Gorgeous Gorge

I am really sleep deprived:)
I decided to do my long run at the Columbia river Gorge today, alone. I needed some sorting out to do and just be with myself. I got up, yet again, at 4 in the morning and milled around the house for quite some time. I didn’t really need to wake up at that time, but it just been happening. I always try to do my runs before the family is up, but for the long run it’s not really possible - and I am not Dean Karnases to run 3 to 6 am on local roads. The light doesn’t come till 6:30 and I have anywhere between 30 min to an hour to drive to trails - they are not next to my door steps. I got to trailhead exactly at this time. But I almost dosed off at the steering wheel and decided to close my eyes for a few minutes. When I opened them up - it was 7 am. I physically pushed myself out the door and started up.

Any Gorge run begins with steep hike, something that would have around 800 feet per mile, and will last at least a couple of miles. I power-hiked with short bursts of jogs for an hour, contemplating to shorten the loop. But by 8 am, as I reached the first peak 2400 feet, the sun colored in golden shades everything around, and it was beautiful! There was never a day that Gorge wasn’t breath-taking. I started to feel better, though my legs felt heavy after yesterday’s 15 miles - and 10 morning miles included 5x1200m intervals. The views are simply unbelievable! I took the connecting rarely-traveled path from Devil’s rest to Angel’s rest and ran. At the intersection who do I see but Ronda, Stacey, Steve and two Mikes - local bouquet of ultrarunners! They were set on pretty much the same loop but in opposite direction. We chatted for a couple of minutes as they asked me how are my hip injuries doing, and Mike pointed out that having too much hips is my problem:) Hello, I know that, not like I can do anything about it! We bid adieu and went our ways. I ran down to Bridal trailhead, turned around and went back to 1600 feet. This was the trail I intended to try and run some (2.2M) to simulate Rucky Chucky conditions, that goes down first and then uphill all the last third. I probably managed to run only 30%, but hiked fast enough. From there I took another connecting trail to Wakheena falls (I planed my route with as little repeat as possible), and on it my legs went pretty much dead. But I pushed, knowing I only had left less than 6 miles, and 3 of them were downhill. From the bottom it was a short daunt to Multnomah falls where my car was parked. The whole run took less time then I expected and needed (3:20 vs 4 hrs), but I wasn’t about to turn around and add on. I wanted to come home and spend this gorgeous day with my family. All in all the run had at least 5,000 feet of elevation gain and I believe just under 18 miles (or close to it).

I wasn’t too tight. When I saw Lisa’s schedule for this week, I thought she wants to kill me:) But the week is almost over with one more 2 hrs run tomorrow, and I am OK, surviving. I ahd never been so religious on my rehab, but these days I use The Stick every night on my shins and hamstrings, foam roll on my hip joints and baseball to sit on with my butt. I also saw John on Friday for some Graston torture. I hope it’s paying off.

I don’t know if any of you subscribe to Marathon & Beyond magazine, but it has a few nice articles in latest issue. One was on race tactics, how to plan intelligently, don’t get sucked in to a negative thinking and run the plan. Of course, Dr. Sheehan book. And another is on Patti Dillon, one of my favorite characters in female marathon history. I can relate to many of her stories (none of her incredible times and wins though!). She’s got great advice at the end. I figured I’d include it here.
-when you find something in life that stirs your passion, don’t let it get away.
-when it starts to hurt, run harder (it applies to life - work harder)
-don’t be afraid of the unknown - most times it turns out to be not worth anxiety
-don’t put burden of creating your happiness on someone else
-train with people who are faster
-dream big, but don’t get discouraged if it takes a lot of little steps to reach your dream

With all that - enjoy your weekend!