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.

Today I hit the trail during the heat of the day, hoping to go for a couple hours. But by the 4-mile mark I had a lot of nausea and thought it best to haul it in rather than get myself feeling really bad. At least I was able to keep my usual slow ~10:45/mile pace. I was also experimenting with nuun, the electrolyte replacement. I had a glass of the kona cola flavor with my late lunch and it tasted pretty good. Then I took the tri-berry with me on the run. Between the two, I prefer the kona cola because it’s not quite as strong. I picked the nuun up at Tom’s Bicycles at 6861 South Peoria and the help there was really friendly.

I hope to get a long run in tomorrow morning so I can see where I’m at without all the heat. I’ve been managing 6-milers pretty easily but I need a good 25+ miler to be better prepared for Tahoe. If the 50-mile distance doesn’t get me, the altitude surely will. Otherwise, my only hope to make it across the finish line will be riding in a baby jogger pushed by one of my NTTR friends :-)