TWENTY MILER #2

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Saturday morning I got to sleep in a little later than I'm used to because Alejandro wanted to run the Banks-Vernonia State Trail in preparation for the Vernonia Marathon he'll be doing in a couple of weeks. He wanted to get a feel for the course and I was more than fine with tagging along because I love that trail and I'm always down for extra sleep.

I ran this trail for the first time last spring with Libbie. At the time it was my longest run ever at 16 miles. Now I am planning a "down week" this weekend with "only" 16 on the schedule. How things change! Anyways, woke up and rode with Alejandro to the trailhead. Went to the Buxton Trailhead again since you can skip a lot of the boring flat, straight, unprotected part of the course going into Banks.

The plan was to run 7 miles north on the trail, turn around, and then stop at the car at 14. We'd then run 3 miles south so he could get a flavor of the more boring part of the trail, and then head back to hit 20.

Everything went off without a hitch really. It was a beautiful day (sunny and a high of 65ish) and there was enough sun to keep us warm but enough shade from the trees to keep us refreshed. Only really challenging part of the first seven miles was near the Tophill Trailhead, since you had to run down 100 feet and then run right back up the hill after crossing the road. Not too bad though.

Got back to the car feeling pretty good. After a short break to drink and fuel up we headed out for the final six miles. After a nice mile south through the forest you hit the boring, exposed part of the trail. So that wasn't my favorite, but it did give Alejandro an idea of what to expect the final few miles of the marathon. So it served it's purpose. We turned around at 17 and I was still feeling pretty good. Didn't really start to hurt much until 18. I really wanted to be done then.

The final two miles weren't too bad though. Definitely the best twenty miler to date. It was still a challenge, but I was able to do it fairly easily. My legs hated me and hurt, but probably a little bit less than the time before. It just keeps getting a tad easier each time. It still isn't easy, but I actually kind of enjoy the challenge now. I can't believe I am almost looking forward to the twenty mile runs!

20.02 miles in 3:14:22, 9:43/mile.