Pb night run

Interesting run last night from FH to Leadville. Rain/cold and the first feel of fall creeping into the high country was a nice entrance into what to get ready for come "pace day". Leila, Woody, and I met at the El Rancho park and ride and made the trek to Leadville to meet some other folk who were getting ready for the 100. We hitched a ride with Greek and Ryan to FH and found the others and soon we were on our way. I had no idea what kind of pace the group would be shooting for and it was pretty brisk I felt for a group who were 14 days out of (mostly) their first 100. I ended up leading the first section of Powerline which I thought was a poor decision given that I wasn't even racing so I stepped over and everyone sort of stayed in a slow jog/power hike up most of it to Sugarloaf.

Pace heated up a bit coming down the pass and then we finally got onto some real trail which was nice, though with the rain and the rocks we made pretty slow work of it so as to not do something stupid and break an ankle. Coming down into Mayqueen we stopped and collected folks, getting nice and soaked through. I was a bit cold here and my stomach wasn't exactly making friends with me (not sure why). From Mayqueen on Ryan set a strong pace that kept us on our toes and we made to to Tabor quickly, stopped and rested, then moving on to Matchless where I promptly used the facilities which made me feel awesome for a few miles. The course from there was pretty weird and I got pretty disoriented once we hit the last long dirt road coming back into town (at this point I was on my own having tried to walk a bit to calm my stomach, losing contact with Leila, Ryan, and Greek but ahead of Chris and Woody). For a while I was sure I had missed a turn, but soon enough I was at the high school.

I'm really glad I came to run this section, because it will serve as a good reminder come pace day that we've got work to do and there is no carrot to chase until you get to the high school. You'd have no idea Leadville was close (you're headed up and it's forested) until it's within a mile. The last piece of road into town is tolerable and I walked it in with Leila, Greek, and Ryan. I think the key from Mayqueen in is to just make progress, that's all. I'm sure it'll seem like forever, but once that high school comes into play, you're gonna make it.

Post run, Ryan hooked me up with a ginger candy that took care of my unhappy stomach (along with some Mountain Dew) so I'll have to thank him when I see him again and remember to pack some for future races. Pb is coming, I'm excited to see how many dudes Leila will dominate! I know my job... get her to the finish line, and stay outta the ER.