Peaks 50 - Bloodroot Pre-Jurasic Park

I forgot to mention that I allowed Rick to spray me with bug repellent.  I specifically bought scentless cause, not only do I not like bug repellent, I'm super smell sensitive.  Our little taste of what the black flies were going to be made me relent.

We were in good spirits heading out.  It was a little disconcerting that we seemed to head steadily down for a good bit (looking at the garmin, it was actually about 1/2 mile down).  We knew that the climbs were to come and all that down meant that much more up.  I think I complained a bit about the scent of the scentless bug repellent.  Yeah, I'd forget about that quick enough when the climb started, but right then it was annoying.  Mindy had her cheat sheet of with inspirational quotes for us on one side and the supposed elevation profile with (hah!) the locations of the aid stations.  We pretty much knew the aid station locations couldn't be trusted.  The location of the climbs couldn't be trusted.  That there were hellaciously steep hills, um, yeah, confirmed.  The first climb seemed pretty steep and long, but. when it ended, we came to the longest, and steepest.  Holy. Holy. Holy shit!  Walking, my heart rate was probably uncountable.  When we had to stop for a sec, I waited for a rock cropping or something like it to have a place to stand without feeling like I was going to fall down the mountain.  Then came the down; Shit. Shit. Shit.  So steep that I couldn't run???  It was hard to stay in control.  At the end of the very steepest down, Mindy's stomach felt unsettled.  She wondered if it was the jostling of the down.  I know my abs started hurting.  They were being called into use more than on any previous run.

Somewhere in there, I'm not sure where, Mindy said she wasn't feeling it or something to that effect.  Maybe she was struggling.  I didn't mean to discount it, but I told her that she was fine.  That's what you do.  You have a tough stretch in the middle somewhere and then you just keep getting stronger.  We've run so much, that I was sure of it.  I hope that she was able to say, "I just get stronger", not, "she totally just blew my situation off."  I do know that she really did take Emma's instruction to heart; she was drinking frequently.  When we got to the couple jugs of water just stashed somewhere in the woods (yeah, that's an aid station), I was surprised that she was lower on fluids than me.  We wondered how much we should allow ourselves to take.  How many people were behind us?  How much was our fair share? 

I'm not sure where in all this that the mud started.  It seems like every time there was runnable ground, the mud said, "No!"  It was widespread, deep, and wanted to suck off shoes.  There was another problem; when one wasn't running, whether it be from uphill, downhill, or mud, the black flies were flying directly into your eyes, ears, nose and mouth.  Or just biting.  So, I had a scent AND I had bugs.  It was hard to get them out of your eye and keep moving, but keeping moving was what we did.  It might not have been fast, but we moved.

It was in a long stretch of mud that we came up on a pair of runners.  They really tried to ignore us.  I think they were very into paying attention to each other.  Each time I thought we were going to overtake them, they'd run a bit to stay ahead.  Finally, the mud gave way to another hill and we passed them.  That was the last we'd see them.

It wasn't the last runner we'd overtake.  We came across Superman.  He had on compression shorts with what looked like a Superman boxer brief (I just googled men's underwear to see what they called that style (cut?)).  We passed him and, I thought, put some distance between us.  Then we were joined by Superman again.  I was slightly ahead.  He was closer to the Squirrel.  He was definitely struggling, but stayed with us for a while.  I don't remember if it was a hill that finally put some distance between us, but Mindy just about rejoiced.  She said he grunting and groaning was really getting to her.

We came to the (what was supposed to be)31 mile aid station.  The guys were great.  They offered so many things.  I took some coke.  Mindy discovered the Oreos and declaired them brilliant.  She convinced me to try them.  First I had to squeeze some filling out of them.  I'm not a double-stuffed fan.  In fact, I don't usually take PBJs from aid stations cause they fill them too much.  Shit.  I'm fussy.  Mindy didn't have any Nuun tablets.  I offered mine.  I only had Cola-flavored (I'm quite found of the flat, salty cola taste).  Mindy's not a fan, but decided the electrolytes were more important than the flavor (later, just before returning to Abba) she'd ask if I'd be insulted if she dumped it.  They asked if we wanted PBJ, but we wanted to get going.  They offered one in a baggy.  Mindy took them up on it.  Hmmmm....Maybe this was where my stomach initially started having issues. Just before we pulled out, Superman came in.  Turns out his wife and kid were waiting.  She asked how he was feeling (doing?).  The response was, "terrible".  I felt bad for him, but it was kind of ironic that he had declared himself Superman.  We were glad to get a good jump on him.

We kept wondering about hitting "Jurasic Park".  The Dude (aka race director Andy) had promised a stretch that would make us think we were in J.P.  There'd be boulders as big as barns, huge flying creatures sweeping through, and flora that just said Jurasic Park. 

OK, done for the night.