12/02/07-Sunday-
Stayed @ my friends last night-from here out I will refer to her as P. Seeing as her name is rather unusual and she may wish to maintain a little anonymity . Anyway P had to get up early and I'm off for the day and have been itching to run long and in the dirt!!
I grabbed some gear,bottles tights shorts over tights pretzels mixed with S-blocks watch, mp3, long sleeve/short sleeve, fuel belt, beanie gloves and bandana face mask thingy.
My plan was head up phone line run it to the end then take the road back.
After running around in circles trying to figure out the best place to make the first stream/river crossing on bear (30 minutes) I ended up finally getting to phone line!
I talked to a few different people but no one seemed to want to cross the water.I was just trying to avoid a waist deep crossing.
That first water crossing was'nt so bad , I chose to actually cross @ the bottom of the stream bed and make a couple small crossings as opposed to make the one big one across the road. For some reason that first crossing on bear canyon road always scares me. I avoided it in the monsoons also. It just seems very deep, @ least waist deep and fast.
So I headed up phone line and after crossing the river saw no one. Mostly uneventful, started stripping off layers after reaching phone line proper.
The trails is in good shape considering all the rain.
Extra caution on some of the rocks and a little debris strewn about.
Well I hit the very top of the road and then the real fun started!!!!
I was little bit hot in the tights.
Well down down down half mile and hit the first water crossing about knee deep while standing still and ice cold!
My contigencyt plan was to head backup the road and up and then down phone line if any of the crossings were bad.
Theres about 6 crossings on Sabino canyon road it self.
All the crossing were good except for one right around the 2 mile road marker.
It came to the middle/top of my thigh and I hit a hole that came to my right hip!
The other crossings were all knee high but I was getting wet up to my stomach.
There was no one else anywhere on the road or trail that far in and it was a little interesting being by myself.
I run by myself most times anyway.
Well I was pretty cold but the tights were doing a great job and the numbing water felt good on my bad left leg and foot.
So I approached the last water crossing , the last one down hill or the first one going uphill...anyway frickin lookie loo's all over, meandering about. No one seemed to want to cross the ice cold rushing water and all had a strange look of awe/ fear as I appeared out of no where and charged across the crossing(maybe it was because my face mask has a skeleton bone face sewn into it and it makes me look wicked! it's frickin cool.)
So all the while with out skipping a beat I crossed . A bunch of camera flashes went off like I was some sort of rare wild animal. The finish was uneventful and I did get the exact, well almost, amount of time in I wanted partially because of the intial 30 minutes of wandering about.
Total time 1hr59min47sec. First longish run in far too long.
That was a great run.......The conditions made it like a completely new run.
Oh and a little un solicited gear praise-*******-The new balance tights were awesome!!! warm and fast drying. Also the injinji socks I've been using for about 7 months now are once again amazing! No blisters even after my shoes were full of sand and silt and sopping wet, my feet even stayed mostly warm(tricky considering the water was very very cold)
Shoes-well I ran in my cascadias I got 6or 7 months ago. It's about time for a new pair of those- They are very cushioned and very neutral even with literally no more toe rubber they still grip the wet slippery rocks.
They even have enough cushion to run for an hour or two on cement but are definitely not a road shoe.
Well everything else woked perfect as well.
I am seriously contemplating doing the Hillsboro Ghost town 38.5 miler on jan 20th.
Well one or 2 more long runs and I will no for sure. I could have ran for another 2 hours today and would have been fine so we shall see.
I've looked at the Hillboro course and depending on how I feel I should run it between 6-8 hours comfortably.
On the down side, Today is/was the Hulualoa Tucson marathon..... :)
I may have to keep my long runs on dirt from now on or balance them with a long bike ride then a long run.
The next week will tell for sure.
P does myo point therapy/ pressure point therapy and when she can get me to sit still has been working on my legs and lower back every couple days. I think it's working.
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