First Long Run

Sunday was my first long distance run in my trainig program...correction...first long distance run ever! Last week I excited myself by running 8 miles (longest distance to date), this week I was able to run 10 miles! It was an early morning start on Sunday because I had class. I met a friend at the Twin Rock's trail head in Granite Bay at 0530, I was praying the whole drive over that the sun would come up in time. Thankfully the sun showed it head right as we were about to take off. It was dawn, the air was clean, there was a slight chill, and I felt pretty darn good that I was starting my day before most were awake. We set out on the trail, which I had never run before. There were MANY forks in the trail which I was mainly guessing on which direction to take. I just kept thinking go left, further away from the lake. As we randomly set our own course I was unsure if I was going to be able to make it the assigned 10 miles, since I had never run this far before. There was a mix between single track and jeep trail on the way out with PLENTY of steap climbs which eventually turned into hiking sections. Although the climbs were rough, I was quickly reminded why I have decided to take up trail running...the reward. At the top of every hill you are gaurunteed a reward...the sceanery! Concuring those hills and witnessing sunrise over Folsom Lake as I was short of breath and sweaty as a dog made me forget the pain and thankful to be able to be alive. We started to decend and I could feel we were getting closer to homes and further away from the lake. The trail turned to single track and all of the sudden we ran out of trail and found ourselves on pavement. It was a wierd feeling to come out of the woods, at this point we had been running and hour with no sign of civilization and BOOM, houses. We had to make it 5 miles out so we ended up running for a bit on the pavement.

I was feeling real good on the way out there and looked at my watch and was not ready for a Gu. I know I need to figure out how to work the timing of taking gels and made sure to take them before I start feeling crummy. I took one at 5 miles and waited for the "jets" to kick in. On the way back we again felt lost, everything seems to get real confusing when your running in the woods. On the way out your too tired and delusional to pay attention to forks in the trail, so the way back was as big of a guessing game as the way there! I would shout, "pick a direction, left or right". We just kept guessing and finding our way home. The way back luckly was mostly single track, I enjoy this much more since I have more obsticles to focus on than jeep or fire road. I feel more in control of my running within the confines of single track, other may feel different. The Gu "jets" started to come on around mile 7 and it was off to the races. My pace shot way down or up depending on how you look at it (I got faster) and I started to cruz. I quickly lost my running buddy and took off towards home. I kept quessing my way back to Twin Rocks and found myself half way to Granite Bay state park where I started to recognize the trails as the Mtn Bike trails I use. All of the sudden my watch was at 10 miles and I had met my goal for the day. I waited for my running buddy and said "Do you want the good or bad new first?". She looked at me gassed. "Good news is we hit 10 miles! Bad news, we may be close to 1 or 2 miles from TR, I overshot the turn off". This was not exciting news to her. Long story short, we ended up back at Twin Rocks 1 hr and 50 minutes later, I was smiling, and talking shop with a recent Western States 100 finisher. Everyone said I looked like I had run a 5K and thats how I felt. I was ready for more and cannot wait to hit the trail early next Sunday for 11 miles...hopefully not getting myself or my running buddy lost!