I ended up heading out for my long run Friday 7/27 night after dinner. We hit Olive Garden, and well, you know what happens when you eat at Olive Garden lol ... Per my app I was 1400 calories over and an incredible amount of fat in for the day (SGF and I made sure that we ate first then logged the food so we would enjoy our dinner knowing how bad it was gonna be lol). SGF ended up going to our gym but I didn't since I left my workout stuff at home for the day ... So I headed home, laced my Pegasus and headed out to the Centennial. The run to the trail was about 7.5 miles. When I reached the trail, a nice paved trail that follows an old railroad track, it was pitch black, away from the street lights, and about 10:30pm. I was actually freaked out but eh, if I ever run an 100 miles endurance foot race there's no way around it I would have to spend an entire night running on dark spooky trails alone ... So I headed out ... In the darkness with nothing but a wide ray of light coming off my head.
This wasn't my first run in the night/dark of course. If you follow my blog you'll know that I ran several times the airport trail near home by myself after dusk, and ran in the Mulkiteo Gulch with Bob at night as well. What made this run different was the fact it felt more remote from "civilization" than the airport trail and that I was alone unlike the Gulch runs. My goal for the run was to reach Snohomish, WA. Trail's end at about 14 miles south of the trail head. My familiarity with the trail was both comforting yet useless. I could only see as far as my headlight. As soon as I started heading out I could feel a "presence" following close. I pretty much never "shaked" the feeling so the run ended up being more about to manage that feeling rather than shaking it. At first I turned the music off because I wanted to be able to hear if an animal or someone was creeping up on me or jumping out the bushes because that was really my biggest worry there. But after 5 minutes or running in total silence but the wind on the leaves I realized how long and creepy that would make the run so I turned the music back on ... With Josh Groban's music on I was able to relax and proceed with the run.
I reached Lake Stevens faster than I though I would. The run from Marysville to Lake Stevens is downhill. When I reached 20th Street trailhead, about 7 miles more into the run, I was pretty happy with myself and how I felt. So decided to press on for Snohomish. From there on it was about 7 miles of rolling hills. There was also more spot close to lighted roads so less darkness to deal with. I kept a good pace throughout. Nearing Snohomish past midnight, I had the scariest episode of the run. Finally back in the street light I could see my shadow "running" ahead of me ... By then I was in final stretch mode where I picked the pace up significantly, less than a mile from my pickup point on 2nd and Avenue D, when all the sudden I saw a second, lighter shadow overtaking my shadow ... I literally jumped in the air and did a 180, just a reflex, to see who was running up to me like that. Half way in the air, I could see nothing, nobody, behind me! I got spooked by my own shadow lol
Oh well... I though that was funny. SGF was awesome and stayed up to come extract me. Easy pickup as I sent her ahead my final location. Avoided some of the confusion we had on some other pickups before! The final run was 3:30 and I covered about 21.2 miles.
That was going to be the last run for that day, but little did I know I would put in another 7 miles that same Saturday night at Seafair ... Read about that in my next article !
This wasn't my first run in the night/dark of course. If you follow my blog you'll know that I ran several times the airport trail near home by myself after dusk, and ran in the Mulkiteo Gulch with Bob at night as well. What made this run different was the fact it felt more remote from "civilization" than the airport trail and that I was alone unlike the Gulch runs. My goal for the run was to reach Snohomish, WA. Trail's end at about 14 miles south of the trail head. My familiarity with the trail was both comforting yet useless. I could only see as far as my headlight. As soon as I started heading out I could feel a "presence" following close. I pretty much never "shaked" the feeling so the run ended up being more about to manage that feeling rather than shaking it. At first I turned the music off because I wanted to be able to hear if an animal or someone was creeping up on me or jumping out the bushes because that was really my biggest worry there. But after 5 minutes or running in total silence but the wind on the leaves I realized how long and creepy that would make the run so I turned the music back on ... With Josh Groban's music on I was able to relax and proceed with the run.
I reached Lake Stevens faster than I though I would. The run from Marysville to Lake Stevens is downhill. When I reached 20th Street trailhead, about 7 miles more into the run, I was pretty happy with myself and how I felt. So decided to press on for Snohomish. From there on it was about 7 miles of rolling hills. There was also more spot close to lighted roads so less darkness to deal with. I kept a good pace throughout. Nearing Snohomish past midnight, I had the scariest episode of the run. Finally back in the street light I could see my shadow "running" ahead of me ... By then I was in final stretch mode where I picked the pace up significantly, less than a mile from my pickup point on 2nd and Avenue D, when all the sudden I saw a second, lighter shadow overtaking my shadow ... I literally jumped in the air and did a 180, just a reflex, to see who was running up to me like that. Half way in the air, I could see nothing, nobody, behind me! I got spooked by my own shadow lol
Oh well... I though that was funny. SGF was awesome and stayed up to come extract me. Easy pickup as I sent her ahead my final location. Avoided some of the confusion we had on some other pickups before! The final run was 3:30 and I covered about 21.2 miles.
That was going to be the last run for that day, but little did I know I would put in another 7 miles that same Saturday night at Seafair ... Read about that in my next article !
While hiking the full moon I fell prey to similar circumstances, on the bright side, more calories burned via adrenalin :). Good job!!
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