Peaks 50 - Before Bloodroot

We were talking away heading out of the Abba aid station (dubbed so because of their penchant for blasting Abba tunes, though we did hear some Barry Manilow at one stop...I know!  Not my idea of aid, but other than that, they did a bang up job).  We had 13ish miles under our belt and felt pretty damn good.  Look at that stream, bet there's lots of trout.  Pete would love that.  He's so good at spotting the trout.  Look at where we get to run...yadda, yadda.  And then we see Ian and Zak again!  We got pumped all over again.  There id a slight little melancholy when we realized that would be the last of our sightings.  I looked at my Garmin to remember that it was at 13.8 that we saw them.

Feeling the TM energy

Very soon there after, the gradual up of the dirt road became a trail going more steeply up.  Oh, look.  We are gaining on Sloshy Guy and Girlfriend.  Did I forget to mention I made another pit stop where they had evidently gone by?  Sloshy Guy was really just Amazingly Noisy Guy.  I realized he didn't just slosh, but also rattled.  I noticed one of his pockets of his hydration pack had what looked to be marbles in it.  I really wanted to ask what the hell he was carrying, but I'm sure I annoy other people in ways I don't have a clue about.  Still, his marbles were gonna make me lose mine!  This was where we first started to get into real mud.  I was kind of expecting mud because of the inches of rain the week before, but had been fooled into thinking the course was dry.  Evidently the course had been much dryer last year; the Sloshies had run it then.  Of course the 50 had been separate from the other Ultras and held in June last year.  Ms Sloshy seemed not to enjoy mud so we picked her off.  It took slightly longer to pass Mr. Sloshy, but he regaled us with a marvelous rendition of "Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud" as we passed and added distance.   Really, they were a fine couple.  They were ultra runners from Toronto.  He owned a Portuguese Water Dog who picked out his gaitors.  All things I would normally approve of except for his noise issues.  That was the last we would see of them.

So, now there would be mud. Again, this was really just a hint of what was to come on the Bloodroot Loop.  We had another pretty impressive climb here and one small stretch where you actually had to pay attention to know just where the trail went.  Fun!  When the down hill started, I had to pull off and pee again.  I mentioned to Mindy that was 3 for me 0 for her.  Was she remembering to hydrate?  I think the answer was yes.  And, to be perfectly frank, those stats are probably pretty normal for our runs.

Yes!  Back to the dirt road.  Now it'd be slightly down all the way to Abba.  We were greeted by hi-fives and offers of beer and queries as to what we needed.  Thanks, but our crew was ready with all we needed.

18.75 down!

So, what do we need?  I think Mindy changed socks and shoes.  I changed a sock.  It had so much mud inside that I had probably 1/8 in. thick build up on the ball of my right foot.  I stuck with the Inov8 295s.  Pete questioned Mindy as to her fluid intake.  I tattled.  Emma noticed how little was gone from the Nathan Pack's bladder.  Remember to drink at least a few sips after every mile.  Rick gave me a pbj, tied my shoes, and applied sunscreen.  Food?  I think I had a pbj.  That was about all I'd eaten beside a granola bar earlier.  Oh!  And some sea-salted dark chocolate covered almonds.  I decided I didn't really like either of them during events.  I think they required too much to wash them down.  What did Mindy have?  Guess we'll have to cross check her account :)  We learned that Chuck dropped.  I don't know if it was the beer that enticed him or Alison's offer of a ride.  Actually, I guess he hadn't planned on the entire run and it was a convenient time to end.  I mentioned that a beer sounded good.  Emma said she had one for me.  Um, nah.  She offered again.  This time I said, yes, but for the next time we came through (approx. 19 miles later...or so we were told.  Distances were not what they were advertised as).

The guys gave us a good send off and we headed off into the meat of the course.  It was all we expected and much, much, much more.