Wayne and I ran up South Fork from the mouth of the canyon and back
this morning. Neither of us was sure how far we wanted to go, but at
least 16. We decided to listen to our old bodies and take what they had
to offer this morning. We started just before 5:30am. We saw some
other runners gathering in the darkness in the parking lot as we headed
out. I thought one of them looked like Josse, and I probably should
have walked over, but Wayne was ready to run so we just headed out. I
think maybe subconsciously I didn't want to talk to Josse and find out
how much of a harder workout she was doing, or worse yet, get talked
into trying to join them. It turns out it was Josse and Michelle and
some other runners I didn't recognize. We met up at Vivian where we had
stopped at the bathroom and fountain. We said "Hi" but not much more as
Wayne and I headed up South Fork and I believe the others continued on
up the highway towards the dam. Speaking of the highway, the
trail was still closed from Bridal Veil to Vivian so, unlike last week,
we ran on the highway up to Vivian instead of crossing the Sheriff's
barricades. We soon discovered that there is a pretty big hill (7%
grade) going on the highway, and it's about 1/4 mile longer to Vivian
than the trail. And of course that hill has to be traversed in both
directions. Wayne and I, and both of our bodies, all agreed to
turn around at the 8 mile mark just up from South Fork Park. I think I
could have finished 18 or 20, but I've got a lot of honey do's today
and if we would have gone much farther I wouldn't have been good for
anything. When we got back to the parking lot we met Tammy who
had run 12 miles and was waiting for Josse and Michelle to finish their
22 miles. (I knew they'd be doing some killer workout that I wouldn't
want anything to do with.) I was just glad we had beat the heat. My
watch glitched during part of the run, but I think we averaged around
8:00/mi for the 16.2 mile run. It had some good hills in it and we
still managed to run the last few miles pretty strong. Not a bad day
for a couple of old guys. Now on to the honey do's... | 