Frostbite & I after a 7 mile run on local IMBA singletrack. Photo by Brett
I've recently (& finally) taken up trail running, after much (desire, for years, and...) inspiration from four of my friends who are out running great distances to accomplish lofty goals and mountain peaks. The idea was to adopt the theme and motivation to run with my dog, Frostbite, an Alaskan Husky, unfortunately in this sense with a thick winter coat, which means she doesn't handle the summer heat (even in Alaska) very well. My friend Brett and I are always looking for seemingly unattainable/masochistic adventures to go on together, and after running 7 miles of singletrack two weeks ago, off the couch, not having run since 2012, I felt great and said we should obviously double the distance as 7 was so easy. Naturally, we looked to the mountains (at least in terms of Interior Alaska), but this also meant I couldn't take Frostbite, as she'd surely overheat in a mile (warm temps & exposed sun) and as there is no water up on the ridges (so we thought).
So, Brett & I ran the Granite Tors trail, 15 miles, in 3 hrs 55 min after work two nights ago.
We had to walk the one super steep section, a few massive boulder sections, and around quite a few super deep water & mucky sections in the trail, but honestly jogged the rest. It was hard and our muscles were locking up a bit on the way down (Brett actually probably strained one hamstring), but it was a lot of fun, and again, naturally, we are now looking to (masochistically) up the distance for our next (3rd) run... for me, of the summer, not counting a few two-milers.
I decided to make it even more interesting and use only a disposable camera for documentation of our adventure. The results are far from quality, but I find them beautiful in other ways.
I hold this run as exceptionally noteworthy, as it's by far the longest I've ever run, the second run I've done since an 8+ mi marathon relay section in 2012, and the first 10+ mile run since 2004 (although countless 20+ mi days hiking on & off trail, but that's hiking).
Please pardon all the RUN-on sentences :)