Long Run at Night

Tonight's run was my final long run before Western States and I'll begin tapering down now. The hay is in the barn!!! (I love saying that)

I joined Ian, Emma, Stephen, Erik, Jim, Shauna, Blaine, Allen and Phil at 8pm at Pineland Farms to get in some night running on the trails. Workout went great. I am really pumped especially for Ian and Erik as they're running their first 100-miler at the Vermont 100 this July.

We ran a 7.6 mile loop once, followed by another loop between two and a half and three miles long that we repeated. At night, it doesn't seem repetitious, at least not to me, since all you can really see in front of you is the small circle of light from the headlamp.

Half the group stopped early, and much of the second half of the run Stephen and I ran together. I had just casually mentioned that I wanted to try Clip-2, and Stephen just so happened to have some and shared a bottle of it. This was great, as my stomach totally took it in well and I liked it. Now that I've tested it, I'll go ahead and order some and do a few more runs with it and probably use it at WS. Thanks again Stephen!

Stephen and I also chit-chatted about said race and made some further plans. I'm really lucky to have him as a pacer. No doubt he'll keep me going. He's going to rock the VT100 course again next month as well. Homeslice has some serious speed and endurance.

Around four hours later, we were done running, and I was satisfied with getting in just over 20 miles as planned. We then headed over to Denny's for some grub, and we're joined by the squirrel loving Mindy. Looking forward to having her back on the trails with us this summer once she recovers from her stress fracture.

Ran 20.3 miles @ 9:36/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 140/169 (data skewed due to stops after each loop for drinks and food).
Trails.
Very hilly.
Lower 50s, cloudy.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt.