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Squaw to Robinson - the short way

September 2, 2017 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: HOT, DRY, weird asthma air

Comments:
Slept OK and was thankful to sleep in a bit, though I'd regret it.

Coffee, eggs and some stretching pushed the departure time back. We didn't leave Rocklin 'til nearly 7. SMOKEY all the way up to Squaw. Had a nice drive and chats with BGD. Once in the Truckee valley, it was quite chilly - like sub 50 - but that was short-lived, simply due to the lack of sunlight down there.

Once in the Squaw parking lot, the sun felt REALLY hot, already. Uh-oh. Some extra fuel and starbz and some chatter with the Jessup team preceded our 8:50am launch. Parker took our starting pic, and we were off.

The uphill start felt a little rough. It reminded me of the last time we did this training run: back at WSER camp in '13, after having done Robie-River (40) and Rob-MB (26) back to back. I didn't feel that haggard, but it was close.

We went up the road, then up the direct (new course way). Even amidst the altitude and hard hike effort, BGD and I had some good chats about training, what went wrong (and right) in '13, among other things. I was tired and wary of the what lay ahead of us, but I was excited and committed.

Our "aid station" (now obsolete) split was like 50+. Not amazing, but fine, and our total summit split was >60min. NBD. Then, it was into the Chief!

At times, that running was outstanding: that classic tight, winding, but runnable wilderness singletrack. But the rest of it? Overgrown as fuck and essentially unrunnable. Lots of walking and skirting prickly overgrowth.

Worse yet, it was already getting hot! Both BGD and I were compelled to douse already, and, at what felt like one of the final streams, we spent a good chunk of time filtering water -- the last we'd have 'til Rob Flat.

As we made our way through the western half of the Chief, what became runnable then because SUPER dusty. Since I was more tired, Jake led, but that meant I was at the mercy of his dust! I had to let him get like a 30-40m lead just to avoid a dust ball!

Once out of the Chief, we were greeted with the new Tevis Trail -- nice trail, but wayyy too many switchbacks, that must've added a good kilo or more to get to Lyon Ridge.

Just before we did, we came up on two guys running our way. Turns out it was Luke Garten and another dude...who were doing the same run, the other direction! I was immediately jealous, as it was now well after 10AM and they "only" had 10 miles to go! After some chatter, we bid them farewell and pushed on.

...and it look me until about two sluggish, dusty, rugged, blazing hot miles into Lyon Ridge to realize that we could have (and should have) given Luke our car key! They were driving a car back to Auburn...they could've saved us the trip. CRAP! Major "brain fart".

Lyon is when things started getting legitimately rough. I was already hurting, just descending out of the Chief: legs super-heavy and the general feeling like I couldn't generate any aerobic power. As it turns out...it'd be something in the air - smoke? dust? - that did us both in.

Jake was up front again, and thankfully for me he didn't run any ups. I know I couldn't, because if I tried, my breath would race. Even flat running felt tough. "And the HEAT! My GOD, the HEAT!" Felt like running under a heat lamp at that altitude.

The run was a good reminder of what Lyon is like: a series of tough upward pitches to the ridgeline, then a few chunks of flat, runnable ridges, and a few really nice descents. But it by no means is fast running. It's faster than the front half of the Chief, but not by much.

We'd just passed "the elephant ear" (or whatever it is), when I pointed out "the elephant in the room" -- that we were both struggling, already low (or out) of water, and that we should bail. "What's the cutoff using Soda Springs?" We agreed it was a good 6-7 miles shorter, easier, and the right call.

When we got to Red Star, we took the road. We were actually hoping to see some campers up there, but the "campground" was completely dead; indeed, even at Rob Flat there was only a single site full, which says a lot about how damn brutal the conditions were.

I had my low-point of the day, leaving Red Star. We walked for a while before I could get a run going, but my breathing struggled. But once we hit some flats and light downs, I was OK and we rolled a bit. During that time, we had some more good chats, about my family, his; careers. That helped distract from the heat, dehydration, and building asthma that seems to grip us both.

I'm not a big fan of stopping, but we took the time to stop to filter the last 16oz pouch (that I'd hauled since the Chief), which I gave to Jake. After that, we were both out.

Mile markers to Rob Flat were painted on tree trunks, and we slowly, painfully, counted them down: 6, 5, 4... But they got slower when we encountered a bunch of legit uphills, or patches of shadeless road. By about 3 to go, Jake was now really struggling with breath. I could roll the downs OK, but he was having trouble even with that. By 2 miles, we took another break. We heard a motor coming but it was only a big ol' dirt bike. Bummer. We were ready to throw in the towel.

We pushed on, another uphill, more blazing sun. We stopped again. This time Jake just laid OUT on the road! We heard another motor. I told him to maybe NOT be laying in the road, as a second dirt bike approached. But in retrospect, it turned out. A guy, "Joe", stopped to check in with us, then offered us a ride. He claimed to be able to get both of us on there, but one look at that bike (and the road) said No to that. So Jake (aka "Diego") hopped on back and they rode off into the sun.

I did my best to run after them, but nothing doing on that uphill. So I hiked well, then, with a mile to go, finally another long down. Split a sub-8 going into RF.

Yeesh, tough day! This was by far the worst trail conditions, and maybe worst possible ever conditions:

- high heat (like 80s-90 at at that altitude)
- blazing high-altitude sun
- outrageous dust, made must worse from the recent Tevis horse ride
- wildfire smoke -- that and the dust is the likely asthma cause
- trail overgrowth

That said...it was still a positive experience. As I said repeatedly, which I got from reading "Inside Out Coachiing":

"This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118-24)

We just accepted the day, didn't force anything and made the best of it. We got in a good "strength" workout, good time on feet, and good chats. Best of all, we took a daunting (and potentially very dangerous) situation and handled it positively.

Post-run:
- pounded water and cold Dew at the car
- drove down the hill. BGD napped, and I tried to stay conscous
- drove ALL the way back to Squaw. Ugh. But it was nice to hang a bit with the Jessup boys at their camp house
- drove BACK to the valley, with a stop off at Knee Deep before Chicago Fire

GOOD DAY.

SPLITS:
Escarpment "AS": 56:xx
Lyon Ridge AS: 1:55 (more like 2:00, stopped my watch at one point, but not at the water stops)
Red Star Ridge AS: 1:18
Soda Rd: 1:38