onepinkfuzzy

Alright! I had done most of these trails, but had a few new miles to connect what I had done. Very fun. Beautiful weather, great company in Ross and Pam. This was to be a scouting run for the 50k to be run next week on these trails (which is too advanced for my fitness level, so Johnny will do it, while Ash and I pitch in at the one aid station). Turns out that someone had been through recently and flagged, cairned and cleared the trail! No hard work on the run. Ross had fun taking lots of pictures and playing with new gadgets. There were comforting grasslands, oaks large and small (burned and alive), cactus, fun on the Sabino road. I had a blast running the last 1.75 miles from Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Area to Molino campground on a great ridge. Sped up for the last .25 mile, too fun. Felt like with a rest and some more substantial food, I could run an additional 5 to 7 miles, which is a good thing. My tummy was feeling a little strange, and I left the watch at home, which meant that I had no way to make sure I ate a gel every 45 minutes. It was a weird for me, fuel-wise. I just listened to my body (gee, what a concept!) and that worked well. We stopped a lot (for the above-mentioned photos), so we didn't set any speed records; we did it in about 5 hours. Ross said he thought it was 13.5 miles, but one of his gadgets said it was actually 14.5 miles - so the total mileage is still up in the air. Was great training for an ultramarathon - keeping me on my feet and moving for that long - other than hikes I've done, that's the longest I've been out and keeping myself moving.