I participated in a fun excursion this morning -- 20* miles through a closed watershed area nearby in Crystal Springs Reservoir. A running friend, George Miller, invited me although he ended up not being able to go. I was worried for myself because my daughter Claire woke up last night saying her ear hurt plus I was sick with some kind of virus; I felt "achey" and fatigued. But still, I couldn't pass up this opportunity if I could help it. There were some amazing runners there and I wanted to meet them and it's always fun to run in a new area. So, at 8:08am this morning, in the light rain and heavy fog, we took off and had a successful journey. Suki Martin led the way. She's an ultra marathon runner who has completed many 100 mile, 50 mile, and 50km races. Her fastest marathon time was just 3 years ago at 3 hours 28 minutes. Nice! I spoke extensively with Greg Ausley, an ironman triathlon runner about the pros and cons of the Garmin GPS watch versus the Polar watch -- Garmin wins for ease of use and accuracy. He did lose satellite coverage twice during our run, but only for 20 seconds each time. Anyway, the 13 of us had a good run although one of us had to turn back quite early; he hadn't recovered from a past injury as well he thought he had. A big thanks again to Suki for being our guide and for providing the water and chocolate goodies at the half-way point.
Anyway, here are a few foggy pictures:
*20 miles was the posted length, but Greg with the GPS watch says that the first mile marker was much less than one mile from where we started. Our overall distance may have been around 19.2 or so. It took us 3 hours 49 minutes -- a very liesurely pace.
