Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sugar water, one night stands and Ottinger running to plan

Last night, seeing that only two runners would be joining me for the Sunday SEHRC group run, I was a bit disappointed.   Growing a running club has its up and downs.  Last week we had ten runners, plus the club secured sponsorship from Stumblefoot Brewery, as well as Road Runner Sports.  At the same time, about twelve club members had ordered club jerseys, not bad.

Cameraman Greg
I got over my disappointment and focused on the positive.  I'd be running with Greg and Kam, two awesome individuals who've run hundreds of miles with me. I knew it would be a good run, even if it was only three.


When I met the pair at Questhaven, we all said how tired we were.  Greg had run 17 miles the day before, Kam had done a tough track workout and I'd done 10 x 400m.  We all wanted to run slow and we did, putting in 12.7 miles, with 2,000' of gain at the fairly pedestrian pace of 10:10 a mile for a total time around 2:10.



The run was like an intimate dinner party.  We stayed together the entire time and chatted about running, training and life.  Early on we spoke about diet and In-N-Out came up.  Rather than call the soda at In-N-Out "soda", Kam referred to it as "sugar-water."  It's a good way of looking at it, because that's what it is. When I call a Coke, "sugar-water", I have less of a desire to drink it.  It reminds me of that scene in Men In Black:
Edgar: Give me... sugar... in water. 
That doesn't sound too appetizing, does it?  Kam then talked about the burgers. He likes them.  He eats them.  But then afterwards he feels remorse, like he just had a one night stand he regrets.  "What was I thinking?"  The three of us are relatively young runners, Kam has been at it 4 years, me almost three and Greg not even a year.  It's funny as we progress as runners, even though we could eat anything, we have become more concerned with our diet, not less.  One word, "avocado."



As the run continued, we got to speaking about Greg Ottinger.  A few weeks ago, Greg and I ran with Ottinger, with Ottinger going for 37 miles and Greg 31.  I bowed out at around 13.  During that run Ottinger spoke of the upcoming Chimera 100 miler.  Ottinger told us the race was all about eating and hydrating right for the first 80 miles, yeah just the first 80!  After that, if he felt good, he would open it up.



Ottinger ran to plan.  He stayed back early, letting 60 or so runners pass him.  He bided his time and ate his food.  Then like a great fishermen, he simply reeled them all in, passing 60 people to finish 4th overall.  It's a hard thing to let 60 people pass you, but for Ottinger it was the right thing.  Way to go!  


From Elfin Forest, looking at Double Peak, Frank's Peak & Mt. Whitney - does it get any better?







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