My biggest physical achievemnet. :) I ran my first 22 miler with Pam and Arun.
This saturday we ran the Sawyer Camp Trail. Well it is an awesome trail, till about 4 and a half miles. After that it is one treacherous hill.
We have done Sawyer camp a few times before and it was always painful. Surprisingly this time, the first 6 were a piece of cake. After we came back to the start line, we were a little sore and the tough of going back was daunting. Well, but we wanted to do the second tener. So tanked the fuel belt with gatorade and started on a trot. Miles 13, 14 and 15 went in a flash as we we were hailing all the returning Asha runners and it was not so bad. After that it started getting a little tougher. As alwasy my left hamstring started to twitch and I was getting a little worried. Pam is one strong woman and she kept going up while I was panting and trying to catch up. Arun of course, was just realaxing and having fun with us slow pokes.
Well once we completed 17 miles, it was another 5 miles before we head home and 18 and 19 were downhill. But downhill is not simple as your quads take quite a beating and we were in no shape for it. So I used the meandering technique similar to skiing when you want to go real slow down a steep slope.
Well some we passed Kalywan at the water stop with 2.5 more miles to go. After fueling, Pam decided that we should not stop and keep going till the finish. Well, it was a nice slow run. We relaxed and enjoyed the lake and were encouraging each other to keep pushing. The last mile was phenomenal as we decided to sprint and sprint we did. We did tracks in the last 800 and finished the 22 miles in 4 hours. Wheww, thinking about it as I write gives me a major kick.
Have I discovered runner's high yet? May be in Chicago... I wonder.
One other small note. I have not blogged for some time, but if you want to look at my running logs, see https://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/marathon/runnernet/admin/donate.php?2006TA246
