Bradley Palmer Remix

Last weekend I got together with running mate RunninRob for a 30K training run on the GAC Fat A$$ course. Rob has been dealing with a nagging injury but decided to give the 2010 Fat A$$ 50K a go. Since his longest run had been about 6 miles we decided to incorporate some walking breaks to get him (and me) though the distance. Of course, once we got running (and talking) we sort of forgot to take the walking breaks as often as planned. Still, we made it though the full 30K with relative ease.

This weekend I was supposed to head back to Bradley Palmer again with a few other friends who wanted to preview the race course. When those plans fell through on Sunday in the early morning hours I decided skip the run and go back to bed. Today was my day of redemption so I headed north to take on the course myself. Since I was on my own I decided to skip the walking breaks and run the full 20 miles.

Running the first loop of the 10K course was the driest since the ground was still frozen over. I slipped on the ice a few times and had a few close calls but no falls. As the morning progressed and the temperature increased, the ground began to thaw and I ran thought many areas of shoe-sucking mud and cold, deep water. That made for some slower miles but I still managed to maintain a decent pace overall.

I made a detour off course to check out the trails of Moon and Blueberry Hills. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while but never took the time. I was a little disappointed to find nothing but wide carriage road and no single-track. The top of Moon Hill is a very large, open field. I’m not sure why there is such a large clearing here but I suspect it may have been farmed at one time. My reward for circumnavigating the field of clumpy grass was a long, gradual downhill back to the Fat A$$ course and an extra 1.5 miles for the loop.

The weather started to head south but I managed to beat the rain by a few minutes. Overall, I was happy with my run. With the exception of last week’s 30K my longest run since Stone Cat was 9 miles. The fact that I ran a little over 20 miles at a mile pace 50 seconds faster than the 30K means I haven’t lost that much fitness in the past 2 months. I will admit my legs are pretty stiff this evening though.

Keep moving…