Sunday, January 4, 2009

Sunday trail run

In other news, I ran 8 miles with pals at sunrise on the hilly and
rocky trails of Forrest Ridge. A great time as I felt strong and
attacked a few of the climbs and picked up the pace for the last 3/4
mile or so. A few falls from friends made it a non-perfect outing,
but for me, it was a good last trail run to test out the camelbak
before Bandera 50km next weekend.

That puts my week total just under 69 miles. Not bad, but probably a
little too high.

Almost forgot to mention the 17 miles I ran yesterday on the new
Austin Marathon course. They've changed up the first 5 miles.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and here's mine on the change:
Adding more South Congress distance all the way to Krebs, one block
from HWY290/71 adds more climbing regardless if you get to come back
down south 1st the same distance. The new cut-across from Congress to
South First is terrible, and will be a very tight fit at mile 3. The
scenery is spectacular with trash dumpsters, and running on the
backside of a strip mall is really inviting. I give this change a D-
for a grade, and even though I don't know what it changes in the
latter stages, I can't imagine it will raise my overall course grade
past it's current C-. Enfield and Exposition were as unfriendly as
usual for miles 10-14.

I'm sure glad I'm just running it for fun in Febuary!

4 comments:

chuckd said...

hey Mike....sounds like you had a good trail run. Good luck next weekend in Bandera. Should be fun.

Agree with the comments on the course changes. we ran the front end of the course yesterday as well. the additional climbing will not be welcome and the potential bottleneck congestion on Krebs could be a real pain. I hope those who are running Austin for time plan accordingly.

Glad I'm running Houston. : )

kirsten said...

Mike - I am running Austin for fun too. I used to like the course and gave it an A (I don't mind the hills) but the Krebs section drops it to an F in my books - you are generous with a D-. I don't think the finish is going to get a higher grade either.

Priscilla said...

FOOL, I agree about the crappiness of the course, but don't you blossom on the hills?? You and my Billy Goat Fool friend will do awesome falalalala-ing up those hills!!

Shorey said...

Krebs will be a nightmare. Especially if they throw a water stop in there somewhere.