, this was a nice one. The large group made it tons of fun and the route was pretty interesting overall. Maybe I can get a couple more of these in before Tahoe so I’m in a better position to complete the mileage next month.