MattVH sent out an email a few days ago looking for some good training runs to go on in the next few months in preparation for his first 100 mile race. Since his race is at Antelope Island, the group had hoped to make it out there to train. However, recent reports of snow out there changed our plans, myself, MattVH, Jun, and Scott all headed to Lake Mountain for a circumnavigation. We started at the south end and worked our way around clockwise. The temps were chilly, but I believe we all dressed appropriately so there were no issues being too cold with a 7:30am start. I have no problem sleeping before races since I feel like I've trained well. However, I slept terribly last night since I hadn't run more than 16 miles at a time since the Bear 100 in September. Events in my life have really stolen my motivation to run long distances in recent months and I felt completely unprepared to tackle what was in front of me. I was surprised however, to feel pretty good for the most part. At about mile 10 my left ankle started getting sore. I knew this was happening because of my lack of training. When I'm in training mode and putting together solid weeks, my ankles are able to prepare for the damage that uneven terrain provides. However, since I've been recently working on transitioning into a better shoe for me, I had to jump into my old "long run shoes" for this one and I paid for it. Having only run in these shoes 3 times since September, I knew I'd be pretty hammered by the end of the day. What I didn't expect was to have solid energy all day long. From about mile 21 to 26, Craig was really pushing the pace and leading us out. I hung close for awhile, but had to stop to take Ibuprofen for the ankle... it was getting too much to bear. I found out about 6 miles later that I had dropped my camera here when I took my pack off. See ya later camera! Good thing it was almost 7 years old and I was already planning on buying a new one this year. All the more excuse now to get a new one now. I also had two more unplanned stops, but I ran all the uphills and got to the high point of the course just two minutes back of Craig. Craig is a beast on the hills right now, so I felt pretty good about getting there so close to him. After waiting for Matt and Scott to arrive, we then took off downhill. I hung just behind Craig and Matt for about a mile, but the ankle started to revolt on the constant downhill and I had to dial it down. After another unplanned stop, I decided to run to the finish with Scott since the ankle hated me. His hamstrings were really tight, so between the two of us, we were pretty pathetic. We arrived at the finish 12 minutes or so behind Craig and Matt. All in all, I felt solid basically all day long. Guess I can't expect perfect results when I haven't put in the training, though. It was encouraging to know that with a little work I can be back in shape to throw down some good results this year.
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