Blame it on NYC.

I had missed the pre­vi­ous week’s train­ing run due to travel, but I made it back home in time for the Last ½  run  on Sunday from Cleve­land Dam to Deep Cove….or so I thought. Or rather….I wasn’t (thinking).

Late Sat­ur­day night, I got a call from John “Hardrock” Machray. My brain was fried, I was bagged, & totally incoherent….”Hey buddy” he said, “what’s with the run tomor­row? Why are you meet­ing at Lynn Sus­pen­sion bridge but run­ning from Cleve­land Dam?”. I wasn’t sure what the heck he was talk­ing about, but I assumed he had just come off of a 24 hour run some­where  & was out of it. I flicked on my com­puter & tried to focus on what he was trying to tell me. It sorta sunk in….confusion. After a few fran­tic emails & calls between Kelsy & Patri­cia (who rec­og­nized my wits weren’t totally about me), we decided to make the Lynn Canyon meet­ing place the “offi­cial” start for the day.

It wasn’t until the next morn­ing (sleep restored!!), that I pieced together what had hap­pened & what we needed to do…to all of you who turned up, thanks for putting up with the con­fu­sion. It seems that the pre­vi­ous week’s snow run had led us to con­sider alter­na­tive routes. Some­how this got trans­lated into the fol­low­ing week’s sched­ule (in the end, the orig­i­nal run for May 15^th remained unchanged anyway). As I was out of town, I never had a chance to look at the web­site & catch the issue. Apologies!

Anyway….Patricia met the pack at Lynn Canyon & I went to Cleve­land Dam to give people the option of doing either ver­sion. With the excep­tion of a couple of folks (thanks, Ean & Ramo for re-directing our photographer…Karen Chow!!), every­one opted to do the Canyon/Cove return route. I made it to the Canyon just in time to watch the tail end of the pack dis­ap­pear. Patri­cia, Jason & I chased after them. It was sur­pris­ingly warm & humid in the trees, & the fresh air was a wel­come change from the traf­fic & con­crete of Philly & NYC.  Jason & Patri­cia soon went off at a faster pace & I kept moving along at a com­fort­able clip, though some­what fatigued. I slogged up the climbs, & picked up the pace on the descents. I tried talk­ing as a way of ignor­ing the lethargy in my legs. Laura from North Shore Ath­let­ics was run­ning a good pace, so we stuck together for awhile (she’s doing this race for her 2^nd time) & chat­ted about a vari­ety of run­ning & non-running related topics….time flew by.

After hit­ting the final sec­tion from Indian River Road  to the Cove, it was time to turn around. Many people com­mented that it was a tough return….probably more due to the fact that we are used to stop­ping in the Cove, not head­ing back out. Ah well….up….up….up….Pushpa was climb­ing quite well & I tried to keep up with her on the road. If you get a chance to run with her, I highly rec­om­mend it…she is a wealth of run­ning knowl­edge & a physi­cian… last year she com­pleted her goal of run­ning an ultra on every con­ti­nent ( yes….Antarctica & the Arctic included!). I finally arrived at the dreaded Sey­mour Grind & gave it a taste of its own kharma as I trounced down the slope & flew all the way to the Sey­mour River….whereupon, grav­ity had its way with me (is it just me, or do those steps get steeper every year!!??).

Shortly (inter­minably), I found myself back at the car & chang­ing into dry clothes. Another one (some­what ad libbed) for the books.

I won’t be here for next week’s run, but I know for cer­tain that you will be run­ning up Cypress.

Last year, the weather was absolutely awful!!! Make sure that you take along an extra layer …even if it’s just a garbage bag with arm holes…I can still feel the pain in my fin­gers as the feel­ing returned. The year prior was sun­shine, & sun­burn was a real con­cern. Life in the mountains!

Tip of the week: as I was talk­ing with Laura about the tech­ni­cal aspect of the BP trail, I was reminded of a simple tech­nique that will save your ankles & per­haps a face-plant or two….Run like a duck! Or Char­lie Chap­lin!  If you point your toes out­ward, you can pro­tect your ankles from rolling…ankles roll out­ward, not inward. I’ve been  doing this for year’s on the down­hills & you may have noticed. It looks odd, but it’s been very effective.

Have fun & see you in a week or so….

Glenn Pacé