Monday, July 24, 2006

7/23 - 7/24/2006 Backpack Trail Run & Bicycling

7/23/2006 East Fork Backpack Trail Run

Close to 5 miles of running through the woods up and down hills jumping logs and running through creek beds trying not to go face first into the dirt because of a stump or a root. I aaaalmost made it without biting it, almost. This is one of the toughest races I have attempted. Since this is the second time I ran it I thought I would be prepared, but nothing can prepare you for the disorienting feeling of running through the woods. There are no mile markers, and nothing to really mark your distance just tree, tree, tree... and a narrow trail to try and pass people on. It's actually fun, really.

I don't know what the exact mileage for the race was, as the course was changed by the park service. They figured that it was close to 5 miles, so that is what the pace and other figures were based on. The official time for my race was 45:27. I am pretty happy with the result considering it was a very tough course with lots of hills and lots of obstacles. As I referenced earlier I did take a dive. Luckily it wasn't a bad one, but it was a full on Pete Rose dive on to the trail. The most unfortunate part of it was that I had my sunglasses in my hand and crushed them in the fall. Bummer.

7/24/2006 Bicycling

It was an incredible day for a ride and I made the most of it. I decided to try to crank out some miles today by trying a new route out to ride. It was a nice long route that took me out 132 to Bethel and back around 133 through Williamsburg to 50 to Owensville and back to Batavia. The only thing that marred the ride was in the last mile two spokes unexpectedly snapped for no apparent reason. Other than that bit of unfortunate luck it felt great to get out and ride just for the sake of riding. It was perfection.

Odo: 793.4 miles
Dist: 43.59 miles
Time: 2:35.03
Avg: 16.8 mph
Max: 40.5 mph

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