Sunday, November 12, 2006

Surreal!! The day of the Bison stampede

The day of the Bison Stampede started early for me. I was travelling back from Portland, and had missed the 30mile run at Bandera on the previous day. The Bison Stampede half marathon was scheduled to start at 7:30am and I was looking to get a 17mile run before that.

Greenbelt at 3am is incredibly surreal. I had run (finished) a few wednesday runs in the dark, but none of that had prepared me to run alone for 3 hours in the dark. The green light, the rocks and roots, a constant buzzing (which I attributed to some insect) added to the atmosphere. The powerline loop had never held such a charm. I ran the powerline, came down the hill of death, crossed over sculpture falls and went until 360 and returned up the hill of life to finish my 10mile loop. That had taken more than 2 hours. As I refilled my camelback, I was more than ready for the next loop. This time it was the usual powerline loop and this time it went much faster.

Then I drove over to Motive and met the Asha gang. The half marathon turned out to be the fastest part of the running that day -- I got through Motive in 2hours, my personal best in three years on that course.

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