I strapped it on and headed down a dark dirt path with just my little beam of light and three gallons of water. I could hear the lake sloshing up against the shore just ahead of me. I looked down at my watch and it was only 5:30am and still around 83 degrees.
I walked maybe 50-60 yards and found a good spot just 10-15 feet off the trail to leave the water. As soon as I dropped off the water I all the sudden heard this buzzing in my ear and could feel something all over my legs. I looked down with my headlamp to see 20+ mesquitos having a hay-day on my legs!
I held on to my headlamp and ran straight back to the car without my flip flops flying off and quickly slammed the door shut. I glanced at my watch again. It was only 5:32am. Time to head to the next water drop.
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This past weekend I finally got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do for awhile. I've been spending quite a while scouting out different trails around Lake Grapevine. Many of the trails I found were equestrian trails, but still more than enough for running.
I had finally mapped a route starting from the most northern point on the lake all the way to the southern most point of the lake via trail. The only road sections totaled maybe 2 miles. I wrote a quick email to a few ultra running friends and just like that a run was organized to hit up the new route I had discovered.
This past Sunday we were to meet up at 6:30 for (what I predicted to be) a 25-28 mile run. The plan was for me to head out pretty early and drop off 3 gallons of water every 8 or so miles, so that morning I got out there and dropped off a gallon of water for each of us every 7-8 miles along with some random nutritional type stuff.
I met up with the guys and we jumped in one of their cars up to the starting point. Finally around 7:20 we were on the trail and heading south.
The run was just beautiful and the company was just as good. We took it super easy just chatted it up. Everything from what 100s we wanted to do to religion and nutrition. Unfortunately the run ended up only being around 25-26.5 miles. I'm not 100% sure, cause I was using my phones GPS to map the route and it died on the last 2 miles or so. On the upside I did get the entire run from the north point to the south point mapped. The phone didn't die till we reached the rockledge park.
I can't thank the guys I ran with enough for going out there. They put a lot of trust in me to actually put water out there in the middle of a Texas summer and to not run them into the middle of nowhere. If anyone else is interested in trying this let me know! I'm totally up for it again anytime. I'm doing all of this in hopes of coordinating a 100K run around the lake, so now that I've done the northside I'm working on mapping the south side of the lake. Details to come soon!
In other news, I REGISTERED for the Arkansas Traveller 100 tonight!! I can't believe I finally pulled the trigger, but the entry fee was about to go up, so I just went for it. This time last year I was experiencing some mild injuries, but this year all is good so far!
In terms of my running this year I've really hit a good groove. I've been ticking off the miles every week and am really seeing a good jump in my basic endurance. So far this year I've logged a total of 890 miles which averages out to 4.88 miles a day. Last year I logged a total of 1270 miles, so I'm definitely on track to knock that out barring any injuries. Tomorrow is the halfway point for the year, so if I can maintain my mileage I'm looking at breaking at least 1,800 miles.
Alright, that's about all I've got. Now go run!
_Jacob_
Outstanding!
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