Weekly Log 20-Jul to 24-Jul-2016: Beavers

NOTE:  Monday, July 18 and Tuesday, July 19 were bundled with previous week's Iceland post.

Wednesday:

16 miles.  Very easy pace.  First full day back in USA.

3 miles.  Westerly Fun Runs.  19:37.  Ugh; it's a lot hotter back home than in Iceland.

 Thursday:  
7 miles.  Woody Hill.  Enjoyable despite the deerflies.

Friday:  
 0.5 miles.  Ocean swim with Tom.  

3 miles.  Barefoot beach run.  (Why do I have three different fonts on this post?  I wish Blogger would give controls to easily change font size, or at least offer a paintbrush feature, instead of the hassle of having to go through HTML to fix.)


Saturday:  
13 miles.  Run for the Beavers.  Or is it Run with the Beavers?

I can't recall, but either way, it's clearly my worst performance this year, and in the top worst performances in my lifetime.  To be clear, all of this is on me (and perhaps Mother Nature), and none of this is on RD Bob Jackman.  The race was very well organized from registration to sign-up to announcements to very clear trail markings.  I just do very poorly at running in heat or high humidity, and on this day we had both, thank you very much.  Not sure if spending time in 30+ degree cooler weather in Iceland just a few days was a contributor, but I was a mess.

Went for a pleasant warm-up with Muddy, Jonny, Jonathan Short, and Matthew.  Hung back just a little at the start, but when I heard a 20-ish female breathing very hard just before the single-track entrance, I sped up to go around her.  Entered the trail just behind Leslie O'Dell, who I know to be a very strong trail runner.  The first lap was pretty good.  I spent the lap gradually passing people.  At two miles in, I looked back and saw teammate Seth just behind me, so that was encouraging.  By the end of lap 1, I was really feeling my oats (am I a horse?) and with form broken down, just before entering the field, I tripped and went down in the dirt.  That was the beginning of the end for me.  Leslie and another passed me.  I seriously considered a DNF, but for my foolish pride I continued on.

Lap 2 was just horrid.  Weak and feeling miserable, I had at least eight painful ankle rolls and tripped and fell at least five more times.  I was thinking "Is this misery almost over?", when I realized I hadn't even made it to the half-way water station yet!  Never so happy to see angels Faith and Beth, as I stopped for several minutes to quaff water, have a GU, all while Faith was kind enough to put ice on me.  Finally I moved on and the final two miles were just an embarrassing mix of stumbling and falling until I somehow deliriously reached the finish line, and then just fell to the ground.  Just awful.  I rolled away from the finish line, and had ice on my ankle and calf until I felt good enough to be able to limp to the car and vamoose.  

Congrats to the WTAC on the win, led by Matthew in 4th.  

Sunday:  0

Completely trashed after Beavers.  

Weekly Totals:
0.5 miles.   

16 miles.

37 miles. 

Weekly Synopsis:

Awesome start to the week in Iceland.  Went downhill in the heat and Beavers suffering.