Week 14 Summary: Purple Peep Eater Run
Scheduled: 36-37 miles
Ran: 40.5 miles
Cross training:
Rock climbing
5 push-ups (shoulder is still recovering)
20 crunches (gradually getting back into it)
Long run notes:
The Purple Peep Eater Run
We spent Easter weekend on the west side of Michigan visiting Jennifer's grandparents and extended family. I needed to get a long run in (14 miles) as part of my marathon training. I had considered doing part of the Hart-Montague trail (a former railroad bed), but then got the idea to see how far it was to run from Jennifer's grandparents' place in Pentwater down to her grandfather's place almost due south, west of Shelby. Using Google Earth I came up with a route that was approximately 15 miles long, certainly within reason of the 14 miles on my schedule. On our way to Jennifer's grandparents' place Friday night, we decided to do a sanity check of the route starting from the end. I'm glad we did. A number of the roads along the route didn't even exist! Since it was late and Kaija had woken up we decided to abandon the route check and take the expressway to Pentwater. When we got there, we consulted with Jennifer's mom to see if she knew a good route since she had grown up in the area but even she was not able to tell us for sure which roads were actually there.
I stayed up until about 1:30 AM looking at web sites with satellite photography and topo maps to determine whether two sections of the route actually had roads where the various online map services and Google Earth showed roads. I was able to determine that some sort of paths existed in places that weren't too out of the way. Whether they were drivable or not was another question, but I figured they would not be a problem to run. The route's length was approximately 15.36 miles... still within reason.
Saturday morning I woke up around 7:30 AM. I got dressed for the run, ate breakfast (two eggs, bagel, water), checked the weather and stretched.
Attire: Yellow Supernova Classic shoes, Superfeet custom insoles, Brooks running socks, Hanes cotton boxer briefs, Nike running shorts, TNT synth t-shirt, Bandaids, green GoLite wind shirt, blue bandana, fanny pack.
Weather: ~47-55 F, sunny, almost no wind.
I made 2 photocopies of a county map and highlighted my route, marking which sections were likely not drivable by car and an alternative route for cars for those sections. I carried a copy with me and left one with Jennifer.
Jennifer was able to find a fanny pack and compass at her grandparents' place. In the fanny pack I carried a 16 oz. Nalgene bottle full of water, a package of purple Peeps in a resealable bag to replenish my sugar supply along the way (I've used the GU or PowerGels handed out at the group events previously but didn't have any of that on hand for this run), the compass and my cell phone. I also carried my driver's license, a credit card and $20 cash in case I needed to buy anything (like water) from a grocery/convenience store along the way. I carried my iPod in my hand.
After a fruitless search for my misplaced sunglasses (which I found later that day), I was on the road by 9:25 AM.
My route took me from Jennifer's grandparents' neighborhood to an unmarked seasonal road (60th Ave) almost immediately. It was a 2.75 mile stretch through the Pere Marquette State Forest. I had run/hiked along Pentwater Pathway trails to the west of the seasonal road in previous years so I was somewhat familiar with the area. Within the first mile of the seasonal road I came across a blockade in the road. Several large piles of dirt had been dug out (with resulting deep pits behind them). POSTED (No Trespassing) signs were nailed to several trees. Apparently that section of the state forest were actually private property. There was a sign to the west indicating public hunting access. So I went that way a little bit but then started going cross country along what appeared to be the boundary of the private property (from the POSTED signs). After a minute or two I could see one of the trails a few hundred feet to the west. I figured that as long as I was running south it was going to be easier to run along the trail than through the underbrush so I started running along the trail. I took it as far south as it went before crossing the seasonal road again (fortunately there were trail maps at a few junctures along the way so I knew where to go). I was able to take 60th Ave the rest of the way without a problem.
After 60th Ave, much of the route was paved. I called Jennifer from my cell phone at the 1 hour mark just to let her know I was okay. The route took me through farm country, the little town of Mears ("Gateway to the Dunes"), along a short section of the Hart-Montague trail (note to self: and a nearby bike rental shop), and then to a number of dense pine tree lined dirt roads. I stopped and walked for a minute once or twice to refuel with a Peep and a drink of water.
Along the way I saw a number of people outside taking advantage of the beautiful weather to do yard work. I would wave as I would run by and most would wave back. As I passed them and cars drove past me, I wondered how common it was for people to run along the road for recreation in the area. Probably not very.
When I reached the second seasonal road of the route, I was definitely in farm country. The "road" ran along the side of a farmer's orchard which the farmer himself was driving a tractor through as I ran by. After I passed the orchard, the "road" started going through a wooded area. The smaller trees along the side of the road had not been trimmed in quite some time and would have made traveling by vehicle difficult. Soon the road all but disappeared. It seemed to fork in several directions, none being very distinct other than for the lack of trees. I was able to determine which direction was south, though, due to the eastern morning sun, so I continued to forge ahead. The path I was on climbed a hill and soon became a gully near the top. I scrambled up the embankment and found the paved section of the road. As if I wasn't tired enough from the climb up the hill, there was another long uphill portion along the paved section as well. I was quite tired by this point and had to walk for the last 80-100 ft or so of the hill.
The rest of the run was fairly uneventful. I did pass a section along the top of the hill that had a beautiful view of the rolling countryside to the north. Jennifer and Kaija were able to track me down in our car about two miles from the end. Shortly after, I ate my last Peeps, finished off my water and made the push to the end.
It took 2 hours, 43 minutes to reach Jennifer's grandfather's house. The route was probably about 15.5 miles after the few detours that I had to make. That's about a 10:30 min/mile pace... a bit slower than I had anticipated. It was likely a combination of running on my own (not having another person to help maintain a faster pace), the relatively substantial elevation changes that I am not used to, and having only gotten about 5 1/2 hours of sleep the night before.
One thing I hadn't anticipated was the amount of sun I was going to be exposed to. All of my longer runs so far have been under overcast winter skies. I have run on sunny days before, but not long enough to be of concern. I had not put any sunblock on for this run, so by the end of it, I had a nice line across my forehead where the bandana had been. It was more noticable on my left side since the sun had primarily been to the east as I was running south the whole morning. I hope I will not need to wear sunblock on many future long runs. Sunblock and sweat dripping into my eyes for several hours does not sound like a good time to me.
Another thing that surprised me was my vision did not get as blurry near the end as it has for the past two long runs. I'm not sure what to attribute that to.
I didn't have any major pains throughout the run, though the inside surface of the large toe on my right foot developed a hotspot. It wasn't enough to become a blister, though it is sore. I have a feeling I will develop a callous there in the next few weeks. My knees were sore later, too, but that has been happening for the past few long runs and usually goes away after a day or so.
Ran: 40.5 miles
Cross training:
Rock climbing
5 push-ups (shoulder is still recovering)
20 crunches (gradually getting back into it)
Long run notes:
The Purple Peep Eater Run
We spent Easter weekend on the west side of Michigan visiting Jennifer's grandparents and extended family. I needed to get a long run in (14 miles) as part of my marathon training. I had considered doing part of the Hart-Montague trail (a former railroad bed), but then got the idea to see how far it was to run from Jennifer's grandparents' place in Pentwater down to her grandfather's place almost due south, west of Shelby. Using Google Earth I came up with a route that was approximately 15 miles long, certainly within reason of the 14 miles on my schedule. On our way to Jennifer's grandparents' place Friday night, we decided to do a sanity check of the route starting from the end. I'm glad we did. A number of the roads along the route didn't even exist! Since it was late and Kaija had woken up we decided to abandon the route check and take the expressway to Pentwater. When we got there, we consulted with Jennifer's mom to see if she knew a good route since she had grown up in the area but even she was not able to tell us for sure which roads were actually there.
I stayed up until about 1:30 AM looking at web sites with satellite photography and topo maps to determine whether two sections of the route actually had roads where the various online map services and Google Earth showed roads. I was able to determine that some sort of paths existed in places that weren't too out of the way. Whether they were drivable or not was another question, but I figured they would not be a problem to run. The route's length was approximately 15.36 miles... still within reason.
Saturday morning I woke up around 7:30 AM. I got dressed for the run, ate breakfast (two eggs, bagel, water), checked the weather and stretched.
Attire: Yellow Supernova Classic shoes, Superfeet custom insoles, Brooks running socks, Hanes cotton boxer briefs, Nike running shorts, TNT synth t-shirt, Bandaids, green GoLite wind shirt, blue bandana, fanny pack.
Weather: ~47-55 F, sunny, almost no wind.
I made 2 photocopies of a county map and highlighted my route, marking which sections were likely not drivable by car and an alternative route for cars for those sections. I carried a copy with me and left one with Jennifer.
Jennifer was able to find a fanny pack and compass at her grandparents' place. In the fanny pack I carried a 16 oz. Nalgene bottle full of water, a package of purple Peeps in a resealable bag to replenish my sugar supply along the way (I've used the GU or PowerGels handed out at the group events previously but didn't have any of that on hand for this run), the compass and my cell phone. I also carried my driver's license, a credit card and $20 cash in case I needed to buy anything (like water) from a grocery/convenience store along the way. I carried my iPod in my hand.
After a fruitless search for my misplaced sunglasses (which I found later that day), I was on the road by 9:25 AM.
My route took me from Jennifer's grandparents' neighborhood to an unmarked seasonal road (60th Ave) almost immediately. It was a 2.75 mile stretch through the Pere Marquette State Forest. I had run/hiked along Pentwater Pathway trails to the west of the seasonal road in previous years so I was somewhat familiar with the area. Within the first mile of the seasonal road I came across a blockade in the road. Several large piles of dirt had been dug out (with resulting deep pits behind them). POSTED (No Trespassing) signs were nailed to several trees. Apparently that section of the state forest were actually private property. There was a sign to the west indicating public hunting access. So I went that way a little bit but then started going cross country along what appeared to be the boundary of the private property (from the POSTED signs). After a minute or two I could see one of the trails a few hundred feet to the west. I figured that as long as I was running south it was going to be easier to run along the trail than through the underbrush so I started running along the trail. I took it as far south as it went before crossing the seasonal road again (fortunately there were trail maps at a few junctures along the way so I knew where to go). I was able to take 60th Ave the rest of the way without a problem.
After 60th Ave, much of the route was paved. I called Jennifer from my cell phone at the 1 hour mark just to let her know I was okay. The route took me through farm country, the little town of Mears ("Gateway to the Dunes"), along a short section of the Hart-Montague trail (note to self: and a nearby bike rental shop), and then to a number of dense pine tree lined dirt roads. I stopped and walked for a minute once or twice to refuel with a Peep and a drink of water.
Along the way I saw a number of people outside taking advantage of the beautiful weather to do yard work. I would wave as I would run by and most would wave back. As I passed them and cars drove past me, I wondered how common it was for people to run along the road for recreation in the area. Probably not very.
When I reached the second seasonal road of the route, I was definitely in farm country. The "road" ran along the side of a farmer's orchard which the farmer himself was driving a tractor through as I ran by. After I passed the orchard, the "road" started going through a wooded area. The smaller trees along the side of the road had not been trimmed in quite some time and would have made traveling by vehicle difficult. Soon the road all but disappeared. It seemed to fork in several directions, none being very distinct other than for the lack of trees. I was able to determine which direction was south, though, due to the eastern morning sun, so I continued to forge ahead. The path I was on climbed a hill and soon became a gully near the top. I scrambled up the embankment and found the paved section of the road. As if I wasn't tired enough from the climb up the hill, there was another long uphill portion along the paved section as well. I was quite tired by this point and had to walk for the last 80-100 ft or so of the hill.
The rest of the run was fairly uneventful. I did pass a section along the top of the hill that had a beautiful view of the rolling countryside to the north. Jennifer and Kaija were able to track me down in our car about two miles from the end. Shortly after, I ate my last Peeps, finished off my water and made the push to the end.
It took 2 hours, 43 minutes to reach Jennifer's grandfather's house. The route was probably about 15.5 miles after the few detours that I had to make. That's about a 10:30 min/mile pace... a bit slower than I had anticipated. It was likely a combination of running on my own (not having another person to help maintain a faster pace), the relatively substantial elevation changes that I am not used to, and having only gotten about 5 1/2 hours of sleep the night before.
One thing I hadn't anticipated was the amount of sun I was going to be exposed to. All of my longer runs so far have been under overcast winter skies. I have run on sunny days before, but not long enough to be of concern. I had not put any sunblock on for this run, so by the end of it, I had a nice line across my forehead where the bandana had been. It was more noticable on my left side since the sun had primarily been to the east as I was running south the whole morning. I hope I will not need to wear sunblock on many future long runs. Sunblock and sweat dripping into my eyes for several hours does not sound like a good time to me.
Another thing that surprised me was my vision did not get as blurry near the end as it has for the past two long runs. I'm not sure what to attribute that to.
I didn't have any major pains throughout the run, though the inside surface of the large toe on my right foot developed a hotspot. It wasn't enough to become a blister, though it is sore. I have a feeling I will develop a callous there in the next few weeks. My knees were sore later, too, but that has been happening for the past few long runs and usually goes away after a day or so.
posted by Brahm | 11:13 AM
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