Conquering the Cove, my style

After dorking around with my bike for about an hour to be able to bring my running shoes, I left the house at 1:30pm, Saturday, May 14th on my cyclocross bike and road to Carvins Cove, a 12000 acre city park in the mountains surrounding the city reservoir, over 30 miles of trail, love that place.

I knew the rain was coming, but was rain free until I started climbing. I planned on riding the 1000ft climb, then do part of the upcoming marathon, then ride back. I rode out on the road, which takes about an hour to get to the boat dock side, then I continued on the 8 miles of fire road out to the bottom of the 1000ft climb.

Starting the climb, I saw a runner up ahead, I slowed and chatted with him, I knew who he was, but did not know his name. His kids went to the same preschool as ours years ago, his name was Joe, who was out running the entire Cove Marathon course.

Anyway, it began to rain and I rode with him as he ran. As we got closer to the top on the fire road, I said that I will go on ahead and change to run with him. So, I ran, then descended the Gauntlet, the last descent in the marathon, across the Timberview Trail to the Trough. He went on to his car parked down the road, said goodbye and I headed up to climb my first 1000ft. Riding up the Trough is straight up, it's not fast on a bike and running even slower.

Now at that point, I could have just ran across the fire road back to my stashed bike, but no, I thought about how many miles I needed to run to get prepared for tge marathon, plus I thought I was feeling good, so I continued to descend done more towards Bucks Rut.

At the bottom, I rolled along the creek bed to climb up a small section to the Four Gorge Trail which is about three miles over singletrack rollers. Mind you, it has ben raining, I didn't have any drinks with me and my legs were starting to fatigue a little, but it was my groin near my hip that began to get tight, I just couldn't lift my legs to get a good stride without the pain...this is one thing that has been chronic with longer, hilly runs. I don't know if it's from descending or climbing, but I tried stretching it out, something I don't do, I felt like it needs to pop.

Anyway, some of the rollers are steep, so I would speed walk up them, I don't like walking! So, after trotting through some mushy singletrack and now super thirsty, every puddle looked like an oasis for a water supply. I stopped a few times and shook pine trees so that the water, very little of it, would fall in my mouth. The rain picked up, and I felt my hat getting a little saturated, so I decided to wring it out to capture a few drops. But I noticed that the bill of my hat, which you cannot wring, was really wet, so I got this crazy notion and started sucking the water out of my hat, yes, let me repeat I was sucking on my hat! Pretty funny survival skills, huh?

Finally finished the Four Gorge which pops out back on the earlier fire road that I met up with Joe. I was looking forward to the climb earlier, but that pain was causing me not to look forward to it at all. I ran what I could, then speed walk, run, walk, such on my hat, walk, run, then finally, in the fog, I was back at my bike!

Pulled the bike from off the trail, had my stuff in a plastic bag. At least I had two 3/4 full bottles, one with water, the other Vitamin Water Energy, my fav. Drank most, but saved a bit of both for the 20+ mile ride home. I was cold, it's raining, I'm swapping shoes, I just had running shorts over my cycling shorts, pulled those off, put on my head band, helmet and gloves. I started getting the chills since the wind was picking up a tad, even had goose bumps on my legs and arms.

Now I continued on the fire road towards the Trough, I was kicking up mud and grit, but I did have my rear fender which I strapped my shoes to, but grime still gets all over from the front wheel. Plus, my hands were gritty from handling the shoes, gets on your hands and gloves, it was in my mouth, face, legs...it's just nasty. I started down the Trough which is steep and about a 1/4 mile down, my hands went numb, not from the trail shock, but they actually fell asleep, they were a pale yellow, I thought maybe I was having a stroke or something.

So, I stopped, thinking it was my gloves causing some constriction, peeled them off, no change. At that point, I noticed that my stinking shoe strapping didn't hold, so I had to dork around with that, again, always frustrating. Slipped on my gloves and continued on, I was really looking forward to getting back on the pavement.

Once on the road, I started shiver since it is slightly downhill, my teeth were chattering and my hands were totally asleep, couldn't feel my shifters or brakes, it was awful. Finally returned to civilization and continued home on my usual route back to the house, walked in the door at 8pm, long day, I was cooked.

Barely ate my burger at Burger in the Square, full from taking in too many fluids when I got home: ginger ale and a large protein shake. So, I rode about 42 miles and ran a tough 10, all I'm a days worth of training.

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