There are a lot of distances one can embark on. A 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon and beyond. The beyond part qualifies as an ultra marathon, any distance greater than 26.2 miles. So, what if I run a little further than a half marathon? Say, 14 miles? It's further than a half marathon, so therefore, we have now deemed any distance between the half marathon and marathon an Ultra Half... seems more badass, right?
Thats just the distance Keith and I set out on today. I've been battling a cold since the later part of Sunday and Tuesday's 15 miler was no treat as the cold had be by the balls the entire way.
The gist of the run was simple. Head out of town on the railroad bed and then venture up a trail to Arrow Rock, a spot on top of a hill that has Native American carvings of a bow and arrow on it.
It wasn't long before I had to confess that the mere fact that the transvestite who Keith works with might get hot and bothered by children's drawings of me in drag (true story) was enough call this day a win. As always, things were going well and the conversation unsuitable for minors.
This might be the first point in the run where the food choices I made throughout my day, while delicious, were catching up to me. No problem. If I was a Boy Scout, I would have long ago received my shitting in the woods belt loop. I found my favorite tree in my favorite "using the bathroom" section of the trail, and took care of business. At first, and as always, I grab some leaves to clean myself. The problem here is that at this point in the season all the leaves are dry and brittle. Nothing but leaf shards left in my ass.... awesome! Thank God I also carry a bag of TP in my pack for such an event. Problem solved!
Back to running. We keep on our way, bounding streams and finding new ways to possibly injure ourselves a week out from the Bear Mountain 50 Miler. As if my cold wasn't trouble enough, a busted ankle should all but seal the deal.
We summit Arrow Rock in just over an hour. We suck down a GU and S-Cap and head back DOWN the trail. Every thing to this point has been a climb. It felt good to open up the stride a bit and just cruise down the trail.
Annnnnd then there was that feeling again. The "was that lunch meat too old" feeling. Time to duck into the woods again. A little wiser this time, I avoid the leaves, and take the opportunity to put on my head lamp, as the sun was hanging low in the sky. I head back to the trail and catch up with Keith, who has been logging miles while I cuddle up with large pine trees.
The air is cool and its the first time this year that the temperature felt comfortable in the late dusk hours as we headed east. It was in this span that things felt easy, like the simple joy of a double Tweezer Reprise encore (Hell yeah, Hartfort 2010!) It was in this peak moment that.... gonna need to drop a deuce again.
Really? What the hell did I eat? How could there be any more?
Back on the trail, I catch up with Keith. Our watches beep in unison as we put back another mile. However, as Keith ran during all my ventures into the woods, his beep was indicating he was a mile ahead of me. He had logged an additional mile. I had done exactly one mile of shitting. Put that in your log book! ....Boooooooooooooooo.
The final miles back to where we started from were light footed and easy to come by. I was finally ready to start running. It just took and Ultra Half to get there.
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