Yesterday I went out to Point Mugu to join the Coyotes for an attempt at a 31 mile run. I haven’t run further than 9 miles since Leona Divide at the end of April, but I didn’t really feel like that was going to be an issue. However, I did need to borrow a Camalbak since both of mine need a replacement bladder. My plan was to show up to the run at 8:30, a half an hour early, and transfer all my food, salt, my camera, etc., into this borrowed Camelbak. Instead, I got lost looking for my group in the wrong location, parked the car at 9, and got to the trail head right after they left. I had a handful of GU that couldn’t all fit into the single handheld water bottle that I brought. I was a little bummed that there was no way I could go out and attempt 31 miles now that I didn’t have a way to carry water, but I figured I could squeeze a few GUs into the water bottle and I could probably make the water bottle stretch for a 2 hour run, so not all was lost.

Early in the run, catching up to Kevin.

About 35 minutes into the run, I caught up with my friend Kevin, who also started running late and knew I didn’t have water or food. He told me that he never drank all of his water and he had extra food and salt, so I could run with him if I wanted to. I definitely wanted to. However, about 20 minutes later I really wasn’t feeling good about it. I had a GU and it made me so extremely thirsty that I sucked down most of the rest of my water bottle. I told Kevin that I didn’t want to not drink enough water because I was worried of taking too much and it might be a safer idea if I cut my run short. Right about then, we saw Jimmy up ahead with a handful of other Coyotes.

This made me feel much better about my situation. We also found out that there would be water at 2 places during the run, so we’d be able to fill up Kevin’s pack a few times. Kevin and I both decided to just run until we felt like making a call on the distance. We had a lot of opportunities to cut the run short, but neither of us really wanted to take them.

Photo by Kevin Chan

It was also quite windy. Even some of the flat stuff was quite challenging with wind resistance. Not that there was a lot of flat stuff – this course is no joke. It’s got some big climbs throughout, including one of the steepest right at 25 miles in.

Photo by Kevin Chan - mileage is in the early 20's here.

Beginning the final descent! These views were stupidly pretty.

Near the end of the 31 mile run. Me and my little water bottle. Photo by Kevin Chan

Meet Kevin - my friend and camel for the day.

I’m glad I was able to complete the run yesterday. I’ve been wanting to spend the day on the trails for a long time and with Shmedia and music, it’s really difficult to spend an entire day running as often as I used to. I wouldn’t have been able to attempt the run if it weren’t for Kevin’s generosity. He shared his food, his water, and salt all day long.

I’m so happy I did that run. It was so much fun and I feel surprisingly pretty good today! Not destroyed!! More please!