Friday November 30, 2007

17 miles 2:23 Story Hills to Beacon Hill to Fish Hatchery to M and back on Highway/Story Mill (Puma Cortland II)
This run was kinda crazy. When I ran past the bank downtown, the sign said it was 3 degrees out at 7am, and by time I'd finished the run, it was...6 degrees. Yeah, nice and balmy. The Pumas were awesome on this run. They are beautifully low-profile but still have solid snow/ice-gripping lugs, too.

Anyways, I started out feeling awesome and cruised down to the nice Story Hills area. It's a shame that all of this is kept private land so that a few zillionaires can just erect mansions up there---hopefully more trails can be created in the future. I continued (illegally) on up to Beacon Hill and then descended cross-country (it felt like I was just floating through the deep powder on the northern slope) down to the Fish Hatchery by the M Trailhead parking lot. Running the 15 minutes up to the college M was totally worth the majestic scenery of Bozeman in the valley and the Spanish Peaks, Bitter Root (or is it Tobacco Root) Range, and the Gallatin Group off to the west and south.

After cruising back down to the highway my legs were starting to feel a little wobbly, but I figured, hey, it's all downhill back to town. By time I arrived back at the Story Mill Spur trail (about 3 miles from home) though, I was complete toast. I'd been running for about 2:10, but I wasn't experiencing the typical dead-legs, grunt-groan sensations. Instead, my vision was swimming, I was seeing colors, my entire body was weak, and I was having a hard time even staying on my feet. All I wanted to do was just sit down in the snow. So, I did.

Then, I got up and started walking, which was barely better than running. Once I made it into town I tried to thumb a ride, but to no avail. Finally, about a mile and a half from home I started feeling a tiny bit better and broke into a stumbling jog the rest of the way back to my house. After a huge mug of tea and a little food I was feeling back to normal, but I'm still not sure what happened---lack of calories? That seems the most likely culprit, but man, was that rough.

All in all, though, this run was HUGE. I'm a runner again, and it's great. My ankle/foot was barely sore for the run and is still fine this evening--very positive progress. From here on out, it will be more a matter of me being smart and not ramping up the training too quickly in preparation for Rocky Raccoon. But, now I feel strongly that I can go into that race in top condition. Let's hope so.