Long Run

Woodmen up to North Gate and Back

March 21, 2010

17 miles

2:51:27

10:05 min/mile

Beautiful weather with shorts on for a nice, long run and my new arm warmers! I started at Woodmen and headed up the prettiest part of the Santa Fe for the beginning of today's run. The wind played tricks and gave me a head wind on the way up and the way down ... I hate it when it does that to me; however, it did keep the temperature down, even though it wasn't all that warm and the wind was not all that bad.

I checked my garmin at North Gate noticed I had 7.79 miles and wanted to get 16 in for today; I also felt pretty good so I decided to continue up the old road that intersects the trail until I hit 8. Of course, at 8 miles, I still had not seen where the road went so I added an extra half mile to the run. Finally, at 8.5 I turned and headed back down. I thought of the sign at saw at Leadville last year, "Run as hard and fast as you can for as long as you can, then turn around."

About the 11 mile mark, a runner passed me but was not going so much faster than me so I decided to hang with her and talk to her for a bit. She said it took awhile to catch me and she would love the company. I think her name was Rebecca, and she told me she's active duty Navy and training for a half marathon, out on her ten mile run. She had a great pace and I told her I would lose her in the section I call the Narrows since I was already at 12 miles. I did, she was five miles into her run and much fresher than me. Once I popped up from the narrows, I saw she had stopped to remove her outer layer and I passed her but not for too long. About another mile later she passed me again and I said goodbye for the last time. By then, I had gone 14 miles and was getting a bit tired and decided not to give chase.

With about two miles left, I spied Felix running toward me and we stopped and chatted for a bit. I had not seen Felix in a long time and and wondered how his ankle was doing. He seriously hurt it during Leadville two years ago and had surgery on it last year. Felix said he was finally getting into his groove again and told me he was training for the Ascent this year. Just proves you can't keep a good man down!

After I left Felix, I was tired and the last two miles were not pretty: my pace fell to the 10:30's for both miles. Overall, I would have to say, a very good run with minor problems, nothing major.