Today, I met up with an actual human being, someone seriously willing to meet up with me and run 22 miles. It's not easy finding someone willing to do a hilly trail run consisting of 22 miles, someone who doesn't whine about it and runs my pace. (or close)
We met up at Wildwood, at Firelane 5. Firelane 5 is pretty far out away from civilization. You really don't find a whole lot of runners when running in that area. I wanted to start there because we didn't not want to run into the huge Marathon running group, that was scheduled to run up there. We decided or I decided and Dorothy agreed to it, that we would do an out and back 10 mile loop so that I would not have to carry 3 qts of water again on my tender back.
We first went left, down Saltzman and up Wildwood. Dorothy was at first leading, but being so close to her and only having a very small amount of vision, I was feeling dizzy and asked to lead. I was good and went the pace she was going. We turned around at the 5 mile loop.
Just before we got back to our car, I noticed that my watch was already at 10 mile, we hadn't even reached the cars yet. I figured my watch (stupid thing) lost signal somewhere and probably on the way back. So I stopped the timer, even though Dorothy said not to and we walked to the cars.
We both re-filled and I got my 1/2 of my sandwich out and starting eating and away we went, this time down the steep Firelane 5. By the time we got to the corner of F5 and WW, I heard voices, well here come the Marathoners. Luckily they were going a different way, they were headed toward Leif. One of the members asked us if this is the right way? (as if we know), but Dorothy said something to the effect "yes for you" and he said "what about you?" Silly Dorothy, she was wearing a Portland Marathon Clinic shirt and even sillier, that I almost wore the same shirt that morning.
We then went left on WW and and traveled for about 5.5 miles and stopped and actually sat and I got out my other 1/2 sandwich and she got out her gu and away we went for a final 6. I was really feeling it at about 18-19 miles and I was, believe it or not starting to hallucinate. I noticed a huge slug, got distracted by it and stepped over a strange leaf that I thought had moved, almost looked like a squirrel tail and it made me jump. Dorothy wonders if there had been a mouce. Then, another time, I thought I saw a butterfly go by my head. Oh brother.
Well, we finally made it to Firelane 5 and just walked up it, well okay, who seriously can run up that? Maybe on the flat part, but we didn't even bother.
I felt better today, than I did last week. I think it was a combination of the slower pace, more resting, more walk breaks and of course the dreaded icebath at the end when I got home, which left me shivering for a good 10 minutes.
There is something to be said about meeting up with a good friend once a week and talking for 6 hours. What a great way to build a friendship.
Scheduled run 22 miles, actuall run 22.19 (or so). Time 5:28, real time 6 hours.
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