There's No "O" in Bruiser

Pathfinder may be doing O Trail repeats; I'm doing O Trail deletes! Linda, Bethany, and I headed to Bradbury yesterday for some work on the Bruiser. I planned to run the entire course; they were looking for something over six miles. Linda had been in touch with a guy (David) camping at Bradbury who'd run the Breaker and was interested in running the Bruiser course while there. The plan was he'd run with me. This seemed pretty sensible since he'd beaten my time by like 5 seconds at the Breaker (OK, it was his first trail race ever).

When we got to the parking lot, David was just about to head out without us; we were late (can't skip Dunkin' Donuts on the way there no matter what the time). Quick introductions, runs to the outhouse and we were off. Being familiar with the course, I took the lead. Even though our times were nearly the same at the race, David is 28 and fit; I wanted to make sure I our pace was decent.

I hope he enjoyed the run as much as I did. Since he was new to trail running (not all that un-new to running altogether), we had lots to talk about. I was not really prepared for the humidity. I only brought 16 oz of Gatorade. David was even less prepared; he had about the same quantity, but it was just water AND he'd not eaten much at all. He hasn't found much in the way of running fuel that doesn't seem to bother his stomach. He's gonna have to work on that. He even gave me his GU. He only carries it for emergencies (like getting lost and needing food) because his stomach doesn't like that even while running. Nearly eight miles in, he was feeling pretty bad - a bit of nausea and lightheadedness. Wisely, he decided he would head back. Fortunately, we weren't far from the Link trail (off of Fox West) and I could point the way back for him.

Now I was alone and out of fluids myself, but still feeling pretty good. Chris's Garmin was not capturing the satellites well so I don't have the data, but I know we'd been running right along. When I stopped for a pee break, I couldn't believe how sweaty I was; the shorts were very difficult to get down and up. As I made my way up Knights Woods, I was convincing myself that I should skip the O Trail. It didn't take much; I really wanted liquids and I knew Linda and Beth would be waiting quite a while for me if I chose to run it.

Back at the car, I immediately downed another Gatorade. I called Linda; she and Beth were on the Link heading back. I ran out to meet them. They were pretty finished. Wow! None of us took the weather very seriously. Back in the parking lot, they marveled at my sweatiness. It looked like I'd just gotten out of a pool. I headed to the outhouse to change. I don't think I've ever left a puddle like that before (of sweat, guys). Yikes.

On the ride home, Linda's legs started doing the same cramping that she experienced during the Breaker : ( We all needed more fuel that run.