the one where I "ran" the twenty miles

So yeah, I did actually run the twenty miles and lived...barely.

I made the mistake of making the first ten miles kind of tough. I ran  up to the hobble creek golf course and back. In a car it seems like nothing but running it is not an easy run. Lots of up and downs with about 500 ft elevation difference.

Not to mention that I had to start my run before 5 pm to finish before it got dark. It was hot, and miserable.

I've been wanting to run this route all summer but never had a good opportunity. It's a little scary to do alone because there isn't a whole lot of foot traffic along the trail and there some very secluded areas where bears and cougars while rare and not typically aggressive, are still there. And I can't guarantee that I don't look like an injured animal when I run. HA! I decided to be brave and do it anyway. I'm glad I did but It would definitely be less scary with someone. Luckily the scariest thing I saw was a tiny little snake that was about the size of a pencil.


I got a drink at the park on the east side of the golf course and headed back down.

When I got home from that leg I didn't want to continue. I was pretty tired. But I gagged down a cliff shot and left home... again.

This time I went and ran my "around Mapleton" route. It's actually more like 8 miles but I figure with the extra hardness of the first part and I think I went a bit farther than 10 miles on that part so all in all I probably went closer to 19 miles. I made it home just as it really got uncomfortably dark.

Good enough.

Surprisingly, I probably felt best in mile 16-18 or so. 12-15 were absolutely dreadful.

It's all down hill from here right?

I can't believe my race is going to be longer than that. Whoever does these often is just plane crazy. So many hours of running. I'm starting to decided that I really LOVE running 5k races.