Notes
Epic story today on our group long run. Present were Chuck Coats, Helen, Becky Manuel, Liana, Myself and Nellie. Started at Vernonia Lake and embarked on a 22 mile long run covering the entire Banks/Vernonia Trail from start to finish in Banks. Becky only did 15 because of her upcoming marathon. First 5 miles were done easy with the group and then the next 17 miles were done at Marathon race pace. Nellie's job was to ride my bike alongside us and handle the aid stations and filming. Unfortunately, shortly after the start of our 17 mile pickup. the bike chain apparently fell off and Nellie had to turn around and seek help to fix it. Meanwhile our entire group was unaware of what was going on and continued hammering their runs. I was running with Chuck up until the Tophill trailhead and decided to turn around and look for Nellie. I watched Liana pass by and then a few minutes later, Helen and Becky (who were running together) pass by. Still no Nellie, so I turned around and decided to haul ass back on the trail towards the Buxton trailhead where I could meet Becky (finish of Becky's 15 mile run). Unfortunately, Becky gave her car key to Nellie so we had to resort to jogging down to the town and finding a person with a cell phone so we could call the non-emergency line and request a deputy. A deputy did come and thankfully gave us a lift back to Vernonia to my car. When we got back, Chuck had called my phone and said that everybody had successfully finished their runs and were waiting back in Banks. Nellie had left text messages saying she had turned around and was waiting at the Lake where we started. We re-established contact shortly thereafter at the lake and everybody was safe and accounted for. Chuck, Helen, and Liana met up with us about 25 minutes later in Chuck's truck. Afterwards, we all went out to eat lunch at a really cool nice little shop in Veronia called Cafe 47. Goodtimes!
Chuck beasted out his best long run ever averaging around 5:50 pace for the 17 miles of MRP. Finished the run feeling like he could've kept on going.
Liana also had a great long run averaging about 6:38 pace for 17 mile of MRP.
Helen had her best long run ever too averaging about 6:50's.
What was suprising is how WELL everybody did with virtually NO fluid stations. Nobody felt dehydrated during their effort. One thing I will mention is that I gave everybody (including myself) a drink before the run called "Generation UCAN" to try out. It is marketed as a revolutionary new drink powered by a new technology called "SuperStarch". It is suppose to put the body in a metabolic state where it can burn both carbohydrates and fat storage for fuel thereby allowing athletes to stay above baseline much longer. I am happy to report that I think this stuff is legit! Everybody felt like it helped them out on today's run, and I felt good too (for the most part). I think we will use this as pre-race fueling protocol from now on.