Sunday, February 03, 2008

Our Mud Run in Black Star Canyon

“One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We've been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain and big old fat rain, rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.”(Forest Gump)

We ran 16 miles in the Black Star Canyon today. It was muddy, it was slippery, it was freaking cold – especially after we went above 2500ft elevation mark. Did I mention that it was also raining like hell? When we got wet last Monday I thought it was it. I realized today that it was not. We were running for 3 hours through the rain that never stopped. I got wet through my supposed-to-be weather-proof running jacket and 2 long-sleeve shirts. My shorts, socks and shoes were completely soaked. I ended up running through puddles not worrying about getting wet anymore – I just was not physically capable to get any wetter than I got there.

We started up our run from the Black Star Canyon gate at around 6:45 with Jeff, Linda, Oline, and one other Linda's friend (I am horrible about the names – never remember them). Around mile 5 into the run (mile 5.28, 5.29, 5.30, 5.31 to be exact – Linda knows what I am talking about) we parted. Jeff and I continued our up-hill battle against mud and rain, while the rest of the group turned around and went back.

At the end of mile 8 we stopped and looked around. We did not really reach the top of the mountain – we probably missed a turn or something. We stopped there for a quick snack and immediately froze to our very bones under the wind and rain. All I could think about was an aid station where I could DNF from this “race” and get a lift to my car.

By the way, I noticed my hill repeats are yielding some positive results – running uphill is less of a torture for me now. We ran all of these 8 miles uphill and never switched to walk.

On our way back Jeff gave me a 40-minute lecture about different types of sweat, sweat cells, sweat ingredients and the reasons why sweat turns into a soapy foam under the rain :) You can see that foam on Jeff’s knees in the pictures below. And my knees did not look any better. I know it is kinda gross to go into details about this stuff, but I have never seen this “foam” before as I never ran this far in the rain.

By the end of our run we both felt pretty strong and picked up the pace. We ran the last mile at around 8 minutes/mile pace, and even sprinted last hundred yards or so when we finally saw the gate :)

This is not a moon, but a rain drop in the light of my camera flash:

Our pit stop at mile 8:

A picture of Jeff's foamy knees at mile 10:

Mile 16.3 - wet but extremely happy we finally got back to the parking lot:



This is how dirty we were:


Keira, Lambert, we are so sorry you could not join us today. Yup, it was wet and muddy but a lot of fun at the same time… And you missed all Jeff’s foam too :)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

dimitri, that was some of the best fun i've had trail running. yeah, it got ugly up at the top with the wind, but it was worth it. man, i have never laughed that hard...your "it's contagious!" comment had me laughing hard again when i re-told it to smsmh.

like i said during the run:

"exhaustion is the shortest way to equality and fraternity. " - nietzsche

Dmitri said...

Jeff, in my experience, exhaustion is the second shortest way to it. The first one is definitely when you see something strange is going on with your buddy to the point when you start contemplating about some wacky stuff (like what if Jeff is really an alien and can pee from his knee), and all of sudden you see the same thing happening to you too. What did you say about alien fraternity? Can we really be from the same planet? :)))