Time: 29 minutes (a.m.) and 55 minutes (p.m.)
Distance: 2.6 miles (a.m.) and 6.1 miles (p.m.) - 8.7 miles total
Effort: Easy
Body: Fair
Weather: Cloudy and Cold
The dog test drive continues. This time we went off-road for a 2.6 mile jog up the Painters Pause Trail from the lower lot at Elk Meadow Open Space. At the top of the hill, we ran up to Meadow View and returned back down the Founders Trail.
The dog did great. I took her off-leash (shhhhhhh...) about 1/4 mile in. From then on, she stayed pretty close all the time, pausing repeatedly to soak in some new smells. As soon as she realized I was putting some distance on her, she'd come tearing up the trail, blow by me and rush up to the next interesting scent. It went like that the whole run. She had plenty of energy and no doubt would have gone longer, but we'll start easy and build from here.
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| Working her way up Painters Pause Trail. |
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| Running back toward me on Meadow View Trail. |
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| The fog froze overnight creating beautiful frost designs on the ponderosas. |
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| Home, James. |
Run #2 was mid-afternoon. I headed from the house up to Elk Meadow's upper lot and ran a couple miles up Stagecoach Road and returned the same way. Picked up 1K of vert on this one.
I think this was only the second time I've run a double (if a 2.6 mile run counts...). Kinda liked it. Kinda.
Lots of chatter today about the "Ultra Run of Champions." I'm not one pining for ultrarunning to go Big Time, so I'm not sure what to make of this. Still mulling it over. A few things about the race surprised me.
1. The location. I'm a little disappointed that the race is in the East (admittedly, I'm way biased - and I get that the altitude in VA will even things out...and Charlottesville is a great town).
2. Road running. 30 miles of the out-and-back 100K run is on roads - 25 miles on gravel roads and five miles on pavement - so it's about half roads and half trail (32 miles o' singletrack). Cool 3D course flyover here.
3. Timing. The race is on September 24th - just two weeks after the Wasatch 100, 29 days after UTMB and the same weekend as the Bear 100. I wonder why the race isn't in October.
It will be interesting to see who shows up and whether the winners' purse grows as more sponsors come on board. I imagine Roes will be able to pull in a number of the Big Guns. I do think it would be fun the run the race...and I'm sure a lot of people will.
It's too bad the word Fartlek isn't appealing to the ear. It would be a fitting name for him/her with the way she likes to run/smell/run/smell...
ReplyDeleteSeems like a lot of compromises with the UROC. But I guess you start somewhere. Definitely not what Roes penned as his vision a bit back ... It appears that they did not want to interfere with any of the big races for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat is one happy dog.
ReplyDeleteI kind of did a double-take regarding the race location. Time to wait and see.
The word "fartlek" really needs to be changed. I propose "tootlet" or "ripptee".
GZ - What I meant about the chosen dates is how close UROC is to major races...i.e. Wasatch and 29 days from UTMB (enough time for recovery?). October seems like it would have been better from a calendar standpoint, but maybe there are big races that month too?
ReplyDeleteLove the smile in every picture!
ReplyDeleteNo real comment on the UROC. It just doesn't feel right on the levels you pointed out. I think it's a shame they completely overlook the USATF 100k trail championship that was just held at Bandera. In my mind, Dave Mackey is the UR "trail" champion since he showed up and ran an incredible race.