20 miler

I have a new running record: 20 miles! Woot! Go me!

Mind you, it was only supposed to be 29 kilometers (18 miles). But you know me: gotta overachieve.

Rob and I ran the Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Run yesterday. I was somewhat nervous about this, down to having a race anxiety dream the night before. I told Rob when we got there: “I’m kinda scared.” Last week, when we did a 13 mile run at Waddell Creek I couldn’t finish it running because of my hip, and here I was trying for 29k? Was I completely insane?

The short answer was, Yes, I pretty much was, but I managed to finish it. Not well, mind you, or particularly fast, but I managed to run 20 miles up and down hills and I finished it standing.

You could do one of 5 courses: the 10km (from the starting area to Route 9), the 21km (from the starting area to the Aid Station and back again), the 29km (from the start to the Aid Station, then back up the hill to a separate side loop, back to the Aid Station, and then back to the starting line), and the 50km (the 29k + 21k courses).

Oh, and there was a stream to ford in the middle of it. That went up to my waist. And was really, really cold. It actually wasn’t too bad — one of those fun things to talk about! — except our shoes stayed squishy for a mile or so afterwards, which got kind of old.

The hardest part was the hill that started after the stream: straight up and down. It seemed to take forever to get to the Aid Station. Then we had to go back up the hill to the yellow ribbon that marked the beginning of the 8km extra loop. Rob said, “And the 50k’ers have to do this hill three times altogether.” The 50k’er behind us said, “Don’t remind me.”

It was a beautiful run, but I don’t think I’ll be doing again. For one thing, the incline was just too steep at too many points. I’m still having a hard time going up hills. For another thing, an equestrian event was held the day before our race. As you may or may not know, “equestrian” means “horse,” which means that the trail was covered in horse manure. Fresh horse manure.

It got to be a little much.

The funniest thing is the private joke I’ll be taking away from this race. As 50k’ers passed us, returning from finishing their 29km segment and heading out to do their 21km segment, Rob said to me, “It would take a gun to my head to get me to leave the starting area again.” This became “Gun to my head” and finally a shake of the head and “Bullet.”

When we finally finished (after our impromptu extra mile or so), I said to Rob, “It’s weird, but I don’t feel hungry.”

“Exercise suppresses appetite. In 45 minutes we’ll be knifing one another for food.”

We went to Emily’s Bakery again, because their sandwiches were so good last week. They were really good again this week. My sandwich was done first, and I sat down as Rob’s name was called. By the time he returned, I’d finished half of my sandwich already. “I’d still swear I’m not hungry,” I said, “but I can’t seem to stop eating this as fast as I can.”

Rob has said he wants to try a 50km at some point. I said, That’s completely nuts, but then I remembered: last year was my first trail run, 8km. This year, 29km. What’s to say I couldn’t add another 21km at some point?

I’ll have to get a lot better at hills though.