7 days..........until the TRT 100

Mountains - Lonestar

Now, with only 7 days left until my journey to 100 miles, maybe I should really start to get serious.

So finally, at long last, I ran the dreaded Diamond Peak Ski Lodge (Miles 30 and 80 on the 100 mile route) to the Bull Wheel section of the course, for the first time back on June 10th. What a slog! 2 miles straight up and around 1,800' feet of elevation gain. Now I'm really starting to feel sorry for my safety runner as I will probably be cursing the whole way up this monster, for the 2nd time, at around midnight (my goal time at least, give or take an hour).

After reaching the top of the Bull Wheel, I also wanted to check out the Red House Loop....what a beautiful, cool and shaded run or as the Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run website calls it, "A Taste of Hell", named for the fact that it's the lowest point on the course at about 6,800'.

Since that training run, I've ran the Red House Loop twice and the Diamond Peak Ski Run climb 3 times now, and have either ran or hiked the entire course, so now I would like to think I'm familiar with every speck of dirt, decomposed rock, pine needle, overhanging tree branch, creek crossing, % of canopy cover, solar intensity, wind speed, temperature and undulating terrain that the trail has to offer, but I'll never know until Race Day, when I finally find out just what it's going to take to finish a 100 mile trail run.

My last long running weekend of my journey to 100, started off figuratively speaking, with a bang, on the Fourth of July with Big Blue Adventure's 10K Run to the Beach trail, run, from North Tahoe Regional Park to Kings Beach. My time was 0:55:27 for an 8:47 pace, good enough for 28th place. My GPS actually recorded 6.31 miles, but close enough by my running standards. I'd rather have a course too long than too short.

 
After a long walk back to the start and the truck, since the shuttle apparently stopped service after a certain time frame, it was on to thinking, Where else can I run today? So, I decided that, how cool would it be to watch the fireworks from the top of the Mt Rose Summit..........

Elevation: 10,776'

I started my 2nd trail run of the day around 7:30 in the evening at the Mt Rose trailhead. I knew this course well, around 10.6 miles round trip, with only a few rocky and steep sections. Plus, this would be great training at night on a single track trail. As I was approaching the summit, I knew I probably should have brought some warmer gear with me, because it was quite chilly on top, but I was okay. Not surprisingly, there were around 10 other people who had the same idea. We were able to see fireworks from Truckee and Donner Lake to Tahoe City, Incline, Camp Richardson, South Shore and even Carson City. It was a blast! (Sorry, just had to throw that in there). I made it back to the truck around 11:30 and the long drive home. 

After taking Thursday and Friday off, the plan was to run the 1st 30 miles of the course with some friends, Bruce Cyra and Dalius Kumpa, who are also entered in the TRT runs, Bruce in the 50 Miler and Dalius in the 100, (Dalius also ran the Western States 100 back on June 23rd in an incredible time of 21:30). It ended up to be another great training run. 

However, the next day, I had also committed myself to the McCarran Loop Run (23.5 miles) with a small group from Reno Running and Fitness. My feet felt a little sore, but I managed to finish. So, now I can say that I'm officially a McLoopie!

The last 6 months have been quite an adventure, both physically and emotionally, from traveling to places I've never been before to running distances that I've never run before. It has truly broadened my passion for more adventure. So, I hope to see some of you, at least, spiritually or in person, next weekend. On with the show..