A weekend full of running

This past weekend, Melissa, Chris and I went up to the hills of NC and planned to run as much as possible in a training effort for the Blue Ridge Relay race coming up in about a month.  We wanted to run some hills that you just don’t find outside of the mountains and we also wanted to see some of the tough areas of the race course.

On Friday night after work, we headed up to my in laws cabin that is near Saluda, NC.  We met there around 10, stayed up for a while and then decided we all had too long of a day to do a night run, so we hit the hay. 

The next morning, we woke up and went for a run around the hilly gravel roads around the cabin.  We did a little under 3 miles before breakfast.  Then we cooked up some bacon and french toast before hitting the road on our way to REI Asheville so Chris could pick up a hydration belt.  We all hit the bathrooms and this is where my latest special place is.

Then we headed to the start of leg 33 of the Blue Ridge Relay.  It is 5.2 miles and it is described as the second hardest of the 36 legs of the race.  I wanted to run this particular leg because it will be the last of the 6 legs I will be running on 9/11 and 9/12.  We arrived there around 1:30 and we wondered why we decided to do this at the hottest time of day and no one has an answer.  But we are here to do one thing: run up this hill.

We start and the road has a slight incline, but is not too terribly bad.  We know to expect worse as this is the sign you see as you start:

This is enough to make you nervous!

the start of the leg

the runners ready to go!

About 2-3 miles in to the run, the road gets steep.  And I mean steep for you driving in your car, much less on foot!  It gets to the point where I can no longer run and I am forced to walk.  It is even difficult to walk!  I check my heart rate after several minutes of walking, where it normally would have come down to around 120 bpm or so, but it is still over 170.  My breathing is still labored and I just want to get to the top.  I finally do and I am rewarded with very near zero flat ground before it goes down even steeper than the side I just came up.  A little ways down, a girl running catches up to me.  We talk a bit and she is running the BRR as well and will be running the same legs as I do.  She is a strong runner and it intimidates me a little, but I manage to more or less keep a pace that I finished only a minute or so after her.  But I don’t know when she started.  All I know is that she started after me!  You can see the stats here, check out the elevation profile, it is sick.  I am happy with under 1 hour though as the runner that ran this leg for our team last year finished in 57 minutes.  I spoke to the other runner some more at the end and she and her husband (I assume) are running the race with 4 others on their team.  They are from Asheville and are more accustomed to the hills than I am.  That will be my excuse for her beating me.  They very politely offered me cold water, which I stupidly declined, because I should have had plenty for the way back.  Unlike them, my plan was to run the course twice to get back to the car.

I start back up the hill that I just ran down, and my pace is quickly slowed to a walk again.  At this point my legs are asking me to stop because they are tired.  I keep on truckin’ up the hill and reach the top again.  One thing I noticed more on this ascent was that it was noticeably cooler at the top and my ears actually popped on the way up.  Weird.

As I start the descent, I begin to run for about 5 minutes or so and my legs now scream at me to stop.  They aren’t asking anymore, they are telling me.  My hamstrings are as tight as I have felt them and my calves are threatening to cramp.  I stop and stretch a bit and then walk some more.  They begin to feel a bit better and I decide to start running again.  Nope.  Same thing happens again, but a little worse.  I end up walking most of the way down, wishing that my cell phone had a signal so I could call Melissa or Chris as I am sure they are back at the car by now.  I also wished I had told them to come check on me when they got back to the car.  One other thing I wished as I ran out of water and Perpetuem with about 2.5 miles to go was that I had taken the offer for cold water.  Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.  Here are the stats for the run walk back.

When I got back to the car, Melissa and Chris are eating sandwiches and they graciously offer to make me one, but all I could say was, “water!”  So Melissa gave me some and it was glorious.  After downing some water, my feet were burning, so we all headed to a nearby creek and soaked our feet and splashed our faces in the cool mountain water.  Again, glorious.

Ahhhhh....

We drove around some more and previewed a bit of Chris’ last leg, which will be the end of the entire 208 mile race that finishes in downtown Asheville.  We then headed back to the cabin where Jeff was waiting with beer.

When we arrived, Melissa and Chris spoke of another run, but my legs were done for the day.  I stayed with Jeff and his cool hoppy offerings and Melissa and Chris hammered out another run.  They did a total of 15 for the day and I 13.  It may not sound like much to more experienced runners, but these were all extremely hilly miles.

When they got back, they joined Jeff and I to continue “hydrating” and we had a good time.  The next morning, the crew slept in a bit and we had more bacon and pancakes before we cleaned up and hit the road back home.

When I got back home, I mowed the lawn and played with Mia and Sadie.  After dinner, I started to watch the Yankees game and when Jenn told me she was going to bed, I let her know that I might go for a run because I can’t sit still.  I ended up going for a 8.3 mile run in the dark of the night.  It was interesting and the roads were busier than I expected.  I took it easy with a slow pace, but the point was to get the miles in.  See the stats here.

So, all in all I ran 21.24 miles over the course of 36 hours with 4 different runs.  I would say it was a good training weekend for the BRR.

Oh and did I mention that marathon training starts today?  I think I’ll need another pair of shoes soon!