Wednesday, July 01, 2015

BANKS VERNONIA SIXTEEN

Two weeks ago I had a really great sixteen mile run with the Portland Marathon Clinic. I believe I described it as "freakishly good" and it was kind of hard to believe I was able to do sixteen so easily when I hadn't run over 13.1 in months. Well, I guess I kind of got the opposite end of that feeling this last weekend when I ran sixteen with Alejandro at the Banks Vernonia Trail.

The week prior I ran Balk Peak on Sunday and didn't run again until PRC on Wednesday. I then ran Thursday at the Discovery Run in Tualatin and then again Friday at home. Saturday was a rest day but I didn't get much rest as I was swimming with Brandon and his family all day. That seemed to really tire my legs out, because when I went to run on Sunday I did not feel fresh at all. That was the first sign this run might not be the greatest.

We parked at the Buxton Trailhead and then went four miles south and back to the car. After those first eight miles I was already feeling very tired. If I wasn't with someone else I might have quit or adjusted my miles down to twelve or something. My legs just did not feel good and it was much harder than it should have been. However, after a quick stop at the car in which I downed an entire Gatorade and ate some Oreos I recharged enough to do the final eight miles.

Due to the way the trail is, miles 5-12 were mostly uphill. If you've ever been to the Banks Vernonia Trail it is all subtle uphill... so you can kind of see it but it doesn't look all that bad. It's kind of a mind fuck because you feel way more tired than it looks like you should be. All those gradual uphill miles add up though. By the time I hit the turnaround at mile twelve I was nearly done. I don't think I could have done another mile in that direction.

Luckily, that meant that the final four miles were all downhill. And all of a sudden I felt much better about myself. Alejandro and I picked up that pace too, which made it a little harder than it should have been, but I think we were both eager to just get done. Overall those four miles weren't bad, physically I could do it, I was just getting bored mentally and ready to be done. Oh, and my feet hurt. That probably was the biggest thing. My poor footsies.

Overall: 16.00 miles in 2:31:41. 9:29/mile.

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